RFP Staff

♦ Downtown Salisbury Inc. claims to have a buyer for the decrepit queen of the South Main Badlands: the Empire Hotel.  Friday DSI Inc. is calling a press conference on the 2nd floor of the Gateway Building at 204 East Innes in Salisbury.  Allegedly the buyer will be present at the event.

Prior to noon Thursday no new deed for the Empire Hotel property was registered at the Register of Deeds.

Conjecture swirls as to who the alleged buyer is.  Some believe the City of Salisbury may take DSI Inc. off the hook for the Empire and dump it on the city taxpayer’s backs.  Other conjecture considers that DSI, Inc. might unload the building on a “Judas” Developer who faces the thankless task of trying to dump off a decrepit building in dire need of over a half million dollars in abatement for toxic chemicals from a former laundry, lead dust, and mold.

Maybe they actually got someone legitimate with money enough to revamp the Empire on a high-risk venture?

The aged hotel’s interior needs to be gutted.  What is left is a shell that hasn’t had human lifeforms hunkering down its rooms since 1963 when the Empire closed its doors as a flophouse.   The costs in abatement and gutting the Empire would make most buyers and developers back off.

Demolishing the Empire and turning it into a much needed parking lot has much appeal.

THE EMPIRE HOTEL, QUEEN OF THE SOUTH MAIN BADLANDS

RFP Staff

♦ Fibrant’s pipedreams of expansion were squashed today as the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals supported North Carolina and Tennessee when it struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s ill-advised ruling that pre-empted these states regulating municipal broadband service within their borders.

The complete ruling here:

http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/16a0189p-06.pdf

RFP Staff

♦ William Herbert Cornell, 42, of the streets of Salisbury, was arrested Wednesday by the Salisbury Police for an alleged smash n’ grab breaking and entering at the Pop Shoppe at 1831 East Innes on August the 6th and for allegedly shoplifting 3 packages of pork chops from the Food Lion on 251 Faith Road on August 10th.

William Herbert Cornell:

Cornell was charged with resist/delay/obstruct a public officer (misdemeanor), breaking and entering–building (felony), larceny (misdemeanor), and felony larceny–committed pursuant to violation of GS 14-51, 54. Under a secured $18,000 bond, Cornell was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center. His first court hearing is on Friday.

The Food Lion at 251 Faith Road in Salisbury where a female shopper allegedly saw Cornell purloin 3 packages of pork chops:

The Pop Shoppe at 1831 East Innes where Cornell allegedly hurled a cement block through glass door to gain entrance and allegedly help himself to $400 worth of lottery tickets and 50 packs of Newport Cigarettes:

On Wednesday a couple allegedly witnessed Cornell shoplifting 3 packages of pork chops from the Food Lion on Faith Road and saw Cornell out in the parking lot reaching though a car window and rummaging around with his free hand. The couple called police and when they arrived they gave a description of Cornell. A short time later the Police found Cornell behind a building on 1570 E. Innes and when he was being questioned, he attempted to flee, but was soon captured and handcuffed.

After Cornell’s capture he underwent a search where an alert officer who noted a large cross tattoo on Cornell’s leg matching a tat seen on a security cam photo taken at the Pop Shoppe on East Innes. Cornell allegedly did a smash n’ grab burglary, breaking a glass in the convenience store front door to gain entry and grab $400 in lottery tickets and 50 packs of Newport cigarettes.

William Herbert Cornell’s Previous Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1242017&searchLastName=Cornell&searchFirstName=william&searchMiddleName=h&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

RFP Staff

♦ At DSI, Inc.’s and the City of Salisbury’s joint press conference Friday at the Gateway Building on East Innes, it was announced that “History Preservation Partners Holding, LLC” (HPPH), the developer of the Loray Mill in Gastonia, N.C., has agreed to buy the Empire Hotel, the Queen of the South Main Badlands. HPPH would likely develop the property into market value apartments and retail.  The agreed upon price was $880,000. HPPH is set to close on the Empire in August of 2017 and is slated to break ground in 2018. The Empire is said to be a $20 million dollar project and will take about 14 months to complete.

While the South Main Badlands will remain in its blighted condition for at least two more years, on the plus side DSI, Inc. hopefully will be taken off the hook in 2017 for paying for the decaying eyesore and Downtown’s businesses will be freed from the largest Municipal Services District tax of any municipality in North Carolina.

The Empire Hotel faces several hurdles before the HPPH can close on the property. They require positive outcomes on a market feasibility study, a financial feasibility analysis, a planning review with community input, plus a clean environmental study. These are significant hurdles.

The city of Salisbury will “possibly” enter into some kind of murky preliminary development agreement.  According to a DSI Inc. release the agreement allegedly will outline issues needed to be resolved prior to a final decision.  The agreement doesn’t commit the city government to assist in the project, but outlines issues needing to be addressed prior to any decision by City Council.

We wonder if HPPH will void its agreement to purchase if it gets a dirty phase II on the property and can’t obtain financing. We also wonder about the wisdom of adding more apartments to an area overrun with vacant apartments. People with income are moving away from Salisbury not toward it.

Here is an earlier article containing a PDF. of the dirty phase I for the Empire Hotel property.:

Is the Decaying Empire Hotel in Salisbury, N.C. Too Top Heavy with Costs to Unload? Recently Obtained FOIAs Raise Questions

**This article will be updated as more information arrives.“

RFP Staff

♦ Salisbury Police Department sources report an unidentified woman was shot in the shoulder while sitting in a kitchen at 815 W. Bank Street in Friday at around 1 a.m. with three friends including the homeowner Dwayne Coward. Just before the woman was shot, muzzle flashes could be seen through the house’s rear window and a trio of gunshots were heard. Everyone moved for cover.

The wounded woman, bleeding from the shoulder and stunned by the attack, was transported by ambulance to Novant Health Rowan Medical Center’s E.R. Her wound was said to be not life threatening.

Police believe the house was targeted for the shooting and the gunman stole quietly up to the window with bad intentions. Police so far have not revealed who might’ve been a specific target or named either a motive or suspects. No arrests were yet made.

In January 2015 a firefight broke out at 815 West Bank Street and was reported in the Rowan Free Press:

Manhunt Underway in Salisbury, N.C. After Police are Drawn into a West End Firefight Early Saturday Morning

Persons with information about this shooting are urged to call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333 or the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

**This article will be updated as soon a more information arrives.**

Steve Mensing, Editor

♦ I wanted to let all the RFP readers know about an outstanding source of news on cord cutting (ending your cable TV or satellite TV subscription for large savings and moving to IPTV devices and antennas).  For years I used cable TV and renegotiated the price when it got too out of hand or I’d used a “bump strategy” and change TV providers for a lower rate and return when I could get a deal again.  Now I’ve completely cut the cord and use an indoor antenna (a Mohu Leaf omnidirectional antenna and a cheapo RCA rabbit ears in another room), the new quadcore ROKU stick for my TVs, and Sony VUE available on most IPTV devices like ROKU, Apple TV, Play Station and others to substitute for pay TV.

Here is an outstanding resource for cord cutting: Cord Cutter News:

http://cordcuttersnews.com/

Sony VUE which offers the most TV stations, can be watched on 5 internet enabled devices, and is priced competitively:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/vue/

RFP Staff

♦ If you could rig the 2016 general election, would you? In The Sociopath Next Door, psychologist Martha Stout reveals that 4% of the population may be sociopaths of varying degrees and do not have a conscience like the rest of us. We commonly call these folks “psychopaths”, and if an election can be rigged—one of them would likely pull the trigger. Experts say that not only does rigging happen, but to win an election by rigging it takes only a few people and a smart strategy.

To understand election rigging, let’s put aside party affiliation, accept that not every candidate who wins does so by rigging, and know that some who win by rigging don’t participate in the fix or don’t even know about the fix. According to one study, some will not believe what they read due to strong political beliefs. Since the evidence and research says that fraud and rigging is well documented in both parties, and since candidates in both parties expressed that the system is rigged—let’s see how rigging is done.

Here are just a few election rigging stories you may or may not have learned in US History class:

• In the 19th Century, gangs of political bullies were known to kidnap destitute folks and get them sauced in a voter fraud scheme known historically as “cooping”. They’d dress stupefied  victims in different outfits and have them vote multiple times.  Edgar Allen Poe died in a delirium after being found wearing soiled and ill-fitting clothes that were not his own, in a gutter in the 4th ward of Baltimore during the elections. Many scholars believe Poe was a victim of cooping.
• New York City’s 19th Century Tammany Hall was infamous for rabidly rigging elections. They’d pay fixers, called “strikers”, to hand out pre-filled ballots and rake in bulk votes for Tammany’s candidates. Tammany Hall was also known for lax immigration regulations, which allowed them to lure new voters into their schemes. Their most famous vote heists took place between 1868 and 1871, when 8% more people voted than lived in the district.
• The Bill Clinton administration was accused of speeding up the naturalization for close to a million new citizens in 1996 so that they could vote in that year’s election.
• In 2000, a Florida count of ballots cast for US president was riddled with misreports, miscounting, mischief and errors. Some claim that voter purging in Florida was shown to wrongly identify thousands of individuals, mostly minorities, to a number great enough that had those votes been counted, Al Gore might have been the president rather than George W. Bush.
• Charges of high-impact electronic voting fraud has led to scrutiny on both sides of the aisle after Clint Curtis testified to being solicited and to actually creating a simple code by which an electronic vote can be flipped (or re-totaled to benefit a desired candidate).

Clint Curtis describes how he was asked to create  a code that can be used to rig electronic voting or vote-counting machines:

Since Curtis’s testimony, many scholars and technology experts have shown that a code can be created and used effectively to flip—or change—the count of machines. Such “hacks” can quickly and easily be transferred to all machines in a district.

How is Election Fraud Done?

A list of traditional election fraud would look like this for a pre-digital technology election (not all-inclusive):

1. Suppress the vote of those who would not vote in your favor. Suppression has been known to prevent some minority votes. Ways to suppress include increasing the difficulty of voting according where voting is done, of how information is communicated, or of the registration and voting process.
2. Purge votes of those who would not vote in your favor. Purging has been shown to prevent some minority votes. It can be done by mass deletions of those who have been felons, for example. Innumerable “errors” in purge lists have prevented large numbers of votes in many elections.
3. Try for large numbers of uncounted votes. Lose or “mistakenly” forget to count large numbers of votes such as absentee votes, mail-in votes, provisional, or affidavit votes.
4. Gerrymander the boundaries of districts so that the composition of the population ensures that you, or your favored candidates, will win.
5. Be a turncoat candidate. Run by allowing the majority of voters to believe your platform is what they want. Then, once you win, change your positions.
6. Intimidate Make people fear voting against your or your affiliates. Before the Civil Rights Act, this included multiple deaths of those who wanted to make voting accessible to minorities. Long lines and hours of waiting may intimidate some modern voters.
7. Accept outside financing and big money. Since the Citizens United court decision was upheld, lots of money can be funneled into campaigns. Some people believe this can cause corrupt individuals to be elected.
8. Send out robo-calls that perpetuate an untruth about your opponent or yourself.
9. Lie about yourself and your opponent. Do so in person, in print, and in your campaign literature.
10. Assassinate the opponent or the opposition. It’s been done, but it is rare to track assassination to an individual candidate—or even a political party.

An typical list of election fraud tricks possible with digital or electronic voting or vote-counting (not all-inclusive):

1. Hack online voting. Hacking is common and rarely traceable to the actor.
2. Create a code to flip the vote in your favor for electronic voting machines and infect one memory card or one update that will be downloaded. The card or update will affect enough machines that you can win.
3. Create a code to flip the vote in your favor for electronic counting machines and scanners that process paper ballots. Once the code is on one memory card (or updated to the internal modem), all machines in a district can be set to do your bidding.

This year, many voices called out that elections will be rigged. Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump’s claims of rigged primaries have in some form held up to evidence. Un-altered exit polls were known for decades to predict elections accurately with a basic rule that exit polls vary up to 2% from election reports, until widespread electronic voting and counting became rampant in 2004. Research on the primaries based on this historic data point reveals that both Sanders and Trump had valid complaints about the primaries. Here are just two examples that validate their complaints:

Figures attributed to Election Justice, USA

“Rigging” is a broad term, though. Election fraud can be high or low impact, depending upon the size of the population affected. The system as a whole can be rigged, as has been claimed by those who see the electoral vote or the use of super delegates to be rigging. Next, primaries and general elections can be rigged in what is commonly called election fraud. Voter fraud is not the same as election fraud. It’s an individual fraud. While individual voter fraud has the least impact and is considered rare, The Heritage Society’s records of individual voter fraud lists 300 cases. By far, most individual fraud on the books is done by absentee ballot. However, only a little over 30 people (out of over one billion votes) have committed legitimate voter fraud as defined by law since 2000. In any case, most election fraud is not as obvious as Tammany Hall’s gangs were.

The Digital Age Changed Things

Election fraud takes place under the cover of secret ballots in a system that was created to maintain anonymity. Until electronic voting machines and electronic paper vote scanners or counters were introduced, only those who were obvious or as outrageous as Tammany Hall’s Boss Tweed were hard to ignore. Now that the hackable, digital world is intertwined with our sacred right to vote, there is a potential for large-scale, high-impact fraud that is invisible. We don’t see hackers, code, or fraud when it is done electronically, and that makes digital or electronic election fraud insidious and dangerous.

The secret of an electronically-rigged election is to do it subtly, randomly, and flipping only a calculated and small percentage of key precincts in states that have a large percentage of electoral votes. However, it seems such a smooth operation is not yet developed because un-adjusted exit polls have consistently led to correctly called elections during the last century, and such data has been used to discover election fraud since electronic voting machines and counters became widely used. Only since electronic voting was introduced have news outlets resorted to adjusting their exit polls to better match what the electronic voting machines, scanners, and counters say is the final tally. Since the year 2004, when such machines became more widely used, dramatic discrepancies began and increased between un-adjusted exit polls and the output of the electronic voting machines and counters. Experts are calling for a pull-back on the use of these devices because they are not secure from fraud.

Clint Curtis testifies about how he was solicited to rig voting machines:

A Princeton University research team of computer scientists proves how electronic voting machines can be hacked:

Wisconsin officials test a Diebold paper vote electronic counter (scanner) made by Diebold:

Is Rowan County at Risk for Electronic Election Fraud?

Yes. But first, the good news:

Since a hack or coding event can be done at the national or local level, as demonstrated in videos above, you should know that Rowan County uses a paper voting method, which is highly recommended for voting security.

However, there are electronic machines reportedly used to count the paper ballots in Rowan County:

Now for the bad news.

Unfortunately, the Model 100 counting machines (seen left) and the AutoMark  (an electronic voting machine used for those who need physical assistance to vote, seen right) used by Rowan County are distributed by Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S). ES&S bought Diebold’s software and hardware in 2009. Diebold’s electronic voting and counting machines were proven to be hacked in multiple labs and studies, as seen above. Diebold renamed its subsidiary Premier Voting Systems and then sold it to ES&S – the maker and program supplier of Rowan County’s vote counting machines. The paper ballot counting machine used in the Rowan County vote is the ES&S Model 100, which contains an internal two-way modem that can communicate or be communicated with while they are in operation. ES&S has admitted that its machines have been known to have unreliable results. Rowan County’s voting counters and the AutoMark can be hacked from a distance or through access to the memory card or control card inserted into the machine. Multiple technology experts have posted videos and explanations of how this can be done. Experts testify that a code can be written to do this by anyone with a minimal knowledge of computer code-writing, and they have identified red flags that reveals the fraud.

What Can We Do?

Digital programs require trust that we cannot give during an election. The US in in the minority of countries who use electronic voting.

Using electronic voting or counters are as effective for voting as using a flame thrower to mow the lawn. It’s the wrong tool, even though technology has improved and will improve more and more of our lives in many ways. Slot machines have more regulation and controls than electronic voting and counting machines. Fixing our mistake of trying to use electronic voting and vote counting is as simple as taking a step back and using simple, already proven methods.

On a national level, little can or will likely to be done before the November 2016 vote, despite that multiple lawsuits are already in motion. However, in Rowan County all except votes by those who need physical assistance (who will vote on the AutoMark screens), the vote is paper. To prevent high-impact fraud, simply hand-count the vote and then audit that hand-count. That is how it was done for centuries. The time-proven trust-no-one stance, in which we apply the necessary assertiveness to have observers such as poll watchers present during all actions of a vote, and in which we use a system of paper voting with a follow-up audit will ensure anonymous and secure voting with un-rigged results as best we can. Talk to the Election Board.

The testimony of Bev. Harris on evidence she has documented on the companies that create, program, distribute and update programming before each election to the ES&S Model 100 vote-counting machines in Rowan County:

A nonpartisan collection of reports, studies, data, and statistics on this topic can be found at verifiedvoting.org and blackboxvoting.org.

Hacking Democracy, a full-length HBO documentary on this subject can be viewed online here:

Resources

• http://blackboxvoting.org/the-truth-about-exit-polls-and-vote-counts/
• http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/pdf/VoterFraudCases-Merged-3-2.pdf
• http://votingmachines.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=275
• http://www.alternet.org/media/most-depressing-discovery-about-brain-ever
• http://www.city-journal.org/html/how-steal-election-12824.html
• http://www.electoralsystemincrisis.org/
• http://http://www.idea.int/vt/vote_counting_methods.cfm
• http://ivn.us/2015/07/20/report-2014-voting-machine-tampering-likely-wisconsin-ohio-kansas/
• http://www.libertylobby.org/articles/2000/20001107vmachines.html
• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/magazine/how-much-has-citizens-united-changed-the-political-game.html
• http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/2016-elections-russia-hack-how-to-hack-an-election-in-seven-minutes-214144
• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/?no-ist
• http://www.wnd.com/2008/12/83765/
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mLpCEIGEYGYl9RZWFRcmpsZk0/view?pref=2&pli=1
• https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv16z.slides.pdf
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/take-all-prisoners/200912/your-conscience-the-sociopaths-weapon-choice
• https://www.thenation.com/article/vanishing-votes/
• https://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#year/2016/state/37/county/159
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/
• http://www.blackboxvoteing.org
• http://www.verifiedvoting.org

RFP Staff

♦ We’ve mentioned previously that Salisbury’s city council seems oblivious about what their immense competition (Spectrum, AT&T U-Verse, AT&T Gigaverse, DirecTV, and DISH) are actually doing. In this morning’s print media Councilman David Post makes a misleading assertion about TWC’s price and speed in Salisbury and Wilson. TWC prices TWC-Maxx residential the same in Salisbury and Wilson as it offers every other municipality in the Charlotte region, Raleigh Region and in all of their regions across North Carolina. TWC Maxx speeds are the same in all NC regions. TWC has not raised their speeds and lowered their prices to defeat Fibrant and Greenlight. TWC rolls out their products and prices in a modular fashion throughout the NC.

David Post wrote in Sunday’s Post: “Municipal broadband has kept its promise. It has delivered better Internet to more people, and it has caused its competitors to lower their prices. Time Warner’s prices are lower and Internet speeds are higher in both Salisbury and Wilson than anywhere else in the state.”

We see Fibrant as another Municipal Broadband fiasco hemorrhaging multi-millions of dollars annually for years and bringing immense harm to Salisbury through its massive effects on the city’s understaffed police and fire departments and shrunken city services. The results are the city is under siege from violent and property crime. Salisbury, besides having badly performing schools, suffers from a lack of safety, a lack of good paying jobs, and 27.2% of its population is under the yoke of poverty. Working class People of all races are moving away as fast as they can unload their homes. Fibrant has not drawn business here. It is time for public spirited residents still paying for Fibrant subscriptions and being backdoored through water and sewer funds, taxes, and fees, to drop out and sign on with incumbent providers. It would send a message to City Hall the experiment is over after 6 years of failure and fibbing and its time to begin the decade long climb out of being a 5th rate municipality with a dead end future.

FIBRANT

RFP Staff

♦ Dimetri Martese Strother AKA “Combat”, 19, Salisbury felon, was arrested late Sunday by Rowan County Sheriff’s Office deputies at 1165 Richard Road for the alleged statutory rape of a child.

Strother was charged with statutory rape of a child (felony). Under a secured $50,000 bond, Strother was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center. His first hearing will be Tuesday.

Dimetri Martese Strother’s Previous Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1467805&searchLastName=Strother&searchFirstName=Dimetri&searchMiddleName=m&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

**This article will be updated as more information arrives.**

RFP Staff

♦ Tamara Danielle Fisher AKA Tamara Danielle Roland, 35, of Salisbury was arrested Sunday afternoon after allegedly assaulting Justin Roger, 31, of Safrit Road in Salisbury with a deadly weapon (a vehicle) in “The River Church of God” parking lot at 121 Carolina Boulevard.  Mr. Rodger reportedly sustained no injuries. Fisher left the scene and was arrested a short time later near the intersection Gold Hill Drive and Union Heights Boulevard. No motive for the alleged assault has been provided.

The church parking lot at 121 Carolina Boulevard where the assault allegedly occurred:

Fisher was charged with assault with a deadly weapon (misdemeanor). Under a secured $2,500 bond, Fisher is being held in the Rowan County Detention Center.

Tamara Danielle Fisher:

**This article will be updated as more information arrives.**.

Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney

♦ Monday evening at the Rowan County Commission may be more “eventful” then imagined. As readers will recall the former Penny’s at West End Plaza has been used as an event center for some time now. This facility is said to have an 1100 person seating capacity and is about 65% utilized, but seldom is rented for groups. Thelma’s annual free veteran’s meal has been the event to come close.

Today the master plan has an option to turn the former Belk’s into a huge Convention Center this will be discussed and possibly even pushed through by Chairman Edds and his automatic pilot majority (Greene and Klusman.) Estimates for the convention center come in at around five million dollars (not including predictable construction overages to juice the cow, (the equivalent to a 1 cent county-wide property tax increase.)

Other than the local failed idea of “if we build it they will come” (think Fibrant and the old semi-pro ball field in North Kannapolis), I have never understood the continuous push by Edds to build this thing. What major corporate planner is going to say, “This year instead of Myrtle Beach, lets take our event to Salisbury?” The West End Plaza is around five miles away from the I-85 interstate.

There may be a method behind the madness. The drawings show a marked walkway from West End Plaza up the hill to the defunct theatre that Edds has fought to hold onto for no apparent reason. He is quoted to have said as early as a few months after he was elected that someone might build a hotel there some day.

What if, and this is mere conjecture, a certain developer is planning to build a hotel upon that theatre site? Perhaps they might have support from those that helped Edds, Klusman and Greene get elected back in 2014? Klusman and Greene openly campaigned against the mall until they were elected and suddenly were pro-mall within weeks. With Edds, it depended on what event he spoke at.

Conjecture aside, hotels are more profitable if they have an event or convention center attached or nearby. Down in South Rowan, it’s said that Pastor’s Goodair’s group is building their own hotel and event center, all with private money. Our county will be competing with him.

With, what will no doubt be one day called “The Edds Center at the West End Plaza” any potential hotel developer at the top of the hill will no doubt reap the benefits of a huge event or convention center without incurring the costs of construction, maintenance or heating and cooling. I wonder how many additional employees will be needed to care for and run this facility. A mammoth money sinkhole?
In the event this happens, it’s a bad idea. A respected official tells me that Cabarrus County’s arena and convention center runs a multi million dollar deficit each and every year. Of course, they are a wealthy county and can afford it. Building a county maintained and supported facility to directly compete with a privately funded development in Southern Rowan is not fair and not Republican.

If there is a hotel coming “at the top of the hill,” sell them the former Belk’s building and let them renovate and run it themselves. Knox Middle is still full of black mold and we need to hire one or more professional, first class, nationally ranked independent industrial recruiters to bring us a Toyota or BMW sized plant. The Edds Convention Center is a waste of money.

RFP Staff

♦ Video: County Commission Meeting at 6 P.M. on Monday, August 15th:

http://rowancountync.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=595

RFP Staff

♦ Video: Todd Paris Commenting on Greg Edds’ Proposed Convention Center at the West End Plaza:

RFP Staff

♦ Monday morning Salisbury’s rising tidal wave of crime engulfed the law office of city councilman David Post at 1411 West Innes when the Salisbury Police reported the property was a victim of larceny–all other.  The RFP hopes nothing was damaged and that no attorney-client records or Fibrant’s “magical” records were purloined by the thieves.  Perhaps the thieves may have looked at an old phone book and wrongly believed drugs were on the property because “Med Express” was once camped here.

1411 West Innes Street in Salisbury:

We hope whatever was stolen will be returned to Councilman Post and the criminals are brought to justice.

Councilman David Post:

Persons who know anything about this larceny are urged to call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333 or the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

**This article will be updated as soon a more information arrives.**

Rabbi Will McCubbins, China Grove

♦  With much sadness and regret Salisbury is in its final sickening death rattle while its neighbors Concord and Mooresville are booming.  Even Kannapolis passed Salisbury by.  I work in Concord many days a weeks and they have achieved true historic character and charm that slipped away from Salisbury sometime in the 80’s.  The leaders who run Concord and Mooresville know what they are doing and don’t loot the place or hand out favors to their cronies.

I know most of our friends living in the Bury left or plan to exit as soon as they can sell their homes.  Let me commend Concord and Mooresville.  Concord has miniscule crime compared to Salisbury, plenty of good-paying jobs, no municipal broadband stunting its growth or destroying their city services, the best shopping in the region (Concord Mills), a beautiful downtown that blows Salisbury’s away.  Drive to Concord and check it out.  If you go out to eat there you won’t have your car or SUV broken into or worse like in Salisbury.

Downtown Concord:

http://www.concorddowntown.com/

RFP Staff

♦ At Tuesday’s City Council meeting City Council approved a contract with Suntrust Bank to refinance Fibrant after a presentation by the city finance director Teresa Harris concerning the city’s Series 2008 and Series 2013 Certificates of Participation (COPs) employed to fund Fibrant the city’s municipal broadband network.  Harris told the new rate of the refinance proposal would be 2.o6%.  Of the 30 banks approached about refinancing only Suntrust submitted a proposal.  Not requiring debt service, Suntrust agreed to a 13-year commitment to the interest rate.

If okayed by the Local Government Commission (LGC), the refinancing would slice off $3 million dollars worth of debt service over the loan’s lifespan and would save the city somewhere in the vicinity of $400,000 yearly.

City Council approved a resolution and will ask for the LGC’s approval.  City Council stated in their resolution that the proposed refinancing contract was necessary for the city, that no tax increases will be required, and that the city is not in default of any debt service obligations.  LGC approval will also include appointing Public Financial Management, Inc. (a the financial advisor) and Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson P.A. as its special counsel.  City Council also approved the Installment Financing Contract with STI Institutional and Government, Inc. that would permit designated officials to deliver the refinancing documents.

Harris told City Council that the LGC will consider the approval of the refinancing proposal at their meeting next month in Raleigh.

Learn all about the Fibrant Debacle here:

FIBRANT

RFP Staff

♦ Rowan County, N.C.’s unsolved murders with all the known facts and photographs going back several decades. The Sheriff’s Office “Cold Case” files:

http://www.rowancountync.gov/GOVERNMENT/Departments/SheriffsOffice/ColdCases.aspx

RFP Staff

♦ Salisbury Police sources report that Chenice Jasmine N. Blackwell, 26, of Hamilton Drive was the victim of an armed robbery Tuesday at a home on the 700 block of Partee Street.  The robbery was reported at 2:57 a.m.   The gunman held a handgun on Blackwell and forced her to give up a $1,000 in cash, identification, food stamps, earrings, and a bookbag.  There were no reports of injury.

The 700 block of Partee Street where an armed robbery took place in Salisbury:

If you know anything about this robbery please call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333 or the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

**This article will be updated as soon a more information is available.**

Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney

♦ Last January Salisbury’s City Council approved $7.2 million dollars for a project to replace more than 19,000 water meters.  On Tuesday the city council okayed the city manager to approve purchase orders for $4,684,609.80 to Carolina Meter and Supply for small water meters and $535,943.40 to Consolidated Pipe and Supply Co. for large water meters for the Advance Metering Implementation Project.

Tuesday City Council voted to replace the city’s mechanical meters with electronic meters. Other than providing possible make work for Fibrant’s “shared employees”, there is a plan for this expensive madness.

Please understand this very important fact: mechanical meters “loosen up” over time and do not provide as accurate reading for the actual water used. Electronic meters, being more accurate, will no doubt increase some neighborhoods average water bill substantially.

Older neighborhoods (read poorer) with worn mechanical meters will see the largest increase in water bills (think the West End, Downtown, Country Club, and Fulton Heights) while newer neighborhoods like the Crescent will see less of an increase.

Think we’re making this up? Talk with folks in China Grove who suffered a town-wide conversion to electric meters. Information is that increases in water bills in older neighborhoods may be as much as 10% to 30% higher. Somebody’s got to pay for the Fibrant debacle. Rowan-Salisbury Utilities water has often been hailed as City Hall’s “cash cow”–now Ole Bossy’s coming back to the Barn.

Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney

♦ In August 2015 the local print media revealed that the state health standard for the carcinogen hexavalent chromium in wells near coal ash pits was .07 parts per billion and that in a 2013 voluntary test of Salisbury-Rowan Utilities municipal water, some samples were as high as .13 parts per billion. These standards were monkeyed with by members of the legislative and executive branches to favor higher concentrations to the point that one highly regarded state epidemiologist resigned, claiming that the state is misleading citizens.

N.C. Gen. Stat. 130A-309.211. (the newest revision of the Coal Ash Law) says: “Preference shall be given to permanent replacement water supplies by connection to public water supplies; provided that (i) a household may elect to receive a filtration system in lieu of a connection to public water supplies and (ii) if the Department determines that connection to a public water supply to a particular household would be cost-prohibitive, the Department shall authorize provision of a permanent replacement water supply to that household through installation of a filtration system.”

http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H630v4.pdf

Local efforts from the county commission seem to be to find a way to run SRU water to Dukeville, focusing on the economic benefits (jobs) offered by one parcel which would be “on the way to Dukeville.” Jobs are good and Commissioner Craig Pierce should be commended for trying to get “shovel-ready” industrial sites up and running in North and South Rowan. City water may well help.

However, I have some questions.

If Salisbury-Rowan Utilities’ water carries or sometimes carries more hexavalent chromium than some wells at Dukeville, how is piping city water to those houses helpful?

Since the new statute does not require Duke to run Salisbury-Rowan Utilities water to Dukeville if it is “cost prohibitive” and they may merely be required to provide filters systems, why does the general public and some officials think Duke is going to pay for any water lines?

Since the legislation evidently allows the substitution of home water filters in lieu of Salisbury-Rowan Utilities water, there must be existing filter systems that remove hexavalent chromium. Who makes these and what do they cost?

Since they apparently make filter systems that remove hexavalent chromium, why hasn’t SRU installed a big one in the treatment plant to remove this cancer causing agent from City water?

If installing a treatment plant sized filter is cost prohibitive, why isn’t SRU providing a rebate or program to pay for in-house filter systems for those who don’t wish to drink hexavalant chromium?

Why hasn’t the City of Salisbury at least told consumers what filter system to buy at their own expense if they wish to stop drinking hexavalant chromium and whether or not our refrigerator and tap filters are doing the job?

While we can drink bottled water it’s doubtful that local restaurants cook food and wash dishes in bottled water. Does boiling the water remove hexavalent chromium? Would advertising hexavalent chromium free food by properly filtered water provide a commercial advantage to establishments that spend the money?

When I studied local government at UNCC many years ago they told me the most important things that a city does is to remove human and solid waste, prevent and put out fires and make sure clean safe drinking water comes into the city. They said, everything else is optional.

Salisbury, what’s in your water?

Press release below from EWG.Org

Contact: Alex Formuzis
(202)-667-6982
alex@ewg.org

Press Release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As news about North Carolina’s governor and his administration downplaying the risks of drinking water contaminated with hexavalent chromium unfolds, two leading environmental health advocates are pushing the Obama administration to finally set a nationwide standard for the highly toxic chemical.
Erin Brockovich, a noted environmental health advocate, and EWG President Ken Cook called on the Environmental Protection Agency to stop dragging its feet and move quickly to set a tough national standard, known as a Maximum Contaminant Level, or MCL, for the ubiquitous carcinogen found in millions of Americans’ tap water.

In a joint letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Brockovich and Cook wrote:

We write with deep concern about this continued delay. It is clear that the delay is sowing confusion among state and local regulators, utilities and the public about how much hexavalent chromium is safe in drinking water. This confusion is resulting in many Americans’ exposure to unregulated levels of hexavalent chromium that federal, state and independent scientists agree pose health hazards.

The request comes as a top state health official in North Carolina resigned in protest over meddling by Gov. Pat McCrory and his staff. McCrory sought to retract “do-not-drink” warnings directed at some residents whose tap water comes from wells likely tainted by hexavalent chromium from nearby Duke Energy coal-burning facilities.

The situation in North Carolina is, in part, a result of the absence of a stringent nationwide health-protective EPA standard, argued Brockovich and Cook:

States like North Carolina, where industrial byproducts like coal ash increase the risk of hexavalent chromium contamination, need a federal mandate to set strong, health-protective standards for levels of the contaminant in drinking water. Without it, states will continue to use inconsistent and potentially unsafe guidelines, and leave citizens confused about whether their drinking water is safe.

A report issued by EWG back in December 2010 found hexavalent chromium in tap water from 31 of 35 American cities.

“It’s high time EPA put in place a stringent national standard to protect Americans from drinking water contaminated with hexavalent chromium,” said Cook in a separate statement. “A lack of a federal standard, and the ongoing delay in setting one, are confusing utilities, states and citizens about what level of hexavalent chromium in drinking water is safe. Until EPA acts, we will likely continue to see the situation happening in North Carolina unfold in other states.”