Cleveland, NC Has Some Big Dollar Expenditures Coming Up with Water/Sewer

 

Tonight 5-10-2021 marked the monthly town board meeting for Cleveland, NC. The meeting was open to the public with masks and social distancing (with two non-town-employees in attendance). Zoom attendance was also available, and all board members had microphones. 

The biggest issues dealt with water/sewer which Commissioner Gerald Osborne has said would need to be addressed soon. He has been working with a twenty plus year timeline in mind so that money invested now will have public services working for years to come. 

Osborn requested that $101,500 be spent for engineering which is needed to lay out upgrades for water/sewer in town. Town board members Travis Summitt, Richard Taylor, and John Bradford voted yes to the proposal along with Osborne. 

Cleveland has had violations at the WWTP (water waste treatment plant) for the last six months with chloroform levels off. This was due to the bypass valve not being closed all the way. To remedy this situation now, the town plans to bypass the valve, buy a pump, and perform services at 5 a.m. This is a temporary fix, but the pump will be used for the long term goals. 

The board discussed adding another employee to maintenance with an anticipated starting date of July. 

Also, there was a water leak behind IGA which resulted in a water bill of $3,126 for a single month. The town had agreed to waive that, and Summitt asked that a second month be "forgiven." He explained that, "some of that was our fault" due to a previous employee. All board members voted to forgive the bill for two months versus one month. 

Will Residents Have to Pay for Not Recycling?  

The board approved the continuation of garbage collection and recycling with Benfield Sanitation. Summitt did ask if the recycling actually gets recycled. Town Clerk Kathy Payne said that the town gets a tonnage report on recycling. Osborne asked if the town should begin charging residents extra who do not recycle. He said that the town invested in the curbside containers and that maybe half the cans were used. 

Letter from Town on R15

Mayor Patrick Phifer said that the town would send a letter to the state objecting to R15 zoned property being under state jurisdiction. He said that if the change was approved that property values would go down. He noted that "a man could put a pig farm next to . . ." 

He thought that we would see more gated communities if the new zoning through the state was put in place.  

"The good neighbor rule does not exist any more," Phifer said. 

Extra Funds for Police Salaries

Summit asked for $5900 for part-time police officer salary payments. He explained that the full-time force members had banked a lot of vacation time. They took most of those earned hours last month, so the town had to spend more money for police protection. This passed with "yes" from all commissioners.

Roll Out of Town Board Web Site

Phifer said that May 22 will be the roll out day for the town web site, and other groups in town will have special events. 

Police Update (by Summit)

53 service calls

70 traffic stops

37 traffic tickets

35 traffic warning tickets

1 warrant

2 arrests


What is chloroform (in the water)?

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/chloroform.pdf

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