This articles is based on information straight from the horse’s mouth. Or perhaps the other end of the horse. You decide that.
Go to the official Cleveland County North Carolina internet website. Click on “Home Page.” Go down about half of the page under “Business Climate.”
The Commissioner’s propaganda about business says compact discs (Polygram) and ceramic capacitor material are manufactured in Cleveland County. Well they used to be. Sony bought out Polygram and shut it down years ago. Kemet moved to Mexico and shut down their Cleveland County operations years ago. The Commissioners don’t even mention Copeland shutting down and moving back North. The first time in history a business has moved South and then moved back up North to all the labor unions. What does that tell you about the business climate in Cleveland County?
The Commissioners didn’t mention Bayliner Boats and Indian Motorcycles coming and going with all the hiring and firing. Add Hallelujah Acres to the list and others.
You don’t hear anything from the Crazy Commissioners and the even crazier (and secret) Economic Development “Partnership” about jobs that come and go. But at election time the Commissioners take credit for all the jobs that came in but never mention all the jobs that went away on their watch. The EDP does that all the time.
And most of all about the Bull-ony on the Commissioner’s website is the bit about 12,000 active job applications on file within a 25 mile radius of Shelby. DSS records indicate about 25,000 people are on Food Stamps in Cleveland County. Ask your Commissioners and the EDP why there are so many people (25%) unemployed or underemployed in the county? Ask why there is such a discrepancy in these numbers? Ask the Commissioners why they keep funding failed projects that cannot pay for themselves. The LeGrand Center. The Earle Scruggs Center. And especially ask why the Crazy Commissioners keep on covering up for the failed education system at Cleveland County Schools that flush with cash ($155 million per year) graduates almost half their students without teaching them how to read and write proficiently? I have already asked and they refuse to tell me. Maybe you will have better luck than I had. But I doubt it.
In the meantime, why don’t you demand the Commissioner’s to update their website to finally tell the truth about Cleveland County?
