Piedmont City Featured in National TV Show

A small Piedmont community is ringing in the New Year with some national bragging rights.Claremont is a city of less than 1,400 people and sits half-way between Statesville and Hickory off Interstate 40. And according to the television show, “Communities of Distinction with Terry Bradshaw” Claremont is a Hidden Gem of America.  “It was refreshing to see people from the outside were picking up on all of the things we're doing here in Claremont to be place in a TV program,” explains Doug Barrick. He's Claremont's City Manager. Barrick says last spring, producers from Coral Springs, Florida contacted his office and said they wanted to profile the city on their national show. According to Barrick, Communities of Distinction selected the city because it promotes economic and residential diversity to create an over-all vibrant quality of life. “We've got a multi-national business park, we host more than 5,000 day-time jobs, we do community yard sales in the spring and in the summer," says Barrick. "We have a youth council, they do fundraisers and get involved with the city itself. We also have Claremont Days, a two-day fall event the first of October. It's a street festival with music and rides for the kids. Just different events for folks to stay involved throughout the year.”

In May, a crew spent a weekend in Claremont filming the city during the spring yard sale. Then the five-minute TV segment aired nationally last November on the Fox Business Network. According to Barrick, the show takes people through the community and includes interviews with residents and business owners describing why Claremont is a great place to live. “They're going to see that our stores are not boarded up, that there is vibrancy here and that things are growing despite the economy," says Barrick. "Terry actually quoted the city of Claremont as being the quintessential American small-town.” Barrick is referring to the show's host Terry Bradshaw. The retired NFL Pittsburg Steelers quarterback also does sports analysis for FOX and ESPN. This month, Communities of Distinction will feature Claremont each Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. on Charlotte's WAXN –TV 64.