Something You Should Know

I don’t like to be lied to, do you?

I don’t think I know many people who say they like to be lied to or manipulated, especially by someone they are supposed to be able to trust to tell them the truth. 

Last Tuesday evening, August 12^th, 2025, in our town meeting, something occurred that was both disturbing and extremely disappointing. It has bothered me all week.

What you need to know first, before I get into what happened at the meeting, is that on May 16^th, 2022, the Town of Elm City was offered funding assistance (grant money) from the state of NC to be used for water and sewer projects. The funds were to be used by December of 2026 or else the town would then lose the unused portion of the funds. We now have about a year and a half to use the funds. The total for funding is for nearly two million dollars.

Slanderous accusations were made Tuesday night, but I’ve collected the evidence for you, so you can judge the truth for yourself.

Throughout the meeting Tuesday night, the Mayor and a majority of the Elm City Board of Commissioners repeatedly asked our engineer, Mike Tolson, the same question over and over. One after another asked Mr. Tolson if it was possible to complete our water and sewer projects before the deadline of losing the funds. They kept saying, “Could we lose these funds next December?” Mayor Moore and several Commissioners kept expressing concern that we would lose our grant money in December of 2026 if we didn’t use it in time. It was stated over and over as if it were inevitable that we would lose our funds and not get these projects done. Mike Tolson encouraged the board repeatedly that we could complete our work before that deadline, but he stressed to them that they would have to act quickly because a lot of time had already been wasted. Ah, yes! But wasted by whom? They want you to believe it’s our engineer’s fault. They were already blaming him in the meeting, saying they don’t believe he is prioritizing Elm City’s projects enough in his daily work. What most people don’t know is that three years is already a very tight timeframe to get these kinds of water and sewer projects completed to begin with; there are several factors that we have no control over that determine how long it will ultimately take. Namely, we often have to wait on the state to do their part, and the state is routinely slow, but despite that reality, Mike Tolson still said he felt confident we would be able to use our funds before the deadline as long as we get moving on it now. This is a repeated requested from him.

Here is where the meeting took a turn for concern. He was asked this question 5 times by all but one Commissioner and the Mayor despite him answering them in detail over and over. Now, once you’ve asked and have had it clearly explained to you, you have to wonder why anyone would keep asking. No, they were listening. It became abundantly clear that the board was looking for a scapegoat in Mike Tolson. He was asked at least three times if he was prioritizing Elm City as much as he should. The implication by repeatedly asking that implies to the public, they clearly don’t think so. A serious amount of time was wasted on this in the meeting. Now, the implication that Mike is the one dragging his feet on these projects has been repeated in past meetings despite his coming to our meetings and informing the board of our needs and begging them to please give him some direction about how the board wants to spend the money. In the meeting before this one, everyone seemed to agree that they should meet with Mike and set an agenda of project priorities so Mike can focus his work on what they specifically want the funds spent on. There’s not enough in these funds to do everything we need done, so he has to be informed by the board where that money should be spent. That also lets him know what grants to pursue for further projects. That meeting with Mike has still not been scheduled. Why do you think that is?  Is that in the best interest of our citizens and for our town?  Or is it in the best interest of the town to repeatedly publicly attack Mike Tolson and never really move forward on the projects. He does not have the authority to make those decisions.

This has been happening for quite some time, but here is what concerned me enough to want to bring this to YOU. After all of this interrogating went on and on, one Commissioner, Gil Wheeler, spoke up to ask why the Mayor and the rest of the board were suddenly so concerned about the timeline on these grant funds now when “the grant contract sat on the Mayor’s desk for a year” before she would even sign it. This is a FACT to which I am attaching the EVIDENCE FOR below so you can see the truth for yourself. After Gil asked this question, the Mayor immediately pointed her finger at Gil and emphatically stated that that was a LIE. She said that Gil was lying and that it did not take her a year to sign the contract for these funds. Folks, we can’t do anything with those funds until her signature shows up on that contract. Look at the photo below of when the funds were proposed and when the Mayor actually signed the contract. Mike has barely had 8 months to do anything, because it actually took even longer than a year for her to accept the grant funds and sign off on the grant. It was issued May 16^th of 2022 and she finally signed it on December 10^th, 2024.

Commissioner Wheeler simply told you the truth, but Mayor Moore literally called him a liar in the meeting, slandering him in front of the public. That was not even the worst of it, the Commissioners then all viciously piled on him right along with the Mayor, knowing full well she was lying because they voted to accept that contract back in 2022. Commissioner Wheeler said, “You all know this, we talked about this.” He looked at Commissioner Bridgers and said, “Tim, we talked about this!” Commissioner Bridgers did not keep eye contact with him, he looked down at the table and said nothing. Nothing! And Commissioner Wheeler looked at him, shocked, like someone who had been betrayed!

My blood boiled...

It was easy in that meeting to pull the wool over your eyes because you don’t know how long these engineering projects take. You don’t know when this contract was accepted and issued and finally signed. Who had the evidence in the heat of the moment?  No you. But it’s here now, and I want you to be able to read it, and decide for yourself what is happening here. Ask yourself why the Mayor would attack Commissioner Wheeler and call him a liar when the proposal is dated, and the emails begging her to finally go on and sign it are still available and dated as well. Is it easier to tell people something isn’t true when there is a momentary void of evidence? Will Commissioner Wheeler have the opportunity to prove to those who physically attended that meeting that he was telling the truth? Not likely. The accusation that he was a liar was thrown on him even though it was false, and those people left Tuesday night either believing that he lied or believing that he may have lied, and how convenient is that for a Mayor who is running against him in the upcoming election? It sure works in one’s favor when they know the public is less in tune with the details and more prone to just take her word for it. And that’s a problem. I don’t appreciate, as a town citizen, being lied to, and I especially hate knowing that others are being lied to and probably don’t have any way of knowing it.  How can you practice your civic duty in an informed manner when you are being manipulated? And how infuriating is it to see an innocent person slandered publicly when there is evidence to the contrary but little hope to get it out to the public? You will have to answer these questions for yourself, but you should at least get the opportunity to see the evidence.

Attached you can see when the contract was issued and when it was finally signed. You can also see an email that Engineer, Mike Tolson sent to the town clerk urging her to please get the Mayor to please finally sign the contract. Mike Tolson is being attacked, Commissioner Wheeler is being attacked, and YOU are being lied to about it by the people you elected to have your best interest at heart. These projects are what keep your neighbor’s sewage from backing up into your house. Don’t you think that is more important than these stupid games? We can still use those funds. We have a year and a half left, but Mike is already being blamed for something that hasn’t even happened. If the board continues to drag their feet, they’ll finally get the opportunity to blame him. I thought you should get the whole story and see the evidence for yourself.

When someone serves well, I’ll tell you. I have done so in the past. When they try to manipulate you and slander innocent people, I will tell you then too.

That board owes Commissioner Wheeler, Engineer Mike Tolson, and every single one of you, an apology. I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

(Images & files below)

Mike Tolson's Email to the town clerk asking for Mayor Moore's signature more than a year after the contract had been issued. Email addresses redacted. State Contract pictured & downloadable following.

01-P200053-Filters-Offer & Accept-signed.pdf

Download PDF • 2.48MB