To the Citizens of Norwood,

Yesterday, I invoked my authority as Mayor Pro Tem to declare the Town of Norwood as being under a State of Emergency. I assure you this was done only after careful consideration and review of the conditions and forecast at that point in time. This declaration was made for a variety of factors but primarily due to the expected high rainfall totals.

I have just received some alarming news that the rainfall estimates have now doubled from the previous forecast for Norwood and portions adjoining the Town of Norwood. I want to take this opportunity to advise you that while you may be on what is typically higher ground, I urge you to review your situation as it applies to you and your surroundings. While certain areas may be higher and typically never have drainage issues, they may suddenly become locally flooded.  Areas of the town that have never flooded, may flood until water seeks its level and begins to recede. Florence is now at our doorstep and we could receive even more rainfall than expected. While we hope the forecasts are overstated, our level of preparedness should not waiver.

I continue to urge to you to protect yourselves and begin looking for threats at your home and business. Go ahead and assume that your home may be flooded and if so, is there anything that you can do within the next 8 hours prior to the final arrival of Florence and its impending rainfall. The slow speed of the Florence will continue to drop large amounts of rain over a period of days here in Norwood.

I do want you to know that we have prepared the Town of Norwood as best that we can. If you lose power for whatever reason, you will want to call your power utility vendor which is likely Duke Energy. Their phone number is 800-POWER-ON or 800-769-3766. You can also report outages at  https://www.duke-energy.com/outages

If you have a water or sewer emergency, you may call us at 704-322-9100. If you are aware of any other hazardous situations  or need assistance,  you can call 704-690-1074.  Please remember that Town staff cannot assist with trees on power lines, that will be your power utility vendor.

Should the need arise that you need shelter,  Two (2) shelters will opened at 5pm today.

In closing, I am working throughout the duration of this storm assisting anywhere that I can. Please share this information with anyone who can benefit. Please be safe and finalize your preparations, we only have a few hours remaining before Florence arrives in Norwood.

This morning, after carefully reviewing updated weather forecasts and monitoring information provided by  emergency management services, I have decided to declare a State of Emergency within the corporate limits of the Town of Norwood. You can click here to read the declaration. Declaration of State of Emergency Sept 13 2018.

This declaration will allow the town to maintain order, minimize risks, secure property, protect the public health, safety, and welfare of our citizens.

That being said, I do have some concerns related to potential flooding. If rainfall forecasts hold true, it is very likely that highway 52 along the Darrell Almond Park will be underwater and impassable. Additionally, I fear that our Park will be underwater as well as along South Stanly School Road just past Chad Street as well as impacts to the the Duke Energy sub station. This portion of South Stanly School road may become impassable. We expect highway 52 at the Rocky River bridge to potentially be impacted or impassable. The lower portions of Riverview Rd just outside of our corporate limits that follows the Rocky River will most likely be impacted.

In closing, beyond the threat of high-water, trees and power lines may also be a concern with this storm.  I want to let you know that we do not want anyone to risk their life with any hazard and particularly swiftly moving water. Please do not allow children to play in or around high water and particularly do not allow them around storm drains that could be under a vacuum. This emergency declaration expressly prohibits this type of activity, so please be mindful of the danger. Hurricane Florence is to be taken very seriously and that is why I have declared a State of Emergency for the Town of Norwood.

Hello Citizens,

Serving as your Mayor is something that I, as well as my fellow board members do not take for granted. Our service to you is our number one priority. The Town has been diligently preparing in the preceding days as we prepare for the effects of Hurricane Florence on our town. I wanted to let you know that our town administration and town employees have prepared our town as best as possible and are ready to address and respond to each situation that we may encounter. Our critical infrastructure including the raw water intake facility, the water treatment plant, the water tank reservoirs, waste water treatment plant, and sewer lift stations are ready including alternate responses should there be any system failures.

Norwood Center Rural Fire Department has moved into their new  facility and are diligently preparing to serve you and are placing a high emphasis on swift water rescues, an area in which they are well trained. I must say that I am so thankful for each of those dedicated fire and rescue professionals. They truly are amazing in times of need.

The town will stage our Police department and town maintenance staff at 141 Blalock St.(Former Center Rural Building) particularly if loss of power occurs. The facility is equipped with a generator and will serve the town well in events such as Florence.

Lastly, just after 6 pm tonight, Norwood contacted Stanly County Emergency Management to communicate the information above and to also alert them to the possibility that Norwood might declare a State of Emergency. North Carolina Statues 14 – 288.12 as well as Norwood Ordinance 79 authorizes the Mayor to Declare a State of Emergency in times of imminent threat. I wanted to let each of you know that I am prepared to make that call on Thursday September 13th following additional updated weather forecasts. There are several reasons for making such declaration one being assistance from State and Federal Agencies.

In closing,  I, as well as my fellow board members want to make sure that we position ourselves to help you in a potential time of great need. You will see each  of us out responding to public needs.

I will have more to share in the coming days.

All my best,

Linda Campbell, Mayor Pro Tem

Commissioners:  James Lilly, Robbie Cohen. Wes Hartsell, & Betty O’Neal

The Town of Norwood wanted to let residences and businesses along Highway 52 from Turner Street and South to Crawley and Price Street know that the Town of Norwood will be cleaning the sewer outfall lines and following up with Smoke testing on Friday July 13th. We anticipate this activity to be conducted within the hours of 7 am to 4 pm. Stanly County Emergency Services as well as the Police and Fire Departments have been advised. Smoke testing of these lines is not harmful to the public and is used to identify possible issues with waste and vent lines.

This past year has been another year of improvements, new events and additions to Norwood. We have accomplished many things this past year and we are now planning our budget and the needs of our town. As we discuss  things we  hope to accomplish in the next year, let’s first reflect on what we have achieved in the last 12 months. I have compiled a list from memory and by looking at the minutes from our meetings for the past year. These are the improvements, items purchased, and services we were able to accomplish in the 17/18 budget year.

We voted to close 350 ft of the alley behind the new fire dept in order to build a new street that will go straight across from Anson to Turner Street for easier accessibility for the large fire trucks coming back into the new station. We have just received the bids for the alley and will begin work soon on the reconstruction of  this road. We were able to work in conjunction with the new fire dept to provide them with the adequate water and sewer hookup they need for the new fire station. The new station will add to the looks of our town, main street and the fire services that we continue to receive at a cost of $75,000 per year including fire and medical.

We voted to purchase and upfit all  our sewer lift stations in Norwood to telemetry using cellular technology.  This eliminates the need for an employee to ride around 365 days a year to read pump hour meters.  This also allows the town to be notified immediately when a pump station loses power or has any problems so that this can be handled timely.

The town heard a proposal and  entered into a contract with UMS to change out all the water meters in Norwood to cellular read meters. The Town has some meters that are well over 30 years old and we feel certain a great number of them are not accurate. We are treating more water each day than what we are charging for on a daily basis. These new meters will allow us to get a more accurate read of the water that is actually being used by the customer so that they can be charged accordingly.

The town  finished the sewer line going down Nicks Road that was not a part of the Berryhill sewer project a few years back.

The town  sold 140 North Main Street this past year in hopes that the new owners will be bringing a new business to town.

A new Norwood Logo was added to all of the towns vehicles and website for branding.

We were able to stucco and concrete 122/124 North Main street property that the town had purchased and demolished. The town started a weekly farmers market in that reclaimed space last August which ran until November and opened back this year in March. The farmers market has been very successful and brought more foot traffic and life to the uptown area. We have hosted a craft fair in the market space as well and have had a food vendor set up almost every week during the farmers market.

This past year we were able to acquire the old Suntrust Bank building, renovate and move our Norwood Town Hall to this new location. New and updated software and computers were purchased and installed in the new building. We rented the building for a few months and have now been able to purchase this property for $200,000 which is significantly less than the asking price since the property has been for sale.

The town was able to purchase one new police car this year and add one full time officer to our police dept. The police dept added a K9 (Ajax) to their staff at no cost to the town. Drug forfeiture money of about $14000 was used to pay for this dog and the training.

Norwood had its first Winter Wonderland sledding event this past winter. We had vendors there and the sledding was free for all of the public. This event well  exceeded our expectations and was completely free to the town as the event was funded by donations of the local  businesses. We would like to make this event a yearly event in the future.
Speaking of the Darrell Almond Park, the town was able to replace the pier over the pond as well as one of the bridges with composite decking, rails and caps this year. This has added to the looks as well as the safety of the park and we plan to make more improvements this next year starting with replacing the bridge on the back side of the track. We had the disc golf course evaluated and was told that this course was not safe or up to regulated play. We have since had the baskets at this disc golf course removed and are now planning a new course to be designed and installed on the park at Turner Street. We are looking at outdoor exercise stations that we might be able to use on the concrete pads around the walking trail at the darrell almond park so that these pads are not being wasted. We did have some issues with the pond at the park and now have a adequate overflow for the pond to drain under the bridge into the creek.

LED lights were added to the Volleyball courts on Turner Street to allow for night time play.

A kiosk was added to the Blue water Kayak Launch on hwy 52 South. This shows the boaters a clearer map of the blue way.

The town has spent almost $100,000 this year at the wastewater plant. We spent $80,000 in tree removal at the plant as well as having the road widened going down to the plant. Another $15,000 was spent in other physical improvements at the wastewater plant. We approved and are in the process of installing a new generator at the wastewater plant. Ours has not worked in some time and had to be started manually. The new installation will be wired to automatically come on in the case of a power failure. We had to repair damage to clarifiers at wastewater plant and have now received a study by Willis Engineering giving us a clearer indication of immediate needs and long term needs at the wastewater plant so that we can continue making repairs and improvements to this treatment plant.

This year we also continued investing in our water treatment plant. This plant is in a lot better shape than the wastewater treatment plant but we still have to maintain and continue to provide upgrades. We did allocate for the second year in a row $150,000 in physical improvements at the water treatment plant this year and will continue to make improvements. The public health and quality of our drinking water is something that our board will not compromise.

The town was able to supply better water lines to some residents in Norwood this past year. The board voted to replace these lines in phases as these citizens had near no pressure in their household water. Replacements of lines were completed on Dale and Richardson Roads. The remainder of Richardson and Dupree will be replaced this next year as budgeted.

Our fire dept did an outstanding job at their inspection this past year and the town’s insurance rating when from a 6 to a 4 in the city limits.

The current board passed the brunch bill allowing alcohol to be sold beginning at 10am on Sundays in Norwood.

The board reached out to the DOT to request the speed limit be changed to 35 mph from the bridge on 52 South passed New Finish to slow traffic down coming in and out of town.

The board named a new deputy clerk this year, Carmen Salmon. She has been a true asset to our office staff at the town hall.

After much delay from the audit due for 16/17 year, this audit was finally completed. We have now hired a new auditor and this firm has just finished the 17/18 audit which is being reviewed by the LGC and will soon be available to the public.

The town also adopted a proclamation this past year to become a sister city with Jouarre France where one of our own veterans from Norwood was killed in the line of duty.

The board contracted with Uwharrie Planners this past year to update and review all of our zoning ordinances. This was presented and was approved  the board.

In closing, I am happy to report all of the progress that has been made in the last year in the town of Norwood. As we present this years budget, this board still has many needed improvements and projects in their sites and hope to accomplish even more this year than the last.

We appreciate all of our citizens and we want Norwood to continue to grow and prosper in order to provide a better community for all of us to live and raise our children. We look to improve the services we provide to our citizens and continue to update our town for the next generation.

Sincerely,

Linda Campbell – Mayor Pro Tem