BY NICOLE LAYTON
Staff Writer
After confirming his resignation via an email sent last week, Edenton Town Manager Corey Gooden said he changed his mind and will stay on as Edenton town manager. He made the announcement in a recent email.
He noted that the past two weeks of uncertainty caused everyone to “refocus, reflect, and reconsider everything that collectively we do to make Edenton such a special place to call home. …”
“With that said, I am pleased (& relieved) to share that after all this uncertainty — Edenton is home for me and my family & the place I choose to stay. I choose to remain here in my official capacity as ‘everyone’s’ Town Manager,” Gooden said.
In the email, he thanked council members, town employees, family, friends and community members for their support and reassurances that ” ‘we’ are going great things here. I have retracted my other offer for employment.”
“I am very proud to be the Manager to a place that can accomplish things on a person level. SO now — Let’s get ‘back’ to work,” he wrote.
Gooden initially announced his resignation on Nov. 15, 2024, and sent out a second email last week reconfirming that resignation.
Edenton Town Council met in emergency session Sunday, Nov. 17, a few days after Gooden sent the initial email announcing his resignation.
According to anonymous sources, Nov. 17 meeting was held to discuss a pay increase for Gooden. The raise was to come from public and private sources.
According to town records, Gooden’s annual contract for 2024 includes an annual salary of $124,440.
Nov. 25, 2024, Edenton Town Council meeting
Edenton Town Council will meet in committees at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, in Council chambers. The agenda includes a special meeting to approve a Memorandum of Understanding with Destination Downtown Edenton, a memorial bench request for the waterfront park and Harbortown’s lease agreement for 500 S. Broad St., Edenton.
Among the items being discussed during the committee meeting include hiring WolfeStein Group as a lobbyist to represent the town in the state budget process for 2025-2026, reviewing of the police department’s salaries, and discussing several agreements involving Mainstreet Edenton and the Northeastern Regional Airport.
Prior to the meeting — at 5:30 p.m. — there will be a special joint session between Council and the Chowan County Commissioners to discuss a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Confederate Monument.
