Cleveland, NC Has Some BIG Expenditures Coming up - Town Board 8-9-2021

 

 

Town board members unanimously approved getting started on sewer and water projects that have been on the table for months at the monthly board meeting for August 2021. 

 

Board member Gerald Osborne has been the lead in looking at current needs and building a multiyear plan for the future. 

Doug Chapman of McGill Associates was at the meeting to discuss the overall project which includes repairs/improvements as well as major upgrades. The major rehab, he said, would be cost effective (versus starting from scratch in a new location) and based on the old Brevard St. Station which was built 39 years ago. There would be a riser and new pumps added where the current pumps are located and a second chlorine contact basin. A new splitter box would allow the town to close off a basin and work on the extra one as needed. 

Chapman said that the town needs to look at and consider capacities at this point. For example, Daimler (used to be Freightliner) has a capacity listing, but they are not going at capacity. If they needed to increase sewer, then that would put more on our town sewer station. The same goes for the needs of the town with more houses and businesses, capacity could go up. 

But . . . we don't really have any way to check capacity at the moment. We have to guess how much sewer and water we will have or need. So, Chapman suggested that we needed to GPS the area to see what is going on and track the usage for more accurate projections. 

All this falls under infrastructure, so this may be a good time for the town to be reaching the point where we have to address these issues. Federal money is being earmarked for infrastructure, and it is likely that Cleveland would qualify for some of those funds. Chapman said that he thought that we fell in the range to get $150,000 for water and $150,000 for sewer with taxpayers matching at 15% or just 15 cents on the actual dollar of cost. 

The cost of coordinating the project and checking about the grants would be in the 200K range per Pat Phifer, mayor and would involve more than one year. The overall project could "easily be eight to ten million" according to Chapman, although there are no firm numbers at this stage. 

Decorative Street Lamps to Cost Over $100,000 More

Phifer noted during the final meeting "new or unfinished business" reports that Duke Energy or Pike Electric (both were mentioned) had been in touch to say that the cost of boring/trenching for the decorative lights in town would be $141,000. Trenching is where they dig for the power lines through the driveways and parking lots. The company also had given notice that they were not landscapers, so they would just be making the trench cuts. 

Osborne asked how much had already been spent on the decorative light project, and the total was $117,000. Board members expressed surprise about the extra costs, but Phifer said that the contract stated that the trenching would be extra. 

Phifer said that the board could either pay the $144K additional or vote not to do the project after all. No vote was taken, so the discussion will continue next month.

Other Charges/Bills Approved

 

A final charge of $9500 was approved on the walking trails which makes the total to refurbish the trail less than $30K. Initial estimates were in the 200K range, but that was to remove the old trail and put in brand new. The higher estimates also involved taking the trail up and down with a hill to the left side of the park, but the new plan has the trail shifted to be on top of the hill. The new trail will be eight feet wide as compared to the original at four feet wide. 

 

Power washing at $1048 was approved for the shelters at the town park. This would include the physical structures, bathrooms, picnic tables, and cement foundations. Some of the items will be power washed and some soft washed depending on the materials. 

Board members voted to pay $1500 to take down and remove the big, old dead tree on Cemetery Street. The tree is on the corner lot of land owned by the town. It was apparently struck by lightning in the recent storms, and the tree is now dangerous. 

 

The town approved spending $500 for National Night Out which is an event so that town members can meet board members, police officers, and firefighters. The money will be spent on flying discs with logos and hot dogs plus fixings. This event will take place on August 28th prior to Dancing on Depot. 

 

Pay for the pretreatment coordinator position was raised to $40/hour per the board and retroactive to August 1. Current pay is $25/hour. The position is part-time with flexible hours as needed. Commissioner Richard Taylor said that the current pay was quite low for the services and that the town would have a hard time getting anyone to stay on at the lower rate. 

The board approved paying Miller Davis an additional $437 per year to host the town web site. Phifer said that he thought that paying for a year was a good idea so that they (Miller Davis) could deal with any web problems. Phifer also said that he thought that the town should continue to pay the three year current contracted web host $83 per year, so they would be on board after the year with Miller Davis is up. 

Police Stats for Last Month

Commissioner Travis Summitt provided information about police activities for the previous month:

57 calls

32 stops

8 citations

27 warnings

3 warrants

1 arrest

Summitt said that the new police vehicles are in and are being outfitted with the items needed by the police department. It should be about a month before they are ready. 

Changes were requested for parking a police vehicle outside the town by 30 miles (standard operating procedures) and for increasing purchase orders from $100 to $500. Purchase order amounts apply to all town employees and not just to the police department. Phifer said that the five board members could not hardly eat at McDonalds for $100 and that he based his numbers on the cost of a tire. Osborne said he wanted to know "where this thing starts and ends." Money spent with purchase orders must be on the line item budget and not for random, whim purchases. 

 

Barn Quilt Tour

 

Phifer said that he had reviewed the town barn quilt trail which is a walking tour of the town with stops to see barn quilts and was "not happy." He said that the trail needed to include more town landmarks like the town hall and the old school near the park. He said he thought churches should be on it.  

Little Green Library

The little green library which is the smallest library in the state was discussed this evening. Phifer asked if anyone had been checking out books. The answer to that was "no," but the building has been locked for a year due to Covid. Phifer said that the town needed to contact Rowan Public Library to see what to do about the books and then decide what to do with the building which he said was used as a skateboard ramp.