Construction of new homes is picking up in Seven Lakes West, Director Dan Blue reported, during the Tuesday, May 6 meeting of the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board of Directors.

Blue, who has responsibility for the Architectural Review Committee [ARC] said nine projects are currently underway and several more either await approval or almost ready to be submitted.

"Within thirty to sixty days," Blue said, "we will have fifteen or sixteen new homes going up."

Blue said that number includes both custom homes and developer projects, but all are prestigious designs in keeping with the architectural standards of the community, "not cookie cutter."

McDermott Resigns, Goodman Appointed Secretary

President Bruce Keyser reported that newly-appointed SLWLA Secretary Jim McDermott had resigned from the Board effective April 17, due to an unexpected significant increase in the time required by his consulting business.

Director Mandy Goodman will take over McDermott's post as Secretary and Communications Director, leaving a vacancy for a Lake & Dam Director. The board is seeking volunteers interested in filling that slot and serving out the two years left in McDermott's unexpired term of office. Interested members should contact the Nominating Committee.

Commissioner Otis Ritter appears to have successfully fought off a challenge from Seven Lakes West resident Louis Gregory in the District 3 County Commissioner race, according to unofficial election night tallies posted by the State Board of Elections.

With all twenty-six of the County's precincts reporting, Ritter captured 51.9 percent of ballots cast, pulling in 220 more votes than Gregory, a former police chief for Whispering Pines.

There was considerably more daylight between the contenders in the District 1 Commissioners race, where Carthage Town Commissioner and former Clerk of Court Catherine Graham captured 74 percent of the ballots cast and nearly 4,100 more votes than Oscar Romine of Cameron.

A similar gap separated incumbent Clerk of Court Susan Hicks, who won over challenger Doyle Markham with just under 70 percent of the vote.

Sheriff Neil Godfrey bested challenger Steve Leader Adams by nearly 5,100 votes, capturing nearly 79 percent.

Turnout for the primary was low, at just under twenty percent, which is typical of primaries in midterm elections.

All these results are unofficial and preliminary until the official county canvass on Tuesday, May 13.

The Moore County Board of Education is seeking an addition $2.3 million in funding from the county for Fiscal Year 2015. School Board Chair Kathy Farren, along with Moore County Schools [MCS] Superintendent Aaron Spence and Chief Finance Officer Mike Griffin, presented the budget request during the Monday, May 5 meeting of the Moore County Board of Commissioners.

"Thank you for working with us," Farren said. "You work hard to keep us where we need to be."

Farren and Griffin have been working behind the scenes with Commissioners Nick Picerno and Randy Saunders, as well as the county budget team, to develop a funding formula that would add predictability to local school funding by allocating a fixed percentage of county tax revenues to the schools each year.

"That way, as the county grows and our tax revenues grow, they will benefit," Saunders told The Times after the meeting.

But remaining questions about state funding will likely delay the implementation of that formula until FY2016, Saunders said.

It is not clear whether MCS is receiving the full amount of funding the system is due from the state, he explained. MCS and the commissioners are working with state legislators and school officials to answer that question. But, until it is answered, it is impossible to determine the exact percentage of county tax revenues that should be allocated to the schools.

Recently, Saunders discovered that Cumberland County uses a similar funding formula for its schools.

The funding formula would also allocate a fixed percentage of the county's capital reserve fund to school facilities.

Saunders told The Times that the commissioners have already reached an agreement in principle with Sandhills Community College [SCC] that, when ratified in the county budget, will allocate five percent of tax revenue to funding the college — and a similar percentage of the county's capital reserve fund to the SCC's capital needs.

The deal to bring more Harnett County water to Moore County is still on, even though Moore County was not selected earlier this year to receive a zero-interest state loan to fund the project.

During their Monday, May 5 regular meeting, members of the Moore County Board Commissioners were anxious to correct what they felt was incorrect information being circulated during the current election campaign about the County's agreement to purchase additional water from Harnett County.

Moore County, which already purchases water from Harnett County has agreed to purchase a stake in Harnett County's expansion of its water treatment facility. The deal guarantees Moore County access to more water, at a lower price.

The County was seeking an $11 million zero-interest loan from the state in a competitive process that included scores of other water and wastewater projects across the state. Moore County's project did not prevail in the process, but the agreement with Harnett County is signed and will move forward, Commissioner Nick Picerno said.

"We got turned down for our loan request," Picerno said. "We still have a contract; we just need to find a different way to finance it."

"The loan we were turned down for had nothing to do with the financial stability of the county," Commissioner Randy Saunders added, noting that Moore County has a AA rating.

In addition, the financial projections the county used to evaluate the feasibility of the project were based on a four percent interest rate — not the zero percent loan, Chairman Larry Caddell said.

"Even if we had to go on the street and borrow this money, we could get that," he added.

"The board has signed a contract with Harnett County, and there is no turning back," Caddell said. "The only question is how we are going to pay for it. We have an ethical obligation to get that done as cheaply as possible."

The times they are a-changing for the Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA], as a growing number of younger families moving in to the community push up against rules developed when the community was marketed primarily to retirees.

That friction was in evidence during the Association's Open Meeting on Wednesday, April 30, when a number of young parents came to speak up against a rule that prohibits basketball goals at the end of driveways or on Association common areas at the end of streets.

One parent said a formal complaint was made against her when she forgot to roll back her son's goal in the evening after work.

“I live at the end of a quiet street with little traffic," she said. "The goal is structurally sound, weighted, and is on rollers. During the day, I would roll it out for my son to play. One night in December, I forgot to roll it back in when I got home from work, and it was reported by a neighbor.”

One resident said she was sent a certified letter citing the rules violation. Due to her work schedule, it was several weeks before she could make it to the post office. By that time, she had accrued daily fines, which she is in the process of appealing.

Another family was also reported for having a basketball goal.

“I am probably the one who got this whole thing started," the father said. "A neighbor called security when my kids and I were playing basketball at the end of our driveway."

The resident was told by SLLA management that he must move the goal five feet from the edge of the payment. He said he then received another letter saying the goal must be thirty feet from the easement.

“I ended up moving it in the side yard," he said, adding that the Association basketball courts are too far from his home for his children to walk by themselves. "Especially when they can go right outside and play where we can watch them. This is a young community. I think the ordinance should be readdressed and made more family-friendly."

In all, four different parents said their children are not old enough to go unattended to use the basketball courts at Northside Park. One mother said her son and his friend were bullied by teenagers at the park.