"Ok Davidson" is new information resource in town

Facebook pages related to Davidson town issues seem to be all the rage these days.  We've seen pages both for and against the Narrow Passage project recently.  This past week saw the Paradise Lost page explode on the scene opposing the town's proposed Catlyst Project.

Now comes "Ok Davidson".

The page describes itself this way...

"Whether you live in the Town of Davidson, NC or just love it, Ok Davidson is a page dedicated to staying on top of what’s going on in and around our town.

Ask a question. Answer a question. Ask for a recommendation and give one. Give a heads up about a local event. Find out what’s being built behind the gas station on Griffith. (I still don’t know.)

DavidsonNews.net is sorely missed. Until a new local site comes along to give us the news, let’s do it ourselves."

"Ok Davidson" did answer one question right off the bat for me.

What in the world is that free standing wall next to the new building under construction at Davidson College on Davidson-Concord Road?

Apparently, it is just a sample of what the building is going to look like when completed.  Daily curiosity solved!

While we'd like to think aShortChronicle fills a small bit of the void left by the departure of DNN, we realize it's likely not everyone's cup of tea.  Glad to see more hyper-local news sources jumping in to help fill the blanks.

The Small Town Politics Water Ballet

Someone once described small town southern politics like this to me…

“It is like water ballet - serene on the surface with a lot of frantic churning down below.”

Nothing brings out this type of action more than land use questions, and Davidson has recently seen multiple acts in this never ending dance unfold at the same time.

The just completed fight over the proposed Narrow Passage neighborhood in Davidson’s rural area was one of the more brutal examples in recent memory – that's saying something for a town that is no stranger to planning and land use related controversies.  As public as it was, this story also saw aggressive behind the scenes action.

In addition to multiple letters to the editor in local publications and passionate speeches at public hearings, those who opposed this project also engaged in a scorched earth campaign that may have ultimately backfired.  Rumors were spread in what can best be described as a good old fashioned whisper campaign against those involved in the project as well as some commissioners.  More than one of those emails landed in my inbox.

In the end, those who wanted "no" to be the answer lost this one in part because of their own tactics.  Reasonable compromise won the day and resulted in a unanimous vote by Davidson’s commissioners to approve the town’s first “conservation neighborhood.”

Another act in the political ballet that is “land planing” in Davidson also seems of have wrapped up in recent weeks.   This one was even less public outside of some coverage in this column.  However, it involved multiple developers, home owners associations, and even attorneys.  There were dozens of emails, meetings, and a good bit of swirl around potential conflicts of interest.

Readers may remember a piece several weeks ago that asked question “Is there a River Run Phase Six?”.  Well, the answer to that question now appears to be a resounding “no”..

For almost 11 months, the River Run Country Club has been pursuing the possibility of carving off some of its golf course property and converting it into single family lots.  If successful, sale of these lots would have brought in several hundred thousand dollars to the club.  But, there was a catch – or two.

The proposed lots were on land designated as golf course and at least partially impacted by floodplain ordinances.  As one would  expect, neighbors and others were concerned not just on an environmental basis, but also on the precedent it would set for converting land from one use to another without following the correct process.  Additionally, this one had the interesting aspect of involvement by the Town Attorney, Rick Kline, on both sides of the issue between the club where he’s a founding member and the town where he’s been town attorney for 39 years.

In the end, it appears the town landed where it should have when this idea was originally proposed.  According to town planning staff, in order for these lots to be sold, the original planning documents for the River Run development will need to be amended – something that requires approval by the Town Board.  The town's Board of Adjustment will also need to approve any building in the flood plane.

Both are long-shot prospects, and as a result, the sales signs on the lots came down.

These two examples of land planning decision making are opposite sides of the same coin.

In the first, town residents were forced to fight tooth and nail to get town hall approval for something that will very likely prove to ultimately be very good for the town.  In the second, homeowners struggled against something the town should have stopped right from the start for the very reasons they took nearly a year to arrive at.

In both cases, citizens were forced to fight a battle of attrition over many months to get the right answer from town hall.

Maybe the metaphor at the beginning was wrong.  Southern politics isn't always like water ballet.  It’s sometimes more like water polo where you have to claw and scratch until the very end.

This post originally appeared in the Herald Weekly at HuntersvilleHerald.com

A new season, a new volunteer opportunity...

This column spends a lot of time looking at ways to improve our local government, and sometimes that can come off as being a bit “negative”.  So, periodically it's nice to talk about the good things people are doing in the community.  This last week saw two emails land in the inbox that are excellent reminders of that.  

A few short months ago during Christmas week, this column told you about the Room In The Inn (RITI) program run by Urban Ministries in Charlotte where local church congregations and other organizations provide a warm place to sleep for our homeless neighbors during the winter months.  In Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson 15 different congregations participate.

As of March 31st, this year’s RITI program has come to an end, so I wanted to pass along an update and some numbers.

Over the course of the 2014/2015 Winter, RITI provided almost the exact same number of bed nights, as it did last year – just over 17,000.   The number of families needing shelter and the total number of children actually increased slightly this winter.  The overall number of organizations participating stayed exactly the same at 135.

The good news here is that because of this program and the thousands of volunteers who helped make it a success, that was 17,000 nights people were spared from the cold.

Please keep this effort in mind next year is you are looking for a worthwhile cause that can make a real difference.

While the RITI effort was winding down, the other effort I’ll mention is just getting ramped up.  

It is an opportunity where people can really get into the weeds – pun intended – while helping others.  That opportunity would be the annual start of the Davidson Community Garden on Potts Street in Davidson behind the Wells Fargo drive through.

The garden is on land donated by Davidson College with its unofficial kickoff each year being a work day as part of the annual “Great Day of Service” put on by Davidson United Methodist Church.  This year that was on March 14th.

Five years ago, the initial garden was build during the DUMC event, and it has been added to every year.

The second summer saw the garden double in size.  For the third summer, the garden set the goal of donating a full ton of food to the Loaves and Fishes food pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center.  That goal was met and has been repeated annually since then. After three summers of watering using a 300 foot hose and crossing the railroad tracks, a fundraiser brought in more than enough money needed to install a permanent water supply going into season number four.  

Along the way the garden has brought together people from all across the community.  On any given Saturday, you will see residents from neighborhoods all across town.  Families, students from the college, seniors and young children can all be seen working together.

There are a number of groups that participate regularly such as different Scout Troops and classes from the Community School of Davidson.  There is also one group that likely never sees the fruits of their labor – local inmates.  Many of the plants that are grown in the garden get their start in the greenhouse of the North Mecklenburg Jail in Charlotte as part of a work training program.

The whole operation is coordinated by Connie and Eddie Beach of Davidson.  For their efforts, they were honored last November with the town’s annual “Jack Burney Award” for community service.

So, if you are interested in learning how potatoes are harvested, stop by in early June.  You may get to see what a hundred pounds of potatoes coming out of the ground looks like.  Or, if you've ever wondered where that odd looking southern staple, okra, comes from, then check out the tall bushy plants that seem to be growing just fine in the blistering heat of July and August.  The okra plant is from Africa, and it takes off when most other things start to wither.

Unlike most “community gardens” there are no fees or individual plots.  The Davidson Community Garden donates the bulk of the produce to the Loaves and Fishes food pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center.  It’s truly a garden for the community.

However, even though you won't have your own personal plot at this garden, there is a good side benefit to volunteering.  After a good morning’s work, you might just get to take home one of those juicy tomatoes.

Garden volunteers meet Saturday mornings at about 10am through the fall.

VillageMatters.org Looks to Influence the Conversation

This blog, aShortChronicle, was started as an attempt to influence the conversation on local politics here in Davidson.  The goal was to give a voice to the more conservative point of view on local issues in a town where that was sorely lacking.  Over the past couple of years I think we've successfully done that. 

A few examples...

• The debate over 4-year staggered terms came and went without the town instituting that change.  Keeping the status quo in this case was a victory for voters and has helped keep elected officials accountable by ensuring they face those voters on a more regular basis in a meaningful way.  Information provided here definitely influenced how that debate turned out.
• The constant and running theme of "transparency" pushed at aShortChronicle regularly nudges and prods our town officials to do the right thing when it comes to open government  For instance, the recent discussion of conflicts of interests and Commissioner Jenest being recused from a vote regarding CHS probably would not have happened (at least not to the degree it did) if the subject was not raised in these pages.
• The issues of taxes and spending are regularly covered here.  As a wealthy town it would be easy to say "well, we can all afford to pay a little more".  However, when taxing and spending other people's money, it is absolutely required in my opinion to constantly ask the question "does this expenditure meet the needs of the vast majority of the public and is it absolutely required?"  That's a question that should be asked every single budget cycle.  We are glad that it now appears to be.

In a relatively brief period of time we've shown that a difference can be made if you speak up, and with that we want to bring to your attention to VillageMatters.org.

Former Commissioner Connie Wessner and Professor Ann Fox from Davidson College have started a new blog and Twitter effort to give a more liberal and progressive voice to the blogosphere discussion here in Davidson.  That effort is VillageMatters.org.  Readers should check it out.

Former Commissioner Wessner was the strongest supporter on the previous Board for a unilateral change to term lengths without putting it to a voter referendum.  She's also been a strong proponent of Davidson's high property tax rates.  If the below tweets from last Tuesday's Board work session are any indication, my guess is their effort will be pushing back on at least some of the discussions we'll be raising here at aShortChronicle. 

Check out the #villagematters hashtag for the entire feed.  This is just a selection.

 

How this discussion progresses will be fun to watch.



 

More Donations and Volunteers for the Davidson Community Garden

Good things keep happening for the Davidson Community Garden.

 

This past week Seasons at the Lake held it's grand opening at its new store just around the corner from the garden.  As part of the festivities the store offered to donate 20% of proceeds from all ornament sales during the event to the DCG effort.  As a sign that the garden has truly become a recognizable and integral part of the Village area, this donation truly came out of the blue.  When asked how it was decided to make this gift, owner Gary Skaggs simply said that he sees the garden every day when driving by and had noticed the regular groups of volunteers on Saturdays.  He thought this donation would be a nice way to contribute.

 

For the record...IT IS!!!

 

...and the volunteers kept coming this weekend. 

 

While the regular volunteer meetings officially ended November 16th, it was great to see a large group of Davidson College students out this past Saturday helping get the garden in shape for winter.  Members of the Alpha Phi Alpha service fraternity and several other students showed up to help get garden beds mulched and turned. 

 

Come springtime, these efforts will have the beds ready to produce again!!!