West Rowan News, Events, and Fun

The Rowan County Commission monthly meeting tonight 2-17-2020 was a very quick meeting - lasting only ten minutes from start to finish. Chairman Jim Greene opened the meeting, and Chaplain Michael Taylor said an opening prayer. Greene noted that the prayer was for "solemnity" and that the prayer was said "for us and not for you." He was referencing some of the political upheaval surrounding prayers at local governmental meetings in previous years and the shift from board members rotating saying opening prayers to having a member of the religious community on board to do so. Before moving to business issues Greene noted that the overhead screen was new as was the projector. The old screen had fallen and was damaged beyond repair. The new system was good. Images were clear. Taxes and expenditures were the key items on the agenda. Commissioner Leslie Hedrick showed a number of graphs showing financial data. She noted that tax collection was "better than e

Cleveland, NC town board members voted last night to send a request to the zoning committee for beer and food trucks within town limits. Current zoning laws in Cleveland disallow the sale of alcohol at restaurants and also for having food trucks in for events. As Mayor Patrick Phifer pointed out, the old ice cream trucks with the loud, clanging bells that senior members of the community may recall were not legal. Of course, things were much different years ago. Linda Dillard, on behalf of Frankie's (new Cleveland chicken restaurant), asked the board to go over the process for getting the sale of beer in town. She noted that patrons of Frankie's would like to have a Michelob with chicken. She said that food sales would remain the bulk of sales and that the restaurant planned to limit beers to "one or two." This may sound odd to people outside the area, but another restaurant in the zip code area does have a policy of not more than two beers per patron which has