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THE END OF AN ERA
The End of an Era FAREWELL
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TWO TOWNS. TWO LEADERS. 20 YEARS. MR. MAYOR
AS MAYOR JOHN
BYRNE OF FUQUAYVARINA AND MAYOR
DICK SEARS OF
HOLLY SPRINGS
BOTH RETIRE
AFTER 20 YEARS, WE CELEBRATE
THEIR SERVICE
AND REFLECT ON
THE MILESTONES
THAT HAVE MARKED
TWO DECADES OF
EXPLOSIVE GROWTH
IN SOUTHERN
WAKE COUNTY.
HEART OF THE FUQUAY-VARINA
“During that period of time we were the only new couple that had moved to the area. All of the young people were moving out of town,” Mayor Byrne recalls. “I had the opportunity to come here and work with (Fidelity) Bank and that’s where I spent my career. In doing that, I got to know everybody in town and everybody got to know me.”
Knowing everybody was much easier in a town of about 5,000 residents, as Fuquay-Varina was during the ’90s, and Byrne developed a deep relationship with the town and residents during his decades-long career at the Fuquay-Varina based bank.
In 2000, Byrne was elected to his first term as mayor, an event that would be repeated nine times, resulting in a 20year run as the town’s leader.
John W. Byrne “I’m confident that if I would run again, I would be remembers the elected again,” says Byrne. “You have to have gone through the experience that I have to experience the warmth that I feel.” exact day he That confidence springs not from a belief in his own and his wife, overwhelming popularity, but rather from the relationship
Patty, moved to Byrne has worked to develop with residents, businesses, civic organizations and town staff. Fuquay-Varina — “I believe a mayor needs to be engaged, needs to know his March 12, 1973. community. … I walk five miles each day. Doing that, I’m visiting with people, seeing people up and down the street,” he says. And there’s the ribbon cuttings, civic club gatherings, public events, town board meetings and professional organizations — regular fixtures of the mayor’s day, where he can interact with citizens, and they him. “What I came to know was how much appreciation people have for the mayor being there. I’ve always tried to be there.” During Byrne’s 20 years as mayor, the town of FuquayVarina has transformed, growing in population from about 8,000 to almost 40,000 residents.
DURING HIS DAILY FIVE MILE WALKS, MAYOR BYRNE VISITS WITH RESIDENTS AND ENJOYS THE CHARMING DOWNTOWN DISTRICTS THAT HIS LEADERSHIP HELPED TRANSFORM.
THE FUQUAY-VARINA ARTS CENTER, DIRECTED BY MAUREEN DALY, PICTURED HERE, OPENED IN 2019.
BYRNE ASSISTS DURING THE CELEBRATE FUQUAY-VARINA BMX SHOW.
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Beloved by those residents are the two downtown districts, with coffee shops, restaurants, breweries, unique local shopping, seasonal outdoor concerts and town festivals, but that wasn’t always the case.
When Byrne took office, he remembers the downtown bluntly, as “a disaster zone.”
“Nobody wanted to locate here. Our stores up and down Main Street — half of them were empty,” he says.
“You have to have a little bit of a vision for things. The truth is that one of the best things we ever did was to get enough people focused on what we could be. You don’t get there in one hour or one day or one week. It’s 20 years.”
Refreshing the streetscapes, preserving historic buildings, centralizing town facilities, such as the Arts Center and Town Hall, and fostering small business growth all contributed to the transformation of thriving Fuquay and Varina downtown dis48 December 2021/JANUARY 2022 tricts, and earning the designation of North Carolina Main Street Community.
“We’ve focused on bringing things back into the heart of our community,” Byrne says.
Downtown revitalization is just one component of a bigger strategy, says Byrne, and features prominently in the town’s efforts for economic development.
“Our economic development team has focused on recruiting and providing opportunities. … But they have to have something to sell.”
Now Fuquay-Varina is poised to compete with all of Wake County for business opportunities, shopping centers, lifestyle amenities and education facilities. With the explosion of growth experienced in Southern Wake County, plenty of challenges tag along, including the oft-bemoaned subject of traffic — “People get frustrated about traffic, I do myself,” Byrne says. “I wrote down about 10 or 12 things when I first ran for mayor. When I told everybody that one of the most important things was the completion of Judd Parkway. Everybody kinda laughed and said, ‘John, we won’t ever get that done.’ “It’s taken us a period of time, but over that 20 years, we’re the third town in Wake County that has a complete bypass, or parkway, that goes all the way around town,” he says. The final section of Judd Parkway opened on May 7, 2021, completing the seven-mile loop, an important step in diverting traffic out of small intersections and easing overall congestion, he says.
It’s easy to measure progress in the form of multi-story downtown development and road construction, but other forms “ When I first became mayor, of Byrne’s leadership are felt behind the doors of town hall. During the mayor’s tenure, nearly $50 million in grant money has been awarded
I thought, to the town for projects like park develop ment and transportation improvements. what have Additionally, the town received a
I gotten myself into. AAA bond rating in 2014, the best possible rating for a local government — a feat the mayor, a former banker, is particularly ” – John Byrne, mayor of Fuquay-Varina proud of. “The AAA bond rating was a great opportunity for our town, but it was one 2001-2021
MAYOR BYRNE AND HIS WIFE, PATTY, OWN THE FUQUAY MINERAL SPRING INN ON MAIN STREET.
we had to go after and get. We have saved millions upon millions of dollars in refinancing and new projects that we’ve done, because of the AAA bond rating and because of lower interest rates,” he says. “That’s made a huge difference, and it will make a huge difference in many, many years to come.”
Yet Byrne’s most meaningful contribution may be his commitment to personal and professional development of the town staff.
“I have never experienced or seen a mayor champion professional development like Mayor Byrne does,” says Adam Mitchell, town manager. “He is always encouraging our employees — not just senior leadership, all employees — to seek out certifications, seek out professional development opportunities, make yourself better, because that’s going to add value to the organization.”
“I think the number one way you create value is in your people,” says Byrne.
“Probably the number one thing that I hope that I’ve been able to do, is for people to realize that everytime something goes wrong, they don’t have to call the mayor. We have great staff in good positions, and they do a fabulous job. … They make a difference. It’s not the mayor.”
“Over 20 years, you don’t have the success that he has had if you don’t build relationships and partnerships, that is something that he has mastered,” says Mitchell. “In N.C., and probably anywhere in the country, you’re either moving forward as a community or you’re dying. There is no inbetween. … It all is rooted in relationships and partnerships.”
To honor the mayor’s years of leadership, the town hall building will be renamed the John W. Byrne Municipal Building, a unanimous decision by FuquayVarina’s town board, which cited historic preservation efforts, IT improvements, park creation, transportation infrastructure and downtown development, as well as many other accomplishments championed by mayor Byrne in arriving at their decision.
“(These accomplishments) are all important to the community that we are today, without these things that are on this list, I don’t know that we would be the same community. We certainly would look different for sure,” Mitchell says.
“I’ve done my best. That’s the only thing that I can say,” Byrne says. “I’ve had good people around me. They will carry on and do their best, I know they will.”
In his well-earned retirement, Byrne looks forward to playing golf, traveling with his wife and continuing his involvements with St. Bernadette’s Catholic Church and the executive board of Fidelity Bank.
“I’ll still help the town,” he says. “People will call me mayor, I reckon, from now on.”
I’ve got to give my wife a lot of credit. I’ve got the sweetest wife in the world. ” – John Byrne GARBAGE DAY:
During Mayor Byrne’s early years, the town ran two garbage trucks for weekly trash pickup. Both trucks broke down at the same time.
“People’s garbage is gonna start piling up,” Byrne remembers. “We’ve got a good team of workers, and I go out there with them, and act like I’m helping the garbage truck. I did help a little bit, but I can’t take a whole lot of credit for it.
The garbage guys still talk about that today — about how the mayor came out and helped.”
MAYOR SEARS IS KNOWN FOR RUNNING EFFICIENT MEETINGS AND KEEPING AN OPEN OFFICE DOOR IN TOWN HALL. "I CAN SPEAK FOR EVERYBODY IN TOWN HALL WHEN I SAY I’M GONNA MISS NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE HIM SITTING THERE IN THIS CORNER OFFICE," SAYS MARK ANDREWS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER FOR THE TOWN.
Building the big small town
It all started with a dare.
That’s right — a 20-year mayoral career in one of the fastest growing N.C. towns started on a dare. Scratch that, a double dare.
The year was 2000; the wife of a town council member approached Holly Springs resident, Richard “Dick” Sears, about running for office.
“‘We need you to run for mayor,’ she said, and I said forget it. She said, ‘I dare you,’ and I said forget it, and then, ‘I double dare you.’ I said, ‘Ok, I’ll run for mayor,’” remembers Mayor Sears.
He hadn’t felt a pull toward public service, but when he began knocking on doors, asking questions and meeting residents, Sears was hooked.
As a marketing professional — formerly employed as a national marketing manager for Sears, Roebuck & Co — Sears saw the potential of what the town could grow into and how his experience could help.
The small town of Holly Springs boasted around 3,000 residents when Sears and his wife Mollie moved there in 1995.
Sears describes what the town was like at the time: “It was mostly what it wasn’t. There was hardly anything commercial.”
A Food Lion grocery store and a Sonic drive-in fast food chain were the most notable attractions, according to Sears. The local restaurants, shops and downtown district did not yet exist.
“I wanted to build a town that you don’t have to leave unless you want to,” says Sears.
“Early on, even small things were a big milestone,” says Mark Andrews, public information officer for the town of Holly Springs, early examples include a McDonald’s and a second grocery store.
Over the years, Holly Springs added an impressive list of amenities, among them: the library and Cultural Center, W.E. Hunt Recreation Center, a state of the art police station, numerous shopping centers, Ting stadium and park, an up-and-coming downtown district and about 40,000 residents.
“Right after I became mayor, (the town council) start-
When I first became mayor, I had no idea what I was getting into. ”
– Dick Sears, mayor of Holly Springs, 2001-2021
ed talking about, what do I (the town) want to be when I grow up?,” says Sears.
“And it wasn’t any one person, it was a combination that thought life sciences looks like it’s one of the biggest industries of the future. This was like 15 years ago. We started talking about life sciences and how important it was,” he says.
In 2006 Novartis, now Seqirus, announced it’s vaccine manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, a huge win for the town of 18,000 residents.
And just this year, major investments from biotech companies Amgen and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies were announced, following years of economic development groundwork laid to establish Holly Springs as a hub for life sciences.
“For most towns, to ever get one of those would be incredible, and we got two in one year,” says Andrews. “Those are not overnight successes.”
Combined, the two facilities are expected to bring more than 1,000 jobs and infuse more than $2 billion into the community.
In November, Sears fulfilled one of his biggest goals as mayor with the opening of UNC Health Rex Holly Springs hospital.
“It took us 10 long years of meetings with the state to get approval to even build a hospital,” Sears says.
The mayor is proud to bring quality, immediate care to a town he loves — so much so that he plans to spend his retirement volunteering or working part time at the hospital.
“That’s the passion now,” he says.
One of Sears’ guiding mottos has been, “If it’s good for the kids, it’s good for Holly Springs,” and he has taken great satisfaction visiting kids in schools, and founding programs to encourage youth engagement, including the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board and Anti-Bullying Committee.
A father of three, grandfather of 13 and great grandfather of five, Mayor Sears says interacting with children and youth rejuvenates him.
GRANDFATHER OF 13 AND GREAT GRANDFATHER OF FIVE, MAYOR SEARS MAINTAINED THE MOTTO: IF IT'S GOOD FOR THE KIDS, IT'S GOOD FOR HOLLY SPRINGS.
ANOTHER LONGTIME HOLLY SPRINGS EMPLOYEE, DEBBIE MANN, GREETS MAYOR SEARS
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As the services and amenities available in town have increased, so have the housing prices. Ensuring affordable housing options will be an ongoing challenge facing the town, says Sears, which will continue under future leadership.
“There’s still stuff to be done,” he says.
A manila folder resting on the mayor’s desk is filled with notes for the next mayor — things Sears wasn’t able to accomplish.
“A circulator bus, called the Holly Trolley, that would zip around Holly Springs all the time, and take, older people perhaps, where they want to go,” is one such legacy.
“I think the most important thing is to make sure that whoever wins has a good idea of how to versus knowing what to do. That’s the part that you learn that takes a while,” Sears says.
Ribbon cuttings, town council meetings, professional associations and civic clubs — there have been many over 20 years, including board chair for the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, president of the Wake County Mayors Association and board member for the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce.
At the heart of these involvements has always been to develop relationships that create opportunities for Holly Springs, while still maintaining the small town charm that residents fall in love with. “Let’s make this a big small town, versus a small big town,” Sears says. Throughout his years in office, Sears has fielded countless phone calls during his tenure, voicing issues big and small — “mostly small,” he jokes.
“That’s a big part of the job — be “ I was a supporter of I-540. It’s a available to listen, even if you don’t agree.” He’s as likely to receive calls about weekly garbage service as he is about economic development opportunities. blessing because “In a lot of places, (the mayor) wouldn’t be the right person to call, but you’ve got a
I can get from mayor here who will listen,” says Andrews. here to RDU — if The friendliness of the people is one the sheriff isn’t of Sears’ favorite qualities of Holly Springs, and having grown up in a small town where around — in nine “everybody knew everybody,” Sears recogminutes. That’s nizes the importance of preserving the small town atmosphere. my record. “It’s been hard to come up with the ” – Dick Sears, mayor of Holly Springs, right word (to describe the town), and I finally came up with one. I say it’s a magical town, and I really believe that.” 2001-2021
FAQs
Visiting with students in schools is one of Mayor Sears’ favorite outings.
“They usually ask the same four questions,” he says.
1. Do you know the president? 2. Do you have a limousine? 3. Do you live in a mansion? 4. How old are you? (No, he is not 100.)
MB
