03/28/2024
Bladenboro Town Hall
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By Blake Proctor

The Bladenboro Board of Commissioners, down a member until Lisa Levy gets sworn in next month to fill Rodney Hester’s seat, met at 2pm Tuesday the 22nd at the lot on S. Main Street where the Hester Building was recently demolished.

The problem? There are no aesthetics in the wall which may or may not be the south wall of The Medicine Shoppe, or which may or may not be the north wall of the old Hester building.; there are many bricks missing, especially in the front corner; there are nails galore sticking out of the first-floor bricks.

Rebecca Hester, The Medicine Shoppe’s owner is a frustrated and unhappy camper.

The major reason for the meeting was to view the problem and to consider some alternative solutions that may be satisfactory to Ms. Hester; the secondary purpose for the meeting was to discuss the lease proposal with John Deavers to rent the Old Depot under a mutually beneficial contract.

Meeting outside the purview of a called meeting, the six officials plus Town Administrator Oryan Lowry, informally talked about the deficiencies in the wall, discussed tentative solutions, and generally tossed ideas into a verbal hat. Each time, the question turned to who owned that wall.

Verifying ownership of the wall will assist in coming to a resolution of the matter and direct a solution amenable to all parties. Therefore, advised by several Commissioners that it was time to decide, Mayor Rufus Duckworth called the meeting to order at 2:35pm.

Commissioner Jeff Atkinson made a motion to retain a surveyor to establish if the wall belongs to the Medicine Shoppe or was part of the demolished Hester building. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Sara Benson, and carried unanimously.

A solution to the second Town-owned-building challenge was made by John Deavers at the December 14th meeting; Mr. Deavers had proposed to make substantial repairs to the building in lieu of a year’s rent. He and Mr. Lowry have been negotiating a contract, and Mr. Lowry has come to the Board for their approval.

On a motion by Commissioner Benson, with a second by Commissioner Stephanie Thurman, the Board unanimously approved a slightly-amended contract, subject to Mr. Deavers’ final approval.

With no further business until a land survey can be undertaken, the meeting adjourned at 2:47pm.

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