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Friday, May 23, 2025 • Vol. 25 • No. 21
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Matthews town manager is resigning •
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MATTHEWS – Town Manager Becky Hawke will be leaving her position effective June 12 to pursue another professional opportunity, according to the Town of Matthews.
Hawke has served as town manager since April 2022. Prior to that, she served as assistant town manager for over six years. “We are deeply grateful for Becky’s commitment to Matthews, her vision and her tireless work on behalf of our community,” Mayor John Higdon said. “In just a little over three years as manager, Becky achieved an impressive list of accomplishments. She helped move our town forward in meaningful and lasting ways. We wish her all the best in her next chapter, and she will be deeply missed.” Some of her key accomplishments, according to town officials, include: • Led the town through a $35 million General Obligation Bond referendum – the first in 18 years – to fund transportation and parks and recreation improvements. • Forged partnerships with Hendrick Motorsports and Central Piedmont Community College that will bring high-paying advanced manufacturing jobs and a public
Moody’s and S&P for the first time in the town’s history. • Delivered Fire Station 3, the first municipal building project undertaken in Matthews in the last 20 years – on time, under budget and debt-free.
Leaders surprised by town manager’s resignation by Justin Vick justin@cmgweekly.com
MATTHEWS – Town Manager Becky Hawke’s resignation surprised members of the Matthews Board of Commissioners. Some leaders expressed sadness after hearing the news. Others looked internally at how their actions may have influenced her decision.
Commissioners met for over an hour May 12 to hear and discuss Hawke’s recommended budget for next fiscal year After a short break, they reconvened for that evening’s regularly scheduled meeting. Hawke requested going into closed session to discuss a personnel matter. The board returned from closed session to reveal that Hawke had offered her resignation, effective June 12. Mayor John Higdon said Hawke had accepted a role with another organization. Higdon said he considers Hawke a great professional colleague and a friend, having worked with her for nine years. “She's been a definite example of what a professional is,” Higdon said.
“I've worked in a lot of corporate settings and she's among the best I've ever worked with. I’m very sad that she's leaving.” Commissioner John Urban said he’s worked with a lot of town managers over the years. Urban said Hawke is equal to, if not exceeds, other town managers from other communities. “She's astute, she learns very quickly, she holds her ground and she made all the decisions to the benefit of Matthews,” he said. Higdon mentioned how Hawke offered great advice to the board. While her predecessor would sometimes tell leaders, “I don’t think I’d do that,” Hawke’s approach was, “Let me suggest a better course of action.” Higdon said he would miss that. “I'm sorry if we drove you away,” Commissioner Leon Threatt told Hawke. “That wasn't the intent. I don't know what else to say. Thank you.” Mayor Pro Tem Gina Hoover said she was surprised by Hawke’s departure and was at a loss for words. Hoover echoed Threatt’s sentiments that she hoped the board didn’t run her off.
“I know we've had differences but we've always come back together” Hoover said. “I think that's a good relationship, good business. You can butt heads but then you still come together. But really I'm at a loss.” Commissioner Renee Garner thanked Hawke for being a great leader and a great example. “I think getting to work with you has changed the trajectory of my life in really meaningful and significant ways and that shows what kind of a leader you are,” Garner said. “I can appreciate your strength.” She continued, “I forget working with people that they're human too and I forget that I need to stop and look inside what other people are going through or what other people are experiencing or that you are a human doing an incredibly hard job and you have done it exceptionally well. “You have brought amazing things to Matthews and really stepped us into a new future for a town that was growing but I would say hadn't yet found its vision. You have given that to us and we should all be incredibly grateful for that.”
250 years of Meck Dec: Carolina patriots showed resolve By John Hood Contributor
RALEIGH – Our state’s official seal presents North Carolina as a series of dualities. In the background of the circular emblem are green-topped mountains to the west and crystal-blue water to the east. In the foreground, two female figures in classical garb symbolize Liberty (clutching a constitution in one hand and the traditional “liberty cap” in the other) and Plenty (holding stalks of grain in one hand and an overflowing cornucopia in the other).
Printed below and above the scene are two dates. One is April 12, 1776. That’s when North Carolina’s Provincial Congress, meeting in the town of Halifax, voted to instruct its delegates in Philadelphia to support America’s formal independence from Great Britain. The other date — May 20, 1775 — is the subject of today’s column. It was 250 years ago this week that some two-dozen leaders of Mecklenburg County, then a lightly populated
• Played a key role in establishing a partnership with Discovery Place Kids to bring Promise: We are dedicated to maximizing the value of your items while m aOur children’s museum to Matthews by 2029, process as stress-free as possible. Since 2013, we have built a reputation for pro integrity, and exceptional and is working to results. secure a co-location of the Contact Us: Christine (661) 305-5226Elementary Christine@QualityEstateSaleNC museum with aBoskovich new Matthews School that is expected to provide a 50% cost savings on the project. “We Sell Everything, But the House! “Matthews will always have a piece of my heart and serving this community has been one of the greatest honors of my career,” Hawke said. “Above all else, I’m proud of the incredible team of Matthews employees I’ve had the privilege to work alongside for the past nine years. Together, we’ve helped bring the town board’s vision for the community to life and have worked to deliver high quality services and amenities to Matthews residents and visitors. Leading them and helping foster a positive, supportive work environment where everyone has an opportunity to thrive has been one of my greatest joys. It is my sincere hope that Town leadership will continue to prioritize and respect staff contributions long into the future." The Board of Commissioners will begin a nationwide search to identify a replacement. •
safety training facility to Matthews in the coming years. • Improved employee retention, reduced voluntary turnover and maintained higher retention rates over the past two years. • Secured a AAA credit rating from both
jurisdiction on North Carolina’s frontier, met to discuss longstanding grievances against the Parliament in London and King George III’s royal governors in New Bern. Some of those grievances were widely shared across British America, including Parliament’s usurpation of fiscal powers traditionally exercised by colonial legislatures. But the settlers of Mecklenburg, mostly Scottish Presbyterians and German Protestants, had their own particular resentments. One was deeply personal. According to a law they despised, only ministers of the Church of England could legally perform marriages. To the extent other ministers performed such ceremonies, they could be fined and any children produced by the resulting unions declared illegitimate (a status with both legal and social consequences). Another grievance was communal. For many years, Mecklenburg leaders sought a charter for a school. Having already named their county and its seat for the king’s wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg, they proposed to call it Queen’s College. A bill to this effect twice passed North Carolina’s
legislature only to be vetoed by King George, whose royal governors warned him that Presbyterians, not Anglicans, would dominate the faculty. In 1775, the leaders of the Mecklenburg militia were Colonel Thomas Polk and Lieutenant Colonel Adam Alexander. They requested that each of the county’s nine militia companies send two delegates to the new Committee of Safety convening on May 19. Along with a few additional leaders, they comprised the group that made history the following day. Precisely what they did remains a matter of dispute. Years later, eyewitnesses testified that the committee declared formal independence from Great Britain. But the only contemporaneous document we have is the Mecklenburg Resolves, printed in a Wilmington newspaper and dated May 31, 1775. When the delegates convened on May 19, they didn’t yet know a shooting war had broken out a month earlier in Massachusetts. They knew only that the colonies needed governments Story continues, see MECKDECK page 3A
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Nonplayable character offers vampire hunters advice by Justin Vick justin@cmgweekly.com
One of my favorite video games growing up was Castlevania. Before each level, the Nintendo game showed you a map of the terrain before dropping your vampire hunter into a pit of monsters. I get the impression that elected leaders across the Charlotte region are thrown into level after level with a limited supply of daggers and no sense of where the game is leading them. I mention this as Matthews commissioners unexpectedly learned May 12 that Becky Hawke would be resigning as town manager after three years. Commissioners now have to search for a new manager. As a nonplayable character in this game, I want to offer unsolicited advice to the vampire hunters. Commissioners ought to consider candidates that can frame financial and planning discussions within the context of how they fit within a bigger picture. Not everyone on a board is a financial analyst or land-use expert. Newcomers may not be familiar with how local government works. Let me offer a hypothetical scenario. Before commissioners decide on whether to invest millions of capital dollars into a pickleball stadium, they should be aware of how it will affect operations. Such an amenity will require more staff, maintenance, electricity and other ongoing expenses. And while a hypothetical pickleball stadium may not be enough to trigger a property tax rate increase on its own, commissioners may be confronted with other opportunities or problems over the course of a given year. What are these potential opportunities or problems? Someone that keeps very close tabs on all these levers can save commissioners a lot of stress over time. Let’s shift to a more realistic scenario for planning. The Town of Matthews will soon embark on a small area plan for its Crestdale area. We always hear at the onset of a new small area plan that these documents serve as merely a guide. But developers read every page of these documents and bring forward rezoning projects that align more with the guide than the actual zoning ordinances. Then leaders are stuck between approving a rezoning project that neighbors hate or the threat of a potentially less desirable project that can be developed by right. How do we escape this quicksand? Matthews leaders are not rubber-stampers. Commissioners engage in thoughtful – sometimes rowdy – discussion in front of the public. While that makes for longer, sometimes more intense meetings, constituents know where their representatives stand on issues. Imagine how much more effective they would be if they could anticipate just a few more steps ahead or have a greater understanding of how a decision made today will affect taxpayers six months from now. Am I throwing shots at people? Nah, bruh. I believe Town Manager Becky Hawke was the right hire for Matthews in 2022 and is leaving at an opportune time. Hawke has achieved several big wins as well as provided a framework for recently passed bond projects and future stormwater system upgrades. She timed her departure after the likely passing of the next fiscal year budget and right before a potentially divisive election campaign season starts.