Mount Olive Town Attorney Carroll Turner explains an amendment to the town’s code of ordinances prohibiting stopping and/or parking tractor-trailer trucks on town street rights-of-way. The town board unanimously approved the amendment during its Tuesday, April 11, session. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Justin Hill, Mount Olive cemetery director, explains why he thinks the town should increase the cost of cemetery plots to $1,110 across the board. Town commissioners tabled the recommendation during their Tuesday, April 11, session pending further discussion. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Stopping and/or parking tractor-trailer trucks on town street rights-of-way is now prohibited.But a price increase for plots in the town’s cemeteries has been tabled, at least for now.
Those two items topped the Mount Olive Town Board’s Tuesday, April 11, agenda.
The change to the town’s code of ordinances concerning stopping and/or parking tractor-trailer trucks on town street rights-of-way was unanimously approved by the board.
For the purpose of the ordinance, a tractor-trailer truck is defined as any truck tractor, trailer or semitrailer having three or more axles.The prohibition is the latest ordinance change following the board’s review of the code of ordinances.
An amendment approved at the board’s March 14 session implemented civil penalties and fines for violations of the code ordinances.
That change as well as the one adopted April 11 were first discussed during a series of ordinance review/workshop sessions.
The next session will be held at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 2, in the town hall conference room.
“Mayor Pro-tem (Steve Wiggins), as you have indicated, this is something we worked on a number of times in our work sessions, which I might add, I have found exceptionally productive,” Town Attorney Carroll Turner said. “I think it is a good thing that we are doing that.
“But the long and the short of it is the public wants to know why is this issue coming up. If you will go around town, I can tell you right now, right off the top of my head, two locations you could go this evening and there will be a tractor-trailer truck parked within three or four or five inches of the edge of the paved street.”
Those vehicles are so large that they block the view of approaching traffic, many times in both directions, he said.
That creates a dangerous situation, the attorney added.
Turner said he and Justin Hill, the town’s code enforcement officer and cemetery director, were asked to work on the amendment to the ordinances.
“I drafted this, which went before our work committee workshop,” he explained.
Such a topic can more easily be discussed in that type of setting rather than presenting something for the first time to commissioners where they previously hadn’t given any thought to it, Turner said.
“For example, the first time I drafted it I put just vehicle, could have been any vehicle,” he said. “Later discussions it seemed that the consensus was let’s just limit it to tractor-trailer trucks, this type thing and the width defining the shoulder.”
It went before the work session twice before the board had the idea it wanted to present it during a town board session, Turner added.
“So that’s what is presented to you tonight, which for the public out there, would prohibit parking by tractor-trailer trucks, whatever you want to call it, on the shoulder of the road if there are official signs prohibiting parking,” Turner explained.
“Or, prohibiting it on the shoulder portion of the edge of the road, which is defined as within 15 feet of the edge of the paved street whether there’s a sign or not.”
State law already prohibits such parking on streets in the town that are controlled by the state, he said.
The change to the town code of ordinances addresses municipal streets that are not state owned, Turner said.
The amendment basically makes the town ordinance consistent with state law, he said.
Commissioner Tommy Brown made the motion to adopt the amendment. It was seconded by Commissioner Barbara Kornegay and unanimously approved.
Cemetery plot increases
Hill presented the request to increase the price for cemetery plots.
“We do have some of the cheapest in the county — probably closest next to the cheapest,” he said. “The reason why I ask is the cemetery grass cutting is expensive, and it is time to rebid for the cemeteries.
“The people cutting it now, the Wright Brothers (Lawn and Landscaping) are doing an excellent job, and I kind of want to keep them, and I don’t know if it (cost) might go up or down, but it is expensive for the cemeteries to stay cut and clean.”
Currently, some plots are $800 while others are $900, Hill said. Those where the mausoleums are cost $1,000.
Hill asked that that the plot cost be made $1,100 across the board.
“I will say that our cemeteries, especially since the folks that are looking after them, is probably the best I have seen them looking in the years that I have been on the board,” Wiggins said.
One uncertainty is the number of cuts the cemeteries need, Hill explained.
“We’re only getting so many cuts and they are cutting it within that range,” Hill said. “But the way our grass grows is that at a couple of times a year we might need a few more cuts per year.
“Maybe not, but it just might be nice, if we have to, to be able to afford it if we need to.”
Commissioner Delreese Simmons asked Hill how did he know that.He also questioned how Hill knew that Wright Brothers Lawn and Landscaping was going to win the bid.
Hill said it might not necessarily be that company, but whoever gets the bid cost would still be a concern.
Simmons also asked Hill how he knew that another company would want the same amount the Wright Brothers will want.
“I don’t,” Hill said. “But I do know that the people we have now costed more. Whoever it is, I want to make sure that they cut it frequently enough to maintain.
“Some months may only need two cuts. Some months they need four. I know when it rains hard that grass grows like a monster, especially in Oak View (also known as Maplewood) and in the back part of Carver it grows really hard.”
Simmons said he was just seeing the proposal.
Wiggins asked Simmons if he wanted the proposal tabled for discussion.
“I don’t like something being thrown on me,” Simmons said. “This was just thrown on me today — probably everybody else, too.”
Simmons said he already had spoken to three or four people and that he wanted to talk to the people in his district.
Commissioners can talk to the people in their districts if they so choose, he added.
Turner asked Hill about the cost of cemetery plots at Wayne Memorial Park in Dudley and in Calypso.
Costs at Wayne Memorial Park start at $2,000 and goes up to $3,000, Hill said.
“We are crazy cheap compared to cemeteries like that,” Hill said.
Hill said he did not know about Calypso, but that he would check.
Kornegay’s motion to table the issue pending further discussion was seconded by Brown and unanimously approved.
