An invigorating spark is spreading through Kinston and it seems to flow from the office of Adrian King, Pride of Kinston’s director.

King took over from former director B.J. Murphy, who left last March.

Murphy did a credible job with an organization that was mostly a mish-mash due primarily to ineffective leadership by his most recent predecessors, and too many cooks spoiling the broth. Some of the success King is enjoying now can be credited to groundwork laid by Murphy.

But groundwork, while vital, isn’t enough by itself. King has brought life to an organization that, on the surface, seemed nearly moribund before he walked through the door. His energy and enthusiasm, which seems endless, is contagious.

Since taking over the group’s leadership, King has kicked off several major projects, including his recent riverfront task force. While many of the task force’s ideas are not new, they at least are getting attention. That’s more than happened before.

Kinston’s riverfront is a gold mine waiting to be developed. King has interested some of the city’s movers and shakers in the idea and is bringing in advice from N.C. State University. Although late to the table in recognizing the river’s potential for development, late is far better than never.

Another of his initiatives has been to take a new look at downtown, and propose some ideas for resurrecting an area that once was envied by other towns in Eastern North Carolina. While we disagree with his idea to make Queen Street into a two-lane thoroughfare with diagonal parking, he is proposing other ideas that could inject some energy into downtown.

One suggestion from Pride “would be to support a more aggressive posture on the part of the City of Kinston to require property owners to strictly adhere to ordnances pertaining to building upkeep and appearance,” according to an initiative statement released by King.

Finding a way to get the City Council to move on such a plan would be nothing short of miraculous, and would go a long way toward making downtown inviting to shoppers again.

King has involved himself heavily in Kinston’s historical tourism future. He and Herb Spear were instrumental in organizing the cemetery task force, whose goal is to help preserve the city’s historical graveyards. If you see little value to that, consider the number of tourists who visit New Bern’s historic burial grounds annually. And Kinston’s cemeteries are at least as attractive as New Bern’s – or could be.

Last year, wearing his hat as the newly elected president-in-waiting of the Lenoir County Historical Association, King managed to convince a federal judge to hold a citizenship naturalization ceremony at Harmony Hall. The historic house is a natural for the event and Kinston, with its pre-Colonial history, is the perfect city.

King seems to be hitting doubles, triples and homeruns consistently. The only blooper that comes to mind is the nearly criminal move of returning a $65,000 Neuse II grant to Gold LEAF Foundation early in King’s tenure. But the blame for that falls lightly on King’s shoulders. He was in his first days with Pride. That absurd move was made primarily by his short-sighted board of directors, many of whom appear to have had selfish and/or vindictive motives behind their votes.

If King continues along the path down which he appears to be walking confidently, Kinston will benefit from his creativity, energy and willingness to cooperate with all aspects of the community. Of course, this will happen only if his board members take a back seat and allow King to run the show.

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