Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ I’m frequently asked by persons living in Salisbury whether they should leave Salisbury or remain. This is a difficult question to answer and one that any Salisbury homeowner needs to explore. The answer is best left up to individual decision. Currently its very difficult to unload a house and if you succeed, you will do so at a loss.
Over the coming weeks and months homeowners in Salisbury will awaken to the very large crisis in the city of Salisbury, N.C. The Rowan Free Press has been reporting on the strong likelihood of this crisis for over a year now. Mainly we’ve focused upon:
• The Fibrant Debacle and the immense debt it incurred. Fibrant’s preposterous claims of turning the corner.
• The disappearance of basic and very important city services such as a lack of police officers and firemen, city properties not being maintained, numerous city employees wrongfully terminated, and major challenges with needed street repair.
• Glaring signs of corruption in several city departments. Yesterday we reported the city of Salisbury’s auditing company Martin & Starnes is performing an SAS 99 fraud audit. The Rowan Free Press made this suggestion years ago when we noted the mystifying evaporation of Fibrant’s 33 million dollar certificates of participation during a ten month rollout.
• 28% soaring poverty. Likely to rise as more middle and upper class persons sell their homes and move to higher ground elsewhere. A large number of homes are currently for sale all over Salisbury.
• Poorly performing schools within Salisbury’s boundaries according the state education READY Report (See the composite scores for Salisbury schools).
• Salisbury’s FBI crime statistics for violent and property crime in Salisbury are abysmal. Already this year murders and shootings are on the uptick in Salisbury. The West End remains on the short end of the stick. The Salisbury Police simply don’t have the manpower to patrol the entire city. The criminals here are taking notice.
http://rowanfreepress.com/salisbury-nc-statistics/
• The glaring cover-up of the “mutual termination” of the former city manager Doug Paris, his enormous severance package, and the sudden “resignation” of Elaney Hasselmann and her large severance package. A severance deal completely out-of-line for a non contract employee. City Council had some major explaining to do and claimed they didn’t know what happened. City employees and FOIA inquiries tell us otherwise.
City council needs to step up and make known what happened. Do the right thing.
As for our critics their credibility is rapidly ebbing as more and more Rowan Free Press reports are being verified by Salisbury’s current reality.
Salisbury will be going through an extremely dark passage for years to come. Living here will not be easy.
