Graham mayor-elect Chelsea Dickey seems to defy the stereotypes often used to describe the millennial generation – i.e., people born between 1981 and 1996, who are often seen as lazy, socially-challenged, and more likely than prior generations to forgo the conventions of adulthood such as marriage and home ownership.
The one-time racial justice activist – Dickey had participated in Black Lives Matter protests in downtown Graham and publicly criticized the city’s police department in 2020 – also doesn’t quite fit another mold: growing up in Mebane, she was homeschooled and sang on the youth “praise team” at Saint Marks Church in Burlington.
Dickey later went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Economic Development in 2012 from Eastern University, a private Christian university in Pennsylvania, before returning to her native North Carolina and eventually settling in Graham with husband of two years, Justin Paggao, and son Matteo, now 18 months.
Today, the mayor-elect owns and operates two small businesses: Motley Local, which she originally founded in Graham in 2018 as Motley Studio; and Struction Building, a residential construction company she founded earlier this year and co-owns with her dad.
The first-time office seeker Dickey, who is registered as a Democrat unseated two-term incumbent Jennifer Talley, who is registered as a Republican, last month by a margin of 57 percent (1,354 votes) to Talley’s 43 percent (1,022 votes) to win a two-year term as mayor of Graham, based on official election night returns.
Set to turn 35 this Saturday, Dickey will apparently be the youngest mayor in the city’s history when she’s sworn into office at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday night, December 9.
Dickey began her campaign for mayor by knocking on some 1,500 doors in Graham late this summer, she recalled this week in an interview with The Alamance News. During those exchanges, she heard a common refrain: Graham residents wanted to know their voices would be heard at city hall.
“I had people say things like, ‘We’ve got drag racing on our street, and we need more traffic stops,’” Dickey said. Others wanted sidewalk connections – as opposed to proverbial “sidewalks to nowhere” – and safety improvements such as acoustic equipment on crosswalk signals that emit sound for visually-impaired pedestrians and rapid, flashing crosswalk lights to alert drivers once a pedestrian enters the crosswalk, Dickey explains.
“It’s just the little things that would make a difference,” the mayor-elect says. “I think meeting people face-to-face and letting them have a conversation with me, and me letting them know I’m willing to represent [their interests], put me over the top.”
One issue that divided the incumbents and challengers in Graham’s nonpartisan mayoral and council races this fall was what to do about Sesquicentennial Park. The park at the northwest corner of Court Square and across from the Historic Court House has been closed for more than a year due to safety concerns about its sinking brick floor.
Talley and incumbent Graham councilman Bobby Chin, who was elected last month to a second, four-year term, have said that, based on bids submitted earlier this year, the estimated $600,000 cost to repair the park would be exorbitant.
However, challenger Dickey (and councilman-elect Jim Young) said they supporting keeping the park where it is and spending the money to fix it, which they said could be offset with future grant funding.
One of the tools that Dickey uses as an economic development consultant for Motley Local is what she terms “place building” – which builds on the things that give each community a unique identity – to support downtown revitalization and future growth. “The recipe for downtown economic health is not crazy,” Dickey tells the newspaper.
Most people, regardless of which city or town they’re in, are looking for the same things when they head downtown: Pedestrian-friendly areas; public gathering spaces; passive recreation; cultural attractions; and places to shop, eat, and grab a coffee or drink, the mayor-elect acknowledges.
Her company helped to lure the Forgotten Road Ales brewery and taproom to Graham, as well as HiFi Records, and launched the “Love, Graham” branding campaign to generate pride and support for businesses in downtown Graham, Dickey says.
“I am excited for more beautification projects [in downtown Graham] and to make it safe for people to walk and drive around here,” the mayor-elect says.
She also hopes to continue building on already strong growth in Graham, while prioritizing future industrial and commercial projects that could complement those underway on the city’s outskirts, such as the Koury Corporation’s shopping center in Mebane, between Trollingwood-Hawfields Road and South Third Street, which secured Target as its first anchor tenant earlier this year.
For an example, Dickey points to the industrial park along Cherry Lane, which she says has been identified by the city’s staff as the best option for commercial and industrial development that would eventually generate revenue for long-term capital projects like a second fire station.
Dickey says she also recently met with the city’s new police chief, Bill Neil, to discuss how “to strengthen and keep the police department well-resourced.”
Meanwhile, Dickey plans to “get her legs” in municipal government during an upcoming daylong meeting on December 15, when each of the city’s department heads is scheduled to update the council on their operations, budgets, capital projects, and funding needs for the next fiscal year.
Outside of the office, the mayor-elect juggles the twin duties of being a mother and wife. Her husband, Paggao, began his first season this fall as an assistant volleyball coach at Elon University; he holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Illinois State University, where he also minored in Information Systems, and a Master’s degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Marquette University, according to Elon University staff bio. The family lives at 511 Oakwood Lane in Graham.
