ROWLAND — Rowland is going to the dogs, a resident told town commissioners on Tuesday.
“It’s terrible. Dogs are running all over,” said Eddie Franklin, who lives near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and West Jackson Street. “Just today there were at least four dogs in my yard. They dug flowers up.”
Franklin said that residents are getting upset with the number of dogs that are running loose and damaging property.
“What can be done about this?” Franklin said. “… The police came yesterday, but by the time the officer arrived, the dogs had gone.”
Mayor Elizabeth Hunt said that residents should call the police if they feel a dog is dangerous.
“Residents need to know that they can contact the police if they feel a dog is dangerous, or might have rabies,” Hunt said.
Rowland depends on Robeson County for animal control. The town does not now have an employee designated just for animal control, nor does it have a pound for holding animals.
“We try to get the county animal control people when needed,” Hunt said. “Sometimes they respond.”
Commissioner Marvin C. Shooter Jr. said that several years ago a holding area for animals — with a concrete floor and fencing — was constructed near the town’s water plant. It was eventually shut down for not meeting state standards after animal advocates, including the Humane Society, complained about the conditions of the pen, he said.
“My personal opinion is that everyone should contact their county commissioner and ask why we don’t get some assistance from the county,” Shooter told Franklin. “It appears that an official request for help from this board doesn’t work.”
“Maybe we (town commissioners) need to get on the agenda of a county commissioners meeting,” Commissioner Paul Hunt Jr. said.
In other business, Commissioner A. Jean Love announced she would like a seat on the ABC Board.
“I want to make it clear to the residents that I want to sit on the ABC board representing this board. Let’s do whatever is necessary to make this happen,” she said.
Love, who was re-elected to the town board in November, is seeking the ABC position currently held by former Commissioner Bob Lowry. Lowry was defeated in his re-election bid for the town council in November.
Love contends that the ABC position held by Lowry is one that should go to a sitting town commissioner. Lowry’s three-year ABC term has not yet expired.
‘That’s the way it has been done in the past,” she said.
But Shooter disagreed, telling Love that while town commissioners appoint the members of the ABC Board, it is not mandatory that a commissioner be appointed.
“It is not a right to be appointed to the ABC Board just because you are on the town commission,” he said.
Love said after the meeting that she wants to serve on the ABC Board to find out where all the money that the local ABC store generates is going.
“I feel very adamant about it,” she said. “I want to know why the town is never getting any of the (ABC) money.”
In other business, Police Chief John Reaves told the commissioners that two Rowland police chiefs who were killed in the line of duty during the 1920s will have their names added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C. That will be done May 13 during National Police Week.
The two officers to be honored are Marion Boyd Rogers, who died on Dec. 26, 1925, and Robert Casey Jones, who died on Dec. 11, 1928.
“As far as I know, these are the only two chiefs from Rowland who have been killed in the line of duty,” Reaves said.
Reach staff writer Bob Shiles at 910-272-6117 or bshiles@heartlandpublications.com.
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