Mayor Fred Turnage did not just want to build back. He wanted to build back better.

After Hurricane Floyd hit Eastern North Carolina in September 1999 and devastated so many homes and businesses, Rocky Mount's leaders were determined to show the city was wounded, but it would heal, said Pete Armstrong, former director of the Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation Deparment.

Telegram file photo (ENLARGE)

Rocky Mount Mayor Fred Turnage speaks on March 18, 2006, during the grand opening ceremony for the Imperial Centre for Arts and Sciences.

Turnage's positive outlook toward the city's recovery would be symbolized in the following years by his involvement with developing several projects, including the Imperial Centre, the Rocky Mount Sports Complex and Braswell Memorial Library, Armstrong said.

The mayor's level of involvement varied with each project, but his commitment to do his best by the city never wavered.

"His attitude of the whole time from the flood is that: 'We have an opportunity. It is a stretch, it is a challenge, but to make Rocky Mount the very best place it can be, we need to do these things. We have an opportunity that probably will never come again,'" said Armstrong, who has taken on a new role as the director of recreation resources service at N.C. State University.

After the water receded, the city was faced with a destroyed Children's Museum and the severely damaged Art Center and Playhouse Theater, said Assistant City Manager Peter Varney.

Officials had to make a decision about the future of the facilities and their current sites.

"Mayor Turnage encouraged the City Council to consider having those facilities rebuilt somewhere else rather than in their former locations so that they would no longer be subject to flooding again," Varney said.

Once the decision was solidified to use the Imperial Tobacco Co. as the new location, planners were faced with the task of arranging the complex financial agreements that the project would involve, Varney said.

Turnage worked with the council, financial consultants, financing groups and government entities to arrange funding for the project, Armstrong said.

It would take a considerable amount of time to arrange the financing, apply for tax credits and structure the legal agreements.

While the mayor is the first to point out he was not single-handedly responsible for the completion of the project, he did play a pivotal role, Armstrong said.

"You have to have a leader. You have to have somebody who believes in it. ... He made things happen that we as a staff couldn't make happen," Armstrong said.

It took a considerable amount of faith in the community for the city to even take the Imperial Centre project on, Turnage said.

"The greatest asset of it is that it did demonstrate confidence in our future and a commitment to the arts. We were going to do it, and we were going to do it first class, even though it was a very challenging project," Turnage said.

Turnage brought that same commitment to his involvement with the sports complex, which had been planned even before the flood, Varney said.

Again, he helped iron out the financing issues, working with organizations such as the N.C. Department of Transportation, the Nash County Travel and Tourism Authority and the Kate & Billy Harrison Family YMCA at various stages of the project.

Even on issues not related to the financing of the complex, Turnage always was willing to lend a hand, Armstrong said.

"He went to meeting after meeting with us with people when we were trying to get people's help and support. We'd have people come in town who wanted to see the facility, and he was always one of the first people there at the door or out at the complex to meet and greet and talk about it and to just be a real champion for the project," Armstrong said.

The $30 million Imperial Centre and $12 million sports complex opened in 2006.

With the push to get Braswell Library up and running, Turnage did not take as involved a role.

Much of the money to build the library came from private fundraising, but appropriations from the city and Nash and Edgecombe counties also were part of the equation.

Turnage worked with the three elected bodies to negotiate the levels of monetary support each one would contribute, said Wayne Deal, former Nash County manager.

"That was really the issue we were looking at is how to fund it jointly and in an equitable way," Deal said.

"We were able to work that out. And a lot of that was the mayor's diplomatic skills because he is just a good person to deal with. You have a lot of confidence in him when you're dealing with him."

There have been other projects that Turnage or the city under his leadership could boast about.

In a 34-year career, how could there not be?

Just in the past few years, there have been the Rocky Mount Senior Center, the Denton Street pool, several parks and the completion of the Tar River Trail.

"They certainly wouldn't have been as successful as they were, and they might not even have happened," Armstrong said.