Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable..

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable.

On Tuesday, September 6, 2022, the mayor and aldermen of the Kernersville Town Council held a hearing in which they failed in their duties as elected officials on three counts.But before I get into dereliction of duty, let me remind the reader of the role of an alderman. The modern definition of alderman according to Merriam Webster is “a member of a city legislative body.”The role of an alderman as an elected official is to represent their ward, or section of town, in matters such as education, zoning, waste management, public well-being, economic development, and to promote civic unity. Aldermen are by proxy our representatives. They are by trade politicians. In the United States of America, and therefore Kernersville, North Carolina, politicians are expected to serve the majority –to serve the greater good. On Tuesday, September 6, the Kernersville Town Council failed in this regard.The issue that was errantly addressed concerns noise complaints about The Brewer’s Kettle bottle shop on East Mountain St. For the past year, two households having properties adjacent to The Brewer’s Kettle (TBK) have called the police dozens of times about music from TBK being too loud. Six months ago, Council held a hearing to address this ongoing issue. It was decided that Kernersville should adopt an official noise ordinance which capped weekend noise levels at 65 decibels. Since then, TBK has spent thousands of dollars and much effort in re-working their sound system and installing sound baffles to do their part in being good neighbors while still bringing in local and regional performers and fans who spend money both at TBK and other local businesses. And yet, the same two neighbors continued to call the police another eighteen times, each time resulting in a citation and $250.00 fine for violating the noise ordinance. At the hearing on the 6th, town manager, Curtis L. Swisher,spent a copious amount of time comparing the noise ordinances of other cities in the state with charts and graphs and bullet points. Apparently, the Kernersville Town Council decided that what other cities were doing was good enough, not taking into account that Kernersville might be unique in some way.Instead of working towards a way to bolster success in this matter, Council chose to hide behind their plagiarized, cookie cutter ordinance which clearly doesn’t serve the town of Kernersville well at all. This is fail number one.Fail number two is more complex and goes to the heart of the very nature of representation: Council chose to side with the minority in this case. Two homeowners who live in a commercial district, the very heart of the city in downtown even, were given more consideration than a local business which employs more people and serves more people than the combined residents in the closest four city blocks. Not to mention that many of these residents enjoy their proximity to TBK, walking there often to enjoy a beverage or hear a band play. Council blatantly disregarded the greater good in this case.Fail number three is closely related to number two:while it is not always looked upon with favor, part of a politician’s job is to protect and grow the tax base and to foster an environment of economic growth, especially in a downtown commercial district. In siding with only two households in this matter, the Council has effectively told TBK as well as other businesses that may have chosen to operate in downtown Kernersville, “We don’t care about you, your employees, or your patrons. We don’t care about the charities for which you raise money. We don’t care about the sense of community you bring to our town. We only care about these two homeowners.”Council’s attitude in this matter constitutes a failure to perform their fiduciary duty to their constituents and is the worst representation possible.This failure should result in constituents voting these bad faith actors out of office. The Brewer’s Kettle indeed brings many people to Kernersville every year. They pay corporate property, sales, and payroll taxes. They pay staff. They pay vendors. They pay bands. They contribute countless hours and money to organizing and hosting multiple charity events every year.This small, local business is the epitome of the type of business every town and city desires, even requires,for development of commercially zoned areas. The Brewer’s Kettle should be praised by this Council as “doing it right” and should be left alone to continue enhancing lives for the greater good.

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