By NICOLE CARTRETTE

Chadbourn Town Council voted Tuesday to use inmate workers from Bladen Correctional for public works and town clean-up on a daily basis.

The decision comes after discussion about the safety issues.

“These are minimum custody inmates,” Daniel Bryan told council.

He said the inmates selected are carefully screened.

“Sexual offenders and violent criminals are not involved in this program,” Bryan assured council.

The cost of $1 per inmate per day was attractive to the town working with a limited budget.

“I think this would be a very good use of money,” Councilman Brian Edwards said.

Councilwoman Jimmie Sue Ward expressed concern with the cost of transportation and worker’s compensation coverage the town must provide at first.

However, she agreed additional workers could help beautify the town.

“If anybody could clean up this town it has got to be worth it,” Ward said.

Four town employees have already completed special training to supervise the inmates.

Town Manager Dottie Thomas said money to pay for the workers had been budgeted under professional services and within the sewer, streets, and water departments.

“It sounds like a done deal to me; that is how we operate over here,” Ward criticized the council.

Mayor Kenneth Waddell said the town would likely take a careful approach to implementing the program.

“I don’t foresee us going out and buying a bus,” Waddell said. “We want to try it out.”

“We are all about rehabilitation,” he added.

The town may request workers to wear inmate vests.

Inmates are not allowed to go into establishments. They bring bagged lunches.

The N.C. Department of Corrections has contracts with several towns and municipalities, including Elizabethtown, White Lake and Bladenboro, Bryan said.

Some of the contracts have been in place for more than 10 years, he said.

In other matters:

Council turned down a 10-year lease agreement of property owned by Dr. Essam Eskander at the 200 block of North Brown Street.

The property is located beside A&S Music in Chadbourn and council has expressed a desire to lease the property, demolish the building and construct a parking lot to divert parking off Brown Street as the Department of Transportation has recommended, Thomas said.

Although the $1,000 monthly lease would have been offset by Eskander’s lease of a sign on the property for $1,000, council was concerned with improvement costs.

The estimated cost to demolish the building on the property is $9,500.

With additional paving costs estimated at $20,000 and $4,000 to $5,000 to remove concrete, council members decided the cost was too expensive.

“There is no sense in tearing down the building if we are not going to make it look right,” Councilman Fax Rector said.

“I’ve played around with it as long as I want to play with it,” Waddell said.

“That building needs to come down.”

“We are paying the price for not enforcing ordinances,” Edwards added.

Councilman Larry Williamson made a motion to proceed with the code enforcement and demolition process as planned.

Waddell seconded the motion that was approved by council.

On June 8 a warning citation was mailed to Eskander. The letter stated that the property was in violation of local building code ordinances.

Eskander requested a hearing. At the hearing he was granted additional time to decide what he wanted to do about the property, John Ganus, contract code enforcement officer said.

Several residents complained that speeding on Brown Street was dangerous to pedestrians. Thomas said more signs indicating the 20 mph speed limit in the business district had been ordered.

Council members told concerned residents and business owners that they needed to see what impact the signs would have before taking additional action.

Police Chief Steven Shaw said he had contacted Bladenboro about a jointly owned mobile radar sign but had not heard from them yet.

The system flashes the speed as vehicles pass by. Whiteville has a similar system.