Iredell delivered a bill for $127,000 for flood control dam repairs and demanded payment. “Rowan County has a responsibility to honor our request,” Iredell County’s Joel Mashburn said. He reminded them that Rowan had agreed to pay 30 percent of the cost of upgrading and repairing several dams along Third Creek in the 1970s. Reports didn’t indicate, but it’s safe to assume he wasn’t smiling when he spoke.

It was not a good time to ask Rowan County for money. Completion of a new budget had left county officials feeling cash poor.

Newton Cohen asked about abandoning the dams. Dave Rowland couldn’t see raising some little old lady’s taxes to help out a few farmers. Fighting words, those.

Cooler heads prevailed. Arnold Chamberlain and Frank Tadlock have agreed to see the dams and get a better idea about the flood control project. The loss of a few farms might not sound like much to city folk, but farmland is one of Rowan County’s most valuable resources. And farmers pay taxes, too.

This week, N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham came along with some advice directly from the honeypot. “I realize the problem with taxes, but we must take care of our natural resources,” he said. Graham’s father, J.T. Graham, took the lead in the flood control project and even conferred with President Eisenhower in 1953. Commissioner Graham says Rowan gets as much benefit from the dams as Iredell.

Graham says he was shocked to hear that Rowan’s commissioners have turned against farmers.