What a difference eight years makes

• Last Wednesday’s Clinton visit saw little preparation, logistical requirements for city.

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

The difference between “President” and “Former President” can be measured in thousands of dollars.

When Bill Clinton came to Whiteville in 2000 to promote rural and small town Internet access, local law enforcement, fire and rescue, and government officials were notified less than a week in advance.

Every available officer was put on duty, streets were blocked, and even high school band members were retrieved from a beach outing to play for the event.

Buses were used to cordon off streets, and attack helicopters roamed the skies over Whiteville. Snipers were posted on rooftops around Vineland Station. When a car crash occurred on top of the Soules Swamp Bridge on the U.S. 701 Bypass, Secret Service agents responded with Whiteville Firefighters and Whiteville Rescue Unit personnel, urging them to hurry and clear the wreckage.

The estimated cost in federal dollars was between $5 and $6 million, which didn’t include local resources. That’s about normal for a presidential visit, according to whitehouse.gov, the official Presidential website.

But when Clinton returned to Whiteville Wednesday to stump for his wife Hillary’s presidential campaign, local officials said they had a minimum of contact with the campaign staff prior to his arrival.

Originally, Clinton had planned to visit the Board of Elections office on Legion Drive. Election officials – busy with the most active early voting period in state history – would likely have had to shut down balloting for a time while Clinton spoke. Campaign bloggers and websites have reported a trend away from whistle-stop visits at early polling places, since it’s been discovered voters don’t take kindly to being delayed from casting their ballots, and even celebrities like Clinton are forbidden by law from campaigning within 50 feet of a polling place.

Elections supervisor Carla Strickland was firm on that law.

“My first reaction was, ‘He better not come here before 5 p.m. and expect to get into my polling place,’” she said. “I was pleased because he would bring all those people to the One Stop polls, but the law says no campaigning within 50 feet – and that means anybody, even if you used to be the President.

“Everyone here was excited, just like the people in the offices next door,” she said. “They asked me if I was excited, and I said I was more worried about a voter not being able to get through the front door.”

At the suggestion of the Vineland Depot Restoration committee, the event was moved downtown, where Clinton spoke on his prior visit. A marker on the South Main Street side of the station notes the location and date of the first time a U.S. President visited Whiteville.

Most of the security was handled by the dozen or so Secret Service members and event organizers traveling with the former Chief Executive. Contact with municipal officials was brief and almost at the last minute – and in some cases, non-existent.

“I personally didn’t get a lot of information from them,” Mayor Dial Gray said. “They said they had contacted the mayor and council, but I never heard from them.” The mayor said he found out he was to speak at the campaign appearance when he showed up as a spectator.

City Manager Joshua Ray said representatives from the campaign contacted him Tuesday, after the event was announced in the newspaper.

“They worked with the Chief (of Police, Jerry Britt). The chief and Fire Captain Robert Simmons did most of the work that involved the city. This office didn’t have any contact with them until the event. It was all handled through our fire and police.”

The second visit had fewer people and less strain on municipal resources, Ray said.

“They didn’t want a motorcade to bring them into town,” Ray said. Clinton’s caravan did feature a number of N.C. Highway Patrol troopers and support vehicles, but those were part of the former president’s escort that took him through eight stops across the state Tuesday and almost as many the day before.

“Our officers blocked the route, of course, and closed off a few streets downtown, but for the most part we didn’t have to do that much. They had it under control, and we don’t like to micromanage anyway. The chief and Robert (Simmons) had it together. We don’t have to micromanage to get things done in Whiteville.

“When we got down to the depot, we were able to just be more faces in the crowd. It was cool.”

Ray said it was relaxing to be able to enjoy the visit by the man he called “possibly the greatest President we’ve ever had.”

“We had 1,200 or more people downtown on a weeknight,” he said. “There were street vendors out there – maybe we can establish a Bill Clinton festival, and invite him back every year.”