West Rowan News, Events, and Fun

The town board of Cleveland, NC met tonight Mon 8-8-2022. All board members were present except for Commissioner Danny Gabriel.  Members of town board approved a new alternate to the town zoning board, John Brown, who was the only applicant. Brown is the son of Jim Brown who is currently on the zoning board.  Peacock Mural on Depot St. The board voted to spend $2496 for a wall mural on the old Moore Store building on Depot St which is owned by Commissioner Richard Taylor. The contracted artist is Jenny M. Booe who is the niece of Gabriel. The proposed sketches were of peacock wings. Mayor Pat Phifer said that angel wing murals have been popular destination stops for photos recently with a geocache web app. He said that a group dressed in tuxes with a horse trailer had stopped to get photos at Leo's barbershop Coca-Cola mural recently. Leo's mural is on the national app.  Phifer said that he hoped to have multiple murals. He has plans for a hot air balloon for the Mason bu...

Cleveland, NC town board had a special called meeting today Thursday 7-21-2022 at the town hall. All elected officials were in attendance. The meeting started with Mayor Pat Phifer saying that he would like for the town to change banks from First Horizon to F&M. F&M is a local bank with branches across the county. First Horizon is not local and has had at least three buy outs recently according to Phifer. F&M will charge some fees that First Horizon has not while F&M will pay interest on some accounts that F&M has not.  "It's probably not a nickel difference," said Phifer.  Phifer went on to say that the town needed the protection offered by F&M which is not an option with First Horizon. He explained that the town would pay "maybe $25 extra" a month for security which covered things like being hacked. Phifer said that hackers are currently using checks to get information to drain accounts and that churches are a prime target. He said that...

 Cleveland town board met tonight 7-11-2022 for the month of July. All board members and the mayor were in attendance as well as town hall employees and the police chief. A few town residents were in attendance, but no one signed up to address the board. Town May Be Getting Rid of Some Road Easements   Board members discussed eliminating easements in town. The agenda specified the easement on N. Depot St; however, mayor Pat Phifer said that several easements needed to be removed from the town map, because there is not enough land to run roads, and the town is not planning to run any roads in the areas of the easements. He mentioned a couple of other easements including one from Cemetery St to the pump station and behind the Lion's Club. The easement on N. Depot runs through the woods to the next road. There are two houses going in at the end of N. Depot and to the left. If the easement is in place, only one more house can go at the end of the road, but if the easement is elimi...

  New Construction on Depot Street - Town Will Put in Larger Water Lines   Cleveland Town Board met this afternoon Thursday 6-30-2022 for a special called meeting. All board members, the mayor, and the police chief were in attendance as well as the town clerks/officers.  The first order of business for the called meeting was to shift funds around so that the town books balance. Funds moved ranged from $49 to $106. Following a closed session, it was announced that Officer Hodge would be taking on the new position of Patrol Sergeant/Code Enforcement which was approved at the last town board meeting. He was promoted from within. Hodge's position will be assumed by Officer Insley who was part-time and will now be full-time. At the time Jon Jessop was hired as the town Police Chief, he said that he would focus on training within the department and promotion within the ranks, and he is doing so.  The other order of business was really a heads up about issues with Depot Str...

Tonight Monday 6-27-2022 was the scheduled meeting of the Cleveland, NC zoning/ZBOA board. The group meets every other month and as needed with special called meetings.  Under zoning concerns, Naga Venicata Pullarad Maddissetti was present to request a change from R15 to A1 for 10 acres of property on Kesler Rd. (Tax Map 272 Parcel 022). Per board member Jim Brown, R15 is zoned for mobile homes while A1 is agricultural.  Maddissetti was a few minutes late to the meeting, and the board was about to table the request when he arrived. Since Maddissetti did come, he was able to answer questions which were mainly about concerns with the type of farming proposed and the impact on the community with noise and odors.  Maddissetti said that he was planning to farm organically and have a "beautiful garden." He said that he had farmed in Chile and hoped to do the same here. His plan is to start with one acre of the land and build a business from there. His business plan includes gre...

Cleveland town board held a special called meeting this afternoon Tues 6-21-2022 at 4:30 pm at town hall. All commissioners were present; however, mayor Pat Phifer was not in attendance. The meeting started at 4:35 with Mayor Pro Tem Travis Summit presiding. Opening business was closed session to discuss personnel issues.Closed session lasted seven minutes, Changes were made to police department hours with the pay period to go to 84 hours and changes to holidays as written/presented (closed session). Commissioners noted that the pay period was really just a bookkeeping step. Commissioners approved creating a new position at the police department which would include enforcement of codes as part of the job duties. This has been discussed at previous meetings. Currently the town has codes but does not have a real system for enforcement. The town clerk is tasked with notifying residents if/when she is made aware of a violation, so the system is informal at the moment.  Other business i...

 The Cleveland, NC tax rate did increase as discussed in the earlier special called budget meeting . City/town taxes will now be at at $.30 per $100 valuation (and the county is currently looking at properties for increasing valuations).Water and sewer both increase as per the workshop meeting. Water/sewer rates must be set at rates that cover costs per law.  Tonight was a public hearing, but no one signed up to speak about any concerns or to offer opposing views on increases to rates.  Some fees in town were also increased.  Water tap on fees go from $850 to $900 or from $1300 to $1400 for larger 3/4 inch taps. Sewer tap goes from $1100 to $1200.  Cemetery plots go up $200 each for non-residents but remain the same for residents. Commissioner Travis Summitt said that residents pay for the cemetery upkeep with taxes, so he did not want cemetery fees to increase for those paying.  Current rates are $1200 for one plot and $1700 for two for residents. Non-resi...