Spring Hope mayor lauds garden club’s efforts

SPRING HOPE — Mayor Kyle Pritchard expressed thanks to the Spring Hope Garden Club during Monday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, celebrating its efforts to beautify the town.

“You know, it’s one of the easiest but one of the most overlooked transitions that could have happened in this town,” Pritchard told garden club members in attendance. “And then, once you guys looked upon it and it was no longer overlooked, it became something everybody likes to look at — the flowers are beautiful.”

The club, which tries to purchase locally sourced materials and recycle when possible, has adorned such areas as the Oakdale Cemetery and the post office at 107 E. Branch St.

“It’s colors year-round … it’s beautiful,” Pritchard said of the ongoing project. “Thank y’all for being here. Thanks for loving Spring Hope like you do.”

During the meeting, Peggy Legett presented commissioners with a $1,700 funding request for the garden club. The organization requested and received $1,300 last year.

“I get nothing but compliments from what we’re doing here, and we’ve been doing this since 2021,” Leggett said.

The club has a half-dozen core members and welcomes volunteers for cleanup and planting projects. Leggett said purchasing flowers is the group’s greatest expense.
“You have to remember, we’re saving the town a lot of money on labor,” she said. “Our club puts in untold hours watering, replanting.”

In addition to its request from the town board, the club relies on community support. Members are currently selling $5 raffle tickets for a chance to win a $50 Father’s Day gift certificate to Michael’s Showside Grill.

Commissioners didn’t take action on the club’s $1,700 request. Pritchard said the board would review it.

CODE ENFORCEMENT

High grass, downed trees, stacked tires and auto repair in parking lots dominated the code enforcement section of the agenda, with Town Manager Andrew DeIonno providing context on the issue.

“We have had conversations about specific properties as recently as this morning,” DeIonno said of the effort to deal with the unsightly areas. “Hopkins Avenue has been a focus … and a couple other places in town, including West Main Street … it’s been a work in progress.”

Spring Hope’s code enforcement officer is an independent contractor who provides similar services to the towns of Bailey and Elm City.

POLICE STATISTICS

Police Chief Nathan Gant briefly reviewed his department’s activity during time reserved for his monthly report to the board. Gant cited four incident reports, 121 calls for service, 50 traffic stops and 39 security checks in May. He noted the latter number is deceptively low because shopping centers with multiple businesses are logged as a single location in police software.

“They’re actually doing a really good job locating break-ins before the business owners do,” Gant said of his staff.

The Spring Hope Police Department also investigated nine traffic crashes, five domestic disturbance complaints that didn’t result in criminal charges and 16 disturbances/fight calls last month. Officers opened 13 total investigations and cleared 10 cases.

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