North Rowan needs better communications

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

SPENCER — In the age of smart phones and 800 megahertz radios, if someone takes a hostage at North Rowan High School, the only way to notify the outside world is with a land line.

Cell phones and emergency radios do not work inside the high school, and even walkie talkies must be used in close proximity to each other, Spencer Police Chief Michael James said.

“In the event of an emergency, our officer can’t even talk to Rowan communications,” James said.

Radio traffic is not possible inside North Rowan due to construction materials and a weak signal, he said. Other high schools have the same problem, according to police chiefs across Rowan County, James said.

The Spencer Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to ask the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education to install a repeater system or bi-directional antennae in North Rowan to allow for cellular, smart phone and 800 MHz emergency communications.

“This is about the safety of the children,” alderman Jeff Morris said.

If someone cut the phone line at North in a terrorist act, students, teachers and the resource officer in the school would have no way to call out, Morris said.

Spencer Police Officer Tony Hinson serves as the school resource officer. If he encounters a medical emergency but isn’t near a telephone, Hinson must leave the victim to go place a call.

Alderman Scott Benfield said Hinson could become surrounded in the school and be unable to call for back-up.

“We have to have a way to communicate,” James said.

The type of technology requested by the town board costs from a few thousand dollars “up to much more,” James said. The school system would need to determine which system — a repeater or an amplifier — will work for North Rowan, he said.

Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.

In other business:

The Spencer Board of Aldermen also dealt with these issues Tuesday:

• Resident Susan Wolf asked the board to allow backyard chickens. Many towns now let residents to keep hens for egg production and as an educational experience for children. Roosters typically are banned.

Wolf said four hens can produce a dozen or more eggs per week.

“It’s a good experience for children to know where their food comes from,” she said.

Resident Jim Gobbel asked the board to maintain the ban on fowl.

“Chickens are nasty, dirty birds,” he said. “They can, even a small, modest population, produce a lot of waste.”

He compared chickens to rats and said people will leave abandoned chicken coops when they move for the next owner to contend with.

“The best place for a free-range chicken is on the dinner plate,” Gobbel said.

Alderman Scott Benfield said the town had a problem with chickens and ducks and other poultry several years ago on Fourth Street.

“You could smell it for six houses,” he said.

Allowing four hens and banning roosters would require policing and compliance, Benfield said.

“One person can ruin it for everybody,” he said.

Aldermen referred the issue to the Planning Board for review at the November meeting.

• Spencer has been identified by the state for inclusion in the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Phase II, which would require new town regulations for stormwater. The program is an unfunded mandate, Town Manager Larry Smith said.

The new annual permit will cost $3,440, and the town could face additional costs associated with state inspections, Public Works Director Jeff Bumgarner said.

Ongoing operational costs, however, should be minimal, Bumgarner said.

The program is the state’s effort to reduce pollution runoff and eliminate illicit discharges to the stormwater system. The town would have to implement a public outreach program, construction side runoff control, pollution prevention and more.

The town will have 18 to 24 months to implement the regulations, Smith said. Officials plant to ask the state for a delay but said they doubted it would be granted.

• Police Chief Michael James said he will purchase eight digital cameras for officers, as approved by the board at the annual planning retreat, and presented the stop stick pin to Officer John Reep for using his tire deflation device to stop a suspect during a recent chase by China Grove police.

• Fire Chief Gray Grubb said the department responded to 37 calls in January and attended a training exercise at the new Buck Steam Station and a live burn exercise at Ellis Fire Department. The board approved $3,100 in matching funds to pursue a $6,200 grant for a new radio and gas monitor.

• Applications for zoning permits and certificates of appropriateness are now available on the town’s website, Land Management Director Dustin Wilson said.

The illegal tire dump by the N.C. Transportation Museum is now gone, and 47 percent of commercial building inspections are complete, he said.

Wilson said he recently approved a permit for Smitty’s BBQ to open in the former Chicken and Oyster Shack.

• Repairs to Charles Street should occur within a few days, Bumgarner said.

• The board approved a four-way stop sign for the intersection of Fourth Street and Whitehead Avenue.

• The board discussed a possible ballot initiative to stagger terms of aldermen.

• Mayor Jody Everhart said he will meet with East Spencer Mayor John Cowan to seek a possible interlocal agreement about future growth and potential extraterritorial jurisdiction.

• Resident Robert Bennett encouraged the board to allow police officers to take home their vehicles without charging mileage.

During the board’s recent planning retreat, aldermen agreed to let officers to take home their cars starting April 1. Those who live more than five miles away must pay mileage for their commute.

• The board approved a $500 facade grant for John Junk of BodyCraft, 1411 S. Salisbury Ave., renewed an audit contract with Allred and Carrick CPAs for $8,000 and appointed Ruby Steele to the Zoning Board of Adjustment and Nasha McCray to the Historic Preservation Commission.