Isaac Groves/Times-News January 11, 2008 – 5:04PM After nearly 10
years of service, Steven Mullis resigned his Haw River Town Council
seat at the council’s first meeting of 2008.
“He said he felt he had conflicts with his job duties,”
said Town Manager Jeff Earp. “He had had trouble getting to
our meetings and he felt like he was doing us a dis-service.”
Mullis is a lieutenant in the Alamance County Sheriff’s
De-partment. The Times-News was not able to reach Mullis at his
home number Friday.
Earp said the council will have to take this up at its next
meeting. When Councilman Bill Miller died at the end of October
2006, the council appointed his replacement, John
“Jamie” Joseph II, by the beginning of January. In that
case, the council asked people interested in serving to submit
their names and chose among them.
Mullis’ time on the council saw some changes in Haw River,
includ-ing the passage of liquor by the drink in 1999, and the
contentious 2006 replacement of Haw River’s town manager and
police chief.
Mullis was the highest vote-getter in the the 2005 election, the
last one he faced. His term was set to end in 2009.
The Town of Haw River was the home of some of Alamance
County’s biggest mills. The town has not had a great decade
between mill closings and, well, other mill closings, but Haw River
could be on the edge of some new things.
There is an effort under way to get a report put together, called a
downtown master plan, that will help Haw River get on the list for
a lot of grant money to do things like build a park along the river
and improve downtown streets.
That, town leaders hope, will encourage developers to restore some
of the big old mills, converting them into residential and
commercial space. That could bring some of the growth that Haw
River missed out on when Mebane and Graham were growing.
The council voted at its January meeting to apply for a grant to
start its
A NEW CLERK is also coming to town. Longtime clerk, and acting town
manger for half of 2006, Misty Hagood took a job in Gibsonville,
Earp said. Earp hired the former clerk for the Village of Alamance,
Tammy Speicher. She will start work Feb. 4.
Speicher will be paid $35,360 per year, Earp said, which is
slightly higher than the standard starting salary for the position,
because of her experience and education. Earp had to go to the
council and ask for a vote to approve the pay rate, which they did
after a closed session meeting.
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