Editor’s Note: I often say to my readers regarding the shenanigans of the Cleveland County School Board, (The CCC BoT and Commissioners meetings are NOT recorded) “Don’t believe a word that I say, watch the video!” This time I say to every reader, don’t believe a word that I say, just follow the Railroad tracks!! As for me, I believe every word in this article is 100% true.
Folks, a lot has changed since I first started exposing corruption in governmental agencies in Cleveland County. My first major exposure of corruption involved the Cleveland County Commissioners deciding to get themselves involved in a land “flip” on property near the County Landfill. It went like this:
The commissioners developed a scheme based on an exaggerated claim that they needed more land to expand the landfill. (Remember, this was 25+ years ago) A middleman went over to Gardner-Webb and bought an “option” to purchase a large tract of land bequeathed to G_W in the Will of farmer Ralph Gardner to Gardner-Webb that adjoined the landfill. Gardner-Webb agreed to sell a 180 day “option” to purchase that land for $10,000, forgetting that Ralph Gardner’s will was contingent on Gardner-Webb not selling the land to the county for use as a landfill.
The Commissioner Chairman at that time was Joe Cabiness. Joe was also a Trustee at Gardner-Webb. Being a County Commissioner as well as being on the Gardner-Webb Board of Trustees meant that Cabiness, the Commissioners and the G-W Board knew everything and nothing illegal or wrong was going to happen. Right??
Wrongggg!!!
The Middleman transferred ownership of the option to Robert Morgan. A well-connected former State Senator from Cleveland County. To keep everything above board the option was recorded at the Cleveland County’s Register of Deeds Office.
Then Gardner-Webb transfers the deed to the Ralph Gardner tract to Robert Morgan and the Deed is time stamped. Exactly one minute later the Robert Morgan Deed (which had been changed to only include a part of the Ralph Gardner tract) is transfers to Cleveland County at double the price. Later the rest of the is property is purchased by Cleveland County at an inflated price as well as Robert Morgan gets to cut and sell all the timber from both plots.
All of this was recorded at the Register of Deed’s Office and fully reported by me a long time ago. And what did the perpetrators of this fraud on Gardner-Webb as well as Cleveland County taxpayers learn from my reports? To go straight and legal??? NOOOOoo! What they learned was to NEVER officially record the evidence of their crimes were the only lessons learned from this particular fraud. And there were more frauds after that, but that is not the subject of this article. The purpose of this article, 25+ years later, is to describe a more sophisticated bunch of crooks doing their more sophisticated crooked dealings. This particular article describes a very sophisticated and complex scam on the people of Shelby and Cleveland County that took a while to figure out.
And here it is. The $13.2 million Rail-Trail that runs from near downtown Shelby all the way through Shelby, Patterson Springs and Earl. With future plans to include the Thread Trail and run them all to the South Carolina State line. If you follow the Norfolk-Southern Railroad tracks from downtown Shelby heading South, what do you see? Economically depressed areas with a mostly a black population. If you follow the Thread Trail from the Hospital area heading South to join the Rail-Trail, what do you see?? Economically depressed areas with a mostly black population.
Then, still heading South, you find the trail routes coming upon Willie Green’s proposed Shelby Sports Complex property, on around between Holly Oak Park, and Shelby High School. Since Mr. Green purchased his prime property for the purpose of building a sports complex, the long-neglected and drug infested Holly Oak Park suddenly generated interest within the Shelby City Council and the County Commissioners. Several hundreds of thousands of tax dollars suddenly poured in from the City of Shelby AND the Commissioners to spruce the place up. Why County tax dollars ($80,000) were spent on the Shelby park is still a mystery that the Commissioners refuse to explain in believable terms. Then the trails turn toward Patterson Springs and Earl, with later plans to head over to the South Carolina line at Grover.
The official “propaganda” from Shelby and the Commissioners is this Rail-Trail will ad another mode of transportation, walking or by bicycle, from Patterson Springs and Earl to downtown Shelby. To shop, etc. The question arises, what nitwit is going to walk or ride a bicycle from Earl to downtown Shelby to do anything on a regular basis? Rain or shine? Hot or cold? Especially through the slum areas along most of the way–where shootings, murders, drugs, violence and robbery are everyday occurrences?
In the meantime, according to the Shelby Star’s recent articles, the City of Shelby has already begun negotiations with Norfolk southern Railroad to purchase the railroad’s rights of way. Also, additional property along the routes has been TAKEN from 150 plus property owners. According to the Star, 50 of those property owners have filed two lawsuits, with perhaps many more lawsuits coming in, to collect additional money from the Federal Government for an adequate compensation for the property that Shelby has seized from the people.
Whoaaaa!!! Folks, lets go back a bit to get the big picture here. The Thread Trail and the Rail Trail are touted by Shelby and the County as beneficial to the overall benefit of everybody in Cleveland County. So, such a project is considered a “public purpose” which enables Shelby and the County to force property owners to sell their land to Shelby or the County at prices the city or county could easily set on the low end of the real value. And, while we are looking at the big picture, notice that the trail routes include much of the slum areas in and around Shelby. The vast majority of those living in those areas are black.
Are you beginning to smell something fishy going on??? Then, take into account that Shelby has already starting seizing and demolishing abandoned houses along these trail routes.
An old pattern is starting to appear. Many large cities and smaller cities have for years sited public development projects right square in the middle of slum areas. Moved the black communities out, bulldozed down everything and built their big and expensive projects. Everything considered, this Thread and Rail Trail project is Shelby’s version of “Racial Cleansing.” Move the black folks outside of Shelby so their kids go to Burns and Crest. Which would “whiten-up” the Shelby population, Schools and voter lists. And reduce crime in Shelby and increase crime somewhere else in the process. Many in Shelby would applaud this effort.
But there is more. Much more. This Rail-Trail and Thread Trail program is a hoax. And a scam. A hoax and a fraud on everybody, especially all the taxpayers. A “smokescreen”. A Lie. A deception. A “Racial Cleansing of Shelby!!! Once you get the idea, the reality of what is being done and the methods, the BIG Picture; it Becomes clear as a bell.
