Close to the Vest

ELIZABETHTOWN – “Close to the vest” is an idiom meaning to be secretive, cautious or reserved, keeping your plans, thoughts or information hidden from others, much like a poker player guards their hand.

It originates from card games where players hold cards near their body (vest or chest) to prevent opponents from seeing them, and both “close to the vest” and “close to the chest” are used, with “chest” being very common. It is also associated with the Wild, Wild, West – where outlaws shot from the hip.

Gunfights were regular and there was always someone calling someone else out to a gunfight.

Here we are in 2026. Are we going to let history repeat itself?

It seems that the Town of Elizabethtown and Bladen’s Bloomin’ are reigniting the two-year feud that was settled in 2025.

Some items that have recently come to light in the most recent Town of Elizabethtown meeting and other continuing practices and policies by the town did not settle well with Bladen’s Bloomin’ board, including Bladen County Economic Development Commission director Chuck Heustess.

“Even though we are being extremely restrained in what we’re doing and we have been the whole time because we don’t want to hurt the town, it’s just how much you have to do to have people do the right thing,” Heustess said. “Everything doesn’t need to come from me.”

Although Heustess encouraged me to talk to others concerning some of the issues being raised by Bladen’s Bloomin’, the interim town director, Pat Devane was contacted as was Slim Thompson from Sovereign Air and some of the County Commissioners with no response.

The questions that were posed to them in writing were:

First of all – how did the hiring of Ken Hadaway transpire and were there other candidates interviewed for the position of chief financial officer.

2. With Hadaway coming from Vulcanair under some “unusual” circumstances, do you see this as a conflict of interest for the town or for Vulcanair? Was he given a contract?

3. When did you know about the contracts that Rusty Worely, Hugh Bledsoe, Sharon Penny and Stephen Duffy had with the town of Elizabethtown – and is it also true that Duffy lives rent free compliments of the town of Elizabethtown.

4. Did you tell Bladen’s Bloomin’ that they were not zoned for a day care for their addition when in fact, they have been running as a day care?

4. Is it true that for a company to get water and sewer put into their name, they have to come in and sign a wet-signature, get a letter from the state approving their EIN # and provide a “land use plan?”

5. Did your board members know about the Ken Hardaway hire before the public town meeting AND did they know about the contracts to Worley, Bledsoe, Penny and Duffy?

6. Is it true that the Industrial Park lost a client due to the fact that they were quoted six months to obtain rezoning? And did you know that that client had a rezoning in Bladenboro in 40 days and has gone there?

These are not accusations; they are merely questions that we would like to be answered. One of the problems with the past feud was the lack of transparency. As I wrote in my opening – there is a lot of secrecy and from secrecy without full communication and disclosure – it can become a breeding ground for speculation, rumor and fallacies.

To provide answers to questions is never wrong. The answers may not be popular – but transparency is like a Lysol that can eliminate the bacteria causing the toxic talk and assumptions and accusations that are going on in back alleys and in hushed whispers.

Cameron McGill, the Bladen County Commission Chair did respond when contacted. Although he and his wife, Tiffany are in Israel, he thought it important enough to get back to me.

“Because of the complexities of this situation, I do not feel inclined at this point to speak on behalf of the commissioner board,” McGill said. “However, I do know that there have been ongoing issues between BBAI and some within the town of Elizabethtown leadership. Honestly, I am not a fan of airing dirty laundry in the public and have made that very clear. I believe that the elected officials on both the county and town levels have a responsibility to work together for the betterment of our citizens and in a way that will promote progress and help the growth in our county. I believe that the people who voted us into Office and trusted a great deal of responsibility to us and expect professionalism from us.”

McGill also said, “As to the specific charges and claims between BBAI and the town of Elizabethtown, I will not speak publicly, but will allow the entities and their attorneys to work all of that out. I pray that Bladen County will unify in the coming days to keep our community a wonderful place to call home.”

Also weighing in on the conflict was Bladen County Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson.

“It is so disappointing to wake up almost every day and wonder what our challenge will be today with the Town of Elizabethtown. Honestly, it has been going on for over three years.

We are trying to grow our County and the Town of Elizabethtown. We are getting very little cooperation and sometimes nothing but roadblocks from the Town. We have lost thousands of hours and nonproductive time on tasks over the past three years.

We have a subgroup that has been meeting. The subgroup has 3 Commissioners, 3 Town of Elizabethtown board members and 3 from BBAI. Our job is to resolve any issues between these three groups and report back to our board. We have made some progress in these meetings. Then the staff at the town destroys any hope and progress.

A good example is that we have struggled the last few days to get our new industry which will be in the industrial park hooked up to the town water system.

I would like the elected officials of the Town of Elizabethtown board to help us understand why they are letting the nonelected people make all these hurtful demands. We have not requested anything that the town has not been approved in the past. So, please help me understand. Honestly, we do want to grow this County and your town. So, why, as elected officials are you making it so hard and almost impossible? You were elected to be the governing board for the town of Elizabethtown. When are you going to start serving the citizens of Elizabethtown and stop letting staff make all these hurtful decisions? Most of the decisions are put in place without you even being informed.

We as board members need to take more active roles, be willing to disagree, read our agreements and correspondence, talk to and listen to all parties and start valuing the truth and stop letting the decisions be dictated by nonelected officials. We are elected to make these decisions for the betterment of Bladen County and the Town of Elizabethtown

I know the members of the Commissioners, Town of Elizabethtown, and BBAI are sick and tired of all this fighting. We as elected officials can stop all this nonsense and get back to being responsible for elected officials. Let’s do it!”

“At this point, the county has notified the town that we are going to reopen legal proceedings,” Heustess said. “The premises of our disagreement right now are that the rezoning that was supposed to be done in the settlement agreement, in our opinion has taken way too long. We feel like we are being required to do things that are out of the norm to get projects permitted or things as simple as a water/sewer hookup.”

There were many things that were disclosed and discussed in a meeting with Heustess. A positive that came forth was that the BBAI has said that they have developed a good working relationship with the Town of Elizabethtown board members.

“What we’re trying to do is get things straightened out,” Heustess said. “Now, first let me tell you this; Our relationship with the board members has significantly improved. However, we are having as many problems as ever with the administration. And… we can’t name anyone because we don’t know where the problems are coming from. Now, our communications are coming from the interim town manager, but can we tell you where the problems are? No.”

Heustess said that in the application for the addition to the day care, he was informed that the site was not zoned for a day care.

“So, they said that we had to go back and get it rezoned,” Heustess said. “They had already signed permits and everything and let us put a day care supposedly on a site that’s not zoned for day care. So then, all this has been resolved because the town board members looked at it and said, “what are you doing?” (as a query to their administration). It’s been resolved, but it’s the kind of barriers that we are going through – requiring things like traffic studies and stormwater plans that can cost you tens of thousands in months. When they were never required before.”

According to the agreement between BBAI and the town, City Planner Worley can’t do anything with planning, economic development. Heustess then produced a letter from the Town of Elizabethtown Planning & Community Development confirming a submission for rezoning from BBAI and it was signed by Worley.

“That’s 100% proof that he’s doing it,” Heustess said. “So, we called the interim town manager and his answer was that he didn’t care. He stated that ‘Rusty has a contract, and he is going to let him do his job.’ And we cannot find a board member who was aware and the board members tell us that it was never taken to them; they were not aware of it. Are there other board members who knew? I don’t know. Rusty is also working, on the Vulcanair project, which is obviously an ongoing economic development project. We have been told by board members that they have been directed not to, (Worley working on an economic development project), he is still doing it. And again, the answer to me from the interim town manager was, ‘He is doing his job.’ Our concern is – That is a blatant violation of settlement (Between the town and Bladen County and the BBAI).”

It was at that point that the BBAI requested contracts via FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) from the town and found out about contracts that were signed by Dane Rideout Aug. 5, 2024.

Heustess summed up his thoughts with, “What’s more important is the future than the past. Even after all this, we still don’t want to hurt the Town. Everything we’re doing is in the best interest of the Town. Is it in the best interest of the town to move forward with the Planner and the Finance Director they just hired given the history and the conflict of interest? We don’t think so. We have a settlement agreement that says the town is off the hook for all of that. Our opinion hasn’t changed, because again, you hurt the town you hurt the county. We 100% want to work with the town that we can trust. And we want to have the same requirements that everybody else does. And we only want to do projects that improve housing and jobs in Elizabethtown. We’re going to stay here. We’re all living here. We’re not going to do something shady or shoddy with any intention.”

At this time, we are still just waiting on some answers and at least some rebuttal. The problems came in past years of sitting behind closed doors and not answering questions. Let’s stop the speculation, the rumors and the possible collateral damage before this festers into another legal battle.