Cleveland NC Town Board Meeting Dec 2022 - Work on Water Tower and Park Trails

 

Cleveland, NC town board met tonight 12-12-2022. The mayor and all commissioners were present.

Town Audit

Eddie Currick was on hand tonight to go over the town audit. He said that the town books look fine and that the new financial officer Rebekah Brown has done a good job.

The auditor noted that our numbers this year are a bit different from previous years. The big difference is that the town was minus $388,000 for the year. The town had been saving to do projects, and commissioners had, in fact, set aside quite a bit more money than actually spent. Of course, the board does plan to continue with street lighting and signs for this upcoming year, so the surplus will likely be spent with the next phase of decorative lights.

Some of the budget did go to new police vehicles (and outfitting the vehicles), but most of the money spent for 2022 was for the streetlights.

Water Tower Refurbishment Begins

Commissioner Gerald Osborne said that the town water tower is out of service as of Wednesday with no serious issues, so repair work and painting can begin in the next week or so. 

The tower will be out of service for approximately 120 days.

Town Park Trails

Commissioners voted unanimously to pay Barnes Asphalt $21,000 to mill the asphalt at the town park.

The asphalt was saved from a road paving job in Cleveland a couple of years back. The broken road pieces were taken to the town park and piled in the parking lot with plans to repurpose the debris to repair the walking trail around the park.

The town hired Barnes Asphalt to crush the debris at the park and spread it on the trail.

“This is not the result we wanted,” said Commissioner Richard Taylor. He explained that he had envisioned a walkway that would be suitable for wheelchairs or baby strollers but that the walkway now  is too rough to even walk on.

Taylor said that the company contracted had made contact and told him: “We need to talk, and ya’ll aren’t going to like it.”

A company representative explained that the asphalt needed to be milled. Also, the park debris would make a good base, but a two-inch layer of asphalt needed to go over the top of the base.

The cost to do the extra work would be $21,000.

Osborne said, “Sounds like we don’t have a choice.”

The board voted to pay to have the debris milled and to cover the debris base.

The walking trail at the library also needs to be redone. The town was supposed to keep the weeds out of the trail, and the trail is now overgrown, so it has to be redone too.

Land Development

Scott Shelton from the Rowan EDC (Economic Development Committee) attended the board meeting. He said that the Brown property is being evaluated (environmental and historical). He said it was important to take these steps so that land could be sold and developed. One company will be visiting in January with an interest in developing the land to build an auto component plant.

Commissioners asked questions about the old Celanese property on Statesville Blvd/70. Shelton said that are were currently four businesses renting including Eastern Wholesale Fencing, a crypto currency company, a small manufacturer, and one storage space. That leaves about 650 square feet that can still be rented.

Water/Ice and Postage Machine for Town Hall

The board tabled the discussion about renting/buying a water machine. More research is required to decide whether it would be best to buy a water/ice combo machine or to get separate machines.

Ice is needed for sewer plant samples daily and also for various events hosted by/at town hall and the police department. The fire department is willing to share ice, but it is not always convenient to drive to get ice. Also, the fire station is not always open to get ice.

Board members considered the purchase of a postage machine that would stamp envelopes. Currently, a town employee spends about 1.5 hours per month (or 18 hours yearly)  to hand stamp town mail, mostly the water bills The machine could also be used to weigh and meter package mail for town hall and if needed by the wastewater treatment plant and the police department.

Board members decided the machine that had to be hand fed would not help reduce hours but that the automatic machine might be a consideration.

The cost for the automatic mail machine would be $440.53 quarterly or $1762.12 yearly.  

The board also looked at an EAP (employee assistance proposal) but decided to table the request and get more information.

Sewage Trash

The board voted to pay Massey Septic to haul off debris in the sewer here in town. Osborne said large items are dredged up and need to be hauled away. He said that needed to be about once per year.

Small Energy Savings with Duke Power

Duke Power is willing to evaluate the town energy usage and to pay 80% of replacement bulb costs. Board members decided to go ahead with the evaluation and see what protential savings might be.

Phifer said that putting in the new bulbs would “pay for itself in energy.”

Police Department Report

Police Chief Jon Jessop reported the following for November 2022:

42 – Calls for Service

44 – Traffic Stops

37 – Traffic Citations

15 – Traffic Warnings

5 – Warrants

2- Arrests

2 – Accidents

2 – Check Points

Jessop also noted that the town will be participating in Booze It or Lose It.

There were no incidents, accidents, or injuries at the Cleveland Christmas Parade which he said was a "win."