Nov 2020 Cleveland, NC Town Board Meeting - Lights, Locks, and Lions

 

Cleveland, NC town commissioners covered a lot of ground Monday 11-9-2020 at the monthly meeting. Several items on the agenda involved wrapping up items for the year and/or shifting funds around due to some incoming coronavirus grant money previously.  Some items will become projects for the new year - 2021.

Downtown Lights Project - Expand and Hurry  

The decorative lights project which was approved during the last monthly meeting will be moving forward, since the board voted to invest in lighting at the last meeting. Commissioner Gerald Osborne said that he thought the town should commit to the entire project and not just with lights down to the bridge. His reasoning was that with changes over time and with different board members coming and going, the full project could never come together. 

"If we're spending that much money, we need to do the whole thing," said Osborne. 

Mayer Pat Phifer said that he agreed with Osborne but that the project had to be approved and started before more money could be dedicated. He said that the plan was to move as quickly as possible and to have all the lights in soon. He said the additional lights should be easy to get going, since the original legwork has now been done.

Commissioner Travis Summit noted that the plans included adding lights to areas with sidewalks. Part of Main Street does not currently have sidewalks. Summit said that, for safety reasons, the sidewalks really need to go in if we are going to add lights. 

Speed Humps and Kids at Play Signs

Local residents had requested attention to the roads at the entrances to the Cleveland town park.People are driving in and out of the park at fast rates of speed. Tonight the board agreed to purchase the signs. There is one sign currently, and three more signs will be ordered and put up.

Speed humps will run about $1200 each, and four are needed. Commissioners decided not to vote about the speed humps yet. Phifer said that the board needed to establish criteria before putting in speed humps. He said they need to be able to say why a certain area got a speed hump. He was concerned that more requests might come in if one or two streets got speed humps.

Changing Locks at Town Hall

Per a previous discussion, board members voted to re-key the doors at town hall and to move to a key fob system. Some master keys have been floating around after changes in employees. No problems have been linked to the extra keys, but public records are stored in the town hall. 

Approved was $2110.57 for town hall lock changes. Fobs will only open the back door, so the town hall front door can't be opened in the evenings now (or not with the fobs).

Bonus Payments to Town Employees

The town board did vote to give bonuses to town employees. When the proposal went before the board, no amounts were mentioned. The vote to fund the bonuses was unanimous. 

Town Clerk, Cathy Payne, said that the total amount for employee bonuses was $7903.00 when asked for the information after the meeting.

The Board voted to pay for a catered ham lunch for town employees for Christmas. Since it was not possible to plan a party at a restaurant due to Covid (and the limited number of people who can attend at once), the food can be brought in to town hall with enough food for two plates for each employee (to equal a night off with a guest meal included). 

Enforcement of Codes

Town board members plan to rework the codes section so that there are repercussions for residents who are not in compliance with town rules like for parked cars and the condition of buildings. 

A discussion this evening dealt with enforcement. Board members decided to farm out enforcement, at least at the start. 

Osborne said that it was important to communicate well and to make sure that residents knew what is going on and why. "We need to show the benefit," he said.

A public meeting is now scheduled for Thursday of this week 11-12-2020 at 3 p.m. at town hall. Representatives from BenchMark will be there to discuss how to handle some of the codes and infractions. They (BenchMark) will likely be handling the enforcement if the town does hire that work done. 

Beer Regulations

Work on the wording of the ordinances dealing with alcohol sales in restaurants was completed by the Planning Board at the end of last week. Town Board looked the information over and scheduled a town hall meeting for December 16. Anyone with an interest in or concerns about beer/wine in Cleveland should attend the meeting to offer input. The town board will eventually be voting on the issue but not until it is open for public discussion. 

The Christmas Parade . . .

A lot of people are asking about the Cleveland, NC Christmas parade. No decision has been made yet. The Lions Club of Cleveland has been watching the news and hoping that it will be safe to have the parade. The civic club will make the decision. The town does not sponsor the parade. Some members of the town board have said that they support the parade if the Lions decide to have it, but that call is by the Lions.