During the public comment section, several different residents voiced their displeasure at what they considered the board’s reluctance to revisit saving the bridge.
“I looked at the information the town has collected and I found no feasibility study, no market research and saw no documentation of efforts to save the bridge,” Elkin resident Dan Whelan said. “I saw no evidence of looking for venture capitalist or private investors. You say there is no money in the Elkin/Jonesvilles budget to save the bridge, but have these sources been examined?
“In appendix 10 of the information you provided, there were 34 ways to do economic planning, none of which included saving the bridge,” said Whelan, who works with the effort to restore Elkin’s Reeves Theater.
“Five years ago it may have been a good idea for the bridge to come down, but in 2008, there was no reconsideration of how the demolition would adversely affect the town. I would like to ask that you (the board of commissioners), contact DOT (North Carolina Department of Transportation), and ask for a delay to allow for research to be done and possible funding, through grants and other sources, be found to pay for the bridge.”
Mayor Lestine Hutchens informed the audience of the date of opening bids.
“The bids open tomorrow, (Tuesday),” Hutchens said. “We don’t own the bridge. The state does.”
Whelan then told the board of commissioners that he and several other residents had spoken to representatives of DOT who said they would be willing to listen if someone from the town “would give us a call.”
“If they heard from the town or an organized group of citizens they would be open to listening,” Whelan said. “If you would ask for a delay and let us, a group of citizens, do a feasibility study, there may be a way to find funding. There is no option or way to save the bridge in your packet.”
Other residents took advantage of the open public forum portion of the meeting to express their thoughts and opinions on the bridge.
“My name is Lori Dyer and I’m here with two other generations of my family,” Dyer said. “The bridge can be repaired. My husband, Shawn, talked with state officials, professors about the bridge. Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true.
“My next point is that as a community we need to know who owns the land and where the new four-lane bridge is proposed for.”
Hutchens explained that the proposed plan for the bridge back in 2005 was to “go up Gwyn Avenue with a four-lane highway and tear everything down in its path.”
Dyer then spoke of repairing the bridge for vehicular and foot traffic that would not include heavy trucks and tractor-trailer trucks.
“It doesn’t have to be for big trucks,” Dyer said. “What we really need in Elkin is people with a vision for the future and not ones so concerned for the tax base. The way we used to come into Elkin allowed us to see beautiful houses, a church and green lawns. Now, we come in the back way, the ‘ugly’ side of Elkin.
“We have two empty shopping centers because our leaders concentrate on downtown and people don’t come to Elkin because of a super Wal-Mart. I would be willing to start a citizens group, even go to Raleigh and I will fight for visions for the future in Elkin.”
Other residents spoke during the public forum offering comments such as “I don’t see where it would hurt the town in the least to request a delay with DOT,” while others spoke of being previous business owners downtown and the damage that had already been done with the demolition of the old depot and the old fuel and ice building.
“Before I closed my shop in downtown, I was standing outside with one of my sales representatives when a woman and her daughter walked up and asked where was historic downtown Elkin,” Carolyn Dickson said. “Elkin was a little mill town. I’ve been here since 1970 and since then we’ve lost several shops and the depot is gone. The Hugh Chatham bridge is the only beautiful historic edifice left. An old Joni Mitchell song said ‘when you pave paradise with a parking lot, you can’t get it back’.”
“When DOT said the little bridge at the library was unsafe and took down, they put up an ugly little bridge that takes us into the most historic part of Elkin,” she said. “We could do something to save this bridge.”
Johnny Jones offered his opinion on the bridge also.
“I would like for the bridge to remain,” Jones said. “Chatham blankets made this place, why not find a place under or on the bridge for a museum. I’m sure that Chatham has photos or some things of what started this place. The old depot would have made a fine visitors place or a restaurant, but it’s already lost to demolition.
“We used to have a fine saw mill for pulp wood. There are so many things we can look back in time and see. If you don’t have something to bring people into Elkin, they won’t come. We have a big train business now, and we have to often wait on them to drive across the tracks, but if the bridge was repaired we could walk or drive over the tracks.”
The board of commissioners made no further comment on the bridge at the end of the public forum.
Other issues brought before the board
Dan Park, ABC board chairman, presented the board with information concerning the annual payment to the board made in June each year.
“We’re grossing more money than ever, but netting much lower,” Park said. “Because of the excise tax the state implemented last year, we’re having to move into our reserves. The ABC board is an entity of the state of North Carolina, but it likely won’t be here in two to three years because of the move to privatize the business. If that happens, the town won’t get the funding from us it has in the past. Our annual amount usually ranges from $60 to $75,000.
“We looked into opening a store in more of a metro location in Elkin after Lloyd (Payne, Elkin’s town manager), asked us to, and we can’t afford the $1 million it would take to do that. We can’t get anyone to talk about anything but cash.
“The town board elects the ABC board and we have the full responsibility and liability to run the store. We act as a corporate body. We have good board members and very good employees who have always been loyal and faithful. We haven’t had five complaints in over 30 years.”
Tuesday, June 8, the House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee passed HB 1717, Modernization of the State ABC System. The bill now moves on to the House State Government/State Personnel Committee. HB 1717 increases ethics requirements for local ABC board members and allows the State ABC Commission to establish performance standards for ABC boards.
The Yadkin Valley Craft Guild requested additional funds of $4,500 from the board budgeted in the 2009 - 2010 budget and presented information showing they had the matching funds required for the allotment.
Aaron Blackwelder, YVCG’s president told the board of a gift of a plugger machine from a private citizen that would require additional electrical wiring.
“With the addition of this new equipment, we truly have a guild to be proud of,” Blackwelder said. “We had a meeting with Dr. George Sappenfield, of Surry Community college and we have an assigned classroom in the new Elkin Center that we will be dedicated toward Fiberarts.”
Annual Budget
The 2010 - 2011 fiscal year budget was presented to the board for approval by Payne. Commissioners received individual copies of the final proposed budget to look over on June 1. A public copy for inspection was available on June 2.
Hutchens told the commissioners that there had been one phone call in opposition to the minimum water bill. There were no questions from the audience concerning the budget. The budget was approved unanimously.
In other business, Planning Director, George Crater presented presented the board with revisions to the minimum housing code that will include a designated inspection officer being able to determine is a house is safe for occupancy. The board adopted the revisions.
Elkin’s Finance Director John Holcomb presented the board with end of the year budget amendments for 2009 - 2010 which were approved.
Crater also presented the board with amendments to the sign ordinance which include the display of political signs.
“The ordinance will now apply to all political sign-age, including primary and run-off signs as well as general election signs,” Crater said. “Signs must be removed within the time frame of the ordinance and must be placed within the right-of-way.”
Special Events Ordinance
Monroe Wagoner, Elkin Police chief and Adam McComb, Parks and Recreation director presented the board with additional information on the proposed special events ordinance. At the board of commissioner’s last meeting, requests were made of Wagoner, McComb and town staff to revisit the requirements for liability insurance coverage for individual event holders.
“In talking with the insurance companies, an individual policy for someone wishing to hold an event could range from $200 - $400, depending on whether or not an alcohol rider is purchased,” Wagoner said. “This could be prohibitive for small organizations. In looking at the increasing the town’s coverage to cover events, last year the town increased its coverage to $2 million at a cost of $8 - $9,000. The would not have any effect on what we’re doing here and won’t protect the town. Our liability covers us a town events and normal routine activities, not special events.”
Wagoner continued to explain that an alcohol rider could only be purchased along with a liability policy, not as a stand alone policy for events wishing to serve or sell alcohol.
Payne expressed that a lot of the groups use the chamber (of commerce) policy and rider and that this would impact a lot of the smaller groups.
“It’s somewhat constraining monetarily, but if we bear the brunt, we bear the impact,” Payne said. “There is no requirement for blanket coverage for events held on public property, if they’re required to name us as second on the policy, we wouldn’t have all the liability.”
Commissioner J.L. Lowe and Joe Walker spoke of their concerns for both the liability for the town, and the concerns over requiring the insurance being prohibitive for smaller groups such as the Jaycees, VFW, and others to hold their events in Elkin.
Payne then explained to the board that something needed to be in place with guidelines so that every time an event wanted to be held, the host would not have to come before the board for prior approval. He continued with the need for an ordinance in case of an accident or incident where the town could be held liable.
After continued discussion, the board of commissioners requested that the matter be tabled until July and requested that town staff look at further alternatives.
In closing statements, Hutchens thanked the commissioners, finance director and town manager for their hours of work toward the 2010 - 2011 budget.
“I want to thank the board,” Hutchens said. “This was an unusual year with John (Holcomb) working on the budget and then Lloyd (Payne) when he returned from Iraq. I want to thank John for his 16 months of service to the town in both capacities as interim town manager and finance director and thank Lloyd for his 16 months of service to the country, and all the board members for the long nights working on this budget.
“I think everyone for coming out with their concerns about the bridge,” she said. “If you look at the pictures, I don’t see anyway to do it (repair the bridge). We can make the river a downtown place to be, full of the revolutionary war stuff and can make a the area more popular than its ever been.”
“I’d like to compliment Lloyd, John and the staff,” Walker said. “Thank them for the budget and the great job they did,”
Lowe added his thanks also.
“I want to thank John for the great job he did preparing the budget and having access to everything we needed,” Lowe said.
During board comments, Terry Kennedy said he would like to hear additional suggestions on what should be done with the special event policy prior to the July meeting where he hoped an ordinance could be passed.
The town board of commissioners hold their regular board meetings at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month.
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