West Rowan News, Events, and Fun

  Cleveland, NC town board met tonight Mon 11-14-2022. All members of the board were present except for John Bradford. Three town employees were in attendance. Three town residents were at the meeting. Hours of town hall will be 8-5 Mon-Fri starting Jan 1, 2023. The current hours are 8:30 to 4:30. Also, there will not be a lunch hour closure in the middle of the day. This will increase town clerk/finance officers’ hours by 5 per week each. Water/Sewer Water tower rehab (discussed in previous meetings) will start soon with a cost of $242,000 which includes also having the town logo on the sides of the tank. The initial cost of the water tank was $275,000 which gives some insight into inflation. Commissioner Gerald Osborne said that there was a sewer blockage on east Main this month. Equipment purchased by the town recently was used to clear and clean. Osborne said the money had been well spent and checking and taking care of any sewer issues would be ongoing. Per Osborne...

    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 wor...

  Carlton Killian - Running for Rowan County Sheriff 2022   Candidate for Rowan County sheriff, Carlton Killian, was at the RPL west branch meet and greet in Cleveland today Saturday 10-8-2022. Carlton has thirty-five years in law enforcement including at the local, state, and federal levels. He said he had not planned to run for sheriff, but the “Lord spoke to me.” When the Lord speaks, Carlton listens, so he has been out on the campaign trail across Rowan County. “I don’t have anything to lose,” said Carlton. “I’m retired.’ And, he said this makes it easier for him to do what is best for the community.   Other candidates have avoided discussions about mental health or have gone on the record saying that mental health is not a priority, but Carlton says that he thinks mental health is not only important but critical. This includes for inmates but also for officers. “Respect has diminished,” said Carlton. “There is not much empathy for the badge.” He said th...