News

Heltman looking forward to 'active retirement'

Melody Heltman talks with Commissioner Larry Young.

By , Published: April 23, 2012

Melody Heltman remembers getting the word out about Henderson County's attractions when she worked in a leased office seated on a folding chair. It was 1988. She was a contract employee. Her desk was a card table.

What became the county Travel and Tourism agency started out in a small house next to the Claddagh Inn. It outgrew that space, then outgrew its office in the old Chamber of Commerce Building on King Street (which started out as the town library endowed by the Carnegie family).

In 1994 the agency built the current headquarters on South Main Street, and it has expanded over the years as Henderson County tourism has increased.

"The most needed thing was 12 toilets," she said.

Heltman won't have to worry about public restrooms, cleaning them or keeping them open for throngs of visitors any longer. She retired earlier this month as executive director of the Travel and Tourism agency.

The Travel and Tourism board has embarked on a search for a replacement. In the meantime, Beth Carden, Heltman's second in command, has been appointed interim executive director.

And the family green-roofed is getting ready to add on again, this time to its outdoor stage area in the parking lot south of the building. A sheltered pavilion and permanent stage are on the drawing board.

"It will enhance the park-like setting of Main Street, and it will open up the parking lot," she said.

Hendersonville City Manager Bo Ferguson, a member of the Travel & Tourism board, praised Heltman at her lasting meeting. "This is the house she built and she's done a very good job," he said. "It's going to be a tough task building on what she built."

Although retired, Heltman has no intention of sleeping in and wasting time watching TV.

"I'm excited about being able to travel places I haven't been because I've been tied to this," she said. She plans to take classes at Clemson and Furman and area community colleges.

She looks forward to plunging her hands into the soil, too. A master gardener, she will work on the 13-acre piece of land adjoining DuPont State Forest that she and husband Bob own.

"I'm going to be getting into active retirement," she said.