West Rowan News, Events, and Fun

 Sabrina Harris and Family Candidate for Rowan County School Board 2022 Sabrina Harris, who is running for Rowan-Salisbury Schools Board of Education, was at the west branch of Rowan Public Library in Cleveland, NC this afternoon (10-8-2022). She was accompanied by her husband, her two children currently at Mt. Ulla Elementary and West Middle, and her mother. Having her family along at the event fits right in with Sabrina’s goal of getting a “buy in from the whole family” when it comes to local education. Sabrina said that teachers need support. They need everyone to get involved. She said that it can be as simple as getting grandparents and aunties to come out to see the gingerbread houses the kids made for a class project. She has done that and also served as an assistant dance coach at North Rowan Middle School, on the parent advisory board for Head Start, and as a volunteer to read to classes. If elected, Sabrina said that her key focus areas would be: -security -comm...

  Cleveland town commissioners met tonight 9-12-2022 for the monthly town board meeting. All commissioners were present, The mayor was at the beach.   Brent Parks (who previously worked on audits for the town) and Brandon Rogers were at the town board meeting to discuss investing town funds. They said that there is a "window of opportunity" right now to invest in government bills and notes for higher interest rates. The government has been raising interest rates to stop or slow down inflation, so people (and towns) with extra money can invest now and take advantage of those higher rates per Parks and Rogers.  Parks/Rogers said the current government interest rate is 3.37% with it changing every 90 days. They estimated that Cleveland could greatly increase interest with a ladder strategy with funds rolling over in a staggered manner for a year and get an estimated 2.75% return for staying invested for two years. Investing in this way for only one year would not be as ...

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...