Valdese Council to meet Wednesday to consider hiring manager

The revolving door that has been the Valdese town manager’s office — with four people serving in the past year — may finally be spinning to a close.

The Valdese Town Council has called a special meeting for Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 9 a.m. to consider, according to Mayor Charlie Watts, the hiring of a new town manager.

Watts emphasized to The Paper that the meeting may not conclude with a hiring but might instead be “simply the beginning of a longer process.”

Watts said at this point that “no offers have been made and no contracts have been drawn up,” but did not rule out the possibility that a decision could be made on Dec. 11.

Because the called meeting will be expressly for discussing personnel matters, it will likely be conducted in executive session — meaning that town residents and the press will be barred from the meeting.

Under N.C. statutes, elected boards may meet behind closed doors to discuss a candidate’s qualifications but must make any hiring decisions with a public vote.

The town council scheduled the called meeting at the end of a closed-door session which came at the end of Monday evening’s regular December meeting.

Town Manager Seth Eckard was dismissed by the previous Valdese Town Council on Dec. 1, 2023, an action that occurred just before new council members Glenn Harvey, Gary Ogle, and Heather Ward took office.

The dismissal allowed Eckard to receive a “golden exit parachute” from the town, including his full vacation benefits.

Immediately upon taking office, the board’s new majority named Valdese resident Eddie Perrou, a retired industrial executive, to serve as interim town manager.

Perrou’s service lasted just over a month, as on Jan. 2, 2024, former Burke County manager Bryan Steen was named interim manager.

Steen served in the interim role until Aug. 23 of this year when Assistant Town Manager and Chief Financial Officer Bo Weichel was elevated to the interim manager’s role.

Weichel has also continued to serve as the town’s financial officer.

In other actions at Monday’s meeting:

Housing Project Not Supported

The developers of a proposed 60-unit apartment building downtown will have to find another source of funding.

Blue Ridge Housing of Burke had asked the town to issue $11 million in bonds to help finance the retrofitting and upgrade of the old Valdese Weavers mill at 108 Praley St.

The apartments were to be aimed at families earning between $32,000 and $40,000 per year.

Several council members expressed concern that the ceiling was too low, meaning that local teachers, law enforcement officers, and other young professionals would not be able to live there.

A brief public hearing on the bond issue saw only one person speak, town resident Rick McClurd. He said the town should support the project only if at least half the residents could have family incomes above the $40,000 mark.

At the end of the public hearing, Watts asked the council for a motion, but none was made, thus effectively killing the project or at least the town’s role in it.

July 4 Celebration

Valdese won’t have an early celebration of America’s birthday this year. Instead, all of the festivities will occur on Friday, July 4.

In years past the town had celebrated on the Friday prior to the Fourth to give town employees a day off on the holiday and to avoid conflicting with Morganton’s July 4 events.

At council’s instruction, however, the 2025 celebration will be on July 4 — a move that will cost the town roughly $40,000.

Weichel explained that the town will have to grant overtime pay to a number of employees for working on a holiday and that the price of the fireworks show will go up.

Weichel noted, however, that since the town has been without a permanent manager for more than a year and that he is doing double duty as interim manager and finance officer, those salary savings could be applied to the increased holiday expenses.

Although no vote was taken, the council tacitly agreed to let Weichel make that change in the budget.

Police/Fire Building Options to be Studied

As the town looks at new facilities for its police and fire departments, the council instructed Weichel to have a contractor explore three options:

• Renovation of a former law office at 215 Main St. E., to house the police department.
• Building a new police and fire department building on Massel Avenue.
• Building just a fire station on Massel Avenue if the renovation of the law office proves feasible.

Harvey had wanted to have the contractor look at the feasibility of housing the police department in town hall, but that motion was rejected by council members Lowman, Ward, and Ogle.