GASTONIA, N.C. — The City of Gastonia received a very generous gift from an anonymous donor to make the area near several interchanges more appealing to the eye.
“Anything to beautify this area,” Allen’s Mobile Home & RV Supplies owner Billy Leonhardt said. “It’s going to be seen.”
Along U.S. 321 and just under a mile from I-85 is Leonhardt’s store. He’s owned it since 2015 but the business has been there since the late 90s.
“We have the biggest mobile store in the area, and we have a lot of stock,” Leonhardt said.
One thing he can count on seeing outside his store's doors is the flow of cars.
“It’s probably almost doubled how much traffic is out here … in just the nine years I’ve been here,” Leonhardt said. “A lot of people from out of town [are] coming through here.”
Now due to a generous $250,000 anonymous donation, drivers can expect a more pleasant drive into Gastonia. Three busy interchanges along I-85 will be freshened up. Those interchanges are at Cox Road, New Hope Road and U.S. 321.
The first step is some simple cleanup.
“The trash, the underbrush, the vine … to clean that, and then the next step would be to spruce it up,” Gastonia Mayor Richard Franks said during the March 5 City Council meeting.
The money could also go towards replacing aging and broken fencing, planting grass and low-maintenance shrubs, Franks added.
City leaders gave the green light for the beautification projects to begin despite some concerns about wasting money ahead of the I-85 widening project, which is set to begin in a few years.
“I just hate to have them put a lot of landscape plans in place, planting and things like that and have it yanked out in a matter of a short period of time,” Gastonia Mayor Pro-Tem Dave Kirklin said.
“The conversation as had with the anonymous owner was that the project would impact this and they said 'go forth and do great things,'” Gastonia City Manager Michael Peoples said.
Kirklin said he is hoping to save some of the money until after the widening project is done.
Regardless, Leonhardt said this would be a good look for the city.
“To give people an impression of Gastonia, to make them want to come back, to make them want to stop, shop eat,” Leonhardt said.
He hopes it will make the congestion in the area more bearable and hopefully attract more foot traffic.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.