More than fifty Moore County citizens attended the Board of Commissioners Tuesday, June 5 meeting to oppose the sale of 1.3 acres of County property near the Veteran’s Memorial in Carthage to the fast food restaurant Bojangles’.
The opponents included more than twenty-five Vietnam veterans, including Moore County Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 966 President Chuck Spelman, who addressed the Board.
“We have been notified by certain individuals of Moore County that the Carthage War Memorial will no longer be a sacred place where we can come to show our respect,” said Spelman, a resident of Seven Lakes West, “because certain individuals want to locate a fast food restaurant in front of the Memorial.”
In May, it came to light that the Commissioners had discussed the potential sale of the property while meeting in Closed Session.
Discussions began on the matter in October 2011, when a broker repenting Bojangles’ initially offered $280,000 for the property. That bid was later raised to $330,000, with the buyer paying closing costs and a broker’s fee of ten percent.
“Certain individuals feel that a monetary gain is worth more than the lives we lost and the Memorial that has been built in their honor,” said Spelman.
However, Commissioner Nick Picerno said no decision has been made to sell the land to Bojangles’.
“I just hope you have not had your emotions riled prematurely,” said Picerno. “We were simply putting it in as part of our discussion of our future vision of what the County may look like . . . As far as I know, this Board has not made any decision to sell that property.”
Whether premature or not, it was clear that emotions have been riled, as explained by US Navy veteran Michael Gast, who told the Commissioners how he felt when he learned that a Bojangles’ might be built next to the Memorial.
“I felt that this was showing a great disgrace toward service men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom that you and I enjoy on a daily basis,” Gast said.
This view point was echoed by Seven Lakes West Resident Joe Kristek, founder of VVA Chapter 966 and current State President for the VVA of North Carolina.
“To think about looking out in the park into the grassy area and seeing some type of facility . . . I think would be a slap in face to the Veterans of this County,” Kristek said.
Commissioner Picerno was quick to explain how talks with Bojangles’ came about.
“We did not go seek Bojangles’ — they approached the Board back in October,” said Picerno, “It may be possible, it may be something we might want to do, but nobody ever put in there that we were actually going to sell the property.”
Veteran Jim Crawford told the Board, “If you allow Bojangles’ to build on this site you should expect and get the same amount of respect as you are showing the Veterans — and, in my opinion, that is none at all.”
Commissioner Tim Lea, who spoke of his personal opposition to the sale at a Monday, June 4 meeting of VVA Chapter 966 told those in attendance: “Maybe the Board has not taken official action concerning this issue; but this Board has been addressing it, in three separate closed sessions since last October.”
“So we didn’t just bring this to the table,” explained Lea, “This has been something we have been working on.”
During Tuesday’s meeting the Commissioners agreed to release the minutes from Closed Sessions in October, February, and May in which the Bojangles’ offer was discussed.
However, a motion by Lea to include any supporting documents, as well as the audio recordings of the Closed Sessions, died for lack of a second from any of the other Board members.
“I think you are here at the right time,” said Lea, “because politicians have a tendency to make decisions when people are sometimes not aware of the total consequences, and you are having to deal with it after the fact.”
Representing the League of Women Voters of Moore County, Carolyn Mealing told the Board: “We must not forget them nor lessen their sacrifices by selling County property in close proximity to the Memorial for a purpose that would diminish the Memorial’s very reason for being.”
David Berger of the Marine Corp League asked the Commissioners to think of a way of enhancing the Memorial instead of placing a Bojangles’ next to it.
The Board took no action on the sale of the property during the meeting.
Board Approves Budget
In a four-to-one vote, with Commissioner Lea opposed, the Board adopted a Fiscal Year 2012-2013 budget that includes $84.9 million in General Fund expenditures.
County Manager Cary McSwain presented the budget to the Board, explaining that it represents a decrease from $93 million in 2011 — a reduction of $8 million.
During a budget workshop in May, the Commissioners had asked McSwain to to reduce spending in the budget by $1.3 million, by eliminating some vacant positions and other cost-cutting measures.
“I’d like to thank [staff] for responding to our budget workshop and reducing the full time employees [FTE] back down to last year’s levels,” said Picerno, “and reducing our spending back to get it constant to last year’s.”
After questioning the total amount of compensation paid to County employees, including salary, benefits, retirement, and the Cost Of Living Allowance increase for the year, Lea voted against the proposed budget.
Lea told The Times there were two reasons he didn’t approve of the budget. First, he does not support longevity pay — a $600,000 expense that is based solely on the number of years the employee has worked for Moore County.
“Pay should be based on performance,” said Lea.
Secondly, he felt the cuts to employee health benefits were “too severe.” Deductibles in the health insurance provided to County employees is being raised from $500 to $1,250 for an individual — and to $2,500 for families. “Our employees are our most valuable asset,” explained Lea.
The adopted budget does include a 1.5 percent cost of living increase which will begin in January and will be applied to only half of the FY2013 budget year.
“Despite the increase in our personnel benefits,” explained McSwain, “the fact that we have dollar for dollar the very same amount means we have cut back significantly and in other places.”
Commissioner Craig Kennedy thanked the staff for making it “easy” to adopt the budget.
“If we keep on this way,” said Picerno, “maybe next year we can reduce the tax rate — that would be our hope.” This year the tax levy remains the same as last year’s.
The Moore County School Board and Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence attended the meeting. MCS’s request for $26 million is fully funded in the adopted budget. McSwain thanked the School Board and Spence for keeping their budget request the same as last year’s.
VIPER Funding Approved
The Board approved a request by Public Safety staff to spend $5.2 million to fund the FCC-mandated narrowbanding requirement and install the VIPER system to improve emergency communications.
Assistant County Manager Ken Larking presented the Board with three options for funding the VIPER system. The Board ultimately approved the least expensive version, Option 1, which had also won the recommendation of the staff.
However, Commissioner Lea noted that the recommendation was made due to budget constraints, not because it was in the best interest of the County.
“To me we are building a world class communication system for the County,” said Commissioner Kennedy. “Let’s fix it right the first time and not do a patch.”
After a five-minute recess, the staff changed their recommendation to the second least expensive option, Option 3, which would provide better coverage in the Robbins area.
The Board rescinded their previous vote and approved the staff recommendation, which includes $318,000 in trade-in value for the current radios used by public safety. Motorola is willing to pay $318 per radio traded in for the new VIPER radios.
The difference in price between option one and three is $174,000, which will be made up through the radio trade-ins.
The money to pay for the VIPER installation comes from a combination of $4.6 million in Advanced Life Support and general funds, $565 in E-911 funds, along with some grants.
In other Public Safety-related matters, the Board also approved a Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan Update which would include Chatham, Lee, and Harnett Counties as requested by Public Safety Director Scot Brooks.
Each local government is required to have such a plan in place as a result of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Moore County’s plan expires in 2015.
Fracking Resolution
The Board approved a resolution, requested by Commissioner Picerno and presented by County Attorney Misty Leland, asking the General Assembly “to include in any statewide hydraulic fracking legislation provisions permitting local governments the authority to regulate fracking in its jurisdiction due to water concerns which can be unique to each jurisdiction.”
“This is not a statement on fracking one way or another,” said Picerno. “But I think our Board should have some form of input about whether fracking is allowed or not in our County.”
Public Works
The Board approved the following public works projects during their Tuesday, June 5 meeting:
• A request to purchase a 2006 613C CAT Wheel Tractor Scraper in an amount not to exceed $93,000 for the Moore County Landfill.
• A request to reject all Requests For Proposal for grinding and hauling services at the Moore County Landfill, due to the lowest bidders being “neither responsive nor responsible.” The County will continue to work under their current contract with Simmons and Simmons Management Inc.
• Water Pollution Control Plant Policies, Standards, and Specifications, as requested by Gould. This would be a guide applicable to any private Water Pollution Control Plant facility in the County, for example, the plant proposed for the Pine Forest development.
Refinancing
After hearing a presentation by Davenport and Associates about the County’s bond indebtedness, the Board approved the pay off of four bonds and refinancing of other bonds at a lower interest rate.
Davenport will present additional information about this option at the Board’s Tuesday, June 19 meeting.
