GARNER – Former Garner Mayor and Alderman Joe Garner Creech passed away on May 25 at the age of 89.
The funeral service for Mr. Creech will be Friday, May 31, at 3 p.m. at the Strickland Funeral Home & Crematory chapel, located at 211 W. Third St. in Wendell. Visitation will be from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. prior to the service.
Mr. Creech served as Garner mayor for two stints—from 1969 to 1977 and from 1985 to 1989. He also served as an alderman (precursor to Town Council member) from 1965 to 1969.
“In remembering Mayor Joe G. Creech, the one thing which stands out in my mind was his vision for Garner,” says Joe Sample, who served as an alderman in the 1990s and was publisher of the now-defunct Garner News.
When Mr. Creech first became mayor in the late 1960s, the town’s population was fewer than 5,000 residents, and the Town Hall was located in an old church on Rand Mill Road in historic downtown Garner, Mr. Sample recalls. When that Town Hall burned down in April 1974, Mayor Creech successfully led a campaign—which involved a bond referendum—to build a new Town Hall and library south of U.S. 70 near Forest Hills shopping center on 7th Avenue.
Dedication of the Town Hall and Southeast Regional Library occurred in October 1975. The current Town Hall, opened in 2017, occupies this same location, while the current Southeast Regional Library is next door to it.
Garner had a few small neighborhood parks “of minimum quality,” Mr. Sample recalls, “but Mayor Creech’s vision was to create a large municipal park with ballfields and picnic areas.” The first result of his vision is what is now known as Garner Recreational Park on Garner Road.
Within a couple of years, there was an identified need for another park, and Mayor Creech led efforts to acquire South Garner Park and provide even more ballfields and family recreation areas, says Mr. Sample.
Water and sewer capacity came to be significant issues as Garner started to grow, and Mr. Creech led the way for the Town to expand its water capacity by constructing a large water line to connect Raleigh’s supply to Garner and on to Fuquay-Varina, says Mr. Sample. The Town also built a wastewater treatment facility on New Bethel Church Road that met the Town’s sewer needs for a number of years, according to Mr. Sample.
Taken together, these investments in facilities, amenities and infrastructure set the stage for Garner’s growth in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 2013, Mr. Creech participated in a delegation that made a successful bid to earn Garner its All-America City designation. During that work, he was generous in sharing his knowledge about Garner’s rich history.
Mr. Creech was a native of Johnston County. He worked for many years for NCDOT as a survey engineer and served in the National Guard for 42 years.
Mr. Creech was preceded in death by his loving wife, Phyllis Barnes Creech; his daughter, Kathy Lynn Creech, and his brothers, Bill Creech and Ashley Creech.
He is survived by his son, Joe Creech Jr.; his grandson, Stephen Creech; his granddaughter, Sarah Creech; and his sister-in-law, Nell Creech.
In lieu of flowers, as no flowers will be accepted by the family, memorial contributions are requested to be made to the White Oak Caregivers, according to Mr. Creech’s obituary.
