ASHEBORO — On the corner of Sunset Avenue at Bicentennial Park, a guitarist strums popular cover music with a few of his own tunes weaved throughout his sets. A small crowd gathers to listen for a few minutes before walking back to work after lunch in one of the cafés around the corner on Church Street.

Visiting college students pause at sculptures erected in various locations throughout downtown after having already studied the ones on Dixie Drive and North and South Fayetteville streets.

The weather is pleasant and sunny with comfortable temperatures, which means the streets of downtown Asheboro are somewhat busier than usual with shoppers, lunching nine-to-fivers, students and tourists.

A class of third-graders lines up at the Bicentennial Park Station for the Asheboro light-rail trolley. It comes through downtown along repurposed tracks that used to accommodate freight trains loading and unloading during the city’s manufacturing heyday. The trolley makes several stops in downtown, connects the North Asheboro Middle School and Balfour campus with the Asheboro High School and South Asheboro Middle School campuses, and also includes stops at the N.C. Zoo and Randolph Community College (RCC).

Construction is under way to increase the number of stops within Asheboro as well as provide service out to the Franklinville Deep River Rail Trail. The Rail Trail, a greenway for hikers, joggers, bird watchers and nature walkers, extends from Franklinville east toward Ramseur and then southwest where it meets the N.C. Zoo. It also reaches north from Franklinville through the county to Greensboro. Long-term plans include an extension of the Rail Trail to the Uwharrie National Forest.

The zoo has just received funding to add the sixth and seventh continents to its sprawling campus. While some visitors prefer the comfort of the array of hotels in Asheboro, there are scenic camping facilities adjacent to the zoo, as well. Hotels and campgrounds stay busy as most tourists take several days to experience Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica and Asia. In addition, students from all over the country and world stay weeks and months at time to study at the zoo.

A student housing facility will be built along with Europe and Australia. There is a proposal to install a satellite campus within the N.C. University system being debated in the N.C. General Assembly.

Tourism along the trolley system, associated with the zoo, and along the Rail Trail blossomed over the past decade, allowing steady population growth in Asheboro. The downtown area, in particular, experienced growth in the form of unique shops, more varied restaurants and new housing for everyone from students and young families to seniors.

The jobs created by the trolley and greenway projects and then the resulting growth in retail and tourism strengthened the local economy. Arts and entertainment blossomed over the past few decades as well, enhancing the unique character of the city.

This fantastical description of the City of Asheboro is a reach into the possible future of a small Southern town that has the capacity to grow, yet maintain its sophisticated, rural charm.

Asheboro Mayor David Smith sees the future of Asheboro as rich with positive growth, not too different from today, but bigger and more prosperous. Tourism and its proximity to major cities, like Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte, anchor this growth, which is fueled by its unique and talented citizens.

“I see downtown becoming an arts and entertainment district,” Smith said.

He also envisions a city filled with healthy, active citizens taking advantage of the growing amenities Asheboro has the capacity to offer.

While such a vision would require funding, it would also require a solid infrastructure. A fat budget is useless without the infrastructure to support growth. We have the systems and structures in place, according to Smith, that can support the city’s growth and will allow Asheboro’s citizens to take the city in whatever direction they dream up and decide would be best.

Asheboro is ready to accommodate a sprawling, expanded downtown and improvements throughout the city as we move 25, 50 or even 100 years into the future, Smith says. We are reaping the benefits of the foresight of our past leaders and will continue to do so far into the future.

Asheboro, situated in the heart of the county set in the heart of North Carolina, has the potential to be a mecca of small town living with the capacity to nourish the biggest of dreams.

RALEIGH, N.C. –

Taxes are dropping for corporations and people, though taxi drivers and movie-makers are losing preferential breaks. Hunting and fishing licenses are locked into a future of low rate increases. Military veterans and their spouses may find it easier to put previous skills to work.

Those are some of the changes in North Carolina laws taking effect on New Year’s Day. Here are others:

TAXES

Income taxes paid by individuals and corporations fall further starting with the new year.

The wide-ranging tax overhaul law that this year condensed three tax brackets for individual income into one lower rate of 5.8 percent takes another step, cutting the rate again to 5.75 percent in 2015.

The corporation income tax dropped from 6.9 percent to 6 percent in 2014 and now falls to 5 percent in 2015. Corporations could see further tax cuts to 4 percent in 2016 and 3 percent in 2017 if the state meets certain revenue targets.

Republican lawmakers who approved the tax cut also took away breaks to Hollywood and cab drivers. Expiring is a 25 percent tax credit for TV and film productions that in 2013 allowed producers to forego paying $61 million in state taxes. It’s being replaced in 2015 by a grant program for video productions capped at $10 million.

Taxi drivers are losing their ability to claim a quarterly refund on the gasoline excise tax for the fuel they bought.

HUNTING FEES

The Wildlife Resources Commission faces new restrictions on how high it can raise fees on hunting, fishing and trapping licenses. Starting with the new year, the fees can’t be raised beyond a widely used measure of inflation averaged over the previous five years.

Stony Rushing of Wingate is an avid hunter who likes the idea.

“One of the things about hunting is we want to keep it affordable,” said Rushing, a newly installed Union County commissioner. “We do need to be able to protect (wildlife) but also protect the rights of people to go out and do it. Keeping the license fee low is going to, I think, ensure that.”

John Spruill of Hampstead said he hopes the new limit doesn’t inhibit the state’s ability to protect and conserve fish and wildlife populations.

“They can’t do that work unless they’re properly funded,” said Spruill, who buys an annual recreational commercial fishing license so he can catch crabs in coastal waters. “By and large, I would not be in favor of some sweeping action that limits the increase to” inflation.

FRACKING RIGHTS

Home sellers will have to disclose whether they know whether underground oil and gas rights have been sold. A form requires the seller to say whether he or she has sold the rights that could allow underground drilling, or plans to do so before completing the real estate sale. The owner can say nothing on the disclosure about whether the rights have been sold previously.

In 2012 it was reported that Texas-based homebuilder D.R. Horton sold hundreds of new homes without the underground mineral rights as interest in drilling for natural gas deposits builds. The attorney general’s office warned that properties stripped of their mineral rights could be harder to refinance and could lose resale value.

ELECTIONS

It’ll be a little more difficult for political partisans to toy with the primary election process. People to file as a candidate in a party primary must have had an affiliation with that party for at least 90 days before filing a candidacy notice.

PENSIONS

Public employees will no longer be able to boost their pension benefits by inflating their annual income in their final working years. The agency where the employee worked would be on the hook for an employee’s pension spiking efforts because the pension system’s share of what is owed to that retirees would be capped.

OTHER CHANGES

Magistrates will be forced to retire at age 72, the same as state judges

Firefighters or emergency medical technicians already on the job will be subject to criminal history checks, a requirement formerly for new applicants. Dismissal depends on the level, seriousness and age of the crime.

State licensing boards that regulate a broad range of professions such as plumbing and cosmetology will be required to recognize military training in occupational specialties if their skills are “substantially equivalent” or better than existing requirements. Licensing boards will have to issue a license, certification, or registration to military spouses if they already have a license in their field in another state and can demonstrate competency in the occupation.

Companies that merged or consolidated with another company before 1972 get new protections from asbestos lawsuits. State law will limit the successor corporation’s liability to the fair market value of the previous business’s gross assets when it was bought out.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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