First Candidate out of the gate for Davidson Commissioner is newcomer Sam Weaver

So, Davidson finally has its first candidate for the Board of Commissioners race this November.

aShortChronicle has been periodically asking the incumbents if any of them plan to run for reelection, and so far none have taken the opportunity to commit one way or the other.  Today however, the race officially started with political newcomer Sammy Weaver announcing his candidacy on Facebook Tuesday morning.

Announcement begins below.

Hello, my fellow Davidson Citizens! Thank you for this warm welcome. I am very happy to be here with so many new friends! I am here today to announce my intention to seek one the nominations for Commissioner of the Town of Davidson. Over the next few months, I will challenge myself, go out into public, speak and introduce myself to as many Davidson residents as possible. I will listen and more importantly, pay attention. And for the ones who have been more vocal than others, I HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR!!! All I ask from you is to continue to be LOUD and maybe, maybe someone will hear. I know I will. I am here to serve the community and ONLY the community.  

I wanted to be brief but here are things that I am and are NOT. 

I am a Husband,
I am a Father,
I am a Veteran,
I am a Millennial, 
I am a Davidson Resident. 

I am NOT a politician,
I am NOT a developer,
I am NOT a lawyer,
I am NOT a builder,
I am NOT corruptible. 

My Slogan - “Roots Not Roads” 

This slogan is very important to me; it isn’t about anti-development or against growth. It is about establishing roots within our community, our home the Town of Davidson, and slow but important growth (similar to an Oak Tree) that benefits the community as a whole and not my self-interests (Roads, High Density Development, Compromising values, etc.). 
startled Stay Tuned for more information “On the Issues” and how we will address them together.  

Vote for Sam “Dream” Weaver (Just Like the Song)
“Roots Not Roads” 


Official filing begins on July 7th at noon.

More details on this evening's Davidson Town Hall "Ethics" protest

Organizers with the Save Davidson Facebook page have sent out the following press release.

Save Davidson  

(formerly Save West Davidson’s Tree Canopy)

Media Alert: Citizens Plan Protest for Tuesday, June 13, 2017

“Save Davidson March for Ethics”

WHO: Davidson citizens are planning to protest, calling it “Save Davidson March for Ethics,” to continue voicing their objections to the town commissioners ignoring a 1985 signed agreement to make the Beaty Property a park.

WHAT: Citizens’ primary concern is that the town board will vote on June 13 to move forward to develop Beaty Street Property. Citizens view this as a violation of an agreement the town made in 1985 with Mrs. Venie Clontz. In a new development, it has come to light that a private entity donated property to the Town when the Hobbs Hill neighborhood was developed. According to an e-mail from the private entity to the mayor and town manager dated April 19, 2017, these parcels were donated as a condition of the Hobbs Hill I & II Subdivision approval by the town. The parcels were required to be given to the Town as 1) a buffer against future development along this portion of Beaty Street and 2) to interconnect to a future park within the adjacent pond site. Considering two different entities provided land for park and buffer purposes, is it ethical for the town to now develop those properties?

WHEN: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 13, 2017. This is the evening that the town board meets.

WHERE: Davidson Town Hall, 216 South Main Street, Davidson, NC

WHY: It’s a violation of trust if the Board chooses to proceed with this development process now that it is aware that it directly conflicts with the agreement with the seller 32 years ago. The Town owns the land, not developers. A Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation commissioner cautions about the loss of town-owned land to development considering projections for growth in the region. After numerous documents have come to light (we can provide these to media) citizens are concerned the town is not keeping its word. Added to that is concern about adversely affecting water and air quality, traffic flow and overall quality of life, particularly considering a major development just north on Highway 115.

UPDATE: Davidson Town Hall sent out an updated agenda this morning just before 10am that did not include a vote on the Beaty Street Property.  A previous agenda as of 3pm yesterday still had tjis included indicating something possiy happened in the overnight hours to cause this to change. While this is seen as a step in the right direction by activists, per the Save Davidson group this has no impact on the planned march.

Save Davidson Ethics March on Tuesday

As Davidson electeds sit down Tuesday for a meeting full of critical long range decisions, they will be greeted by a good old fashioned protest.  Recent meetings have been packed with opponents of various plans, but protesters on the picket line is definitely a rarity.

Volunteers with the Save Davidson Facebook group have been hard at work getting the word out over this past weekend with the "magnet mobile" pictured above parked on Main Street most of the past three days and a flyer handout across town.

As these local activists have gotten more and more involved in local issues, particularly around the Beaty Street RFP, they have noticed many of the same things aShortChronicle has over the years.  (Staff working more in line with developer interests than what the townspeople want; conflicts of interest whether they meet the true legal definition or just common sense perception; spending priorities and their consequences that treat taxpayers money like the town's personal piggy bank.)

On Tuesday, all of that will result in a march on Town Hall.

Bonus Observatiin:  Commissioners will be making these critical long-term decisions and at this point, none of them have officially announced whether or not they plan to seek re-election.  That means they could be making these decisions as "lame ducks" who won't have to face the voters.  Filing is in mid-July.

As Chief Miller retires, will Davidson Commissioners support DPD camera request?

Tuesday's agenda at Davidson Town Hall is packed with controversial topics, but it will begin and end on something the Board should absolutely be able to agree on - the leadership and support of the Davidson Police Department

Starting off the meeting, the Board will recognize long-time police chief Jeanne Miller.  Miller is retiring this month.  She has done an great job over the years leading the department, and she will be sorely missed both around Town Hall and, on a personal note, around the Bradford neighborhood.  Yours truly has been neighbors with the Chief since moving to town and my family and I are sad to see this day finally arrive.

A reception for Chief Miller starts at 4pm Tuesday at Town Hall.

Bookending the meeting is a second agenda item that is a priority for DPD - a  $20k budget amendment from the Town fund balance plus just under $30k from the 2017 contingency fund before the end of FY2017 to start funding a digital camera system around town.

The DPD has been talking about a system similar to what Mooresville and Cornelius already have in place for a couple of years now.  The full proposal would involve 11 cameras installed around town with 7 of them including licence plate readers.  The full cost of the system would be about $153k plus annual monitoring.

While some may have concerns over such a system from a civil liberties point of view, the plan is to only have the system used as an investigative tool Esther than an actively monitored system.  Readers, should also be reminded of the value of these tools.

From speaking with those familiar with how these systems work and who have seen them in action, they are pretty awesome in narrowing the scope of an investigation quickly.  The Davidson homicide in 2015 was solved quickly in large part because the perpetrators' vehicle was captured on the Cornelius system.

One has to wonder if last week's burglary in Davidson which left the town uneasy might have been resolved immediately if the requested system had already been in place.

It is a bit of a pricey system, but Davidson Commissioners seem to be able to find the money when it's really important to the town.

For example, they coughed up a hefty sum for the two "information kiosks" on Main Street.  Even though the one at South Main Square seems to be broken a lot of the time, having this at the entrance to town probably comes in handy for a few people (when it's working).

Then of course there is this purchase which greatly

contributes to the town core values of protecting the environment.  The town "ELF" is rarely seen plying Davidson streets, but when it does get used at least there are zero emissions.

Ok, all kidding and sarcasm aside.  Considering these things made the cut as reasonable expenditures according to this same group of elected officials, then surely something that benefits public safety will bubble up to the top of the priority list.

t

#SmallTownLiving - Davidson Main Street on Saturday

In about a 10 minute span all of the following were seen on Davidson's Main Street Saturday morning.

Ukulele Duet in front of
Summit Coffee

A future winner of
The Voice out back

A hotrod parade just out
for a ride.

This was at least 30 cars long.

A color guard on duty

and a trolley roaming the streets.

All of those things plus the Davidson Farmers Market made for an awesome morning in town, but that small town charm is under intense pressure.  That pressure makes this last picture maybe the most important.

The "Save Davidson" magnet mobile.

Pick up a magnet when you see this car around town and join the Save Davidson Facebook page to see how you can help.

Roads take back seat in Davidson $15 million GO bond proposal

aShortChronicle told readers a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of Davidson Commissioners putting a sizeable amount of $$$ up for a vote on the town's first ever General Obligation bond.  At the May 23rd Board meeting they took a major step closer towards doing that.

Before getting into the details, readers need to remember this money is not for the truly big ticket item of a new Town Hall and Public Safety facilities.  The Board won't let you vote on that.  Instead, that will likely depend on a 15% stealth tax increase at the next property revaluation in 2019.

These bonds are for other things.  By one Board member's own description, items more appropriate for a GO bond vote include items that are "nice to have, not critical services."  While aShortChronicle wholeheartedly disagrees with this limitation everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  However, it should be pointed out that by the logic most Davidson Commissioners appear to be using, schools would never go up for GO bonds, neither would roads.  Many people, probably most, would consider those critical services by government yet citizens regularly vote on them.

At the May 23rd meeting Commissioners instructed staff to prepare a $15 million bond this November for what can best be described as primarily mobility projects.  However, in true Davidson style "mobility" doesn't just mean roads.

This bond order to be voted on at this coming Tuesday's meeting will be broken up into three parts - transportation, greenways, and parks.  Here is the bond order language for each part.

aShortChronicle confirmed with the Town that if approved by the Board, this should end up as three different ballot questions in November.  That's a good thing as it won't be a single "take it or leave it" $15 million question.  However, based on a review of the proposed projects, Davidson Town Hall appears to be starting off on the wrong foot by deceptively grouping these projects under the above categories.

Here is the list.

Looking specifically at the $6 million Mobility category, there are 2 projects worth just under $2.5 million that are for Multi-Use Paths related to the Potts Sloan Beaty road project.  The rest of the listed projects with dollar amounts are roads. The multi-use path projects, if the Town was interested in being transparent, should be under the Greenways category.  As proof of that, look at the language in the above $5 million bond order for greenways.  It specifically says "multi-use paths" as one of the allowed uses.

Again, if Davidson Town Hall had any interest in being transparent it would recategorize the bond orders to be $3.5m for Roads, $7.5m for Greenways, and $4m for Parks.  Why do you think that is not being done?

Here is one explanation.

Do you think these bonds have a better chance at passing if people think Town Hall is asking for more money for roads or for greenways?  The way they are presenting it, it appears they are spending more on roads.  The reality is that much, much more will go to non-road transportation projects - by more than a 2-1 margin.  In fact, 41% of the money in the category that looks like roads is actually for non-road projects.

We can certainly debate which is better for Davidson, but let's at least debate it honestly.

BREAKING NEWS: Davidson Town Hall set to vote on Beaty Street

The agenda for the next meeting of the Davidson Board was published late Friday afternoon.  It contains an item titled:  Consider Approval of Beaty Street Developer.

In government lingo "consider" means "vote".

This comes just 3 weeks after the most watched episode in Davidson Town Hall history where Davidson Commissioners heard from both their former Town Attorney and the grandson of the property owner who sold the majority if the Beaty St property to the town over 30 years ago.

Since then a steady stream of documents have been released by activists confirming the intent of that sale for the land to be used as a park.  There have also been documents showing the Town working with the developers to "drum up" more support for the project known as the Luminous.

At the end of the previous discussion the Board asked the developer to come up with a few changes.  Those are included in the agenda.

Will these incredibly modest and ambiguous changes be enough for Commissioners to vote the proposal through with straight faces?  We will find out Tuesday.  One thing is certain however. For opponents of the project, this skimpy list almost certainly will not be enough to appease their discontent.

Update: Organizers tell aShortChronicle a protest is being planned for Town Hall immediately prior to the Tuesday Board meeting.  Stay tuned for more details.