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Commissioner Grant B. Cheek: An Exceptional Conflict of Interest

I’ve been pondering the subject of this post for several weeks now, trying to wrap my head around it and digging for the facts. Sadly, some of what I’ve sought has been difficult or impossible to find, as will be explained shortly.

Sometime in February or March of 2016, Morganne Kirkman resigned from her position as Clerk of the Town of Ramseur. Around the same time, Commissioner Gary Hoover also submitted his resignation from the Board of Commissioners.

Bobbie Hatley was promoted to the Town Clerk position, leaving a vacancy in the municipal office. Commissioner Grant Cheek, who was elected in November of 2016, soon began volunteering in the office, assisting with water billing and payments.

The minutes of a pre-agenda meeting held March 7, 2016, contain the following entry: “Discussion was held on compensation for Grant Cheek for time worked in office to assist Bobbie Hatley while awaiting Clerk position being filled. Options for Grant were presented to the Board. Attorney Wilhoit was asked and he made point of population under 5,000 there are exemptions. Contract or temp position for Grant were discussed and Wilhoit advised that Grant should get together a proposal to present to the Board for the next Board meeting.” Continue reading “Commissioner Grant B. Cheek: An Exceptional Conflict of Interest”

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Where’s Commissioner Cheek?

On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, just before 5 pm, Bobbie Hatley sent the following email to all commissioners, the mayor, and counsellor Wilhoit.

“Attached are 2 proposals presented for the unit replacement at the Wastewater Treatment Plant approved during budget. Grant is going with Charlie’s Tin Shop which is the lower bid and the monies are available per budget. If you need a refresher, it was under items presented by Suez for approval.”

The bids were for air conditioning units for the office and an “ice box room” at the wastewater treatment plant on Roundleaf Road; one from Charlie’s Tin Shop ($5100) and one from Gardiner Heating & Air ($5400). Both bids are linked in the underlined text in the paragraph above for your convenience. Please take a moment to compare them. Continue reading “Where’s Commissioner Cheek?”

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Phoneman Vs. The Witch Hunters

The Town of Ramseur has been pursuing a zoning violation case against Tim Matthews for several months now. Tim owns several properties downtown, but he is probably best known for his Phoneman business. Mr. Matthews has owned the building in question for over six years.

Shortly after purchasing the property, located at the corner of Main and Carter Streets downtown, Mr. Matthews hired local artist Reggie Robbins to paint a large silhouette on the side of his building.  Since then Tim has added several other signs and paintings to the wall. Over the years Tim Matthews also purchased several sign permits from the Town of Ramseur in order to comply with local laws and ordinances. In short, Tim Matthews has jumped through every hoop placed in front of him by our local government, every time he’s been asked to do so. Continue reading “Phoneman Vs. The Witch Hunters”

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Mayor Shaw, It’s Time For You To Go

Mayor Danny Shaw seems to have a problem; he can’t keep his stories straight. If this were a new development perhaps it could be attributed to age or senility, but by all accounts this behavior has been going on for years.

For example, in comments the mayor made at the end of the Board of Commissioners meeting last Monday, March 4, 2019, Mr. Shaw made several contradictory statements. He began by stating his opinion that “we’d all be better off,” if Facebook, this website, and pretty much the entire Internet didn’t exist. Welcome to the Information Age, Mr. Shaw. None of this is going away, and our world is better for it. Continue reading “Mayor Shaw, It’s Time For You To Go”