Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Salisbury’s chronic vampiring of its county neighbors is well-noted in the county. Many are angry at Salisbury’s attempts to leach off the county to pay for the city’s ill-advised Master Plan where only a select in-group of bankers, architects, and construction outfits profit. Many in the county’s municipalities are disgusted with Salisbury bullying them with water and sewer threats and secretly guzzling money from various county towns’ water and sewer funds. Maybe it’s time for the state to intercede? Turning the crumbling Rowan Salisbury Utilities over to the County may just add to the county expenses. It said that to get the gutted Rowan-Salisbury Utilities up to snuff may cost somewhere in the vicinity of 20 Million dollars. Would the county even want this liability?
The county commissioners wisely snubbed the over-priced Taj Mahal at 329 S. Main last year. Salisbury’s chance to enrich itself off the county’s back was strongly resisted by most of our county commissioners who recognize the great expense of building on 329 S. Main’s infill and the city’s tradition of costly construction overruns. The county commissioners are disinterested in Salisbury’s “build it and they will come” Master Plan that includes the resurrection of the Empire Hotel and plans for a much unneeded Convention Center. Now the county faces Salisbury’s gift horse at 500 N. Main. Will the school system jack the county up for properties and a building likely cost at least 10 million or more after overruns?
And who can forget the legally sanctioned plunder of unincorporated county neighborhoods when forcible annexation was still legal? Used and abused by Salisbury, many in the county recognize that some in Salisbury contemptuously regard them as ignorant rednecks. Salisbury’s actions over the last 5 years speak loudly. No wonder deep divisions exist between the county and Salisbury. Nobody enjoys being used, abused, and looked down upon. The city needs to repair their rift with the county. Wiser heads are required to run Salisbury. The ones in charge now have turned Salisbury into the 300th ranked city/town in North Carolina with bragging rights for being the poorest, crime ridden, and poorly educated in the state.
Many people in the county are not blind to the repeated attempts to make their county commissioners “look bad” so special interests in Salisbury can bleed the county. These manipulative ploys, generated by special interests in Salisbury, do not go unnoticed.
Here are some previous related Rowan Free Press articles on Salisbury’s bullying and leaching off their county neighbors:
http://rowanfreepress.com/2013/06/19/let-my-people-go-the-forcibly-annexed-in-salisbury-want-out/
http://rowanfreepress.com/2013/04/22/empiregate-the-hard-sell-of-the-south-main-central-office/
http://rowanfreepress.com/2013/06/05/county-200-bully-salisbury-0-the-power-shifts-to-the-county/
http://rowanfreepress.com/2013/01/10/searchlight-on-kickbacks-and-bribery-in-local-government/
