3.The map closely resembles the PRESENT Burns, Kings Mountain, Shelby and Crest High School attendance zones. But also showed a much more economical siting and construction plan for the future construction of three future High Schools to serve CLEVELAND COUNT than the present four high schools and their attendance zones. MORE on that later.
But, in this instance, Robert A, having that “leaked” information provided a clear understanding, in real time, of how the Commissioners were manipulated into continuing with corrupt practices in the garbage hauling “franchise” system in Cleveland County. Robert A also is old enough to remember way back when Cleveland County (outside of Shelby and Kings Mountain) had no county owned landfill or garbage pickup of any kind.
Residents would find and old 55-gallon drum and burn their trash as best they could. Or dump their trash in a big gully over on Sugar Hill Road. Other rural areas did the same thing.
Then, Upper Cleveland County entrepreneurs bought an old garbage truck from somewhere and started the Upper Cleveland County Sanitary Company, or something along those lines. They grew and grew over time to other areas in Cleveland County. They started their own privately owned landfill down near Grover. Somewhere along the line, the County built their first landfill over near the present location. A former brother-in-law worked at the landfill and a number of us would go over there on weekends to target practice. WAY before the “Foothills Shooting Range” was a thought in anybody’s mind. Later, a Health Department self-declared “Honcho” would set animal control caught cats loose over there and do some target practice of his own.
And, there was the landfill “land scam.” Back before the turn of the Century.
The land scam went down like this. Somebody in the County Government figured the first Cleveland County Landfill would be filling up soon and more land was required for expansion. Adjacent property previously owned by Mr. Ralph Gardner had been bequeathed to Gardner Webb University (GWU) upon Mr. Gardner’s death. A “Middleman” later approached GWU with an offer to purchase a 180 day “Option” on the old Gardner property for $10,000 at a certain price per acre. GWU accepted that offer. The Old Ralph Gardner Property was transferred to the Middleman, who in turn transferred the property to a former Cleveland County elected official, Robert Morgan. Exactly 60 seconds later most of the land was transferred to Cleveland County at over double the price that was paid to GWU. A little later the rest of the land was transferred to Cleveland County at the higher rate per acre in order to “square up” the property lines. Then Mr. Morgan was allowed to cut all the timber off the entire property. When Robert A published an article about this “land scam” the Chairman of the County Commissioners, Joe Cabiness, (who was also on the Board of Trustees at GWU) made the statement that all the steps taken during this land transaction were “performed in an ethical manner.” And NO prosecutions were ever made by the Cleveland County District Attorney.
But, folks, don’t believe me! All this is a public record all nice and recorded at the Register of Deeds office. Perhaps that original article will be re-printed sometime. There was one big change made in the way the corruption in selling property to Cleveland County was handled. The “Crooks” never-ever filed their paperwork at the Register of Deeds Office. And the middleman, option for purchase plan continues to this very day. And includes former County Officials. Latest being land purchases around the new Kings Mountain Casino. That is story for another day. And, the point here is that there has been corruption surrounding garbage disposal from day one in Cleveland County.
And this latest Cleveland County Solid Waste Franchise Agreement is no exception.
Like Robert A has previously stated, he received a “leaked” Request for Proposal (RFP) and read through it closely. This much was clearly obvious:
1.A statement in the RFP stated “This RFP is NOT mandated by Statute, Ordinance, County Policy, and the County reserves the right to, at any time, choose the contractor who best meets the needs of the county, as determined by the County in its sole discretion. This RFP process is designed to assist the County in choosing the best contractor to meet its needs.”
This very statement COMPLETELY leaves out the needs of the citizens as the customers who will be paying for the curbside pickup services to decide anything. Only a fool would sign up for such a service. Solid Waste curbside pickup service or anything else. Only a naïve and foolish company would waste their time and resources responding to this RFQ in the first place, unless they had inside information that they would get the franchise and could charge what they wanted and nobody could do a damn thing about it. Robert A. and everybody else would immediately smell a rat if they knew what the Commissioners (more likely the County Manager Brian Epley–as the Commissioners probably didn’t even read the small print like Robert A does.) were trying to pull off. But, hey, overseeing what the County Manager is doing is the Commissioner’s job. So, the COMMISSIONERS are ultimately responsible for making sure the County Manager is doing what he is supposed to. And when he doesn’t, the Commissioners are totally responsible for doing what it takes to find a County Manager that will do what he (or she) is tasked with doing. No monkey business and especially no unethical or corrupt behavior.
Also, there is nothing in the RFP that clearly defines what the needs of the county actually are. It is all in the eye of the beholder. And the beholder is County Manager Brian Epley.
The RFP also stated that this agreement would only cover unincorporated portions of Cleveland County.
