Drexel's new alderman insists on proactive approach to improving the town

New Drexel alderman David Harmon remembers a time growing up in Drexel, when afternoons were spent riding bicycles around town, and playing at the R.O. Huffman Center and the ball fields. Just as long as he was home by the time the streetlights came on and dinner was ready, Harmon spent his childhood days exploring the town.

Now, he is preparing to help lead the town as he steps into his new role on the board of aldermen. Many Drexel residents may recognize him from his involvement with Grow With Drexel, or his architectural work for the R.O. Huffman Center renovations, but Harmon is eager to take a proactive approach to improving the town in more ways than one.

Harmon, who is 60 years old, grew up in Drexel and was a member of East Burke High School’s 1983 graduating class before he was recruited to swim at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, where he studied in the school’s architecture program.

After graduation, he went to work at a firm in Charlotte, where he stayed for about a decade before branching out into his own business. Ever since, Harmon said he has been self-employed for about 80% of his career. Most recently, he designed the renovations at the R.O. Huffman Center and the new amphitheater at Valdese Lakeside Park.

But Harmon considers himself a generalist, meaning he doesn’t specialize in just one area of architecture. He has designed a variety of projects, from wedding venues to medical offices. Harmon has also worked on restaurants, fire stations, banking offices, and residential projects.

Harmon moved back to Drexel from Charlotte to take care of his parents in their older age. Both parents have since passed, and although Harmon is semi-retired, he still keeps busy with projects. He previously worked out of an office at Old Rock School and later purchased an old gas station in downtown Drexel, converting it into both his office and an apartment.

“I never left Drexel because I was dying to get out of Burke County,” Harmon said. “There was just nothing to come back to, and I’d like to see the opportunity for people to have a reason to come back after college.”

In doing so, Harmon said he plans to push for upgrading the town’s technology and attracting an industry that broadens the local job base beyond teaching, health care, and retail, while also creating opportunities for residents without a college degree.

“I’m a firm believer that we are 20 years behind in technologies and efficiencies,” Harmon said, adding that the town’s website and how the town collects utilities are examples.

When it comes to living and working downtown, Harmon said he wants to encourage that lifestyle in order to draw people downtown. “Downtown is more than just somebody zooming through town,” Harmon said.

Having invested in his property downtown, Harmon said he has a dog in the fight when it comes to wanting to improve the area. For the last two years of his involvement with Grow With Drexel, he said he has seen the group play a large role in revitalizing downtown.

He also wants to bring businesses to downtown but pointed to an issue: property owners not utilizing their buildings. He proposed creating a Merchants Association that would allow business and property owners to be more vocal with the board about their needs.

“There’s multiple people there that have owned those buildings for 20 plus years, and they’re nothing but storage units,” Harmon said, “and they have the potential to be a lot more, not only the potential for them, but a potential for downtown to grow a little bit.”

Harmon said he’d like to see a boutique, a coworking space, or a sandwich shop downtown. He also added a splash pad at the R.O. Huffman Center could be a big draw for the community, pointing to how attractive the amenity is in Valdese.

There just needs to be more opportunities for people to come together, Harmon said, to create more of a community feel. “Right now, I don’t see it as a united community. We’re very individual. You come here, you live, you pay your taxes.”

“I think the town has been kind of neutral, just easy flowing, and I think that as a town, no matter what the topic or the issue, we’ve got to be more progressive, and don’t wait for it to break to fix it,” Harmon said. “That could be technology, that could be infrastructure, that could be philosophies in development. I think we just have to really pursue that very hard, very persistently, so that some of these things will change, not because they’re broken, but because they can be improved.”