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closeDale Trail signs get bumped in Earnhardt's hometown
Condition of markers cited; request came from the developer of the new, massive biotech campus.
ADAM BELL
The Charlotte Observer
Saturday, Jul. 26, 2008
Did the billionaire pushing biotech drive away the banners that marked the former stomping grounds of Kannapolis native Dale Earnhardt?
Depends on whom you ask.
On Thursday, city workers removed the banners promoting stops on the “Dale Trail” from utility poles around Kannapolis. The self-guided tour, run by local tourism leaders, takes fans to sites tied to the late NASCAR star, including a bronze statue of Earnhardt in the center of town.
The billionaire is David Murdock, the Dole Food owner whose $1.5billion North Carolina Research Campus is transforming the former textile town into a center for science.
In a July 18 e-mail to the City Council, City Manager Mike Legg said the request to take down the banners came from Castle and Cooke, Murdock's development company. Some of the banners are showing wear, Legg wrote, and Castle and Cooke “is trying to put on the best face for the city” when Murdock comes to town this week with an unidentified special guest.
“There are many (including everybody at Castle and Cooke and some others I have talked to) that do not want to see anything ‘Dale related' to go back up,” Legg wrote.
But campus marketing director Phyllis Beaver said she was unaware of anyone with the company who feels that way. She said she noticed the fabric banners looked ragged and dirty during a recent drive with Earnhardt's mother, Martha. Beaver said she thought they looked disrespectful.
“Dale is part of our heritage,” Beaver said. “But we want to be sure we have something a little more attractive than a black flag; something a little more welcoming.”
The Dale Trail banners were black with white lettering. Earnhardt, who drove black race cars with a white 3, died after a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.
Murdock, who lives in California, typically is in Kannapolis at least monthly to oversee campus construction.
“We always spruce things up whenever Mr. Murdock comes to town,” Beaver said.
She discussed the banners a week and a half ago at a meeting with DeSales Wagster, who runs the Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which organized the trail three years ago. Wagster said she told Beaver the bureau also had been considering the fate of the banners because of the wear.
“There was no strong-arming at all (to remove them),” Wagster said. She also said the bureau would reimburse the city for the cost of the banner removal.
The tourism bureau has been planning upgrades for the trail, Wagster said, possibly with historical markers or a way for people to tune into the radio to hear about it. She said the bureau would likely auction off the removed Dale Trail banners.
In an e-mail interview Friday, Legg said the city was committed to preserving Earnhardt's legacy, and that no one knew whether the banners would return in some form.
Castle and Cooke has been considering designs for campus banners for about a year, Beaver said. She suggested that banners could rotate throughout the year, such as science-related banners when there is a big conference at the campus, as well as racing-related ones during NASCAR races and other events at nearby Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Kannapolis also is considering adopting a tagline suggested by Castle and Cooke on all its documents: “Home to Science.”
In his City Council e-mail, Legg said, “Somewhere there is the right mix between racing, tourism and life sciences, but that needs to be worked through.”
