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Iredell OKs new one-stop voting site for Mooresville
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Published: February 4, 2010
Iredell County Commissioners approved a request by the Board of Elections to have a one-stop early voting operation in Mooresville for the May primary elections.
Board of Elections Director Becky Galliher requested the expenditure of $6,000 for the operation.
Galliher said there has been a marked increase in the number of registered voters in the southern part of Iredell County and that allowing for early voting there would facilitate a smoother election.
"We have learned from past elections that the more people we get to early voting, the election runs much better," Galliher said.
The early voting in Mooresville will be in addition to the one-stop operation at the Board of Elections offices in Statesville.
Also at Tuesday's meeting, commissioners:
+ Took the rare step of reconsidering a rezoning request that the board denied last September.
Commissioners revisited a request by Cletus Jones to rezone his 3.9-acre property from Residential Agricultural to Highway Business Conditional Use.
The matter was somewhat controversial when it came before the board on Sept. 1, 2009, because Jones was initially issued a permit under the Home Occupation Standards, which meant he was supposed to be living on the property. But he was not.
During the public hearing on the matter last year, two nearby residents spoke out against allowing the request. One person said allowing the request would be an award for not following the rules.
The motion to approve the matter last year ended in a 2-2 vote, with commissioners Ken Robertson and Godfrey Williams voting against it. (Commissioner Marvin Norman was absent from the meeting.)
Under the board's rules, a tie is a failure to pass.
Last month, Robertson asked that the matter be reconsidered and a vote on it Tuesday ended in the request being unanimously approved.
Jones wants to open an auto repair shop on the property.
Planning Director Ron Smith said that Jones' plan conforms with the county's 2030 Horizon Plan.
+ Approved spending $1,500 as part of a local match for a $60,000 grant that will be used to finance a plan aimed at tying Iredell into the 15-county series of pathways called the Carolina Thread Trail.
The entire match for the grant is $6,000, but each of Iredell's five municipalities has also contributed to it.
+ Approved a request by the Tax Department for the purchase of a nearly $90,000 worth of computer software.
A deal this large would normally have to be bid out under state and county regulations, but County Assessor Bill Doolittle said only one company — Causeway Data Communications — produces the type of software the county needs.
Doolittle asked for approval of what is called a "sole source contract" between Causeway and the county.
Doolittle explained that the software will expedite the valuation process and said it will essentially update the computer program his department has been using for the past 25 years.
+ Tweaked and approved the contract the county has with the Kiwanis Club of Statesville, Inc. regarding the overseeing of the fairgrounds in Troutman.
A key provision of the new contract is a sort of restrictive clause that Commissioner Steve Johnson said was added because of an event called the Field of Steel, a motorcycle-themed gathering that was held at the fairgrounds in 2007.
"I got a visit from the ladies at the Bible Study Club," Johnson said. "And they were about to cast my soul into perdition over that."
The new contract reads in part "...that no performance or event shall be held on said fairgrounds which is illegal, indecent, obscene or publicly offensive."
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