January 2019
Looking Back… Looking Forward
By Kevin Cooley
Mayor, Town of Lake Lure
Looking back…
2018 was certainly a challenging and extraordinary
year for our Town. Record rainfall (95”+) caused mudslides and flooding that
closed roads and required extreme measures to manage lake levels and protect
our aged dam.
A major, December winter storm recently dumped a foot of sleet
and wet snow on our Gorge, making roads impassable and bringing down many trees
and utility lines. These damaging storm impacts delayed plowing until road
blockages could be cleared and knocked out power to virtually all homes and
businesses in the Town for several days. 
We declared our 4th State
of Emergency in 2018 to deal with the impacts of this storm. We successfully weathered these events, learned from
them and recovered well… becoming a stronger community, better-prepared to deal
with these types of events going forward
During the past year we promoted and hired high-caliber personnel to successfully fill numerous open positions, including the key, senior-level positions of Town Manager, Fire Chief, Town Clerk, Communications Director and Human Resources Director. I believe our team is definitely stronger and performing better overall today than December 2017 when I took office.