Graham city council gathered with their attorneys in closed session briefly Tuesday night to discuss two legal matters – one of which is tangentially related to an ongoing legal dispute between the mayor’s husband and another downtown Graham businessman but doesn’t involve any pending litigation against the city itself.
The council held two closed sessions, at last month’s meeting and again on Tuesday night and a third earlier last fall, without mayor Jennifer Talley, who had asked ahead of time to be recused.
About 10 minutes after entering into closed session, Talley was called in to join her fellow council members to discuss a second legal matter with the city’s attorneys, Bryan Coleman and Bob Ward.
Upon reconvening the open session, the council voted 4-0, with the mayor abstaining, to release to the public a survey of the properties located at 103 North Main Street and 109 North Main Street.
The Alamance News has learned that the council’s closed session discussion centered on whether the city had any ownership interest in the alleyway. No deed or other document was found that “specifically identifies the alley” to the city, or “for the use as an easement for all properties adjoining” the alley, based on notes included with the survey, which was completed on December 20, 2024 by Boswell Surveyors of Burlington.
Multiple deeds recorded between 1934 and 1990 contain references to the alleyway that runs between 109 North Main Street, where Volt hair salon is located and which is owned by Carolina Property Holdings, and 109 North Main Street, where Two Krafty is located and which is owned by JDBH Properties, according to the survey.
Alamance County’s GIS system indicates that no one owns the alleyway, and no one is currently paying taxes on it.
That survey of the properties at 103 and 109 North Main Street pertains to a pending criminal charge filed last summer against the mayor’s husband, Graham businessman Chuck Talley, by a competing developer, Jason Cox.
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 commercial buildings.
Cox, for his part, owns numerous commercial buildings in the downtown business district, including: 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, owned under the name of his company Carolina Property Holdings of NC.
Cox also claims to own the alleyway between 103 and 109 North Main Street. In July 2024, he charged Chuck Talley with misdemeanor injury to real property, based on a heavily-redacted copy of a criminal summons (similar to a traffic ticket) that the newspaper obtained at the time from the Graham police department.
Though none of the details were available from the police report, Chuck Talley explained in a subsequent interview with The Alamance News that he’d removed a bollard and four metal concrete bolts from the alleyway.
However, Chuck Talley insisted in the interview that he had called and texted Cox beforehand to let him know that he was going to “try to remove the bollard” because it was obstructing access to the back of building occupied by one of the Talleys’ own commercial tenants.
Talley said that, prior to and after removing the bollard, he contacted Homer Cox, the property manager for and father of Jason Cox, to let him know he had the bollard, and they could pick it up at any time.
Jason Cox instead filed a report with the Graham police department, which led to subsequent charge against the mayor’s husband. The case has been continued several times but remains pending in Alamance County criminal district court; it is currently set for a hearing in March.
The longstanding consensus among other downtown business owners was that the alleyway 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 and to parking areas that aren’t time-restricted along that same block, Chuck Talley said at the time.
Owner of property 109 North Main Street asks the city to remove bollard
Meanwhile, JDBH Properties, which owns the property at 109 North Main Street where Two Krafty is located, sent a letter to the city council and other Graham city officials on August 23, 2024, asking the city to remove the bollard, based on a copy of the letter that the newspaper has obtained from Graham city officials through a public records request.
JDBH Properties is owned by James Hanford and Donna Hanford of 1750 Hanford Road, Graham; and Brandy Hanford Lambert of 1237 Hanford Hills Road in Graham, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
JDBH Properties asked for the bollard to be removed because it “blocks use and access to the public alley located between” the Volt salon and Two Krafty, wrote Todd Lambert, a former engineer for the city of Burlington, who is retired but now works as a private civil engineering consultant.
In the letter he sent to the city of Graham on behalf of JDBH Properties, Lambert urged the city to remove the bollard from the alleyway. No action had been taken by press time Wednesday.
“Not only has the public used both of these alleys since the buildings were constructed (dating back to 1901 according to Alamance County Tax records) but the City itself has used both of these alleys for access, public sewer lines, and solid waste containers picked up on regular schedules,” Lambert wrote in his letter to Graham city officials. “These public alleys are also used by other public utilities (namely power and telecommunications) as the City does not allow service to the buildings from Main Street.
“Also, most all of the buildings that have rears facing the alley have doors as means of ingress and egress,” Lambert wrote. “If this was not a public alley then there are numerous building and fire codes that would prevent ingress and egress to and from a private adjoining property. The City has long established public use within both alleys.” The engineer also cited several provisions within state law, which he said obligate the city to keep the alleyway free from obstruction.
“It is my understanding that the bollard was installed by Jason Cox, representing the ownership of 103 N. Main Street, under the presumption that they (Carolina Property Holdings of NC LLC) owned the alley,” Lambert wrote in his letter to the city. “I contest this claim, as should the City, on two separate arguments: the first being an invalid claim of ownership and the second being used by the public (namely the City and other public utilities) since its creation.”
The engineer notes that – based on his research of the historical tax map and related deeds (copies of which he included with his letter – there had never been any transfer of ownership of the alleyway to any previous or current owners of the property at 103 North Main Street, or to any other owners of property within the 100 block of North Main Street.
“There are numerous deeds throughout the City (and County) that individuals have [irrevocable ownership of land and buildings] for public rights-of-ways,” Lambert wrote. “This does not give that individual the right to close or restrict the public use of that portion of their property…Again, my request is for the City to immediately remove the bollard as it blocks the public alley and harms the public and adjoining property owners.”
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, Chuck Talley told the newspaper last summer after he was charged with injury to real property.
For his part, Cox hadn’t responded to earlier inquiries from the newspaper, seeking clarification about why he hadn’t attempted to resolve the matter outside of court.
Second legal matter
In other business, Graham’s city council also voted 5-0 Tuesday night to remove any restrictions on commercial property at an unaddressed location along Interstate Service Road, near Gilbreath Street and I-85/40, which is owned by Martin Properties ACNC, LLC.
That property had been the subject of court action filed last year by a developer, Cone Commercial Real Estate, which had been denied a special use permit to build a tractor-trailer storage facility on the property by a 3-2 vote of the city council. The council subsequently voted to settle the case and grant the special use permit in February 2024.
Cone Commercial never closed on the purchase, and the action taken this week removes the property from the special use permit requirements. The property, which is still owned by Martin Properties ACNC, will instead revert to its original zoning designation for light industrial use, city officials told the newspaper Wednesday.
