Cleveland Town Board Oct 22 - Cleveland to Have Porta-johns at Christmas Parade

 

 

It was a busy night at the Oct 2022 Cleveland, NC town board meeting. In addition to covering a lot of ground as far as topics, there were fourteen people at the meeting not including the nine who are on the board or work for the town (23 total attendance).

Public Comments

Cleveland resident Jeanette Rankin addressed the town board at the start of the meeting. She said that she was concerned that the town was talking about investing in the new park on School Street when nothing had been done at the Town Park for years.

 

“We’ve got all that land. Nothing there,” said Rankin. “All you’ve got is a shelter.”

She said that the children in town needed safe playground equipment and a place to play basketball.

“I’m talking about adding things,” said Rankin.

Commissioner Richard Taylor said that there are problems with getting bids on doing work at the park. Someone did rotary wash the poles on the playground equipment, but they did not want to do any more work, because the final project (refurbished playground equipment) would not look good said Taylor. The company did not want their name to be on the project if the playground was going to look shabby.

“I’m talking about adding things, said Rankin.

Taylor stated that South Rowan donated some soccer goals for the soccer field at the back end of the park.

“I’m talking about adding things,” said Rankin again.

“We’re going to do all that. We just haven’t gotten to it,” said Mayor Pat Phifer.

Rankin then shifted to decorative town lighting and said, “You said you forgot.” This was in reference to having lighting along all town sidewalks. Lights went in along Main Street west and east but not yet on School Street and in two areas in east Cleveland. Rankin was concerned about the lack of lighting at the sidewalk that runs beside the old West Rowan Junior High/YMCA (now 15 Sports) which was not included in the decorative lighting project along E. Main.

Phifer said that the town would be putting in the additional lights including the road going toward the park.

“Don’t take three years,” said Rankin. “Do that.”

Trails at the Town Parks

Later in the meeting Taylor said that he had spoken with contractors about fixing the trails at the Town Park and at Memorial Park. The park on School St was being referenced as “Memorial Park.” There had been some discussion about naming the park last month, but there was no explanation for the new park being called Memorial Park, but apparently the town board is using that name for the park now.

Taylor said that the Memorial Park walking loop could be redone for $65,560. The basketball court which he priced for repair with an expansion for pickleball could not be refurbished per the bidding contractor, so that part of the project would be $63,100. Total for Memorial Park = 129K approx..

Old blacktop from the roads in Cleveland had been saved from a couple of years ago and piled up in the parking lot of the Town Park. The cost to use the debris and fix the old walking trail would be around $260,000. But, the contractor did not have the equipment to “cook” the road waste for reuse.

Phifer said that he had an estimate to rework the Town Park trail at $12,300. He had just been handed the estimate before the meeting.

Board members voted to move forward with the low bid price and get the trail into shape, since the Town Park has been in disarray for over a year and a half.

Taylor said that the trail would not go down in the gulley where the “amphitheater” had been proposed over twenty years ago. This would mean that the walking trail would be shorter than the original plan but would not have any uphill/downhill sections.

Taylor also said that the surfaces being proposed would not work for bicycle riders or for wheelchairs.

Commissioner Gerald Osborne said that he had not heard from anyone as far as what to do with the playground equipment donated to Cleveland by Salisbury First Baptist Church. He said we need to know where to put the playground equipment and that it needed to be decided before equipment was damaged or pieces misplaced.

Boy Scout Project at the Park

Boy Scout Michael Brown attended the meeting last night along with leaders from troop 308. Brown submitted a proposal to work on the current nature trail to the left side in the wooded area along the small creek.

Brown’s plan included expanding the clearing at the creek and repairing the picnic tables and the nature trail sign. He said that he would have a fundraiser to generate his own funds to do the work in the park.

The Scout project was unanimously approved by the board.  

Historic District in Cleveland

Salisbury resident Jeanne Gray-Harman was at the meeting last night, and she brought Sarah Woodard who works for the state on historical preservation. Gray-Harman had been looking into having the white church (Cleveland Presbyterian Church) across from the Cleveland post office designated as a historical landmark. Woodard had checked, and the church would not qualify, mainly due to the church having been covered with siding at some point. Woodard did, however, say that parts of Cleveland (mainly on Main and Maple streets) could perhaps be approved as a historic district.

Woodard explained that the first step in the process would be hiring a consultant to check the historical significance of the proposed areas. Why is our area important? What is the time period of the significance? Is it a single day, a week, or other definable time period?

Woodard said that historical consultants typically cost from $5K to $50K with Cleveland likely running around the $25K mark for such services. The cost of doing the study could be offset with grant money (often matching funds for such projects) down the road. Many organizations are more likely to fund projects that have designations.

Board members did express concerns about restrictions due to historical designations, but Woodard said there would be almost no restrictions. She said that if someone wanted to paint his/her home in polka dots, that would be fine. It would be up to them. Siding and replacement windows can be added in historical districts (unlike some areas in Salisbury with other specific designations). There might be a tax benefit to some updating, but it would not be required, just an option with some possible financial benefit to residents.

Town Investments

Brandon Rogers was on hand last night as a follow up on the investment strategies that he had explained to the board last month. He said that interest rates had gone up again and were at 3.879%.

Osborne said that it was a shame that we had not been able to generate interest on town money for several years and that the plan outlined by Rogers sounded like the way to go.

Board members voted to use a rolling strategy to invest 5 million for the town of Cleveland with 1.3 million reserved and available for bills.

Commissioner Danny Gabriel did express some concerns about catastrophic occurrences like a storm wiping out the water tower which would require more than the reserved funds. Rogers said that there would not be a penalty for withdrawal. Money would just not get interest if it was not actively invested or was withdrawn. 

Board members voted unanimously to invest.  

Depot Street Issues

Taylor said that he had funds to update the front of his building on Depot St. It is the wood shop across from the Masonic Lodge. He said that he did not want to invest and begin the work with water running in front of the building like a stream during storms. Some earlier work by the town caused the rainwater to redirect and impact on his foundation and on the front of the landmark structure.

“We created the problem, so we need to fix it,” said Phifer.

The work on that end of Depot will be combined with the work on the north end which involves putting in larger water pipes related to the construction of two new houses at the end of the dead-end street.

Land Use Update

Brian Little told board members that the town land use report was overdue. The plan is supposed to be updated every five years. It has been fifteen years since the Cleveland plan has been updated.

The board approved Little, Gabriel, and Jim Brown being the committee for this project.

Police Report

Police Chief Jon Jessop said that he hoped everyone would remember Officer Martin’s family, because yesterday was one year since his death. Martin worked at the department for Cleveland.

The old Caprice police car did go up on gov.deals, and it sold for $9800. Jessop said that the car had an old Corvette motor which was popular with collectors and that he hoped our next car would sell for as much.

For the month of September, Jessop reported the following:

65 calls for service

1 warrant (with 1 arrest)

4 accidents

1 check point (at Maple and Church)

93 traffic stops

56 traffic citations

43 warnings

Other Items of Business at the Town Board Meeting

Cleveland will be paying $45,193 for EDC but will check whether our portion is based on population or on tax base.

The board approved sending $2000 as a deposit for the May Dancing on Depot event which will feature a special limited appearance by Darrell Harwood of China Grove. He played here last year and was very popular.

Taylor said that he had gotten some fire ant killer to put out near the store. A man and service dog had gotten into the ants and were bitten while walking in that area which was a big concern due to the investment in the dog.

Commissioner Travis Summit said that we did not have as much big trash this year at the pick up at the beginning of the month.

Osborne said that the Brevard St upgrade started yesterday and that a bearing had gone out just over the warranty. The company agreed not to charge for labor if we foot the cost of the bearing, since it was an early failure on the part.

The recent storm knocked out the control box at the Brevard Station wastewater treatment plant but is okay now.

Work on the water tower starts next month and will take 75 days to complete. Water will be provided by only one tower during that time (instead of the current two).

Commissioner John Bradford said that the grate in the sidewalk on Main St west had been repaired and put in, but he did not know if the mailboxes had been moved or not.

Commissioners voted unanimously to pay for Porta-johns at the Cleveland Christmas parade this year. There will be five toilets at up to $1000.

“We have to have bathrooms if we invite people to our town,” said Taylor.