Updated: North Meck Gets New Republican Leaders, Davidson Gets $2000 Trash Bins

North Mecklenburg saw the addition of new Republican leadership in the area this week. 

Monday night, former Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte took the oath of office to become Senator Tarte as the area's Senator in the General Assembly.  As Senator, Tarte represents the new NC Senate 41 district created as part of the last round of redistricting.  For North Meck's  more conservative residents, having a Republican as the area's Senator will be a welcome departure from Democratic Senator Malcolm Graham.  With Davidson's move to NC-9 at the Congressional level, Tarte (along with Thom Tillis and Charles Jeter in the NC House) rounds out the area's solid representation by Republicans at almost all levels of Government. 

The only top elected official in the area at any level of government who is not a Republican is Davidson's Mayor, John Woods.

On Tuesday, the North Mecklenburg Republican Women (NMRW) installed their new set of leadership.  The new officers are:

President - Linda Angele

1st VP - Pat Murray  Programs

2nd VP - Vallee Bubak  Social Media & Press Contact

Treasurer - Annette Mastrogianni

Assistant Treasurer - Carole Gibbons

Corresponding Secretary - Mary Jo Lyons

Recording Secretary - Randie Long

The NMRW has become a real force in area politics, hosting regular meetings attended by elected officials of all levels and providing a tremendous amount of volunteer effort during campaign season.  As mentioned in the recent post on 2012 Mecklenburg activism the NMRW put up some impressive numbers during the past election cycle.  For example one NMRW volunteer made over 30,000 calls during this campaign season from the Republican Victory Centers. You read that right. 30,000 calls. Another knocked on 3000 doors.  That impressive door knocker was Linda Angele, the group's new president. 

 

With dedication and leadership like that, expect great things from this group in the future.

However, it's not all good news when it comes to North Meck's slow march towards more conservative government. Tempering the week's events comes news that the spending spree continues in the Town of Davidson.  At Tuesday night's Town Board meeting, a little item is scheduled to pass on the consent agenda approving a budget amendment for 11 new "duo-bins" along Main Street.

At just over $2000 a piece, they are a reminder that there is still work to do when it comes to local government.

2000 of your State and local tax dollars

UPDATE: At the April Town Board work session the Board was presented data which showed this expenditure did not have the desired impact.  Town recycling as a percentage of overall solid waste was down from 18% to 14%.  Rather than asking hard questions about why this might not be working as expected, the prevailing sentiment on the Board was that the data must somehow be wrong.