The cartoon adorned the office door of a college Spanish professor: A mouse barking like a dog to scare a way a cat. The caption read: “See, children, it pays to know a second language.”

At West End Elementary, twenty-four kindergartners will get the chance to learn to communicate beyond their mother tongue. Beginning in the new school year, West End will introduce its first Spanish Immersion kindergarten.

Principal Leigh Ann McClendon has done her research. Last year, Associate Superintendent Kathy Kennedy asked McClendon to visit the language immersion program at New Century International Elementary School in Fayetteville.

McClendon was amazed at what she saw. She immediately requested permission to begin a similar program at West End.

“We have done a lot of research, screening of candidates and interviews,” McClendon said. “We are partnering with VIF International Education Company out of Chapel Hill.”

West End currently has an opening for a kindergarten teacher. McClendon has conducted interviews to hire a native Spanish speaking teacher.

“This is not an additional position — this is based on my enrollment,” she explained.

The Moore County Planning Board has, in effect, banned industrial-scale solar farms in Moore County.

The action came during the Board's Thursday, May 9 regular meeting, as members considered a set of text amendments prepared by the Planning Department, that would have made "solar collector facility" a conditional use in a number of zoning districts. After considerable debate, the Board concluded the concerns outweighed the benefits.

At least three landowners have already taken the first steps to receive state approval for building solar farms in the County.

A viable business?

Planning Board Members questioned whether solar farms were viable as a business and worried that they are dependent on large government subsidies. They also worried that evolving technology would quickly date existing structures, making them obsolete. And they feared that, once a solar farm was no longer in use, the landowner would not properly dismantle it and that it would become an eyesore.

At the Board's request, the Moore County Planning Department has been conducting research on solar farms since October of last year. Several members of the board visited the Strata Solar Farm in Raeford. During the Board's April meeting, a question and answer session was held with a representative from Argand Energy Solutions, LLC. At that time, Planner Jeremy Sparrow was asked to edit and write text amendments to present at the May meeting for Board consideration.

Sparrow gave an in-depth presentation of the proposed text amendments, which tightly covered all bases -- from setbacks, proximity to existing three-phase electrical, height of fencing, and emergency access to the type of non-reflective coating permissible. Throughout the presentation, the Board commented on and discussed the proposed ordinances.

Budgets are a balancing act, and the Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposed by County Manager Wayne Vest during the Tuesday, May 7 meeting of the Moore County Board of Commissioners meeting is no exception.

Vest's budget, assembled by a team that included Chairman Nick Picerno and Commissioner Randy Saunders, has no increase in taxes, continues to pay down debt without depleting reserves, covers the rising cost of employee benefits, and adds seven new paramedics, including three dedicated to a new EMS & Fire substation to serve the northeast corner of the County.

On the other hand, it fails to fully fund Moore County Schools' and Sandhills Community College's requests for local funding, and offers no cost of living or merit increase for county employees.

Vest and the budget team were praised by all four Commissioners for their work on the draft document. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in on the budget at the Tuesday, May 21 Commissioners meeting; final approval of the budget is scheduled for the Tuesday, June 4 meeting. A copy of the full budget is available on the County's website.

No tax increase

The first of four goals that Vest said guided the budget process was to "maintain current tax rates," and the centrality of that goal was emphasized when Chairman Picerno called the wording of the objective his only quibble with the budget.

"I would have said 'maintain or reduce,'" Picerno said.

Vest's budget does indeed maintain the county property tax rate at 46.5 cents per hundred, where it has been since FY 2010, and the Advanced Life Support tax, which funds EMS operations, at 2 cents per hundred.

The fire tax rate in each of the County's sixteen fire districts remain at their current levels, including 4 cents for Seven Lakes, 5.9 cents for West End, and Eagle Springs at 7.5 cents. 

In addition to hearing the initial presentation of County Manager Wayne Vest's proposed FY2014 budget, the Moore County Commissioners got the ball rolling on two key initiatives during their Tuesday, May 7 regular meeting: a deal to buy into a water plant expansion in Harnett County, and the purchase of a site for a new fire and EMS substation in the northeastern corner of the County.

More water from Harnett

Commissioners Larry Caddell and Jimmy Melton have been working with Public Utilities staff to narrow down the list of options the County has for increasing its water supply. After investigating the alternatives and negotiating with Harentt County officials, they settled on buying into the expansion of Harnett County's water plant, which draws its supply from the Cape Fear River.

During Tuesday's meeting, the Board authorized Public Utilities to issue a Request for Qualifications for a consultant to develop a preliminary engineering report and environmental assessment -- the first step toward securing funding for the project. Public Utilities Director Randy Gould said the overall project will take 3.5 to 4 years to complete.

As proposed, the County would pay Harnett County $5.25 million to purchase 3.0 million gallons per day of capacity in its water plant, as well as $200,000 for infrastructure improvements needs to move that water to the Moore County line. That will permit Moore County to pay Harnett $1.92 per thousand gallons for water, compared to the $2.40 per thousand gallons it is paying now.

A waterline extension along NC Highway 73, booster pumps, and a new water tank near West End will add another $5.4 million to the cost of the project.

"This is the first step in a twenty-year plan for water," Caddell said. That plan will also include at least three additional wells to be drilled on sites on Linden Road

Speaking on behalf of both the Moore County Chamber of Commerce Board and the Water Task Force of the Moore County Summit, Chamber Director Patrick Coughlin commended the Commissioners on their decision to move forward to secure additional water resources.

[This article contains corrections and clarifications to the version printed in the Friday, May 3 edition of The Times. The corrected paragraph appears in boldface & italics.]

The Foxfire Village Council met in a Work Session Tuesday night, April 30, to discuss, justify, and reduce future spending where possible. Councilwoman Leslie Frusco presented each council member with a budget packet.

Item by item, the Council worked to provide enough funding to cover necessary items while whittling back less urgent expenditures.

Equipping the Police

Prioritizing the Village’s Police Department needs, Councilman Mick McCue said: “It’s very easy to make arguments for all the equipment the police department might never need. But you don’t need them 'til the day you need them.”

The officers follow defined procedures in responding to calls, and ask for County back up when necessary. Items tentatively included in the 2014 budget include a computerized vehicle camera and, possibly, a new firearm.

“Keep in mind, we are going to present this budget at the citizen participation meetings," Frusco said. "We then come back in May after input to edit the final budget.”

“Mick, I encourage you to speak to public safety at the citizen meeting, as to why you took some things out of the budget. It is important that our residents know we are serious — and that it doesn’t mean these items are unnecessary. It just wasn’t a priority this year.”