Money Magazine Lists Holly Springs Among Top Towns in U.S. 7/16/07

Money Magazine has named Holly Springs one of the best places to live in the country, ranking it 22nd among 100 Great American Towns.

"Some places have everything any family could want - economic opportunity, good schools, safe streets, things to do and a sense of community," CNNMoney.com wrote July 16 in naming the best smaller places to live.

Holly Springs was one of three North Carolina towns on the list. Apex ranked 14th. The Iredell County town of Mooresville placed 65th.

In 2005, Money Magazine included Holly Springs among the top 20 places in North Carolina to live and to retire.

Town Manager Carl Dean said the latest ranking was a tremendous accomplishment for all of those who have shared the vision for what Holly Springs could achieve.

"We have overcome many obstacles in earning this designation," he said, "and through hard work and dedication we have been successful in creating an environment where people want to live."

Mayor Dick Sears said Holly Springs was a family town that put a very high priority on the needs of kids.

"People just like living here," he said, proud of Holly Springs' inclusion on the Great American Towns list.

"From strictly a personal standpoint, I think we should be No. 1," Sears said. "But being in the top 25 is quite an accomplishment, and I thank all our citizens who helped put us there."

With a population approaching 20,000, more than a dozen families on average are moving to Holly Springs each week. They include Tom and Wendy Harrington, who relocated from Westchester County, N.Y. with their 6-year-old daughter, Cailee.

"For us, it was finances," Tom Harrington said. "We just couldn't afford to live in New York anymore."

A fraternity brother who lives in North Raleigh had been talking up the area for years. Harrington found himself ready for a slightly slower pace, away from the grind of needing to "keep up with the Joneses" by acquiring the latest and greatest of everything.

Harrington finds people here friendlier than where he lived before. He's impressed with how the teen-agers working at the grocery store say "Yes sir" and "Yes ma'am."

During his first couple of weeks in Holly Springs, Harrington attended two events at Holly Springs Cultural Center. "I love it," he said. He's looking forward to the next free Rockin' at the Crossing concert on Thursday, July 26 at Holly Springs Crossing Shopping Center.

Facilities such as the cultural center and Bass Lake Park offer something for the entire family. A farmers market now operates Saturday mornings in the Town Hall parking lot. The annual HollyFest celebration at Womble Park on the last Saturday in October brings the community together with music, food, crafts, fireworks and activities for the kids.

In 2005, Holly Springs ranked as the safest town of its size in North Carolina, according to a study of FBI crime statistics by the Shelby Star newspaper.

Sears said Town leaders want Holly Springs to be a big small town rather than a small big town.

"We want to maintain a small town environment even though we're growing at such a fast pace," he said.

Town leaders' vision for Holly Springs includes a community where people can live, play and work so they don't have to drive out of town to earn a living.

To draw more employers, Town officials commissioned a branding study in 2001 to market Holly Springs Business Park for technology manufacturing companies. The Town obtained state certification for the park and established a foreign trade zone there. It also expanded water, sewer and transportation capabilities and increased Holly Springs' presence in the biotech trade world.

Those efforts paid off last summer when Gov. Mike Easley announced that pharmaceutical giant Novartis would build a vaccine manufacturing facility in the business park. It was a giant step in the effort to provide good jobs that don't require fighting traffic in Research Triangle Park and elsewhere.

"Probably the most important factor in this achievement was the vision over the last 20 years by both our elected officials and citizens to provide a plan to develop Holly Springs, and to stay the course when the road wasn't that easy," Dean said.

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Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us