FAIRMONT — It was a full house Tuesday evening when the Fairmont Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to incorporate the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each meeting in beginning in March.
Commissioner Charles Kemp made a motion for the Pledge to be recited at each meeting after the invocation. Terry Evans seconded the motion.
Kemp told The Robesonian previously that his request had nothing to do with a 3 to 2 vote in January by the Bladen County Board of Elections not to open its meetings with the Pledge, which stirred up a controversy that eventually got Gov. Roy Cooper’s attention.
The Maxton board is the only town now in Robeson County that does not recite the Pledge. The school board, county Board of Commissioners, and Lumbee Tribal Council all do as well.
In other business, Fairmont resident Sharon Townsend expressed frustration with the town’s $2 increase in water/sewer base rates during the public comment period of the meeting. The new rates became effective in January.
“What other options did y’all have before you decided to raise our water bill?” Townsend said.
Town Manager Katrina Tatum said the town had put off for years the decision to gradually raise rates, and flooding after Hurricane Florence made the decision necessary.
The Fairmont Regional Wastewater Treatment plant serves Fairmont, Fair Bluff, Pembroke, Cerro Gordo, Boardman and areas of Orrum, she said. When areas like Fair Bluff experienced extreme flooding after Hurricane Florence, the plant lost income.
“The town is on the watch list because our sewer is not paying for itself,” Tatum said.
Town leaders are meeting with an adviser selected by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on Thursday to discuss what can be done to sustain the facility and keep it under the town’s control.
The access road to the sewer plant is being repaired after damage from hurricanes Matthew and Florence. Tatum said the town has $765,000 to fund the $1.205 million project and has requested an extension through December 2021 to complete repairs. She said the town is continuing to apply for more grants to fund the project.
Also on Tuesday, Fairmont Police Chief Jon Edwards introduced police Capt. Ralph Vieux, who was hired earlier this month.
“He’s doing a jam-up job so far,” Edwards said.
Vieux has been helping the department incorporate more community policing. He comes from New York and has 21 years of experience in law enforcement.
In other business, Tatum said the town will revive the Senior Citizen’s Awareness Network, a program in which senior citizens volunteer to call each other two to three times each week for a wellness check. If contact cannot be made, then individuals should call 911, she said.
“The police can’t check everybody, everywhere,” Tatum said.
Anyone interested in joining the program should call Fairmont Town Hall at 910-628-9766.
The commissioners voted to close Main Street from Cottage Street to Railroad Street on May 2 for the May Day Fun Festival.
Commissioner Felecia McLean-Kesler took a moment during Tuesday’s meeting to extend condolences to the family of James McBryde, whose body was found Feb. 14 in a swampy area off N.C. 41. McLean-Kesler said she is praying for McBryde’s family and for people whose family members are still missing.
“Let’s pray for them because they are going to need strength,” she said.
