Roanoke Rapids City Council Tuesday adopted a strategic plan, a blueprint to guide growth and rejuvenation efforts through 2030.

“The successful implementation of this strategic plan promises to enhance civic engagement, improve infrastructure, and stimulate economic growth while fostering a cohesive community spirit,” Planning and Development Director Kristyn Anderson wrote in a memo to the council. “Exploring further collaboration with surrounding municipalities and state agencies can bolster regional development efforts.”

The plan addresses leadership and city management, city services, economic vitality, telling the city’s story, and quality of life and place.

Prepared by the Sanford-based Hayes Group Consulting, the plan was the result of a grant the city received from the North Carolina Department of Commerce and Southeast Crescent Commission through the Rural Community Capacity Building Program.

Bringing the plan to fruition came from a city-wide strategy seminar, interviews with the mayor and council, department heads, and business and community leaders.

The plan was presented to the Halifax County Intergovernmental Association; there was a community survey, a department head strategic work session, and a city council work session.

R. Daniel Parks, senior strategist for the Hayes Group, told the council, “We’ve made a strong effort to integrate this plan with the departments.”

City of resilience

The strategic plan includes a vision statement and mission statement. The vision statement suggests Roanoke Rapids be known as the city of resilience — the hub and destination for opportunity, quality of life, and the pursuit of happiness.

The mission statement is “to champion a vibrant community with excellent city services, economic vitality, and a beautiful quality of place.”

“What we’ve learned in a large part there’s a lot going on already,” Parks said. “There’s a lot of initiatives that are on the part of the city government and the private sector that have to do with entertainment and amenities, and infrastructure and roads. What the strategic plan does in large part is organize all of that.”

The city of resilience phrase comes from engagement with people from across the community, said Charles Hayes, managing partner of the Hayes Group. “What we heard (from those sessions) is ‘we’ve been through a lot. We have had a lot of challenges. We wish things could be better …’”

What became clear, Hayes said, was resilience. “This city is resilient and what we define resilience as is the ability, the capacity to adapt, recover from these challenges and setbacks — not to be defeated by them but to bounce back and even grow stronger through adversity.”

From possibility to actuality

Parks said Hayes noticed the motto on the city seal: A posse ad esse, a Latin phrase that translates to mean from possibility to actuality.

“I really love it,” Hayes said. “A lot of people have a lot of possibility but to get to that actuality — what a great saying.”

There is also the suggestion that the city consider changing its seal and incorporate an arch which represents the Roanoke Canal. Inside the arch would be double Rs and both the Latin motto and the translation would be incorporated.

The current seal pays homage to the canal, the high school, rockfish, industry, and cotton.

“We’ve seen a number of cities and counties revisit their logo in the process of having a strategic plan,” Parks said.

Hayes said that in the early 1900s Roanoke Rapids produced its own electricity. “A lot of folks didn’t have electricity in the early 1900s but you were innovative. You did that. I find that amazing. You’re an innovative place. You’re a leading place.”

Other points

“These strategies are fluid,” Parks said. “They will be changing. Some will be satisfied, some will be delayed.”

But, he said, “These strategies are the result of information we gathered from each of you as council members, the department heads, the other leaders we interviewed, and a lot of research.”

There is a lot of information to digest, Hayes said. “There’s a lot here but it aligns to a great extent to what you’re already doing. This is where to organize it and look for ways to work together.”