LANDIS — Citizens expressed concerns at Monday’s town board meeting about traffic caused by a local park on Tranquil Lake Drive, part of the Moriah Woods subdivision.
A park office and general store opened at Lake Corriher Wilderness Area, 955 Kimball Road, in March. Vehicles have been going through the subdivision to get to the area.
Mayor James Furr said this ongoing matter was under investigation and the board had been advised to refrain from comment. He said the board could do nothing until more research was conducted, and he was unable to provide a timeline for when the matter would be resolved.
Alderman Dorland Abernathy said he couldn’t promise a resolution by the next board meeting but more information would will be available at that time.
In other business, the board voted to extend the period of time in which it can issue bonds for $6.7 million in water and sewer system improvements.
In 2007 the state mandated that Landis improve its water and waste water systems or face fines, and voters approved $6.7 million in bonds for the projects.
Landis has already completed updates on its water system, and construction on the waste water system is expected to begin in August.
Mayor Furr said that this was an “example of good things to come to those who wait.”
The board agreed to annex two properties the town owns on U.S. 29 North which are adjacent to the town’s current boundaries. They also considered the rezoning of six parcels of land located on Dial and Coldwater streets. A public hearing for the rezoning will be held at the next Board meeting on Aug. 4.
Approval was granted for Landis Baptist Church’s annual request to close off a section of North Kimmon Street in the evenings from July 14 and July 18.
The board considered amendments to the town’s Nuisance Abatement Ordinance, including the use of skateboards. Currently, skateboard use is allowed on the streets and sidewalks of Landis. The amendment would restrict skateboard use to private property, as well as create restrictions for abandoned and junk vehicles and town curfews for minors. A public hearing for this matter will be held Aug. 4.
Detective Roger Hosey of Landis also presented his research of the town’s history to the board. Hosey spent many years researching the origin of the town name and debunked many popular theories Monday. Hosey said he looked at the puzzle of Landis’s name the same way he would a case, following clues backwards.
Beginning with the town’s charter, Hosey determined that Ryder Avenue existed before the town itself. By examining old newspapers and making intuitive leaps, Hosey said he believes that the road was named after Waldo Bringham Ryder, a superintendent of the Southern Railroad. Ryder built and named Landis’ train station in 1900, according to the Concord Times — a full year before the town was incorporated in March of 1901.
Hosey theorized that people started calling the town after the train station, and when it was incorporated the name stuck. By researching Ryder, Hosey discovered that the superintendent was close friends with a family of Landis’, and determined that the station was named in honor of Capt. Augustus Landis Jr., an entrepreneur and railroad man who died in 1892, eight years before the station was built and who was the father of Ryder’s close friend, Dr. Frank O. Landis.
Hosey added that he couldn’t find anything to conclusively prove this theory, but said all of his research points to this answer and that he will “go to his grave” believing this is the true origin of Landis’ name.