The Wadesboro town council may have come one step closer to making a decision on how to fund a new fire department during a planning retreat Saturday.
The council, assisted by facilitator David Long, took a new approach this year. In its previous two retreats, the council focused on identifying what the town needed and reaching a consensus on its priorities. This year, the council wanted to develop a map to reaching its goals.
The group initially meant to name its top few priorities, but spent the majority of its time focusing on how to find the money to pay for a new fire department as building it and a new police department were two of the council’s top concerns in previous retreats.
Long said that since the council said grants for the projects are a “possibility, not a probability,” it seemed that they were a “function of taxes.”
The facilitator asked the council whether it would be an “inconvenience” or a “tragedy” if the fire department weren’t built by 2026.
“We passed the tragedy stage a long time ago,” Councilman John Ballard said.
The current tax rate is 54.6 cents while the fire district tax is 7.6 cents. Looking at one scenario, Long said the council may need to raise both taxes by 2 cents for a $1 million 20-year loan for the fire department alone.
Town Manager Alex Sewell said a new police department may be paid for out of reserve funds.
The board looked at its options, but said it needs to have the definite figures from the contractor for the projects before making a decision on what to do.
Long helped the council develop a timeline for figuring out the finances. Sewell committed to speaking with the contractor as soon as possible with the hope of hearing from the contractor by April 11. The council decided to look at that quote during one of its budget meetings in April, and for the council to make a decision based on that information during its May 2 meeting.
If the town does raise the fire district tax, it will need the approval of the county commissioners. Should the town decide to go that route, the council agreed to approach the commissioners during their May 3 meeting, then meet to discuss the project at least once more before making a final decision.
Sewell would then make his recommendation to the council on May 24. Long called June 1 the “drop dead” deadline for the project to be incorporated into the fiscal year 2016-17 budget.
While no vote on how to fund the project was made at the retreat, the council did unanimously agree on the process and schedule.
Allen Hart with the U.S. Department of Agriculture spoke to the council about possible loan and grant options available through USDA, saying that community facility financing options may be available for the much-needed fire department.
Because the Tollison building is located next to the current combined police and fire department building, Hart said the town will have to factor its presence on the National Register of Historic Places when designing and constructing the building. Depending on how that goes, Hart said that it may mean demolishing the building and putting up a historical marker, using certain materials, leaving it up and more.
AUTOMATIC TRUCK TRASH PICKUP
The council was divided on how to handle trash pickup rules for businesses uptown versus those in other areas such as on U.S. 74.
The current draft of the trash policy recognizes that a large amount of non-residential trash customers “grossly exceed” the limits on how much trash the town will pick up. Uptown garbage is picked up three times a week while trash is picked up once a week elsewhere.
“Other customers with the same amount of trash pay for a dumpster service,” the policy said. “This is not treating everyone fairly. One option would be to allow for non-residential accounts to have a ‘business account’ whereas they would be issued three trash cans and have to pay a rate proportionally increased by three whatever the normal garbage rate would be. The town would only pick up what is in those three trash cans and any other customer would need to get a dumpster.”
Councilman Bobby Usrey said he was unhappy with all non-residential customers being billed the same amount when uptown customers received more service.
“I have a problem with distinguishing an uptown business from another business,” Usrey said. He felt that if businesses are paying taxes and for services and not having their trash picked up as often as those uptown, they shouldn’t be made to get a dumpster if they can’t fit their garbage in three cans.
Both Sewell and public services director Hugh James acknowledged that the policy does treat uptown non-residential customers differently than those located elsewhere, but said they didn’t have another solution.
“The town without a doubt treats uptown differently than the rest, and that’s not unusual,” Sewell said. He and James recommended to the council that the town follow the policy and continue trash pickup uptown as it has been doing it, and that the town provide non-residential customers three cans if necessary if the third was bought at-cost but only charge for pickup services for two.
Sewell said the town could not order the trash cans to begin the automatic truck trash pickup until the council decided how many trash cans to order. If the town is ready, it will begin using the new truck July 1.
Although it was not voted on, the council agreed on the policy by majority consensus, with Usrey and Councilman John Ballard opposed to the policy. Councilman Jeremy Burr had left the retreat before the discussion, but Mayor Bill Thacker supported with the policy as written.
The council decided on green as the uniform trash can color that will be given to both residential and non-residential customers.
CHALLENGES
Sewell brought up other concerns to the council, including the need to increase the salaries of some town staff in order to make the salaries competitive with those of employees in similar positions elsewhere. Sewell said the town also needs to look into purchasing a new fire truck and improving its water and sewer system.
Sewell also identified the top challenges the town faces as it tries to improve its facilities and services, which included the town’s population decline, which lowers its tax base, and its comparatively low personnel salaries.
To alleviate financial pressures, Sewell said the town had several options, though they were not all ones that he would necessarily recommend: increasing industry to increase the tax base, raising property taxes and other fees, decreasing town services such as limb pickup and decreasing employee benefits.
Usrey asked Sewell to look into what the town’s finances may look like with de-annexation and reducing services, though he said the request was only to gather more information at this point.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.
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