New county manager Sam Croom brings over 20 years of public service experience in auditing, budgeting, capital budgeting, project management, and tax administration to Bladen County. Croom’s work experience includes working for the North Carolina Department of Revenue, Jones County and Wayne County.
A HOMECOMING
Sam Croom is a man educated and profoundly qualified in understanding the numbers. He brings to Bladen County a reputation that preceeded him
ELIZABETHTOWN – A new chapter in Bladen County is about to be written with new hire Sam Croom as its new county manager who was officially hired Sept. 8, during the July 21 meeting, where the board voted unanimously to offer Croom the position.
Croom has served as Pitt County’s Deputy County Manager/Chief Financial Officer since July 2022, and before that, as Pitt County’s Assistant County Manager responsible for revenue and growth/Tax Administrator.
Additionally, Croom brings over 20 years of public service experience in auditing, budgeting, capital budgeting, project management, and tax administration to Bladen County. Croom’s work experience includes working for the North Carolina Department of Revenue, Jones County, and Wayne County.
Croom earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from East Carolina University, a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from North Carolina Wesleyan College, a Master of Science in Accounting from Liberty University, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Also, Croom holds certificates for completing the UNC School of Government’s Municipal and County Administration course and the National Association of Counties’ High Performance Leadership Academy.
“My mother was from this area,” Croom said. “She was born in a little place called Freeman and her family is from the Kelly area.”
Croom also had family that lived in the Clarkton area.
“Most of my summers were coming to visit them at their home,” he said. “I also remember coming to Elizabethtown when 701 was a two-lane road and that old metal bridge. Whenever we’d go to Clarkton, of course we all knew that (then Lt. Gov) Jimmy Greene lived there. I can remember the old country stores of my childhood… and especially Jones Department Store. I also remember going to the old carnivals that were set up behind the Clarkton Fire Department.”
Croom who spent many summers enjoying the beauty of Bladen County was pleasantly surprised when the job for Bladen County Manager came available. It’s almost like a homecoming of sorts for Croom and for his wife, Janice, of 33 years.
“It didn’t come by chance,” Croom said. “I sought it out and saw the value in Bladen County and in the people. I came here wondering what I could do to make a difference with the experience of my history. I want to collaborate with the board of commissioners, the county staff, community leaders and to help improve upon all the good things that are already here in Bladen County.”
Crooms said he looked at the potential job in Bladen County and immediately thought about all the great memories he still has to this day. Taking the job, Crooms indicated he wasn’t done making memories in the county.
He graduated from South Lenoir High School and remembers his younger years playing on the football team and working in the tobacco fields of a family farm. He feels that he developed a work ethic from his experiences and his love for education from his father who was a principal and science teacher.
That combination of a good education, a strong work ethic and a history of success wherever he’s been made him very attractive to Bladen County.
After high school Crooms enlisted in the National Guard before heading to begin his career-long educational journey, starting at Lenoir Community College on the GI Bill. He earned his last degree during COVID.
“I graduated with my master’s degree in public education from UN-Chappel Hill in December of 2020,” he said. “We were in the height of COVID and we did not have a graduation. I did not do it for the recognition or the ceremony. I got that degree so I could better serve. It was actually my fourth degree. I do count my blessings and this is a throwback to my dad who believed in life-long learning. Also, if you have a passion about something and want to know how things work, you go to some of the best institutions that we have in North Carolina to see how things work and see if you can learn from some of the best professors in the nation. Then when you come home, you can apply that to the citizens that we serve.”
In light of the recent white-water rapids that Bladen County has recently navigated, the question to Croom was, what if anything could he add to help aid in the healing and going forth of the county.
“Life is all about relationships,” he said. “Money is temporary, different sides of issues are temporary, but relationships and people are forever. I look forward to meeting people from the town of Elizabethtown and building relationships. We can look to see what we can do to better serve our citizens. What happened in the past we can’t change which is the history. But we can change what we do today so that we can change tomorrow.”
He concluded saying that our focus must be on the outcomes and opportunities that are ahead of us and what we can partner on. What we can do together to make better the lives of our citizens.
“This will hopefully bring a spot light to Bladen County,” he said. “What can we do to showcase who Bladen County is and what we have to offer.”
In essence, this very wise man said that we need to look back only for perspective and the man of education stressed that learning will cause us to go forth with the strength we need to make tomorrow memorable rather than infamous.
Croom has boots on the ground and has been educating himself as to the jobs that are being done in Bladen County and the people who are working in those positions.
“I am spending this week getting to know department heads,” Croom said. “We have opportunities that, if we work together, we communicate and are transparent, our best opportunities are ahead of us. We are living in an area that is absolutely seeing major growth and as people travel through Bladen County, they are going to see a county that has the best beauty that God could put upon this earth. And they’re going to say, ‘Why are we living in these other counties when we can come to Bladen County?’”
He has a love for Bladen County. He has a heart to work. He has a mind to be a problem solver. He has the temperament to bring people together.
He calls it a “divine” appointment and it truly does seem that he was an answer to prayer.
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: [email protected]