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“Today is a day of hope,” Major General (ret.) Kurt Ryan said at a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday that kicked off construction of Beaufort County Community College’s (Beaufort CCC) satellite location in Aurora. 

“Today hope prevails in Aurora, North Carolina and in Richland Township. Today, we turn ground and break ground on this great future educational facility for our people. Our citizens remain hopeful for more development and more opportunity on the south side of the Pamlico River,” Ryan continued to say. 

Beaufort CCC’s new location will be the first major development in Aurora in the last two decades, Ryan said. 

The 5,000-square-foot satellite location will be known as the Rev. Dr. Robert B. Cayton Regional Center. It will offer GED and English Language Acquisition classes and operate as a training facility for Nutrien and its contractors.  

“This project represents our commitment to equitable access,” Dr.  Dave Loope, president of Beaufort CCC, said in a statement from the college. “Transportation and childcare can be major barriers to education, especially in rural areas. This new center brings learning and opportunity directly to the people of Aurora and Richland Township.” 

Once constructed, the center will be located at 319 S. 5th Street and will be part of the Aurora Industrial Park and near Nutrien’s phosphate mine. The center will provide “convenient, customized training for the company’s employees and its contractor network. In addition to technical training, the center will host programs aimed at improving adult education levels in the region,” the college shared.  

Nutrien donated $100,000 for training equipment. “We’re happy to be part of this project. This is a partnership we cherish,” said Ray McKeithan, senior manager of government, industry and public affairs for Nutrien. 

Funding for the center was awarded by the North Carolina General Assembly in the form of a $2.5 million State Capital and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) Directed Grant. In total, the project costs $3 million and is expected to be completed by April of 2026.

Representative Keith Kidwell helped secure funding from the General Assembly. He was “immediately very interested” in the project when Aurora Mayor Clif Williams shared his vision for the project. “Because there’s been so many negative things that have happened in Aurora over the last several years…I felt this would be a project that would bring the community back together, bring education into Aurora and really be a feeder to make things happen in Aurora.” 

On June 3, Aurora residents received devastating news that the only school in their town, S.W. Snowden Elementary (a K-8 school) would close permanently. In mid-April, the only bank in Aurora closed. Aurora has been without a healthcare facility and grocery store for several years.

(Agape Health Services is currently renovating a building that will provide limited health services to the Aurora and Richland Township communities. Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina plans to open a community market this year with fresh and healthy food options as an alternative to a full-service grocery store.)

Williams expressed his appreciation for the people and organizations that stuck with the project despite rising costs of construction. Williams said construction has tripled in the last 13 years – from the time an idea to build an industrial park was discussed. 

“It’s been a long, hard process,” Williams told the audience. “We’ve been through tough times; costs have gone up. But the people that came to dance with us, stuck with us – commerce, Golden LEAF Foundation. They kept stepping up…but commerce stayed involved with us. Nobody backed down. I’m truly honored to know that there’s people like this in the world. They took Aurora on as a project and here we are.” 

Golden LEAF Foundation gave the industrial park project a $200,000 grant in 2019, then in 2023, gave a $500,000 grant to continue work on the industrial park’s infrastructure needs, Executive Vice President Ted Lord said on Thursday. 

Williams, like Ryan, is hopeful that the regional center and the industrial park will help Aurora grow in the future. 

The late Rev. Dr. Robert B. Cayton grew up in the Richland Township area. He was a member of the community college’s Board of Trustees for 27 years and served as chairman on two separate occasions.