The Mint Hill Times

News14 profiles Independence High School pitcher Taylor Cook. The junior said he likes to throw strikes on the mound–and in the bowling alley.

The Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee of the Town of Mint Hill will meet tonight at  6:30 p. in the John M. McEwen Assembly Room, Mint Hill Town Hall. The called meeting will provide the opportunity for Committee members to continue working with representatives of the Town’s consulting firm, HNTB, toward developing a Comprehensive Land Use Plan for the Town of Mint Hill.

As the Mint Hill Times has reported since 2008, former unaffiliated Dist. 103 candidate Mark Brody is challenging the way North Carolina allows third parties access to ballots. In 2008, Brody collected signatures of 4 percent of registered voters so he could run as an unaffiliated candidate. He became the only state-wide unaffiliated candidate to get on a ballot in more than a century, eventually losing to Jim Gulley. This time, Brody took his case to the courts. He filed a lawsuit on February 11 and was told to expect a response by March 11.

“This lawsuit is going to catch them by surprise,” Brody said.

Mint Hill Police Chief Tim Ledford released a statement today reaffirming his opinion that medical marijuana should not be legalized in North Carolina. Ledford told the Charlotte Observer:

“If people start accepting the use, even if it’s medical marijuana use, people tend to see that being more liberal, more accepting.”

Representative Nick Mackey of Charlotte is working on a bill in the state legislature that will legalize medical use of the drug. Mackey got support for legalization from an unlikely source: the Meck Deck blog, which in the past has not been very friendly to the state representive. However, it was Ledford who took the brunt this time. Said Jeff Taylor, the primary writer for the blog,

“Chief, when you make Nick Mackey sound like a statesman, you might want to start over.”

Ledford is the President of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police. He heavily cited in today’s press release the The International Association of Chief’s of Police analysis of California and Arizona medical marijuana propositions. According to the IACP, The Arizona proposition was not a success.

In essence, the proposition legalized all Schedule I drugs for everyone in the state. Two doctors were required to write prescriptions for Schedule I drugs; however, no age limit is specified for individuals seeking drugs for medicinal purposes. The law also allowed for the release of over 1,000 felons from prison on the premise that they were sent there for minor, non-violent drug crimes.

The town of Mint Hill will begin accepting bids for construction of a new town hall in October. The cost will probably be around $6 million for 24,000 square feet. How much did the current town hall cost? Here are the minutes from the 1983 Board of Commissioners meeting where the expenditures are outlined. Included in this cost was the maintenance facility. Not included in this cost was the five acres of land donated by the McEwen family.

Mint Hill Police will participate in Operation Medicine Drop, a program aimed at providing the public a safe and secure method for disposing of their prescription and over-the-counter medications. Poisonings from prescription medications is on the rise in North Carolina – since 1999 more than 75 percent of all unintentional poisonings were caused by prescription or over-the-counter medications (source N.C. Division of Public Health). continue reading…

Barbra Arcaini’s audition for HGTV’s First Time Design.

The Matthews Police Department arrested a suspect in several recent residential break-ins. On Monday, March 1, a resident near Four Lakes Drive, reported seeing a person attempting to break into their neighbor’s home. Police officers arrived and were able to arrest the person.

Wynton Lewis Coleman, 22, of 106 George Clay Lane, Matthews. was arrested. Following his arrest Coleman and his mother consented to a search of their home where officers located items from four other recent residential burglaries.

Coleman has been charged with attempted breaking and entering and on a warrant charge of possession of stolen property. Additional charges are pending for these burglaries and other recent thefts in the downtown area.

“This is an example where one citizen made a difference. They saw the suspect committing the crime and were able to call the police and give good accurate information. This enabled our officers and detectives to find this individual quickly and put him behind bars,” said Matthews Chief of Police Rob Hunter.

Click here for the story.

View Larger Map

Construction of the sidewalk along Wilgrove Mint Hill Road could as early as today—weather permitting. The sidewalk will connect the Park on Wilgrove with Matthews-Mint Hill Road (Highway 51). Workers will begin on the park side and work down about halfway. Then they will begin near the CVS and work toward the park, eventually joining the sidewalk together. The funds for the sidewalk come from the stimulus dollars released by the federal government last year. The state Department of Transportation then divvied up the dollars to municipalities. The project will take about six weeks to complete.

The Butler High School National Art Honor Society held an Empty Bowls event on February 1-5 and February 12 to help raise money for the Second Harvest Food Bank. The group raised more than $900 for the food bank. According to the organization’s Web site,

Our goals are to raise money to help organizations fight hunger, to raise awareness about the issues of hunger and food security, and to help bring about an attitude that will not allow hunger to exist.

Queen’s Grant Prep School has organized a fun run this weekend at Pine Lake Country and the Farmwood development. The run will raise money for the Special Olympics. Queen’s Grant barely pulled off the event, as they had to get on the town’s Board of Commissioners agenda at the last minute. The board voted 5-0 to allow the school to host the fun run. Police Chief Tim Ledford said he will donate his time to provide security for the event, and he has a plan in place in case of an emergency. The run takes place between 10-11 am Saturday morning. After the run there will be a polar plunge at the Pine Lake swimming pool.