Jones Sewing Machine

Businesses tire of seeing economy take one step forward, two steps back

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Some local business leaders say they’re still waiting for the economic recovery to arrive in Rowan County.

Despite government assurances the recovery started two years ago, Randy Hemann said as far as he’s concerned, the recession is still going on.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen in my 24 years of doing this,” said Hemann, executive director for Downtown Salisbury Inc.

With gas and food prices rising and the unemployment rate stubbornly stuck in double digits, business leaders say the local economy seems to take one step forward and two steps back.

“We just can’t seem to stay on track long,” said Mike Jones, owner of Granite Knitwear.

After losing about 20 employees in three years, Jones said his company had a decent Christmas retail season.

But it didn’t last long, as consumer confidence dipped yet again and the price of cotton skyrocketed.

“If we could ever get some stability and folks could stay in the right frame of mind for six or eight months, they will be more prone to go out and buy something and travel,” Jones said.

Jones and others point to the continuing home foreclosure crisis and nagging unemployment as reasons people aren’t parting with their hard-earned cash.

“At the end of the day, folks have to get comfortable spending money again,” said Steve Fisher, president of F&M Bank. “Consumer spending is the driving factor in our economy.”

A lack of consumer confidence, coupled with uncertainty about taxes, healthcare reform and other government regulations, are preventing many local firms from creating jobs and investing in new equipment or expansions, said Frank Goodnight, owner of Diversified Graphics.

The end of the Great Recession doesn’t feel like any recovery he’s ever experienced, Goodnight said.

Normally when a recession ends, small business represents half of all new jobs, he said. The state defines small business as 300 employees or less.

“Small businesses are the engines that create jobs,” Goodnight said. “And small businesses are not growing right now.”

To the curb

After several layoffs in the past three years, the workforce at PowerCurbers is down 60 percent to 60 people, President Dyke Messinger said. The company makes $200,000 curb and gutter machines at its Bendix Road plant.

North Stoke: Patchwork and sewing machines

This week I bought a new sewing machine, electric no less, for years I used an old Jones hand sewing machine but it was becoming too heavy to lift, so I reluctantly left it behind in Bath. It had history and belonged to my ex-sister-in law Sylvia, she had lived and studied in America and patchwork and quilting was a hobby of hers.  The machine had been taken over to Blonay when she moved back to Switzerland, and she had given it to me, and I carted it to England, and it is on this machine I did a lot of patchwork.  Mainly for the dogs and cats I had at one stage, Moss, Suki, Tiger and James to be precise, the last, two cats that lived to grand old ages. The following patchwork is Sylvias', she gave it to my daughter who somehow passed it on to me, but she still 'owns' it; she has a very possessive nature.  I see that the animals have been sleeping in the centre, because there are light mud marks that have'nt come off in the wash.  I am not sure about the pattern, too many bits of material have been used but it must have taken her hours... I can never achieve her quilting skills or patience,  but the use of materials is interesting, though I said she had lived and studied in America, she went on to work in Hong Kong as a lecturer, so that materials often reflect the different places she has been in.  My first introduction to patchwork had been my mother-in-laws patchwork dressing gown,(I had one to) which she had made for my 3 year old daughter, it was cute but made out of Thai batik materials.

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