Will apartment wave swamp Davidson's small town character? This election could help decide.

For the longest time (well more than a decade), the Bexley apartments at Exit 30 was the only major apartment development in Davidson.  Every town needs some rentals, so this 185 unit complex filled that need.  As an added bonus, the Bexley's design fits in with the surrounding owner occupied housing to the degree that it being apartments is hardly noticeable.

However, the recent development wave overtaking Davidson seeks to change that.  Here's a chart for what the town is facing when it comes to total large scale apartment complexes.

If all of these were in place including the ones yet to be built, Davidson would have nearly 1000 households in large scale traditional apartment complexes.

What will that do to the small town character of the town?  How will it impact traffic - particularly in the immediate vicinities of these projects?  What are the impacts to the environment?

All of these questions need to be answered, and fortunately all of them are shaping up to be central to the upcoming election with the Potts St Development being the focus point.  Not only is it the Potts St Development the largest of the proposed new projects, but it is in a critical watershed area currently covered in mature reees.  It also sits at a major intersection

Under pressure from neighborhood residents opposed to the project, Town Hall has scheduled a "walk" of the Catawba neighborhood this Friday at 11am.  A majority of sitting Commissioners are expected to attend.  This project has also been raised as an issue by multiple potential challengers for the Board.

Filing for this year's election starts this Friday.

Davidson Community Garden roadwork and minor asbestos cleanup almost complete

There has been a lot of activity at the Davidson Communkty Garden these past several weeks beyond just the harvests being brought in for the Ada Jenkins food pantry.

With the help of the Town Public Works Department, the landscaping and fence along Potts street was moved back to make way got the eventual Potts-Sloan-Beaty road project.  All reports are that the plants are doing well.  Also, some additional raised bed boxes have been installed which will prevent the loss of food production capacity.

All in all, what initially sounded like a change that could have significant implications, turned out to not be that bad.

Coming this week, there will also be some activity related to the ongoing asbestos cleanup being done by the EPA at a number of properties in the West Side neighborhood.

After testing the garden, the EPA did find trace amounts of  asbestos in the portion of the property closest to the road and fortunately not where food is produced and digging occurs.  Here is the latest information from the weekly garden email blast

A few weeks ago, a man from the EPA came by the garden to talk to us about asbestos testing results. Because of asbestos discovered near the warehouse on Depot Street, the EPA started testing properties nearby. They tested at the Community Garden and found no traces of asbestos in the garden area. In the grassy area from the picnic table to the road, however, they found the minimal testable level for EPA clean-up. EPA workers will come to the garden this Thursday and Friday to remove the top foot of soil, replace it with new soil, then lay turf and mulch. The positive outcome of this is (1) no traces of asbestos in the gardening areas and (2) a renewed grassy area!

aShortChronicle contacted the EPA to see if more detail was available.  According to EPA's Davina Marriccini, "EPA collected 2 composite samples in the community garden, one in the garden area itself and one north of the garden where the mulch, compost bins and picnic tables are located. Asbestos was found in the sample north of the garden at the lowest detectable level (detection limit of 0.25% at the 3-6" interval). EPA has coordinated with the property owner and the community group that oversees the garden to schedule cleanup within the next few weeks and answer questions. There is no immediate risk to people working in the garden harvesting vegetables. Please remember to wash hands and vegetables after working the garden."

Cleanup is scheduled for later this week.

PSA - Lake Davidson Cleanup on Saturday

Looking for something to do Saturday morning to help out around town?  Here's an opportunity.

The Town of Davidson needs people to help pick up litter on the shores of Lake Davidson (or as is sure to be corrected - that portion of Lake Norman connected via culvert that is commonly, but incorrectly, called "Lake Davidson" because according to this FB page There is NOT a Lake Davidson.)

Regardless, the trash needs to be picked up.

Citizens Invited to Lakeshore Clean-Up Project: Saturday, July 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

The Davidson Police, Parks and Recreation, and Public Works Departments are partnering on a lakeshore clean-up project on Saturday, July 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All citizens are invited to participate, especially those who live along the shore of Lake Davidson.

“Our goal is to improve the quality of life for all citizens by picking up trash and recyclables along the lakeshore,” said Sgt. Scott Searcy. “We’re really pleased to partner with the community in this way.”

For more details, please visit this link.

Volunteers should check in at the entrance to the Lake Davidson Nature Preserve, located behind Davidson Day School at 750 Jetton Street. Parking is available at Davidson Day School. Volunteers will be assigned different portions of the shoreline to clean up and the Town of Davidson will distribute trash and recycling bags, latex gloves, and litter pickers. Members of the public works department will circulate to pick up filled trash and recycling bags. Please wear sunscreen and bring water.

Please call the Davidson Department of Parks and Recreation at 704-892-3349 with any questions.

Kurt Naas announces run for Cornelius Board of Commissioners

The first time I saw Kurt Naas speak was several years ago when the Red Line commuter rail project was making one of its numerous attempts to get off of life support.  Naas was giving a presentation for the Cornelius Town Board exposing flaws in the plan put together by a highly paid group of consultants.  Naas presented information that was professional, well thought out, and as thorough as anything the consultants brought to the table, and he had done it for free.

Since then, Kurt Naas has become a household name here in North Mecklenburg.  His is a name synonymous with citizen advocacy and leadership, a name of someone willing to fight for the public's best interest.   Tuesday, Kurt Naas put that name in the ring for the next contest for Cornelius Town Board.

Here is the press release put out by his campaign.

KURT NAAS ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY 
FOR CORNELIUS COMMISSIONER

Citing The Need for a Strong Voice for Cornelius, Leader of Widen I-77 Anti-Toll Group Says He Can Be More Effective Representing Citizens and Businesses as an Elected Official

Kurt Naas, leader of the citizens group WidenI77 that opposed the I-77 toll project since 2012, announced his candidacy for Cornelius Commissioner. According to Naas, years of fighting the I-77 tolls emphasized the need for elected officials who will listen to the people, carefully research the issues and stand firm on convictions. When he formed the group in 2012 most elected officials in the region were convinced tolls were the only answer and largely ignored warnings from Naas and others who had thoroughly researched the plan. Today all North Mecklenburg towns and Mecklenburg and Iredell counties have passed resolutions opposing the project.

“Back in 2012 I realized that it was going to take a community-wide effort to stop try and stop this project. It clearly is not in our region’s best interests,” Naas says. In response he formed the group WidenI77. The organization grew into a prominent grassroots movement, eventually reaching thousands of citizens through several town hall-style presentations and Naas’ hundreds of blog posts. For his efforts the North Carolina Open Government Coalition named him their 2015 “Citizen of the Year”, and last year the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce recognized his organization with a Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to fighting the toll project, Naas has served the community in other ways. He served on Cornelius’ Transportation Advisory Board for five years and currently serves on the DDI Landscaping Design Committee. Recently Naas was instrumental in stopping a NC Senate bill aimed at making it virtually impossible for citizens to sue the NCDOT. Senate Bill 613 would require the legal firm of a plaintiff suing the NCDOT to post a bond to cover NCDOT’s legal fees, and NCDOT would set the amount of the bond.

“If S613 had passed, the net result would have been no lawyer would ever take on a transportation-related case in North Carolina,” Naas says. He learned about the bill after receiving a tip and sprang into action. “I urged the Charlotte Observer to cover the issue, and suggested to a couple of television journalists that they contact the bill’s sponsor. Thankfully, the bill died in committee.”

Another cause for Naas has been encouraging town officials to install Adaptive Signal Control Technology (ASCT) on traffic lights. The technology adapts signal light timing to changing traffic conditions and typically increases the number of cars through an intersection by 10-to-30 percent.

“As crowded as our intersections are, it really makes sense,” Naas says. “There are thousands of installations throughout the Southeast but none in North Carolina.” After individual meetings with board members were ineffective he eventually found a receptive audience with town staff.

“Since then they’ve made great progress with the plan for ASCT lights,” he says. The West Catawba corridor is slated to be the first North Carolina installation in early 2018. NCDOT is sharing the cost and the vendor is cutting its price to gain a foothold in North Carolina. If it proves effective, NCDOT will look at rolling out the technology to other areas of the state.

“While the town leadership of Cornelius does well with most tactical issues, more attention needs to be given to broader strategic issues and opportunities that can impact the day-to-day life of residents. I’m running because I can be more effective representing our citizens and businesses as an elected official. It’s really that simple.”

Naas has already lined up the endorsements of a dozen elected officials including Republicans and Democrats from across the Lake Norman Region. “The breadth of endorsements demonstrates I can work with people across the political spectrum on local and regional issues,” he says.

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jim Puckett agrees. “As we face the challenges of a growing community we need principled leadership to ensure our quality of life,” Puckett says. “Over the past four years, no citizen has worked harder to that end than Kurt Naas.”

Naas began his career as an aerospace engineer with General Dynamics Space Systems Division where he worked on the guidance platform for the Atlas and Centaur rockets. After graduate school he worked for AlliedSignal where he led the global product support launch for their microturbine business, and subsequently held executive positions with Honeywell and Ingersoll Rand.

He owns a manufacturing business in Cornelius, lives in the Peninsula neighborhood and attends Pritchard Memorial Baptist Church in Charlotte. He’s been married to Maria for 28 years and they have one son, Stephen, 19, who is a two-time Golden Gloves state boxing champion.

Naas holds an MBA from the Kellogg School (Northwestern) and a Master’s in Engineering Management, also from Northwestern. He completed the dual-major, six-quarter program in five quarters while undergoing chemotherapy and he graduated at the top of his class. He is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau, a national aerospace honor society, and Beta Gamma Sigma, an honor society for collegiate schools of business.

For more information about Naas’ candidacy for Cornelius Commissioner can be found at www.electkurtnaas.com.

A bit of good Mi-Connection news...David Auger to stay on as CEO

The tenure of Mi-Connection CEO David Auger has been one of the few bright spots in the whole saga of the municipally owned cable company, so when Auger announced last year that he would be retiring, that was going to surely leave a big leadership gap in the company.  Adding to the uncertainty, little to nothing had been said about the search for his replacement.

With the announced end date of June 30th rapidly approaching, last week aShortChronicle asked the public information officers for Davidson and Mooresville if there was any update.  Monday, that update came in the form of a press release on the next Mi-Connection Board meeting later this week.

Here it is (emphasis added)...

The MI-Connection Board of Directors will hold a meeting on Wednesday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the Davidson Town Hall board room to appoint and re-appoint board members, elect officers for FY 2017-2018, approve minutes from the April meeting, and approve the final recast of the FY 2017 budget. This meeting was originally scheduled for Thursday, June 29. This meeting is open to the public.

Additionally, the MI-Connection Board of Directors requested that David Auger continue in his CEO role for the foreseeable future and he agreed. Auger was originally scheduled to retire June 30.

The next quarterly meeting of the MI-Connection Board of Directors is scheduled for August 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Davidson Town Hall board room. This meeting is open to the public.

While it is definitely good news that Auger will stay on for the time being, it also makes one wonder if the reasons why included not able to find a good replacement.  Looking at the Mi-Connection overall situation it is not hard seeing that being the case.

If you just looked at the bottom line, the company looks like it's still in need of a turnaround specialist.  However, that would be too much of a simplification.  Under Auger's tenure the company has attained EBITDA percentages at or above industry averages.  Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation Amortization is a measure of operational performance.  The Auger years have seen operations brought back in house from an outsourcing vendor.  The outstanding debt has been refinanced.  The company has also achieved high penetration rates in new developments like the one at Langtree.  Effectively, David Auger has been the turnround specialist and operationally he has achieved a lot.  At this point, the proactive steps to fundamentally improve the company that can be taken have been.

What is hammering the bottom line is servicing the outstanding debt.   Other than selling the company, the only way out of that debt burden now is a risky, long hard slog of significant growth through competition in a marketplace growing more competitive by the day.

It is not hard to see it being difficult to find someone who wants that job.

Mi-Connection comments raise the recurring question..."What is the plan?"

At the June 13th Board Meeting, there were some interesting public comments from citizens.  That's always a good thing to see.  One comment from Joe Seferyn of Davidson regarding Mi-Connection has been getting some traction on social media.  Seferyn asked a number of questions about plans for the system in light of the ongoing losses.  aShortChronicle has obtained a written copy of Mr Seferyn's comments in their entirety for your reading pleasure.

Mr. Mayor, Members of the Board:

On behalf of the tax payers in Davidson, I would like to offer comments on the situation regarding MI-Connection and its effect on the town budget and the tax payers.  (By way of background, I worked for 35 years in leadership positions in the voice, data, video and cell phone industry, so I have some knowledge about these issues.)

In the budget review presented by Pieter a few weeks ago, sadly the issue of MI-Connection got no attention.  It is shocking that a million dollar line item in the budget received no discussion at all.     

Since Mooresville and Davidson purchased the company about 10 years ago, the cost of the losses to the Davidson tax payers is over $10 million dollars.  Also, Mooresville has probably lost another $30 million dollars.  Let’s call it what it is--a financial disaster that has a huge negative impact on the town budget. 

Based on my experience, these losses are likely to increase over time, and perhaps escalate due to current negative trends in the industry and intense competition.  
The company keeps touting their growth in customers.  I have been trying for months to find out how many more customers they would need to achieve profitability.  The company has said it’s too complicated to determine, but I know that is just not true.

Without a plan to break even, what is the point of continuing to waste a million dollars a year on a company that has little hope of achieving profitability or even surviving!

Also, tax revenues are increasing due to continuing new construction as well as rising home values.   But, there doesn’t appear to be any effort on the part of the Town Board or the Town Manager to reduce or eliminate the trash fee that was imposed to cover the losses.

The attitude of acceptance of these losses is quite troubling!

The tax payers in Davidson deserve prompt answers from the Board and the Town Manager to the following questions:

1.  Are you going to do a detailed review of the MI-Connection status, develop a plan of action and share the results with the tax payers.

2.  Are you going to ask MI-Connection for a written documented plan to achieve profitability?

3.  How can you consider raising taxes to pay for a new town hall or going further into debt on a new bond issue, while wasting a million dollars a year on a company which may not be financially viable nor  has a plan to succeed?

4.  Why can’t you reduce or eliminate the trash fee that was imposed to pay for the losses?  This would give the tax payers a small return on their $10 million dollar lost investment.

5.  How many more years are you going to spend over a million dollars a year to keep this company afloat without a clear path to profitability?  Some might say continuing on this path would be reckless and financially irresponsible! 

6.  Should the taxpayers of Davidson expect to lose another $10 to $20 million dollars of their hard earned money on this company?  This eventuality is very concerning!

It would seem this is exactly the outcome we will get without a major change in direction.  Wouldn’t those millions of dollars be better spent improving Davidson?  Perhaps the time has come to shut this company down, cut our losses and stop the bleeding.  

There are other sophisticated voice, internet and video providers in the local market today, so the existing customers would not be left without service and would very likely have lower monthly bills.  

The tax payers of Davidson urge you to take decisive action and do this quickly so as to eliminate further losses to be passed on to the tax payers.

Thank you for the opportunity to offer comments


Clearly, after 35 years in the business Mr Seferyn has the background to make informed comments.  That's 35 years more industry experience than any of the Town's elected officials possess.  So, what were the responses from elected officials?

Near the end of the meeting, Commissioner Anderson, seemingly exasperated at having to even mention Mi-Connection, responded that taking Mr Seferyn's advice of shutting down the system by saying "we can't just dump it now because we'd go bankrupt".

That would seem to be quite the exaggeration based on at least one faulty assumption.  That assumption would be that shutting down the system would mean simply closing the doors and walking away.   Obviously that's not true. Instead, shutting down the system would obviously involve selling off the assets.  With the towns owing roughly $65 million as Commissioner Anderson stated, even if selling those assets only brought in 50% of that total it would leave Davidson owing $9.75 million to cover the shortfall based on its 30% responsibility for the company.  That's less than the $11.5 million Davidson will have paid in subsidies through FY2018 since buying the company.

All that taken together makes the claim of bankruptcy because of a Mi-Connection liquidation seem highly unlikely.

On the other hand, Commissioner Anderson did allude to something that probably is accurate which should disturb taxpayers more than the false threat of bankruptcy.  Anderson said Mi-Connection had taken "a couple of hits this year with competitors coming in".  This is the spectre that has been out there since the beginning and was even mentioned in Mr Seferyn's comments that Anderson seemed to be trying to refute.  Competition has always been the main concern from the towns' decision to enter the cutthroat telecom industry.

aShortChronicle recently raised questions in this post regarding the stall in the decline of Mi-Connection subsidies in the FY2018 budget.  If competition is heating up and the company is taking hits, there is absolutely no reason to think that will slow in coming years.  If the subsidy required stays at $1 million per year (or possibly more), Davidson may have little to lose by liquidating the company now.

Commissioner Graham followed Anderson by saying he agreed with Anderson's comments and added that "the questions that were asked are the questions we do ask of Mi-Connection", but because they are in a competitive situation the Board doesn't always ask them in public.

Mayor Woods, the only elected who actually voted for Mi-Connection back in 2007, chimed in with "our method is to encourage citizens to use the service."

None of the electeds answered Mr Seferyn's questions, and therefore it looks like the public still gets to know very, very little about one of its largest expenses.

Commissioner comments start at minute 87:15 of this video.

CATS 48x and 77x bus route changes coming on Monday

The two CATS Express Bus routes serving North Mecklenburg will experience some changes this coming Monday.  According to the "alerts" page on the CATS website the routes will change as follows starting this coming Monday, June 26th.

77X North Mecklenburg Express

Morning express inbound trips:  Route 77X will start at the Davidson-Gateway on street park and ride lot, continue via Griffith and Main to the Cornelius Town Hall, continue via Catawba Avenue past Smithville Park, turn onto Statesville Road and continue to the Huntersville-Gateway Park and Ride lot.  After the stop at Huntersville-Gateway, route 77X will continue to I-77 and travel to Uptown Charlotte.

Afternoon outbound trips: Route 77X service will operate the reverse of the above.

Mid-day  trips: Route 77X service will operate between Uptown with a terminus at Northcross Park and Ride, making an intermediate stop at Huntersville-Gateway Park and Ride.

48X Huntersville Express

Morning express inbound trips:  On Monday, June 26th, route 48X will begin at the Northcross Park and Ride Lot.  After the stop at Northcross, the 48X will enter I-77 and travel to Uptown Charlotte.

Afternoon outbound trips: 48X service will operate the reverse of the above.

On Wednesday, July 5, 2017 Route 48X Huntersville Express will be extended to the new Cornelius Park and Ride Lot at 20300 Sefton Park Road.  Customers will be able to park at either  the new Cornelius Park and Ride at 2033 Sefton Park Road or the Northcross Park and Ride starting on Wednesday, July 5th.

According to a CATS representative at the Uptown Transit Center Wednesday, schedules with any time changes will not be available until Friday so if you ride either of these routes pick one up then.