20130319 - Hickory City Council Audio

I wanted to get this audio out as soon as possible, because of what happened this night.

The main subject of this meeting was Video Taping Hickory City Council Meetings. Citizen David Crosby stood against the process along with Alderman Bruce Meisner and  Council subsequently voted to delay a vote on the video recording of meetings until after it examines the budget for next year.

Council approved of an Offer to Purchase and Contract from Habitat for Humanity of the Catawba Valley, Inc. to City of Hickory to Purchase Property Located at 159 12th Street Court SE, Hickory, in the Amount of $54,000

Alder Sally Fox spoke on the issue of a bill in the NC Legislature about the Overlay Districts in Historic Districts. This bill would limit cities to set their own policies.


The Hound is very much disappointed in Bruce Meisner. If he hasn't spoken to anyone who is in favor of videoing these meetings, then I suggest that he get outside of this little group he runs around with and frankly I don't care to hear about what his wife thinks from him again.

This is about transparency. Mr. Crosby can talk about the waste of money and only 30 people listening to this. This is the same David Crosby that wanted to shut down members of the CEG from passing out materials at the Saturday Farmer's Market when the referendum was taking place. Once again the oldsters going about trying to shut down Democracy in Hickory when it doesn't fit their criteria.

I've seen some nights over the last few years that certainly deserved video coverage. A few examples would be the nights when the battle over the pools were taking place. There were also a couple nights that involved moving the Farmer's Market from the Depot Parking Lot to Union Square. And of course there was the fiasco surrounding the structure on Union Square where they made it a Departmental Report so that Citizens couldn't speak. And there was the night when representatives of the CEG, with the help of Rebecca Inglefield, had items removed from the Consent Agenda and this is in my opinion is why the City hasn't dropped charges on Rebecca related to the incident at City Hall when they didn't want to be forthright about the cost figures related to the structure on Union Square.

You can go on and on. Yeah 30 people might start out watching it, but I can tell you that the number is more than that already. And if these meetings are televised, and something like what I pointed to above does happen, then there will be many more people paying attention.

Danny Seaver says "if they aren't going to be live, then what good are they." Well the deal is that they will be archived. On the Hound I have people looking at the old Newsletters related to what happened at City Council meetings back in 2008 and 2009. They are history and references and I would think a school teacher that I have heard so many people show appreciation to would understand such a concept. Mr. Seaver talked about by the time this is released it is old news and already been in the paper. God Bless Larry Clark and the HDR, but the limited articles produced in the Record do not convey what is happening at these meetings. I learned that when I started attending these meetings. Sometimes you need to eyeball some things yourself. It is all about checks and balances. The people are the government. They deserve to know what is going on.

The comments above were highly disappointing, but they are entitled to them. I personally don't think the Mural of Downtown needs to be removed. You can see it on the videos I have made and it is laughable to say it detracts from anything. What is getting old is the overuse of the "Well Crafted" logo and saying. It is called over saturation and y'all are beating it into the ground like some 1980s Loverboy song -- over and over and over again.

I appreciate the information provided by the City Inc. related to this video recording process and I think it is a great basis for the conversation moving forward. This is very important and if we have hundreds of thousand of dollars to spend on a glorified tent on Union Square and the other "priorities" I have seen over the past years, then we have a few thousand dollars to spend to have transparent and open government brought to the people. Mr. Crosby might want to take us back to 1938, but most of us understand the evolution of this world and trying to hold these realities back is hurting Hickory. The people like this are never going to get it. We will continue marching forward.

I ain't the one slapping your silly faces

Cyprus Americana



They take your money for their schemes and you just stand there with a **** eatin' grin.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- March 17, 2013

40 Ways That China Is Beating America - The End of The American Dream Blog - By Michael - February 10th, 2013 - China is wiping the floor with the United States on the global economic stage, and most Americans are so clueless that they have absolutely no idea what is happening.  The number one global economic superpower is in an advanced state of decline, and the number two global economic superpower is becoming stronger with each passing day.  Unless something truly dramatic happens, it is only a matter of time before China overtakes America and become the dominant economic force on the planet.  In fact, China is already exercising economic superiority over the United States in a whole host of ways.  China produces more goods than we do, China does more total trade in goods with the rest of the world than we do, China produces more cars than we do, China produces more gold than we do, China consumes more energy than we do, China produces more coal than we do and China produces more steel than we do.  Every single year, we buy far more from them than they buy from us, and this has made them exceedingly wealthy.  Our politicians regularly make trips over to China to beg them to lend us back some of the money that they have taken from us.  Today, we owe China more than a trillion dollars and the Chinese are sitting on the biggest pile of foreign currency reserves that the world has ever seen.  All of this wealth has fundamentally transformed the nation of China over the past couple of decades.  Just check out the startling photographs of China from space in this article that show how China dramatically changed between 1992 and 2010.  As China continues to become stronger and as America continues to become weaker, will our children some day wake up in a world where the Chinese are telling them what to do?                                China became the number one exporter of goods back in 2009, but now China has reached another milestone on the road to global economic dominance.
When you total up all exports of goods and all imports of goods, China now conducts more total trade in goods with the rest of the globe than the United States does.                        China’s emerging role as the dominant player in global trade is shaking things up all over the planet.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent Bloomberg article…

Obamacare will reduce U.S. employment - Commentary: Mandating health care will hurt workers - MarketWatch - Diana Furchtgott-Roth - March 15, 2013 - Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee gathered on Wednesday at a hearing of the health subcommittee to discuss the effects of the Affordable Care Act on jobs.                        As a witness at the hearing, chaired by Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts, I testified that the new law will reduce employment in America, particularly for low-skill workers, because employers face a higher cost of labor.

Whenever possible, firms will substitute high-skill for low-skill labor, part-time for full-time workers, machinery for people, and refrain from hiring a 50th worker, which can make them liable for penalties.                           Most people know by now that when ACA, also called “Obamacare” by its critics, is fully implemented in 2014, Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a tax. Firms with 50 or more employees will have to offer affordable health insurance to employees, or risk annual penalties of $2,000 or $3,000 per full-time worker. No penalties are owed on part-time workers, those working fewer than 30 hours a week.                      The basic health insurance plan required by the law is generous — and expensive — with no lifetime maximum benefit, no copayments for routine care, mandatory mental health and drug abuse coverage, and free contraceptives. These plans are more comprehensive than those provided now by many employers. Democratic members contended that ACA would not affect hiring...


Budget deficit jumps in February by $204 billion - USA Today - Christopher S. Rugaber - March 13, 2013 - The federal budget deficit jumped in February from January, though it is still running well below last year's pace. Higher taxes and an improving economy are expected to hold the annual deficit below $1 trillion for the first time since President Obama took office.                      The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit grew in February by $203.5 billion. That followed a small surplus of $2.9 billion in January. And February's gap was $28 billon smaller than the same month a year ago.                       Through the first five months of the budget year that began on Oct. 1, the deficit is $494 billion. That's nearly $87 billion lower than the budget gap for the same period a year ago.                    The Congressional Budget Office estimates the deficit will total $845 billion for the entire year. That would be down from $1.1 trillion in the 2012 budget year and the lowest since 2008.


How Your Retirement Package Compares to Members of Congress - CNBC - Paul O'Donnell - March 12, 2013 - While extending the payroll tax cut through the end of last year, members of Congress last fall took what many feel was a long overdue whack at the cost of their retirement plan. They bumped up the rate at which federal employees contribute to their pension plan, saving an estimated $15 billion over the next 11 years.                   They also made sure that none of the increase applied to themselves. Anyone in service before the law went into effect would pay into the pension plan at the old rate.                         For all the talk you hear from Capitol Hill about running government more like a business, Congress has a retirement plan that would make any Fortune 500 executive blush. Members can retire younger, having contributed fewer of their own dollars, than almost any worker in the country — even more than the generous terms other federal workers get.
At a time when traditional pensions are disappearing and many workers are struggling to save for retirement, the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS), an old-school defined benefit pension program, pays 215 former congressmen and women an average of $39,576, for an average of 16 years of service, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.                    That's about what the average private-sector worker makes in retirement from all sources after a lifetime of work, according to the Employees Benefits Research Institute. The average income that worker gets from a pension is about $8,800 — if they have one. In 2010, fewer than 15 percent of private sector employees were enrolled in a defined-benefit pension.

With Positions to Fill, Employers Wait for Perfection - New York Times - CATHERINE RAMPELL - March 6, 2013 - American employers have a variety of job vacancies, piles of cash and countless well-qualified candidates. But despite a slowly improving economy, many companies remain reluctant to actually hire, stringing job applicants along for weeks or months before they make a decision...                         The number of job openings has increased to levels not seen since the height of the financial crisis, but vacancies are staying unfilled much longer than they used to — an average of 23 business days today compared to a low of 15 in mid-2009, according to a new measure of Labor Department data by the economists Steven J. Davis, Jason Faberman and John Haltiwanger. 
                             As a result, employers are bringing in large numbers of candidates for interview after interview after interview. Data from Glassdoor.com, a site that collects information on hiring at different companies, shows that the average duration of the interview process at major companies like Starbucks, General Mills and Southwest Airlines has roughly doubled since 2010.


Barclays CEO Said to See 28% Staff Drop in Decade on Automation - Bloomberg - Howard Mustoe - March 7, 2013 - Barclays Plc (BARC) Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins told some of the lender’s shareholders that the company may shed almost a third of its workforce over the next decade as automation and online banking cut the need for staff, two people familiar with the conversations said.                  Jenkins, 51, discussing the long-term future of the bank in meetings with shareholders, said the London-based lender could foresee reducing staff levels by 28 percent to about 100,000 over a period of about 10 years, according to the people, who declined to be identified as the discussions were private.


Wall Street: $474 Million, Detroit: 0 - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden March 17, 2013 - The more time passes, the more skeletons emerge from the closet.  So what’s the punishment for an industry that has literally destroyed countless communities across the American landscape?  Trillions in taxpayer bailouts and even more control over our government.  They say “it would’ve been much worse without the bailouts.”  Tell that to Detroit.  From Bloomberg:

The only winners in the financial crisis that brought Detroit to the brink of state takeover are Wall Street bankers who reaped more than $474 million from a city too poor to keep street lights working.

The city started borrowing to plug budget holes in 2005 under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was convicted this week on corruption charges. That year, it issued $1.4 billion in securities to fund pension payments. Last year, it added $129.5 million in debt, 9.3 percent of its general-fund budget, in part to repay loans taken to service other bonds.

“We have no lights, no buses, poor streets and now we’re paying millions of dollars a year on our debt,” said David Sole, a retired municipal worker and advocate for Moratorium Now Coalition, a Detroit group that fights foreclosures and evictions. “The banks said they need to be paid first. But there is no money.”

Jaw-Dropping Crimes of the Big Banks - Washington Blog - March 14, 2013


An economy of peak food stamp usage, peak Dow, and peak Debt: What does it say about our economy that at the same time the Dow Jones hits a peak, we have the highest percentage of Americans on food stamps? - mybudget360 -  It is a dichotomy that speaks to the current state of our economy.  Food stamp usage has peaked at the very same time that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is setting new highs.  Of course, the Dow is setting new nominal highs but still has a way to go to catch up to the eroding effects of inflation.  You have to really ask how is it possible that at a time where so much financial wealth is available that so many people, over 47 million people in our country, are relying on food assistance just to get by.  Where is all the wealth going?  The financial system has been propped up with trillions of dollars of bailouts and loan programs and has allowed the same kind of speculation that caused our serial bubbles to once again emerge.  Many people are speculating in places like Las Vegas and Arizona and crowding out your typical family simply looking to buy a simple home or find a rental.  The fact that we are facing a peak in food stamp usage and seeing a new high with the Dow is very telling in the sense that it shows that we are truly becoming a society with a smaller middle class.                           The actual number is 47,791,966 Americans that now receive food assistance.  What the media does not convey is that the stock market is largely not a true indicator of health for the underlying economy.  Few Americans own any significant amount of financial wealth.  Most Americans rely on actual jobs to live and support their family.  Many of these companies are increasingly earning higher profits by slashing wages, cutting benefits, and earning profits from their business abroad.  What the press does not tell you is the standard of living for many Americans has moved backwards over the last few decades.  Median household income is now back to levels last seen in the mid-1990s.


US Plans to Let Spy Agencies Scour Americans’ Finances - Newsmax MoneyNews - March 13, 2013 -  The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.                     The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial data banks, criminal records, and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.                      Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of “suspicious customer activity,” such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).  
                   

Webster Tarpley ~ America moving towards Financial Fascism

Greed will fail in the end!

You know, when the Referendum on Ward Specific Voting took place here in Hickory, the members of the Citizens for Equity in Government were accused of being associated with ACORN by a couple of real nuts from the opposition and we know who put them up to it.  It didn't matter that ACORN no longer exists.  It was about the end justifying the means. It was about winning through fear and not worrying about the consequences.

I understand the political process and I understand the win at all costs mentality... the scorched earth mentality. We were accused of scorched earth, when the reality is that the opposition meant that we had forced them into scorched earth. That was their choice not ours. They were saying that our role is to sit back and accept their dictates and keep our mouths shut and know our role. There is no room for us to participate unless we endorse whatever their decisions.

Some people come unhinged when their authority is challenged. They want to control everything and when they feel they are losing that perceived grip, then they become so unhinged that their minds escape reality. Makes me appreciate my sobriety each day more and more.

I've been a Republican since I was a kid. It used to P.O. my grandfather, who was born in 1920 and raised in Hudson and moved to Hickory with my Grandmother in 1943 to work for the railroad company. He was a lifelong Democrat who bragged about being Senator Sam Ervin's cousin. As most of the older folks know, most of the people around here were Democrats and that didn't start changing until around the time of Richard Nixon.

My Grandfather told me it was unacceptable to be a Republican, because they represented the rich and didn't care about working class people. But, I looked and saw as many fat cats in the Democrat Party as the Republican and I lived through the Economic Malaise of the 1970s that mimicked a lot of what we see now. High Inflation, Gas prices doubling, High Unemployment, and a general uncertainty about the future.

My grandmother, who passed away a year and a half ago at the age of 97, over the years conveyed the reasoning behind hating the Republicans, although in 1984 she had decided to join us. It all boils down to the Civil War between the States. The Rebellion and the succeeding Reconstruction changed the economic model of the South forever. The Agrarian Economy, based mainly on King Cotton, wilted without indentured and slave labor. The South suffered through basically no economic growth until the end of the Second World War -- basically a Depression of over 75 years (four generations).


You wonder why southerners from that generation hated Northerners? It may have been unjustified to a certain degree, but think about your parents and grandparents etching in your mind about your uncles dying and losing property because of the Depressed Economy and having your community occupied by northern soldiers and administrators. Think about the plight of most southern common folks, living at a subsistence level for generation after generation and the poverty that came along with that. Do you wonder why there was this animosity?

The old Southern plantation owning Elite, who were able to survive the Civil War and Reconstruction, moved their assets into the Industrial model. Instead of shipping cotton to the North for textiles, why not produce those finished goods/products here in the South, "we've got plenty of cheap labor here." At the same time, they told the commoners that it was all those Republican Northern busy bodies that were keeping you poor. See the old system worked better. And this ends up pitting the poor White Man against the Poor Black Man.

After Reconstruction, with more of an Industrial model set up here in the south, and the Elites from before the Civil War reclaiming their power, the White Sharecroppers were moved into the factories and the Black Slaves were moved into the sharecropper role.  I guess they considered that upward mobility. None of these poor common people really received freedom. They just received a new brand of indentured servitude, but I guess that was better than the hand-to-hand slaughter the Elite had sent them into from 1861 to 1865.

My grandmother told me about how her family was fortunate. My Grandmother's father died in 1918 when she was four years old. He was a doctor and was going around taking care of patients when he contracted an illness,  the flu epidemic of that year. Being a doctor then was completely different than today. He basically bartered his services for the poor. Doctors, though having more wealth than most, didn't have the wealth compared to the general populace that they do today. And their job was a lot more precarious then than it is today with modern medicine. So when he passed, my Great Grandmother Bessie had the debts that my Great Grandfather had accrued, but like most women then she didn't have a job,  and she lost the home and the entire family had to move back to that main farm house with her family.

My Grandmother Martha grew up with rheumatic fever and subsequently had to miss two years of school. She told me stories. The kids didn't get shoes all that often, usually to start the school year they would get a pair. Well, not long after one school year started they were walking home after school and playing around and she had taken off her new shoes to play. A storm came along and washed the shoes away down the drain culvert. She told me about how she went and hid, but she couldn't escape the spanking she was due for losing those shoes and she never forgot about taking care of your stuff afterwards.

She also told me how they were so fortunate, because they lived on that farm. She said, we didn't have much money, nobody did, but at least we had food. Mama (my great grandmother Bessie) would fix them Hand Biscuits with Cured Ham or something else like that for them to take to school. My Grandmother would trade those biscuits for what the kids were eating at school, because those kids cherished that type of food that was a luxury to them.  The school meal generally consisted of something such as soup and a cheese sandwich. The school meals were along the lines of getting something in the kid's belly and they weren't worried about the food pyramid. That was the type of person my Grandmother was and that is the way I was raised and why I don't understand the gluttons I have come across in my life.

I remember my Great Grandmother and her family well and I remember that food well. I got to know what real baked Macaroni and Cheese was made from real milk and real cheese, not that processed corporate bull that they call mac and cheese today. When the older folks died, the farm was sold off to a developer and all of that history is basically gone now.  My Great Grandmother Bessie died in 1975. She was born in 1879.  My Aunt Lela died in 1986 at the age of 93, she was the last from that generation left. We aren't that far removed. My Paternal Great Grandfather was born in the 1850s. These people lived through all of this.

I know that some of you find it hard to believe that this country is going to head backwards or towards an economy with no growth that lasts generations, but the writing is on the wall. It will be different this time, because no one is used to living at a subsistence level to the degree that they did in that period from the 1860s to the 1940s - hell, it really goes back further than that.

Preparation and survival are the name of the game and when I see the few hours of television that I watch every week, I don't get a sense that the Powers That Be want the general populace to take notice of this slow slide backwards that most of us have experienced over the past decade. They don't want you to prepare. They want you to see those $60,000 cars and million dollar homes and pop a pill culture, thinking that if you just stay in the Rat Race that it will all be yours some day. So go get that 7-year loan for that car and take out another mortgage on that house cause happy days are here again. That is until the next bubble bursts. The fact is that for the most part, you don't stand a chance. You need to be preparing as though you may not have a job tomorrow, because you may not have a job tomorrow.

When we look to how things are different today than the post Civil War South, we see that many of the concepts we have today have evolved. Where we had Soup lines back then, today we have the WIC program. Where we had indentured and slave labor then, today we have immigration issues to keep the wages suppressed. We still have the Elite, who no longer own plantations, but have Investment portfolios that support the same principle. Mainly the principles of greed and cronyism that have always been prevalent to the culture. They hide behind the theory that it is Capitalism,  but it is only Free Market Capitalism when it suits the people on top's interests. When the people on top get in a bind, they don't mind manipulating the Public Trust to help bail themselves out. And we all know the true definition of what such a Political, Social, and Economic Model truly is.

The Economic model of this nation after World War Two wasn't perfect, but it was always enough to propel us forward. It was always enough to support the egalitarian principle that through hard work that one could attain upward mobility, but slowly that is withering away and as this happens to our Economic Engine, the growth of this nation is coming to a standstill.

Our young people are heading towards becoming cannon fodder for the elite, as has happened before. We aren't creating enough jobs in the private sector to support a labor model of growth. The oldest generations aren't retiring and leaving the workforce, because they can't afford to and maintain the Standard of Living they have grown accustomed to. So the middle class and poor  youngsters aren't going to have any other choice, but to go to the military or join some soon to be created civilian domestic force. By any other name, that is a new model of indentured servitude.

At the same time, we have also outsourced the cheap labor model to the Third World nations leaving us Economically vulnerable in a multitude of ways. This has become a National Security issue when it comes to United States Sovereignty. To keep the growth coming to the very few, we turn a blind eye towards the slave like practices happening in other countries that we would never accept here. The elite are essentially telling us that if we would accept some of those practices here that they would be willing to bring some of those jobs back home. To that I, and the vast majority of us, would say No Thanks.

You see, there are many of us that are not going to lay down and accept some fate that someone else has chosen for us. I'm not better than anyone else and no one else is better than me. That is what the foundations of the principles of liberty are based upon. The politicians can continue to participate in this crony game, but this will end very badly. If you aspire to greatness, you will get closer to it than if you push forward this notion that most of us should resign ourselves to accepting less of a life. If you aspire to me, me, me... Well, throughout history, all of the great Dictators and Tyrannical systems that aspired to create a pyramid of perfection through authoritarian control have failed. What makes anyone think that a new system of self indulgence is going to succeed where these others have failed? Greedy control mechanisms always collapse in the end.

Newsletter about the City Council meeting of March 5, 2013

This newsletter is about the Hickory City Council meeting that I attended this past week. City council meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each Month in the Council Chambers of the Julian Whitener building.

At right of this page under Main Information links is an Hickory's City Website link. If you click on that link, it takes you to our city’s website, at the left of the page you will see the Agenda's and Minutes link you need to click. This will give you a choice of PDF files to upcoming and previous meetings.

You will find historic Agenda and Minutes links. Agendas show what is on the docket for the meeting of that date. The Minutes is an actual summary of the proceedings of the meeting of that date.

Here is a summary of the agenda of the 3/5/2012 meeting. There were a couple of important items that were discussed at this meeting and the details are listed further below:

Please remember that pressing Ctrl and + will magnify the text and page and pressing Ctrl and - will make the text and page smaller. This will help the readability for those with smaller screens and/or eye difficulties.

City Website has changed - Here is a link to the City of Hickory Document Center

All materials and maps for this meeting are provide at this link: 

City Council Action Agenda - March 5, 2013


Invocation by Alderman Danny Seaver (:45)



Special Presentations
A. Hickory Public Schools “Art Well Crafted” (2:30) - This was a presentation and recognition of art created by students of the Hickory Public School System.

B. Presentation of a Proclamation to Claire Elyse McCrea - This young lady is a 7th grader and a Straight A student who won the school, public school system, and regional Spelling B's and she will participate in the National Spelling B in Washington D.C. She will be honored on May 26, 2013.

C. Presentation of FY 2013-2014 Board and Commission Work Plans

Board/Commission Presenter
1. Library Advisory Board - Kathy Ivey - (17:50)
2. Citizens’ Advisory Committee - Mike Holland - (20:20)
3. Community Appearance Commission - Leroy Harris - ( 21:55)
4. Community Relations Council - David Walker and Ray Cerda- (25:00)
5. Hickory International Council - Hani Nassar - (32:35)
6. Hickory Regional Planning Commission - Brian Frazier - (39:00)
7. Hickory Youth Council - Hayden Frye - (40:25)
8. Historic Preservation Commission - Zack Taylor - (43:25)
9. Parks and Recreation Commission - Tony Wood - (46:45)
10. Public Art Commission - David Zagaroli- (53:55)
11. Recycling Advisory Board - Norm Meres (Chuck Hanson substituted)- (58:50)
12. Business Development Committee - Alan Jackson - (1:05:50)

(1:14:45) - Mayor Pro-Tem Hank Guess made a motion to allow people to speak to an item on the agenda, which was seconded by Alderman Lail and then unanimously approved by the City Council.

Citizen James Franklin Davis asked to speak about an item not on the agenda and was granted the request. He spoke about issues in the Ridgeview community involving a Barbershop Owner and his patrons not being allowed to smoke on the sidewalk in front of the business and about a man who raises funds for his daughters medical expenses by selling food and being bothered by certain police officers who said that he was playing loud music. Mr. Davis says that there was no one around the location that would have complained.


Consent Agenda: (1:21:10)

A. Special Event/Activities Application for Drum Circles, Mandy Pitts, Communications Director/Brand Manager, on March 9, April 13, May 11, June 8, July 13, August 10, September 14, 2013 from 3:15 pm until 6:30 pm in Downtown Hickory Under The Sails. 

B. Approval of a Maintenance Agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. - The City and North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) have had an agreement since 1994 for the City to perform maintenance on certain NCDOT streets. This allows the City to better manage the “Entrance Ways” into Hickory and provide a more timely response to requests and problems. The City of Hickory will receive up to $140,000 annually for approved work performed on NCDOT roadways. The City tracks the work performed and bills NCDOT quarterly for reimbursement.

C. Approval of a Resolution Accepting the Street Right-of-Way of 13th Avenue Drive SE and 21st Street Lane SE. - In 2007, as part of the development of commercial property located at the southwest corner of Interstate 40 and McDonald Parkway SE, two street segments were constructed on existing publicly owned right of way containing 2.88 acres, which are known as 13th Street Drive SE and 21st Street Lane SE. With the completion of the new streets, the City of Hickory is now responsible for maintenance of these public assets. The North Carolina General Statues, as well as the City’s Land Development Code, require that street rights-of-way be officially accepted for public use by resolution of the elected governing body.

D. Approval of Auditing Contract with Martin Starnes & Associates. - The City of Hickory has utilized the services of Martin Starnes & Associates for the past four years with excellent results. Martin Starnes & Associates offers a competitive rate for their services and is widely known for their professional staff and service throughout the local government community. City Council’s Audit Committee supports approval to accept a three year renewal via three annual contracts for auditing services with Martin Starnes & Associates in the amount of $43,000 for the audit and $7,000 for the preparation of the annual financial statements.

E. Approval of a Resolution Approving the City of Hickory Water Shortage Response Plan.- North Carolina General Statute requires all Public Water Systems to have a Local Water Supply Plan that is intended to give a report of the water system current demands and a project for future demands. In 2012, North Carolina General Statute 143-355 (I) was amended to require public water systems to develop Water Shortage Response Plan to respond to drought conditions and other water shortage emergencies. The City of Hickory Water Shortage Response Plan has been reviewed by NCDENR and has been found to be in compliance with NCGS 143-355 (I).

F. Approval of a Resolution Approving the Town of Catawba Water Shortage Response Plan.- North Carolina General Statute requires all Public Water Systems to have a Local Water Supply Plan that is intended to give a report of the water system current demands and a project for future demands. In 2012, North Carolina General Statute 143-355 (I) was amended to require public water systems to develop Water Shortage Response Plan to respond to drought conditions and other water shortage emergencies. The City of Hickory owns and operates the Town of Catawba Public Water System, therefore, the City must approve the Water Shortage Response Plan for this public water system as well. The Town of Catawba Water Shortage Response Plan has been reviewed by NCDENR and has been found to be in compliance with NCGS 143-355 (I).


G. Budget Ordinance Amendment Number 14. -
1. To budget a $15,300 reimbursement check from Catawba County in the Water and Sewer Division-Water Lines account. Catawba County is reimbursing Public Utilities for a waterline extension to serve a fire hydrant for the Propst Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department. This request was due to a catastrophic fire in the area that resulted in a total loss of one business. Extending the water line will enable the VFD to access a hydrant in the general area without having to close Hwy 10 and detour traffic. Catawba County Utilities and Engineering requested the City of Hickory Public Utilities Division design, permit and bid the project under the Waterline Extension Policy.


New Business - Departmental Reports:

1. (1:21:40) Approval of a Vacant Building Revitalization and Demolition Grant for Property Located at 391 10th Avenue Drive NE, in the Amount of $30,000. - Applicants Bruce H. McNeely and Melissa W. McNeely have applied for a Vacant Building Revitalization Grant in the amount of $30,000 to assist in the renovation of the former Simmons Hosiery Mill located at 391 10th Avenue Drive NE. The applicant plans to invest approximately $450,000 in real property improvements to renovate the facility for use as office and storage space.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- March 10, 2013

Economics that Idiots even ought to understand...


Corporate Profits after taxes at all time high

Meanwhile, wages as a percentage of GDP at an all time low... 

Civilian Employment to Population Ratio... 

M1 Money Supply (leads to inflation - money chasing Goods)...

Household Debt

The Last Time The Dow Was Here... - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - March 5, 2013 -

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
• Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
• GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
• Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
• Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
• Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
• US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
• US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
• Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
• US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
• Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
• Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6

The American Middle Class Under Stress - Sherle R. Schwenninger and Samuel Sherraden - New America Foundation - PDF


The Recession's Toll: How Middle Class Wealth Collapsed to a 40-Year Low - The Atlantic - Jordan Weissmann - December 4, 2012 -  I'm about to share a statistic that you should remember every time you think about the Great Recession, and why the recovery has been so painstaking. It's going to illustrate precisely how devastating the downturn was for your typical American family and the size of the hole we've been trying to dig ourselves out of.                     Ready? Here goes: Between 2007 and 2010, the median net worth of U.S. households fell by 47 percent, reaching its lowest level in more than forty years, adjusted for inflation. In other words, middle class wealth virtually evaporated in this country. A good chunk of the population got sucked through a financial wormhole back to the sixties.

There were two big reasons why the middle class suffered disproportionately. First, the economic crisis was first and foremost a housing crisis, and homes are by far the biggest store of wealth for most middle-class Americans (who are shown in green below). In fact, even after the housing crash, home equity still made up 66.6 percent of middle class assets -- higher than in the late 1990s. 

Because the wealthy were never as deeply in hock as the middle class, their finances didn't suffer as much when the economy soured....

The difference between this Media Source and the Kool-Aid Media

20130305 - Hickory City Council - Audio File

The following is the Hickory Hound audio of the Hickory City Council meeting of March 5, 2013. I will get the video version up as soon as possible, but I wanted to go ahead and get this up. I had hoped that the city's version would be out sooner.



Special Presentations
    A.     Hickory Public Schools “Art Well Crafted”
    B.    Presentation of a Proclamation to Claire Elyse McCrea

Presentation of FY 2013-2014 Board and Commission Work Plans
    Board/Commission    Presenter
1.    Library Advisory Board    Kathy Ivey
2.    Citizens’ Advisory Committee    Mike Holland
3.    Community Appearance Commission    Leroy Harris
4.    Community Relations Council    David Walker and Ray Cerda
5.    Hickory International Council    Hani Nassar
6.    Hickory Regional Planning Commission    Brian Frazier
7.    Hickory Youth Council    Hayden Frye
8.    Historic Preservation Commission    Zack Taylor
9.    Parks and Recreation Commission    Tony Wood
10.    Public Art Commission    David Zagaroli
11.    Recycling Advisory Board    Norm Meres
12.    Business Development Committee    Alan Jackson