Rolesville breaks ground on transformation project

For about the next two years, roughly 22 million dollars will be poured into Wake County’s second oldest town Rolesville. That money will be used for its Main Street Project to build mixed-use developments, expand housing options and make road improvements.

“[The town] never had a downtown area…It just had a crossroads. One of the visions of the former mayor…’if we don’t have a downtown, can we have a Main Street?’” said Mayor Ronnie Currin.

He said he wants to make the town a destination.

“It’ll be more of a town feel, rather than a pass-through area,” Currin said.

Currin estimated the project costs roughly $22 million. The funding is supported by NC Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

According to Census Data, Rolesville had 3,786 residents in 2010. However, as of 2021, more than 10 thousand people call it home.

“I would like to see us grow. We have to grow. Change is inevitable,” said town commissioner Michelle Medley.

The New York native said leadership has to be careful about how it addresses growth going forward.

“Rolesville is a small town. In small towns, typically, you have people who are not as welcoming of change; they’re afraid of it, initially. People see that as, ‘I left a city with traffic, and now there is traffic,” Medley explained. “It’s inevitable; it’s going to happen. We just have to work to make sure it happens in a positive way.”