TABLE OF
CONTENTS

THE GRAPEVINE '04

IMPORTANT
INFORMATION

08/02/04
With the assistance of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments, the town will be acquiring GPS coordinates for all its manholes, storm drains, and other sewer related items. The coordinates can then be overlaid on an aerial map to give a detailed image of the sewer line layout. This should also come in handy for locating problems.

Also regarding the sewer lines, the town will soon be responsible for cleaning out ten percent of its lines annually. There are currently about fifty miles of sewer pipelines in the town so it would be responsible for five miles per year.

Waldensian Heritage Wines has seen a recent increase in tourists that has strained its well and septic tank system. Therefore, it has requested to become an out of town water customer. Since they are close to the town limits, but are selling a product inconsistent with current town ordinances, they will not be required to be annexed by the town.

There are some new requirements on the way for any institution that prepares food in Valdese, resulting from FOG (Fats, Oils, & Grease) regulations. A recent survey of the twenty-seven such institutions in the town revealed that only 25% have the required grease traps that stop the FOG from going into the sewer system. The town will be partnering with Ecological Services, Inc. to help educate these businesses, schools, and churches on the requirements and to establish guidelines such as: maintenance cycles for the grease traps, permits, penalties for violations, etc... The town may also add $.50 to the water and sewer bill to cover its costs.

Applications for a new Director of Tourism position are coming in steadily. The town will select three to interview and, hopefully, select one from those three for the job. For at least the first year, the Director will work with Allan VanOppen to coordinate all the tourism related activities for the town and to promote the town as a tourism destination.

New "Welcome To Valdese" signs are forthcoming. Two will be on the interstate entrances to Valdese - Eldred Street and Carolina Street. The other two will be on Highway 70 at the eastern and western end of town. There will also be two new church directional signs on Main Street where Eldred and Carolina intersect. These lattice-style signs will have the seal/logo/name of each church.

The new mural at "Village Park" (formerly East Main Street Park) received some attention from Our State magazine in its most recent issue. The article was on outdoor murals in various towns in North Carolina and the Valdese mural received quite a bit of coverage and a nice, large picture. Perhaps because it was the best?

Finally, if you're tired of running over the water meter holes where the covers are gone, the town is working at correcting the problem. Currently, a survey of which covers need replacing is being taken, then replacement will begin.

06/28/04
The town will apply for a $500,000 CDBG grant to fund the razing of an old, abandoned Alba building and preparing the site for Valdese Packaging and Labeling to construct a 50,000 square foot building. The company has outgrown its existing building and cannot find suitable space elsewhere in Valdese. The grant requires a 25% match by the recipient, but the county is considering waiving the landfill charges for the removed material which were estimated by engineers to be 15-20% of the project's $565,000 total cost. If the county waives the fee, it could represent as much as $113,000 of the town's $125,000 investment (25% of $500,000.) Valdese Packaging and Labeling currently has fifty employees and expects to add twenty-five more over the next two years.

The bids for the Gardiol sidewalk have come in higher than the $127,000 budgeted. The lowest bid was $162,000 so all participants were asked to resubmit bids and finding all possible cost savings that wouldn't jeopardize the quality of the project.

When Danny Barus retired from the police department, Randy Reid assumed his position as an interim position. Now Mr. Reid is leaving to take a position in Emergency Services in Brunswick County. Mr. Barus has agreed to manage the department in an administrative position until a Police Chief is found.

The town is looking at reworking its employee incentive programs with department-specific plans.

The Trevor Monk fundraising event didn't have quite the turnout hoped for, but still raised over $2,600 that will go toward his operations.

If you haven't noticed, the expansion of the Waldensian Museum has begun with some sidewalk/sewer work being done on Rodoret Street and tihe trees on the north side of the Museum are starting to come down. Hopefully, I can get an artist's sketch of how the new building will look and post it here.

06/08/04
Last night's town council meeting was primarily wrapping up the end of the budget year and finalizing some details on current town projects such as the water line being run to the Flat Gap area.

Town Manager Jeff Morse recognized David Cook's pending retirement as superintendent of the Water Department. Mr. Cook has been training Chris Graybeal for several years to step in as the new superintendent.

The Gariol sidewalk construction is expected to begin on August 1st and take approximately two months to complete. The sidewalk will be on the north side of the road.

A "Tri for Trevor" is being organized by Mount Calvary Baptist Church and Wachovia Bank. It will be a fund raiser for Trevor Monk. It's a Walk/Swim/Run-athon where entrants get sponsorships for each mile or lap they complete. The details were not yet available other than a date of June 26th. Councilman Keith Ogle noted that the bill for Trevor's first transplant surgery was over $800,000.

A dedication time and date of 2:00 p.m. on July 4th has been set for the East Main Street Park. At this event, a plaque noting the major contributors will be installed and the park's new name will be revealed.

The Town agreed to the Economic Incentive Package developed by the Burke Partnership for Economic Development. Under the plan, $.01 of the town's property tax revenues would go into a fund for the next twenty years to finance three projects: an eighty-five acre industrial park in the Morganton area ($3 million cost), a multi-purpose arena at Western Piedmont Community College, and an Emergency Services Center on WPCC's grounds that would train fire, police, and emergency personnel from across the state. The total cost of the projects is expected to be $5.8 million. You may have noticed that all three projects are in Morganton. While Valdese would receive a proportional share of the revenues generated by rents, etc... from the projects, it remains to be seen if there would be any appreciable benefits in terms of jobs, tourists, or retail growth for our town. Outside of our government officials, the driving forces behind the plan are Morganton businessmen. Valdese's annual commitment would be $30,000 or $600,000 over the twenty years of the plan.

05/27/04
The Valdese Farmers' Market kicked off it's season last Wednesday. It is keeping its regular hours of Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. until noon and Friday from 3:00 until 6:00 p.m.

The top has come off the swimming pool just in time as temperatures have begun to touch 90 degrees some afternoons. Like last year, the recreation department has a number of special themed activities planned for the summer. A list of the events should be available soon. A number of summer camps are also scheduled. You can get more information by visiting the community center or by calling 879-2132.

Valdese is undertaking a major effort to market the town's tourist attractions. Two advertising agencies, Paragon and Allen VanOppen were asked to make presentations to the Town's tourism commission and several other business and community leaders. Both presentations were well-received.

Don't forget Saturday's Founders Festival. The Norfolk Southern Exhibit Car is already in place on the tracks and the weather will be cooler, but with a chance of showers. There are more vendors than last year and hopefully the car show will have better attendance. Also new will be the old-time games for the kids.

05/04/04
Monday evening's town council meeting marked the final meeting for Frances Hildebran as she will be retiring on May 28th to take a similar position in Long View. Town Manager Jeff Morse acknowledged her service and support during his comments portion at the end of the meeting and she received a well-deserved standing ovation.

Also at the council meeting, Steve Farlow and several other employees of the Burke County Library System came with a request for a one-time contribution of $8,500 to help fund some major technology improvements planned for the near future. They noted the rapid growth in library usage despite a decrease in funding and staffing. They also introduced the new director for the Valdese Library, Betty Riley. Mayor Hatley informed Mr. Farlow that the town would take his request into serious consideration as the budget is being set for the 2004-05 fiscal year.

You may have heard advertisements concerning stormwater runoff if you listen to Charlotte-area radio stations. Well, a similar educational campaign will be coming to Valdese. In essence, the idea is to make people aware that everything that goes into the storm drains along the side of the road, goes directly into our rivers, rather than through the sewer system which is filtered at the wastewater plant. The program aims to prevent the dumping of solid wastes such as lawn clippings and liquids such as car wash soap and motor oil. Look for brochures and mailings to arrive soon, as well as information distributed through the schools.

The town has not given up on passenger rail service, but Asheville may be having second thoughts. Communities between Salisbury and Asheville are all adopting a resolution to support the rail service and encourage Asheville to participate. Asheville is reconsidering because of the expense that may be involved to recreate its depot. The next committee meeting is in Asheville.

Congratulations to Chief Danny Barus on his recent (April 30th) retirement. He will be presented with his badge and gun at a special retirement dinner on Friday. Mr. Barus served as Police Chief since 1994.

The town has received a $750,000 grant to extend water service to the Flat Gap area. This not only will help those in Flat Gap to have a reliable water source, but will add some customers for the town.

Mr. Hatley noted that the planned $60 million expansion of Blue Ridge Health Care in Burke County may actually end up being as much as $100 million. He added that BRHC will require contractors to use local labor and materials which will boost local small businesses.

The Founders Festival looks to be bigger and better this year. There are twenty-five vendors planned, up from fifteen last year and four food vendors. Norfolk/Southern will have an exhibit train that will be parked on the spur behind and slightly west of where the stage was last year.