By Maurice Emery
Editor Emeritus
This month’s Littleton Town meeting drew one of the largest crowds of the year.
The crowd consisted mainly of Littleton business owners showing strong support for a request for the town to adopt a resolution in support of an application to participate in the North Carolina Small Town Main Street Program 2007-2008.
Jack LaFoon of Main Street Station introduced the Main Street Program concept to the board. In his presentation LaFoon highlighted the four-point approach used in the program. The points are:
• Organization is to establish a consensus and cooperation by building partnerships among various groups that have a stake in downtown.
• Promotion is aimed at creating a positive image of the downtown in order to rekindle community pride in the downtown.
• Design allows the town to take advantage of the physical elements inherent in downtown. One of the goals is to help educate people about design and quality and to help expedite design improvements in the downtown.
• Economic restructuring will help strengthen downtown’s existing economic assets while diversifying its economic base.
LaFoon said that the program has been adopted by Weldon, Williamston, Mt. Olive, Zebulon, Spring Hook and Nashville. The town of Halifax is seriously considering the program.
Dennis Patton went on to explain to the board the support the small town program will provide. He also talked about the cost of the program.Businesses would pay about $20 per year. The businesses and or the town would have to pick up the travel cost for program specialist to travel to Littleton when needed. The only other cost would be if the town decided to do cosmetic work in town.
The goal of the organizers was to encourage the town board to adopt a resolution in support of an application to participate in the North Carolina Small Town Main Street program.
A motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously to adopt the resolution.
The mayor then gave the floor to Sylvia Alston, who was responding to the board meeting on May 22 to discuss the towns’ nuisance vehicle ordinance. At the meeting a statement was made that up until then only one person had come forward with a concern about the vehicles.
Alston was at the meeting to present the board with a petition with 144 signatures asking the town to address their concerns over nuisance vehicles, overgrown property nuisances and nuisance buildings.
In what seemed like a response to the board’s comments that the town may not be able to afford dealing with nuisance vehicles the signators of the petition feel the town should provide the funds to enforce the recommended nuisance ordinances by redirecting present funds. They do not feel the town should increase taxes to deal with the problem.
At that point the mayor read a letter from Halifax County Attorney Bill McBlief informing the board that he has filed the necessary papers seeking an injunction against the property owners of the two rundown houses on Mosby Avenue that the town has been trying to get demolished.
If the injunction is granted, the county will be able to move forward in getting the houses demolished.
Police Chief Mike Suggs then introduced a letter to the board that if approved, will be sent to property owners stating they are not in compliance with the present town ordinance on abandoned and nuisance vehicles. The mayor met with Suggs to draft the letter and fulfill the commitment the board made in the May 22 meeting.
The Mayor commented that if the town’s property owners do not cooperate with trying to enforce the ordinance the town board may have to look at changing the ordinance.
Johnny Williams, chairperson of Precinct I in Littleton, asked the town board for permission to use the town hall to register voters. There was no objection to his request providing it did not interfere with town meetings.
For the second time in as many months the mayor asked the board to be very careful with expenses this month until the town revenues improve. He commented that he expects the revenues to improve this month.
The monthly police activity report revealed that there were five accident investigations, five criminal investigations and two break-ins. The police department made 11 arrests and stopped 38 vehicles issuing 21 citations. They also made eight trips to Halifax and spent 13 hours in court.
The police department also investigated three gas drive-offs. They also assisted seven motorists.
One item in the report that was questioned was the 5,346 miles driven by the police department. After the meeting Suggs informed the Observer that the mileage may sound high but when you consider that the department now has someone on duty 24/7 the mileage is reasonable. When broken down the mileage comes out to slightly more than seven miles per hour on duty.
It was announced at the meeting that hydrants will be flushed on June 11. If the flushing causes discoloration in your water the best thing to do is to run an outside faucet until it clears.
Betty Willis reported to the board that the town will only have to pay $2,811 for a generator to be used as a back up for the lift station at the newly completed Bacon Road east end project. The total cost for the generator and installation is $21,831.00. Most of the costs are being covered from funds from various grant money the town has received.
Commissioner Al Cooke continued his efforts to get the road completed at the town cemetery. The mayor once again reminded Cooke that the town has voted on his request and turned it down for various reasons. Town attorney Gilbert Chichester has commented several times that it may be a conflict of interest for Cooke to have work done to help improve his property. When Cooke was rebuffed this time he told the board that his next step will be to call higher authorities. He indicated that he will be trying to have the towns records audited.
The board then went into executive session. After resuming the meeting from executive session it was announced that the police department will be hiring two new regular part time officers. The board has approved the hiring at $12.50 per hour.
The mayor announced that there will be a budget hearing on June 20 at 7 p.m. in the town hall.
Having no additional business the meeting was adjourned.
Writers’ correction: In previous issues of the Observer Sylvia Alstons’ name was spelled wrong the spelling in this article is correct.
|
