While working as an admissions recruiter for the University of South Carolina and driving all around the Southeast, John Gowan noticed that rural towns all had the same problems —declining populations, aging infrastructure and a declining budget.

And so, with that in mind, Gowan, a Columbia, S.C. native, went to grad school at UNC Chapel Hill to pursue a masters in public administration and is now part of a pilot program that has landed him in Ellerbe, where he will serve as a town manager for the next two years. The program is run through UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government and Appalachian State University.

Gowan, who originally received his B.A. in public relations from the University of South Carolina, started his new gig Sept.1.

The pilot program is called Service Corps and it places grad-school graduates in 12 rural counties in North Carolina, and is designed to help “economically distressed towns by helping them find resources for infrastructure, education, etc. The program is funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation.

During his two years, Gowan will work for the towns of Candor, Star and Ellerbe.

In his first four months with the project, Gowan said he’s been focusing on his towns’ finances.

“The most important thing is where each town is financially,” Gowan said. “I have to have a place to start.”

He said it’s important for him to understand where the town’s finances are so he has a better feel of the town’s needs.

Another big chunk of his time has been spent getting comfortable in his new environments, meeting community leaders and residents.

“Because I’m not from any of these towns, building relationships is vital in getting things done,” Gowan said.

Until any major projects get started, Gowan said his time will be pretty evenly split between his three towns.

“But as projects begin, whatever it is, be it writing and administering a grant, being available in an information capacity for writing a personnel policy, reviewing water and sewer rates, I have flexibility with my schedule to be where I’m needed. I’m rarely asked to be in the same place at the same time and when I am there’s always a way to work around those little obstacles.”

In looking at Ellerbe’s finances, so far, Gowan said the town is in good shape.

“Over the years, Ellerbe has cultivated strong leadership with its mayors and board members and collectively the governing board and mayor have been prudent with financial decisions,” Gowan said. “They find themselves in a position where they can be a part of the regional sewer project and rather than hoping, they can go out and make it happen. That’s a benefit and those are things that take a while to create.”

He said the town’s financial situation has created a more comfortable starting place for him.

“Having a county seat that’s open to participating is a also a real asset because you don’t find that everywhere and that’s a real testament to leadership,” Gowan said.

Gowan said education is also a part of the Service Corps project but it has nothing to do with the schools. It’s a “civic education component” that can help the town review current strategic plans or new planning processes where town needs can be identified, prioritized and funding created to support that by turning to the community for input.

“That’s an area even big towns can use some improvement,” Gowan said. “You want that diverse input in order to have outcomes that benefit the most people with the least cost. It takes a while to plan and coordinate all the different groups and views, and it’s another area I’m hoping I will be beneficial.”

Since entering town hall, Gowan said the reception from town leadership and staff has been positive.

“We’re still learning what each other’s strengths are,” he said. “We are just meeting, getting to know each other. Everyone is open to sharing ideas, new ideas, and know when something is beneficial to the town and community as a whole.”

Gowan said the town’s sewer project is a big deal and he’s working with the Lumber River Council of Governments to help in any way he can.

“If we get the Rural Center grant, if the project is selected, that’ll be the next opportunity to become involved,” he said.

Until then, he’s working on a comprehensive financial analysis of the town. Through the school of government, he’ll be able to compare Ellerbe to other towns of the same size or other towns in the region to see how they’re performing.

“That’s important information to take into the planning process,” Gowan said. “This is the foundation. It’s difficult to do things without financial resources. I want to show the board where we stand and see what we can do.”

Gowan said towns generally get a bulk of their tax revenue at the beginning of the year and so, come January, they’ll know a little more about their financial situation and how they’ll stand at the end of the year and what they’ll be able to do.

Gowan said one of the things he’s heard mentioned is improving the town’s parks and ball fields to create cleaner, safer places to play and exercise.

Gowan said the best way to generate ideas is to have the town’s residents involved.

“In Ellerbe there’s a strong community here and a strong presence at the board meetings and people know how to give input and be a part of the public process and we have to build on that.”

Because Gowan’s role has been described as that of a town manager, it’s important to clarify what it is he will not be doing.

“To have an official town manager would require a change in the town charter, but no one is advocating that or trying to end up with that,” Gowan said. “The current format is a mayor/council government where the executive body is the five commissioners and the mayor. They collectively make executive decisions and determine town policy. They each have their own responsibilities, like budget officer, etc. Under a manager form of government the manager would function as executive between the board and the town’s department heads, and as executive would be involved in many day-to-day decisions, and would be responsible for preparing and submitting the budget, making policy recommendations or suggesting policy improvement. So where the Service Corps becomes valuable is to a small town that isn’t currently large enough to fund a manager or chooses to maintain a mayor/council government, they can sample some of the benefit. The easiest way to say it is they’ll have another hand on deck.

“I’m trained to be a generalist so I can help with budget questions, human resources, etc. If there’s questions like, can we make a change to an ordinance? How can we change to make it better? I can use my knowledge and connections to provide resources. I need to be clear that I don’t have any authority. The board can ask me to look at something and I’ll research it and offer neutral advice. Ultimately the board retains all decision-making power and keeps all their responsibilities. Things haven’t changed. This is not a symbol that the town is going to start spending nilly-willy. They took a little risk in applying for the program and we’re going to make the best of it.”

The towns that are a part of this project all had to apply and Gowan said they’re all looking for similar things — to recapture what was lost over the years.

“One of the common themes is the exodus of the textile industry,” Gowan said. “Though it wasn’t done on purpose, these vacancies created challenges for these towns and the exodus had a profound impact on towns that relied on mills as a source of education, employment and economic security.”

Gowan said Service Corps can be used to find grants, build leadership coalitions and provide expertise to improve the general government operations.

One of the things Gowan said is really important is the government leadership, where commissioners are taking time to educate new commissioners so when there’s a turnover, they’re never having to start from scratch.

“Personally, the only thing I can add to that is the desire to have a hands on experience in a variety of ways,” Gowan said about his hopes for the project. “Anyone who’s been to school knows school world and real world are drastically different. You use what you learned to apply to your job, but some things you can’t learn until you’re on the job. Service Corps is a good way to get diverse experience I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”

Gowan said another thing he’d like to see is an increase in citizen participation.