West Rowan News, Events, and Fun

    Tonight (Wednesday 5-25-2022) was the follow up special called Cleveland, NC town board meeting to complete talks about the upcoming budget.  After rather lengthy deliberations, the board agreed to a three percent increase to water and to sewer and a two percent increase to property taxes with a public hearing set for on June 13. The public hearing would allow citizens to ask questions or to present arguments for or against the proposals.  As a personal observation, I would note that the mayor and board members all seemed invested in doing what is best for the town, although opinions on how to meet objectives varied. I include this personal comment, because it is difficult to capture the "flavor" of a meeting with words which don't always reflect tone, non-verbals etc.  Water/Sewer It is important for residents to know that water and sewer must be self sustaining. In other words, the town is legally required to charge what it costs to provide the services. R...

 Cleveland, NC town board met tonight 5-9-2022 for the May monthly meeting. Mayor Pat Phifer and Commissioner John Bradford were not in attendance. Mayor Pro Tem Travis Summitt presided tonight.  Police Chief Jon Jessop noted that the police department will have a fundraiser on May 31 from 11-2 at the IGA complex. Money raised will help Officer Critz; his wife has been diagnosed with cancer.  Summitt said that the town now had two bids for the tractor. The bids were close, within $300 one from another. But, James River included the Quick Attach front end which works with our current add ons. Board members voted unanimously to go with James River.   Town clerks/officers Kelly Rodgers and Rebekah Brown proposed to discontinue cleaning services at town hall. The price for cleaning was going up to $600 per month, and the town hall employees said that they were willing to do the cleaning when they had extra time. Board members voted to give this a try when the contra...

  Cleveland, NC town board met tonight 4-21-2022 for a special called meeting to discuss budgeting for the coming year. Mayor Pat Phifer, commissioners (Gerald Osborne, Danny Gabriel, Travis Summitt, Richard Taylor, John Bradford), town clerk Kelly Rodgers, finance officer Rebekah Brown, police chief Jon Jessop, and maintenance supervisor Jody Bare were in attendance.  Before discussing budgeting, the board voted to pay a contractor for work in the town park of $2860 or $1680 more than the original estimate for the work. The job was estimated at and approved at $3500 but ran over with a final total of $5180.  Work at the park ended up costing more due to stain needing to be painted on by hand rather than being sprayed on. This increased labor costs.  Since more stain was used, the cost of supplies also increased. The first buckets of stain at Little Shaver's ran $45 per bucket. Prices went up to $75 per bucket on an additional order.  The contractor picked up su...

  Cleveland town commissioners met tonight (Monday 4-11-2022) at 6 pm for the monthly town board meeting. All board members were present as well as both town clerks/officers, the police chief, and four town residents.  The board approved a proclamation to honor Ruth Wood of Cleveland who turns 103 years old on May 13. Wood was born in 1919.  Residents Tommy and Velma Knox were present to see if town commissioners had checked about the light removed from the end of their driveway. They were at the last town board meeting and had not heard back. Mayor Pat Phifer and commissioner Travis Summitt had checked the location. Phifer asked commissioner John Bradford if he had checked the location, but he had not.  When the new decorative lights were installed, the street light at the end of the Knox driveway was removed, leaving the entrance/exit to their property with low visibility. Phifer said that the standard now in Cleveland is that decorative lights will go along all si...

    Town board of Cleveland, North Carolina met today Friday 3-25-2022 at 3:30 p.m. for a special called meeting. No one was present other than board members, the town clerk, and this writer from West Rowan News, Events, & Fun. The meeting started at 3:37 and lasted less than 40 minutes. Items on the agenda included four expenditures which required town board votes. Two were approved unanimously, and two will be held over. The first item up for vote was $5000 for a line item to the budget for Miller/Davis which is a PR firm out of Salisbury. The company built the town web site to replace the existing one. The $5000 was added to cover training and maintenance. Maintenance would include adding items to the web site or making changes.  Last February, the board voted to pay $7800 for set up of the web site and $4664 for maintenance at the monthly town board meeting.  The second item on the agenda was the electronic/digital town board sign which will replace the exist...

  Cleveland, NC town board met tonight 3-14-2022 with things more like our old "normal." Commissioners were back at their desk, citizens were in rows with no spacing, and no one wore masks after many, long months of Covid precautions.  The town welcomed new hire Financial Officer Rebekah Brown who started at the last meeting as an observer. She joins Kelly Rodgers at Town Hall. Brown grew up in the area as did Rodgers. In other employee business, John Ritchie's contract was extended at full-time through June 30 due to medical concerns in the wastewater treatment department. After June, he will shift to part-time status per the last town board meeting.  The town voted for a new contractor for chemicals at the wastewater plant. The change results in a savings of $5237 per year per Commissioner Gerald Osborne who said that commissioners should be looking at annual cost savings in all areas.  The mowing contract for the town was approved for this year. The town voted to ...

The town of Cleveland, NC will be adding sidewalks on Main Street from School St. down to where Cline's Oil operated across from Freighliner (Dahlemer). Some residents have been wanting sidewalks on the main road for years. Tonight the board voted to install those for $38,000. The portion of Main St. with sidewalks added will also be in the next round of lights added. The plan is to have decorative light poles in any portion of Cleveland with sidewalks.  The vote on sidewalks came near the end of the meeting during the Other New and Unfinished Business portion of the agenda. In addition, Mayor Pat Phifer shared the names of the bands scheduled for Dancing on Depot. They are as follows: April 2022 - Divided by  Four (out of Salisbury) May 2022 - 7 Roads June 2022 - Catalinas (out of Union Grove) July 2022 - Red Dirt Revival August 2022 - a mountain group or maybe gospel   September 2022 - Mother Trucker The cost for the first three bands is $6900, so the board voted ...