By Tiffany Thompson, Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 — Ray Quick, mayor for the town of Red Cross, announced Monday night that fellow Coumcilman Darice Greene was resigning from the board.
Greene was elected to the council in November 2007 by 67 ballots, or nearly 46 percent of the votes and served for almost a year before citing personal reasons for his decision to resign.
“I regret that this was the decision because he (Greene) has a lot of good qualities to bring to the council,” Quick said.
Greene’s resignation presents a concern for the Red Cross Town Council as they are now short a member.
Quick said he has talked with the Stanly County Board of Elections, as well as the North Carolina Council of Government (COG).
“In the interim, we (the council) will appoint someone to fill Greene’s position,” Quick said.
This decision was based on a suggestions made by member of COG.
Whom ever the council appoints will serve until the next election in November 2009.
This also presents an issue for the town as there would normally be two names on the ballot, but the addition of Greene’s seat will add a name bringing the total to three.
The town would have to decide if the top-two vote getter in the 2009 election will serve for four years while the third only serves for two.
Or would Greene’s seat be seen as a separate position that will only serve two years.
“We have yet to decide what direction we will take. We’re still considering our options for who to replace him, but we hate to see him leave,” Quick said.
Also during the meeting, Quick announced that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has extended the time frame for Red Cross to prepare their landuse and growth plans.
The extension has been made to give Red Cross two years to complete these plans.
Red Cross needs these plans to participate in the Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) that was originally supposed to include Red Cross and Oakboro.
“When the plan originally started, it was to include both us and Oakboro, but because of the newness of our town, we don’t have a lot of the plans in place that we need in order to complete the plan,” Quick said.
With the extension comes the separation of Red Cross from Oakboro’s CTP.
“This gives us some breathing room to get these plans done. They are both important to how this town operates,” Quick said.
Contact Tiffany Thompson at (704) 982-2121 ext. 24 or snaponline24@carolina.rr.com. snaponline24@carolina.rr.com.
