Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
The Spruce Pine Town Council voted Thursday to hire Daniel Stines of Blythewood, S.C. to be the new town manager.
The council met in a special called meeting to choose a new manager. Council Member Jackie Rensink was absent, and the vote among the remaining council members was unanimous.
Stines is currently working as town administrator for Blythewood. Mayor Phillip Hise said after the vote that his experience had impressed the council from the beginning.
“We had 22, 23 applications, and Dan, I think you stood out the whole time,” Hise said. “We’re looking forward to working with you.”
Council Member Beth Holmes said that during the application process the town had a variety of good options for a new manager.
“We definitely had a lot of talented candidates apply,” she said.
Previous Town Manager Darlene Butler retired at the end of December. Richard Canipe has been serving as interim town manager, and will continue as Stines finishes out his work in South Carolina, which will end in March.
After the meeting, Hise said that the council had held a vote to agree to Stines’ contract in closed session Monday, Jan. 27.
“We took the vote to give him the job today,” Hise said.
However, Town Attorney Chad Donahoo clarified that there was no vote in the closed session, only a discussion, in compliance with closed meeting law.
Also after the meeting, Stines said he was interested in the Spruce Pine job because of his long-standing relationship with the area.
“I’m excited. It’s a homecoming for me,” he said. “My hometown is Burke County … and I went to Appalachian State, so I’ve been in these hills and mountains of Appalachia my whole life.”
Stines said he and his family vacationed in this area last summer.
“We have some property over the hill from Bakersville near Roan Mountain State Park,” said Stines. “We are very familiar with the area. My mom and her family are from Yancey Couty. My wife Lauren and I were here last summer camping with our children (ages 2, 5, and 8), downtown playing at the riverside park, eating at DT’s. A few weeks later we watched the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.”
Stines said he and Lauren came back after the hurricane, looking for ways to help out with recovery.
“I heard about the town manager position was coming available and I felt called, like it was meant to be. I kind of viewed that personally as a calling from the Lord,” he said. “I’m looking forward to coming in and being part of a great team.”
Stines was hired as town administrator of Blythewood in August 2024, having previously served as assistant town administrator. Before that, a previous town administrator of Blythewood had resigned in April 2024 after three years in the position.
Stines has experience in building, planning, zoning and project management. He has also dealt with flood recovery in the past.
“We had flood and devastation areas down in the Morganton area when I was down there, we had [Hurricane] Florence … that hit a few of our areas, and the Catawba River flooded out,” he said. “I’ve dealt with FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] — I’m a certified flood-plain manager, so I’ve dealt with FEMA quite a bit working in different flood-prone areas, especially South Carolina.”
Stines said that the disasters he has dealt with so far have different in scope from the devastation from Helene. With a lot of experience in project management, he is looking forward to working with town council and staff and getting the town going forward.
“I know the area,” said Stines. “And I’ve had the privilege to work on some big projects in other areas. I’ll bring that experience to Spruce Pine.”
“Not being naïve, this is obviously a much different animal, what we’re dealing with here,” he said. “This will take a lot longer in recovery — it was more or less a super storm, that doesn’t happen frequently, so I would say not many people could walk in with the experience that it’s going to take [upfront], but … I’m up for the task.”