SPEED – Despite its name, life moves slowly in the Town of Speed.
So does its municipal government, which has been pressured by the state’s Local Government Commission to dissolve voluntarily after falling way behind on mandatory financial reports.
Speed, a 0.3-square-mile parcel of land just off the highway in rural eastern Edgecombe County, is surrounded on all sides by cotton fields. In autumn, when the crop is ready to be harvested, fluffy cotton covers the farmland like snow.
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About 60 people live within the limits of Speed, many of whom have been there for most of their lives. It’s an older community — the median age of residents is 67.
That wasn’t always the case. First founded as a railroad stop town in 1901, the town’s population peaked above 140 in the middle decades of the 20th century and at one time had a bank, a school and a law enforcement program, none of which exist today.
In 1999, the town was ravaged by flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd and it never quite recovered. Vacant buildings remain today a reminder of the floodwaters which caused many residents to move away.
The town is easy to miss, and in some respects, hard to reach.
Speed has no full-time staff, no official website and – although the town hall does have an email and phone number – there’s no obvious way of finding that contact information online.
The town’s governance has seen very little change over the decades. One former commissioner, Leroy Candies, served up until the age of 96 before resigning in December. He died in March.
Wilbert Harrison, 74, has been mayor since 1996. He’s used a wheelchair for the past several years since recovering from health incidents that include a stroke and tongue cancer. These days he does most of his work out of his home.
In 2023, he won what will likely be Speed’s final mayoral election, uncontested, with 12 votes.
Although one might think politics can get messy in such a small town, Harrison told Carolina Public Press that such a small community is actually an advantage.
“Like a family, you talk to them,” he said of his neighbors.
“Try to get to thinking (about) what they desire.”
For the most part, that’s simply meant maintaining trash services and streetlights. The town also has a volunteer fire department and a water tower, but neither receive funding from the town.
However, since 2022, Speed has struggled to keep up with the financial paperwork required to remain an incorporated town. Under state law, it must produce a yearly financial audit, semiannual cash and investment reports and a balanced budget by July 1 of each year.
The town hasn’t submitted a financial audit in three years, nor has it kept up with the other requirements. In 2024, Speed approved its budget more than three months late, and in doing so violated state statute by continuing to use town funds without a budget.
The LGC, the state agency tasked with financial oversight of more than 1,000 local government units across North Carolina, first suggested that Speed consider dissolving in August 2024.
Representatives of the LGC visited Speed and gave a presentation to the town commissioners about what dissolution could look like, but they reported back that the town’s leadership wasn’t interested in taking that route.
The relationship between Speed and the LGC grew more fraught after that visit, and the state soon said it was having difficulties contacting the town at all. An auditor hired by the town also cited issues with communication and ceased his services that year.
“Speed continues to face challenges complying with the Local Government and Fiscal Control Act,” Deputy Treasurer Debbie Tomasko reported at the December LGC meeting.
“We’ve had just some struggles in getting information we need and getting timely responses to staff requests for information.”
At that meeting, the Commission voted 4-2 to require the town to contract with an outside financial officer or else face a dissolution process initiated by the LGC. The last time the Commission took that step was with East Laurinburg in 2021.
“These steps aren’t taken lightly,” then-Treasurer Dale Folwell said.
Folwell was replaced by Brad Briner after the 2024 election, but that didn’t ease the pressure off of Speed.
Kenneth Randolph, a town commissioner since 2015, said that the LGC told the Town Board that even if Speed got caught up with its audits and other required paperwork, it still didn’t bring in enough monthly revenue to keep a balanced budget.
“Personally, I would like to keep the town.” Randolph said, even if it’s just for a few more years.
But the LGC didn’t give the town much of a choice. Voluntary dissolution would give the town more autonomy in how the process is carried out, compared to a state-initiated one, which was becoming increasingly likely.
On Oct. 14, the Town Board passed a resolution of intent to dissolve its charter.
“It’s kind of heartwrenching,” Harrison said of the idea of Speed dissolving. He still holds out hope that Speed can find a way to carry on, but the chances of that happening are slim.
Town Clerk Dolores Faison didn’t respond to multiple requests for a copy of that resolution of intent to dissolve.
The town faces logistical issues. The town has until June 30, 2026, to develop a plan to distribute its assets and liabilities. The commissioners must also decide what to do about its town-owned roads, streetlights and trash service.
Edgecombe County doesn’t offer trash pick-up, which will be a problem for the town’s elderly residents, Randolph said. One option is to form a homeowners association or other organization that could collect dues to pay for those services, but nothing like that is in the works yet.
Charter or not, Randolph’s favorite aspects of his town – the name and the quiet – will remain. Harrison’s neighbors, all of whom he knows by name, will continue on as a “community of togetherness.”
After all, not much changes in Speed.
This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.