MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!!!! This has been a very interesting year especially in Indian Trail and Union County politics. From one extreme to the other change has occured via the vote of the citizens. Good, bad, or indifferent the outcomes from the previous year will be felt into the years to come. Hopefully, the changes that have taken place and will come in the future will be to help the citizens of Union County and Indian Trail.
No matter what side of the fence you are on it has been an interesting year. The hope is that Indian Trail and Union County will continue to move forward and become even better than today.
Politics done for the right reasons will serve all residents now and in the future. Only those policies that are done for the selected few seemingly have adverse affects on every aspect of our lives. Hopefully, the elected officials will do what is right for the right reasons and remember all the citizens they serve.

FLAWED DOWNTOWN PROJECT STALLED

The downtown project that the council has been hearing for the past few months was stalled again at the latest council meeting. The agenda items were mutually agreed upon to remove from the agenda. Seemingly at odds with the developer and the council appears to be:
1. Question of the 100 year flood sign off that the town is requiring and that the delveloper appears can't find an engineer to sign off on the requirement. The question of cause of the down stream effect from the developed property and the pipe size from 27" to 78" seem to be causing trouble. Not to mention the CSX railroad permission that has not been attained by the developer to put in this size pipe or the encroachment on the 50' right of way the developer wants. He stated in a previous meeting that they were in the 8 or 10 th month of an 18 month process by CSX.
2. The traffic study. Apparently the developer has gotten a completed traffic study for the 2nd time. The first time incorporated the Chestnut by pass in the formulations. The 2nd traffic study is being analyzed for the numbers and exact details and information should be forthcoming.
3. The already mentioned CSX process.

These appear to be major stumbling blocks as well as condition 44.

Since this downtown project was pushed hard to get passed, I have been vocal mainly against the approved residential density. Over 500 to 600 residences in the 47 acre project. My thought was also the existing traffic on Indian Trail road that should have been a warning to a project with such density. With that said, the downtown is in need of a nice project and the looks of the approved project are nice. Recently, the Observer reported on the Marvin project that has been going back and forth for 2 years now. Glaring differences from the Marvin project and Indian Trail project stand out for instance the Marvin project is on 186 acres and only has about 1/3 of the residences that the Indian Trail project has. If memory serves me correctly, the Marvin project has about the same amount of retail as the Indian Trail project. The difference is the amount of open space. There seems to be a lot more in the Marvin project. Thus a main reason I believe the Indian Trail project was flawed from the begining. Too much in too small of an area. It is too bad the density can't be renegoiated to a level that is more acceptable. The process is what it is...they seemingly took the time to do it right in Marvin and the residents there should be thankful. Here in Indian Trail, the council is having to fight with the developer on conditions that were made by the previous council on a project that was rushed from the start. So what happens going forward is anyones guess. Maybe the Indian Trail project will shine for years to come if they can get past the landmines that have been placed along its path.

Mayor Receiving a Raise???

Recently in the County Edge, there was a story citing the fact that the current Mayor of IT was receiving $200.00 extra each month for expenses in addition to her salary of $350.00 per month. This extra income was given to the Mayor without any backup documentation and regardless of actual expenses. This particular Mayor has received the extra funds for all but the first 6 months of her term and was started by then manager John Munn. Interesting note was that no one on the council seemed to be aware that the mayor was receiving these funds. Further searches have not produced documentation that shows the council voted this into place. The Mayor of course is pleading innocence and seem to believe that this was how it was done. Apparently, not all the previous Mayors have had access to this slush fund. The previous Mayor, Ed Smith stated he never received dime one of the so called expense money. The payments will now be stopped to the current mayor.
This is not an attack on the current Mayor but more as an attack on the previous councils that allowed this to happen in the first place. The so called stewards of our tax money appear to not pay attention to such details. The citizens of Indian Trail should be outraged. Personally, if the Mayor incurs such expenses then she or elected officials should be able to get a reimbursement, but only in proper documentation is followed. They should be legitimate expenses and should not be considered a perk to the office of Mayor. I have to believe that companies in the US operate the same way, so why should an elected official be able to collect tax money with no documentation? This action may not be illegal, but for sure it falls short of moral or ethical in nature. Elected officials need to be held accountable for their actions and responsible enough to handle the nature of the office.
I wonder if any other towns allow such expenses to be paid? Or is Indian Trail the only one that has allowed this behavior? What do you think?