Aidileys

I am not an isolated incident.
For my children's entire childhood lives, our family was consumed by litigation within North Carolina's family court industry; there is zero recourse for victims - we have been effectively held hostage by the state.
Almost 2-decades later, I continue advocating to address systemic process and policy failures.
My youngest daughter is now 16 and has been separated from her maternal family for over 12 years. My hope is that by sharing our experience, we will bring light to much needed Awareness, for Transparency and True Accountability for those in positions of power, within these systems.
May our children see that we are still here. Godspeed.
Aidileys.org

[EDITORIAL] China Grove could soon face legal pushback over Farmers Day Festival dismissal:

The Town of China Grove could soon be facing legal council regarding their handling of the vendor processing of their annual Farmers Day Festival which is hosted on their main street in downtown where vendor tents line the roadway to celebrate all things agrarian in South Rowan.

This year however, China Grove officials have taken new leaps and bounds to make sure certain long standing vendors were prohibited from reentering their hometown festival which has many questioning their motives, and others up in arms over accused selective handpicking.

Beginning on April 30th, outcry flooded local reports from nonprofits, to churches, and even the Republican and Democrat parties who all recieved an email notification at the same time stating that they had been denied vendor entry for the Farmers Day Festival.

This decision was made under the newly adopted rules of vendors only being admitted if they directly contribute to the China Grove community, and are not politically established.

One local resident immediately took to the stand at the next town council meeting following that decision to protest his concerns, Charles Dean, otherwise known as Chad, who advocated on record that he would strongly reconsider allowing two historical nonprofits to be admitted into the festival as vendors.

Those two organizations were Fame Preservation Group and the Rowan Rifles Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans who despite the locality rule have been noted to have contributed to China Grove directly through preservation work, community engagement, and advocacy through the Farmers Day Festival and other opportunities.

Charles Dean is a historian author who prides himself also as a wrestling enthusiast which naturally fits him for wanting a cage match with China Grove officials over this issue, but more importantly than wanting vendor spaces, there's a legal matter beyond the public eye.

On May 27th, China Grove Parks and Recreation Director Jill Sellers issued an email statement to applicants regarding their handling of the vendor processing matter in stating that an official vendor list had not yet been chosen despite denying applicants prior because of a lack of payments for spaces. Again, applicants were denied on April 30th.

This was later added on with another June 9th email correspondence with Dean in stating a backup list of vendors was present with none of the previous years vendors listed on it either and that an official list was not available suggesting bias.

That promoted Dean to issue a public records request (PRR), to officially hold China Grove accountable for their lack of transparency, inaction of addressing his concerns, and a complete disregard for the conditioning of how their festival is perceived by the public after excluding long-standing vendors. That PRR was put into affect on June 11th, and as of July 3rd, nothing has been brought to the matter.

"I originally did not intend on filing a PRR but after continued silence on legitimate requests for answers, information, or even the courtesy of a direct and on the record response from the public servants at town hall followed by some menial doubletalk after six weeks that was nothing more than a purposefully vague non-reply reply, I felt it was the correct path to take", Dean said to CWR". I want to make it clear that I am acting as an individual and have not been chosen by FPG, SCV, the county GOP, or the mayor's church to speak on their behalf. I saw a wrong and sought appropriate remedies to correct it."

And rightfully so for public transparency, now that a public records request can be considered ignored by a municipal government, there's great potential for a legal council to be involved to demand just that to be presented.

Under the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. Chapter 132) , agencies must release public records "as promptly as possible". Failure to acknowledge, deliberate delays, or withholding unexempted records can result in court-ordered releases and the agency paying your attorney fees.

This is doubled down by China Grove attorney Tom Brooke emailing on June 23rd where reasoning for a lack of providing a public records request had not been met because the town was "in the middle of vacation season" and would have to take time to do the research.

The public records request is as stated:

1. A list of all 2026 primary and secondary-approved vendor booth organizations or others officially present

2. A list of all 2026 organizations denied including rationale based on the evaluation of their credentials

3. All other emails, agendas, minutes, memos, and other relevant notes pertaining to the 2026 festival

4. All communications to, from, or about Down Home North Carolina in the past two years

5. Documentation of all funding sources for the 2026 festival including but not limited to Main Street and its subsidiaries

6. All 2025-2026 communications that reference the Rowan County Republican Party, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Fame Preservation Group, Charles Dean, Gregory Lambeth, or Jason Honbarger

7. All correspondence with legal counsel for advice pertaining to the constitutionality of restricting free speech and free assembly in the public square or other matters related to 2026 festival policy changes

Not providing this public records request is not only illegal under North Carolina State law, but it also presents a lack of compliance from public servants to the community they serve and the county they represent.

"Let's see all deliberations about who is in, who is out, and why. We believe all of the excluded groups I have mentioned were highly qualified as vendors based on the town's own published criteria". Dean said, "If China Grove is telling the truth, they could very quickly put it on the record and put this whole ordeal to rest. The silence speaks volumes in the court of public opinion."

Accusations of viewpoint discrimination are already present, and first amendment violations have also been cited as additional protests of China Grove's selective reasoning for how Farmers Day is being carried out.

Furthermore, an additional legal matter is also at hand regarding a previous circulation of opposition to China Grove demanding answers as to why an openly socialist organization, Down Home North Carolina, is allowed to declare themselves as being involved in the Farmers Day Festival whereas other political enties, entire political parties, have been denied entry. If they're not involved as a vendor, then China Grove officials should publicly issue a cease and desist declaration.

And also, it has been noted as suspicious that Food Lion has been designated as the official sponsor of the Farmers Day Festival in correlation to the involvement of Fame Preservation Group and the Sons of Confederate Veterans because of previous backlash in the Town of Faith regarding their involvement in the Faith Fourth of July Parade and how Food Lion withdrew their sponsorship because of a Confederate presence there.

That could just be conspiracy, but the additional Farmers Day Festival rule for their Tractor Parade makes it even more suspicious by declaring only American flags and NC State flags could be present and nothing else. That's very specific and without reason.

The wonder of how deep pockets go is one that has been considered an issue for many topics regarding this type of matter, data centers, and other things that have made government officials act irregularly and out of character. This situation may not be any different.

For a municipality that just prided itself as the "billion dollar town" in a June 4th article with The Salisbury Post for having such a large budget, one could inquire as to why that is.

And as the icing on the cake for the legal mess China Grove is presenting itself with, officials have canceled their next two monthly agenda meetings for July and August which under the North Carolina Public Meetings Act is likely an illegal act because of the lack of provided rescheduling or reasoning for their absence.

The China Grove Farmers Day Festival is coming up with their Tractor Parade on July 17th and the actual festival day on July 18th. With a lack of an official vendor list, legal questions of viewpoint discrimination, a complete disregard to a public records request, and two canceled council meetings, this could result in a vote of no confidence, resignations, and a complete overhaul of China Grove.

Mid-term elections and municipal elections are coming up on November 3rd for China Grove and Faith. Filing begins July 6th and ends July 17th at noon: