Editor’s note: Ask Us is a weekly feature published online Mondays and in print on Tuesdays. We’ll seek to answer your questions about items or trends in Rowan County. Have a question? Email it to askus@salisburypost.com.

The recently-installed “speed table” on Charles Street in Spencer aims to slow down speeding vehicles in a school zone.

Spencer Town Manager Peter Franzese said the table is somewhat unlike a speed bump and designed to slow vehicles to the 25 mph speed limit in the area near North Rowan’s elementary and middle schools. Specifically at issue is cars traveling from Interstate 85 over to U.S. 601 and U.S. 70, Franzese said.

But the town has received feedback from residents the “speed table” is causing a noise issue when people travel over it too quickly. He said the noise from the tires hitting the bump too hard and the car bottoming out would not be an issue if vehicles were traveling at the correct speed. New signs have been installed, including more signage ahead of the “speed table.” Franzese said the town has also ordered flags for the signs.

The town plans to get advice from N.C. Department of Transportation and traffic engineers on how to improve the location. As an example, Franzese pointed to installing plastic rumble strips.

The town installed the “speed table” in response to concerns from residents about safety of the kids who attend the schools. The town found speed limit enforcement and a speed sign did not work.

Franzese said the town is working on a pavement evaluation of all the streets it maintains and would want to know when the street needs to be resurfaced before it installs new measures.

Can I use gift cards received before the pandemic?

Another reader asked if gift cards and certificates received before the pandemic denoting one-year expiration dates can still be redeemed.

Congress established a regulatory floor on gift cards in 2009 with the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. Included in the law’s provisions on gift cards and certificates was a minimum expiration date of five years.

This is the minimum regulation on gift card expiration  North Carolina has no additional legislation on how long consumers can redeem gift cards, but it does have a provision in its statutes on abandoned property that “any gift certificate or electronic gift card bearing an expiration date and remaining unredeemed or dormant for more than three years after the gift certificate or electronic gift card was sold is deemed abandoned.”

The gift card would not be abandoned if it bears no expiration date or states the expiration date is not applicable in the state.

The federal law does allow inactivity fees in certain circumstances, but North Carolina general statute requires the seller to “conspicuously disclose any maintenance fee charges at the time of purchase.

The state also forbids charging any maintenance fee for a full year after purchase.