Removal of a plastic bollard, placed in an alleyway thought to be public, results in charges against mayor’s husband in Graham
Graham businessman Chuck Talley, who is the husband of Graham mayor Jennifer Talley, has been charged with misdemeanor destruction of real property: namely four metal bolts that had been used to secure a plastic bollard erected in the middle of an alleyway in the downtown business district.
Chuck Talley (whose full name is William Gordon Talley), 58, white, male, of 808 Sideview Street in Graham, was served with a criminal summons by Graham police officers at his home around mid-afternoon last Wednesday, July 17.
A criminal summons is similar to a traffic citation – it doesn’t result in an arrest – but merely instructs the recipient when and where to appear in court, under North Carolina law. In Talley’s case, he has been instructed to appear in Alamance County district court on Thursday, August 8.
In an interview with The Alamance News, Chuck Talley recently confirmed that he had, in fact, removed the bollard and four metal concrete bolts used to fasten it to the surface of the alleyway after receiving a complaint from one of his downtown commercial tenants, who he said used the alleyway to get from North Main Street to a parking lot behind her office along the same stretch of North Main Street.
Talley and his wife own a number of downtown office and commercial properties, which include E.P. Gates Construction & Realty, Graham Soda Shop, Farm Services, Colonial Hardware, Graham Cinema, and other buildings.
The alleged victim in the matter is Jason Monroe Cox, 44, white male, based on an almost entirely blacked-out incident report filed on June 28 with the Graham police department.
Cox, for his part, owns numerous other Graham buildings and storefronts: the former Opera House at 200 North Main Street in Graham; Press Coffee + Crepes in the 100 block of North Main Street; HiFi Records; Graham Physical Therapy; Powercade; and Volt hair salon.
The bollard was erected in the middle of an alley that runs between 103 North Main Street, where HiFi Records is located, and 109 North Main Street, where Two Krafty is located.
Talley insisted that he removed the obstruction from what he and other downtown business owners had long understood to be public property.
While the newspaper has been unable to confirm with city officials exactly who owns the alleyway, Talley said it was his understanding that it had been used as a public “throughway” for decades to get from the 100 Block of North Main to the rear entrances of commercial properties – to include parking areas that aren’t time-restricted – along that same block.
Talley pointed out that he has allowed other business owners and their employees to use a gravel drive on his property that runs behind the businesses in the 100 block of North Main Street. “I’m a good neighbor,” Talley said.
“I removed it so my tenant could get in and out [of the backside of her building],” Talley told the newspaper.
Talley said that in, speaking with several other downtown business owners, the consensus seemed to be that the alley between the record store and furniture store had always been designated as a public alleyway.
For years, delivery trucks had used that – as well as a gravel drive and grassy strip of land, along with a small amphitheater behind the 100 block of North Main Street in Graham, all on land that he and his wife own – to get to the rear doors of businesses lining that same block, Talley explained.
Prior to and after removing the bollard, Talley said he had contacted Homer Cox – the property manager for and the father of Jason Cox – to let him know he had the bollard, and they could pick it up at any time.
“I called Jason two times on June 27 to tell him I was going to try to remove the bollard [and then] asking Jason to call me,” Talley explained, adding that he’d also sent Cox a text message, asking him to call him. Cox never responded, according to Talley’s account of the events.
Instead, Jason Cox filed a report with the Graham police department, which led to the subsequent charge of injury to real property.
Talley recalled in the interview that he had been contacted by the Graham police department last Tuesday evening, July 16, to retrieve the bollard and informed Talley that, because a police report had been filed, he would need to turn it over to them.
“I gave [the two police officers] four new concrete anchor bolts when they came to pick up the bollard,” Talley recalled. The bolts retail for $2.39 each at Colonial Hardware.
However, Talley said the Graham police officers who subsequently served him with the summons the next day, last Wednesday afternoon, told him, “‘I don’t know why we’re charging you; this is a civil matter.’”
Talley acknowledged in the interview that he had, in fact, cut the “four bolts off” from the middle of the alley “so people wouldn’t bust their car tire or trip over them and get hurt.”
“I’m not mad,” Talley added. “If I had to put it back up, I’d put it back up, but I’m under the impression it’s [the alley] is public. Today – I’m served with papers.”
The newspaper has been unable to verify why the bollard had been erected in the middle of the alley.
However, Talley said in the newspaper it was his understanding that Cox had obtained a grant from Cone Health to install an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) machine on one of the exterior building walls that face the alley.
The newspaper also has been unable to confirm from Graham city officials whether a bollard or a similar type of obstruction is allowed or prohibited within an alley in the downtown business district, under the city’s current code of ordinances.
“I don’t know if we could go to a new document to address something that has been in place for 100 years,” Graham assistant city manager Aaron Holland told the newspaper Monday. “Our attorneys looked at it; they were asked to check and see if that’s a private alleyway.”
“I’m not sure who owns it outright,” the assistant city manager said. “I just know it’s not city-owned property.”
Neither of the city’s attorneys, Bryan Coleman nor Bob Ward, had responded to an inquiry about who owns the alley from The Alamance News by press time Wednesday night.
Jason Cox had not responded to multiple inquiries from The Alamance News – seeking clarification about who owns the alley, or why he hadn’t tried to resolve the matter outside of court – by press time Wednesday night.
Talley appears to have no prior record of any criminal charges or convictions, other than a traffic citation he received in September 2012 for failure to stop at a red light. That charge was dismissed by the district attorney’s office in December 2012, according to the Alamance County court system.
UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, July 26, 2024, the bollard has been reinstalled. See photo:
Read the newspaper’s editorial page view on the city police department’s excessive and unnecessary censorship of the report on the incident: https://alamancenews.com/grahams-excessive-and-unnecessary-secrecy-gives-the-city-a-bad-name/
