County residents take on task force assignments

By Lisa Majors-Duff

Five Cashiers community residents were named to a task force and assigned the job of developing a framework for a commercial zoning district. Those named were Mark Jones, Ed Henson, Tammy Bryson, Darrell Stewart and Marlene Fowler.

While each commissioner was asked to name a committee member, neither Roberta Crawford nor Brian McMahan offered nominations.

"Since I'm so strongly opposed to zoning, another commissioner can fill that vacancy," Crawford said and McMahan echoed.

Commissioner Eddie Madden, who proposed a zoning plan for the town's business district and called it a "viable alternative to incorporation," took his fellow board members up on their offer and named Stewart and Fowler to the committee.

Responding to Crawford's and McMahan's concerns about the prospect of establishing a zoning district in Cashiers, Commissioner Joe Cowan said that after studying the proposal, he's found it to be an alternative to the type zoning that could be imposed by a town council should the area be incorporated.

"If I thought this had anything to do with countywide zoning, I'd be opposed to it as well," Cowan said.

To assist the task force with the details of their assignment, commissioners hired a former Buncombe County planner with experience in the area of district planning. Asheville's Gerald Green, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, was selected from three firms interviewed for the job.

His contract with the county will include compensation of $8,500, which will be taken from funds set aside in this year's budget for a planner, county Manager Ken Westmoreland said. A recommendation from the committee could be available in about 120 days, said Madden, who indicated a recent presentation on the plan for Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce members was "well received."

"I definitely want the people of Cashiers to have a say," McMahan said.

Moving on to appointments for other task forces, commissioners named Marion Jones, George Allison, Conrad Burrell, Ann Austin, Georgia Fowler, Rick Frizzell, Fred Holcombe, Irene Hooper and Fannie Roper to the courthouse use committee. This group's assignment is to recommend to the commissioners a use for the 90-year-old building when it is vacated by the Sheriff's Office sometime this spring.

Five individuals were also appointed to a task force assigned to recommend changes to the county's noise ordinance. Those named were Mike Fox, Raymond Bunn, Hugh Thompson, Bob Ginn and Ira Jones.

While a previous recommendation from the former county planning board called for criminal penalties to be removed from the legislation, commissioners were not inclined to follow the suggestion and asked the board to try again. But a move by the new administration to disband the planning board prevented further action.

Finally, five people were named to work on refinements to the sediment control ordinance. Among other issues to be discussed, Bill Lyons, Gerald McCall, Gary Buchanan, Johnny Phillips and Mack Dendy will be asked to consider how requiring certification for earth-moving contractors could be worked into the document.

Also Tuesday, board members approved a resolution to be forwarded to the N.C. Department of Transportation requesting the bridge on N.C. Highway 116 across the Tuckaseigee River in Webster be named "Trooper Joseph Robert Davis Memorial Bridge." Davis, a graduate of Webster High School and a N.C. State Highway Patrol trooper at the time of his death in 1948, was killed in the line of duty in Andrews in an airplane crash.

Commissioner Cowan made the recommendation to name the bridge for Davis, who he remembered as someone highly respected in the community.

While the vote on the resolution was unanimous, Commissioner Crawford during last week's discussion on the issue voiced opposition to the move, saying many people in Jackson County could qualify for such an honor.

"I do have a problem with naming roads and bridges after people because we have so many who are deserving," she said.

If approved, Commissioner McMahan said last week, "Everyone will want their grandpa's name on a bridge."

With these concerns in mind, Chairman Buchanan announced that the Jackson County Historical Society has been called upon to establish a set of criteria for naming public byways for individuals and displaying photographs in public places. Board members faced a similar dilemma in September when the daughters of two prominent former citizens requested their fathers' photographs be displayed in the Justice Center as they had been in the old courthouse.

Other action Tuesday included:

- Approval of a $125,000 revolving loan payment to Fraternal Composite Specialities for the purchase of 14 digital cameras.

- Approval for the county manager to pursue a state scattered housing grant, which would fund housing improvements for low-income county residents.

- The county manager was also given the go-ahead to request bid proposals for county health insurance.

- The annual requirement that a board of equalization and review be established was also met. The county tax assessor will serve as clerk, and the commissioners will name the board's chairman and vice chairman.

- A resolution requesting approximately four-tenths of a mile of Picket Lane in Balsam community be added to the state maintenance scheduled was also approved. That document will be forwarded to the DOT.

- Approval was given to a policy defining unlawful workplace harassment.

The next regular meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 11, at the Justice Center.

Back to Archive: 02/20/03.