" Burney Baker doesn't remember meeting the mayor of Knightdale, but he'll never forget her now.
Baker, mayor of the tiny town of Colerain in Bertie County, has been struggling for the past week with the destruction wrought by Hurricane Isabel. Thanks to Knightdale Mayor Jeanne Bonds, he has not been
doing it alone.
In the past week, Knightdale has sent public safety officers to help relieve worn-out emergency workers, public works employees to help clear roads, and its town manager to help fill out disaster
relief paperwork.
"It was like a bunch of angels descending upon us,"
Baker said.
Bonds toured Colerain and several other small towns in Eastern North Carolina when she worked for the Rural Economic Development Center, a statewide
nonprofit agency.
When she read about the problems in Colerain last weekend, she remembered meeting Baker, 43, a chicken farmer now in his second year as mayor, and decided Knightdale had to do something.
"It sounded like they really needed help," she said."
(The News & Observer, September 27, 2003,
Aid came like 'angels descending upon us'
by Ryan Teague Beckwith)
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Toll Fellows
Toll Fellows - Council of State Governments
Jeanne Milliken Bonds on Facebook
News Clips
Triangle Business Journal, Jeanne Bonds Lobbyist
"Jeanne Milliken Bonds, of the Rural Economic Development
Center, noted that telecommunications should be part of a rural development strategy because of its relationship to growth in the services sector of the economy. She said that long-term
investment in the rural telecommunications infrastructure can be encouraged by a 'careful balance between deregulated market competition and enhanced access provisions, within a framework that adapts
to
technological change.'"
NII Field Hearings on Universal Service and Open Access: America Speaks Out, US Department of Commerce,
A Report of the Information Infrastructure Task Force Telecommunications Policy Committee
Winter 2008 Alexandria VA FYI Publication,
Jeanne Bonds, Director of Communications
Fall 2007 Alexandria VA FYI Publication,
Jeanne Bonds, Director of Communications
ElectriCities Emergency Planning Guide, Winner of a NAGC Award; Jeanne Bonds, Division Director
City of Gastonia Commendation re Branding
Jeanne Milliken Bonds
Strategic Government
& Public Relations
Consulting Firm
"Aside from Square D, the town's major employers are Wake Stone, a Lowe's Home Improvement store and a Wal-Mart. Most other jobs in town are at fast-food restaurants and grocery stores.
Not everyone in town is content to let it stay that way. Led by two former mayors, Jeanne Bonds and Billy Wilder, a new economic development committee started in November has begun drawing up plans to revitalize this town of 6,300 east of Raleigh. The group, made up of volunteers, has no salaried employees and no budget, but already it has big plans. The committee is inviting speakers from the state Department of Commerce and local commercial real estate agencies to an economic development summit in January.
The Knightdale Economic Development Committee also is making its opinions known. Bonds has called for the towns of Knightdale and Wendell to work with the county on a plan for the eastern end of the U.S. 64 Bypass, which both towns hope to annex after construction ends.
And Bonds said she wants committee members to lobby for a referendum on local-project financing slated for next year, among other things.
( The News & Observer, December 23, 2003, Panel looking to lure jobs, by Ryan Teague Beckwith)