* Opportunity for PUBLIC COMMENT on the proposed ICWD/Polk County Water Contract TONIGHT!
This may be the only opportunity to register your opinion on the 75 year ICWD Water Contract. 6pm tonight at the Womack building - you MUST arrive before 6pm to sign up to speak. A simple "My name is and I am In Favor of or Opposed to this contract" will work. Main concerns include: 1. 75 year term (an awfully long time if we don't get this right) 2. Giving rights to 100% (8 million gallons/day) of raw water withdrawal rights to ICWD 3. No competitive bidding process or water experts consulted. Remember they said the last deal was a good one and the NC Local Government Commission confirmed our suspicion it was NOT (saying they would not approve it). Come out and speak - we need you tonight! No notes yet on last night's mtg. but the 2015 Budget was approved on a 4-1 vote. Here is Ray Gasperson' comments as to why he vote against this year budget (the lone descenting vote). I, for one, agree with Ray's concern about not using the "rainy day fund" to balance the budget. What do YOU think?
"I wish to note that County Manager and staff worked diligently on the 2015-16 Budget Ordinance. In my opinion, this budget conforms to the directions given by those in the majority on this Board. I'm hopeful that as we move forward, the next Budget Ordinance (that will be voted on in June of next year) will take corrective action to reverse, what I believe to be, an unsustainable trend that has developed over the last 3 years. 1. The first red flag that I am worried about is the dramatic drop in the Rainy Day fund. One year ago this fund was above 40%. It will likely be well under 25% at the end of this month. We should never become complacent about keeping a healthy Rainy Day fund balance. Let's remember it only 15 years ago when our County had a Rainy Day fund balance of 0% and the State was ready to come in and take over our finances. 2. A second red flag for me is, for the third year in a row, balancing the budget has required an increasingly large transfer of taxpayer money from the Rainy Day fund. And this is despite taking an aggressive approach on projecting revenues. In my opinion, it's far wiser to take a conservative approach when projecting revenues and to refrain from using Rainy Day Funds to balance the budget. 3. A third red flag I see is the continuation of greatly underfunding our Capital Reserve Fund. This budget has only set aside $50,000 for dam repairs. That number should be $200,000 and there is no money being set aside for other capital projects that we know are coming, such as a new jail. Finally, I hope that the Budget Ordinance that will be voted on in June of 2016 will be much closer to my vision, which is: Polk County government should be effective, efficient and small." Ray Gasperson Polk County Commissioner Yup - it's that time again!
Lots on the schedule tonight including Polk Fresh Grant, waterline trunkline presentation by Dave Odom, property tax reappraisal & changing the sign ordinance to allow 60 sq ft. signs. Here's the link to the packet with tonights agenda, last mtgs minutes and more: http://www.polknc.org/commissioners/b_o_c_meeting_agendas/docs/6_15_2015_Packet.pdf Note that there is a meeting to discuss/ review comments on the new water contract on this Wednesday 6-8pm at the Polk ?Library in Columbus (Public Mtg. room) -- the revised contract is supposed to be released sometime today (monday). Here is a link to the Lake Adger Dredging report: http://www.polknc.org/docs/150520_Final_Lake_Adger_Dredging_Study_Summary_Report.pdf All meetings (unless changed) are on Mondays at 7 PM on the 2nd floor of the Womack Bldg.If there is a topic you would like to speak on you must sign up to speak at the front of the room before 7PM. Your comments are limited to 3 minutes so please be clear and succinct with your message (written notes sometimes help). Thanks for coming and being a part of YOUR county government! WHERE: Polk County Main Library,1289 West Mills Street,Columbus, NC 28722 Street /Public Meeting Room
WHEN: Wednesday June 17, 2015 TIME: 6-8 PM WHY: Discussion&Review of ICWD/Polk Water Contract Agreement BRING: Copy of Contract; (place LINK here) and your Concerns * Please share this email in case their are others that would like to understand/make comment on the contract. Citizen comments will be compiled from this meeting and provided to the commissioners. - The latest agreement (with the commissioners modifications from the last meeting) is due out this Thursday - we will post it here as soon as it is available. From one of our volunteers who agree to attend a mtg and write up what happened:
Most of this meeting was just cut and dried business. Even Ray found little to object to. (He did suggest that in future, Marche Pittman be permitted to present a balanced budget to the BOC rather than have the BOC draft a budget. Good luck with that, Ray.) There were two occurrences that stood out: It is clear that the BOC majority intends to keep constructing water lines across the county and to agree to residents' requests for water line extensions if they are anywhere near a present water line without requiring any matching funds from the residents. The other occurrence was that the BOC majority, if they have a plan in mind for adding water lines, they have not discussed this with Dave Odom of Odom Engineering who was asked to present options for future locations of major water lines. Mr. Odom requested feedback from the BOC on what they want. See discussion below for more on these issues. There was a wide range of interesting topics on the agenda of the BOC meeting June 1 and only three citizens who had comments. Bob Morgan, Chair of the ETDC, was obviously extremely annoyed that the BOC declined to fully fund the ETDC's budget request for the next fiscal year. Apparently, the ETDC wanted its Director, Robert Williamson, to be made a permanent county employee and the BOC decided to retain him on contract only. Sky Conard pointed out to the BOC that the county contract with Northbrook may put them in competition with ICWD for the water in the Green River if the ICWD contract is signed. Virginia Walker had a question about the ICWD draft contract which would permit Polk County to add a surcharge over and above the amount ICWD would charge Polk residents for water. She wondered if there is no limit to the amount of the surcharge, but got no answer. Cathy Ruth of the Planning Board, presented a request from a local church for an amendment to the county sign ordinance because their proposed sign is larger than the present ordinance permits. A hearing was scheduled for the amendment. Melissa Bowlin of the Tax Office made a recommendation that the middle bidder, Wampler-Eanes, be awarded the contract for the reappraisal of county property because they will make actual site visits, claim expertise with equestrian properties and have good references. Stu Ryman of Altamont Environmental gave a presentation of the review his firm did on the dredging of Lake Adger which began with a comparison of airplane views from 2010 and 2013 which showed the huge increase in sedimentation of the lake. A bathymetry study showed much of the lake is only inches deep and very little is up to ten feet deep. If left unchecked, the upper part of the lake will soon totally silt in and will be considered "wetlands" and not eligible for dredging by the state. His recommendations were to lower the lake and dredge to a desired depth, purchase a nearby property (ten acres or more) where the dredged material can be dumped. Dredge the Green River upstream from the lake for a mile and install a sand/gravel extracting facility there to prevent the lake from silting in again. He mentioned state grants to help with the costs but at this time, the state is not making grants sufficient to make much of a dent in the estimated $2,500,000 to $5,100,000 costs for dredging. Estimates were based on dredging from 5 feet to 10 feet of the lake bed. Dave Odom of Odom Engineering was listed as presenting options for future locations of major county water trunk lines. He began by saying that the county is now set up well for long term distribution but he understands that the BOC wants to create a plan for trunk lines. He said he is looking for feedback of what the BOC wants. Mr. Pack said that he sees the county creating more trunk lines on county main roads: Hwy 9 north to Rutherford County; Hwy 108 from Cooperiis to Rutherford County; Landrum Rd. from Derbyshire to SC. Mr. Gage and Mr. Gasperson asked if the county could bring the towns into the discussion but Odom did not seem to think this was a viable idea. Odom will bring a proposal to the BOC at a later meeting. There were a couple of "feel good" presentations from Polk Fresh Foods (John Britton and Kirk Wilson) and Dawn Jordan, the Agricultural Economic Development Director, regarding their impressive achievements assisting agriculture in the county. Jeff Walker of ICWD, gave an update on the water line installation to serve the Green River Baptist Church. He thinks the final cost will be about $93,000, well under the $150,000 budgeted. Marche Pittman said he has heard from two residents nearby who have asked if the water line could be extended to them (picture a new loop from Poor's Ford Rd. at the Meadowbrook Rd. intersection to East Green Creek. Then, astoundingly, Michael Gage thought that was a good idea. The BOC agreed. Acting as if by saving money on the line to the Church, they now had money to spend on a further extension. Not even Ray disagreed. Jeff Walker thought it OK if it is cost effective. I think he meant if the new customers made it pay for itself. But his remark was ignored. Later, in his incredibly brief "Manager's Report" Marche noted that the reduced tap fees time limit has expired. Gage recommended they be extended for 6 months and everybody jumped on board. The BOC proposed meeting schedule for the next 6 months was altered to have 1 meeting in September. Gage would like more months with 1 meeting and maybe some morning meetings. He joked at the great citizen turnout they got at the 6 AM meeting recently. Sorry about the update with nothing in it - this should be better:
Follow this link for the June 1st Meeting Packet which includes:
KEY ITEMS ON TONIGHT'S AGENDA (Something for everyone)! 12. Proposed Polk County Sign Ordinance - changing allowable sign size from a maximum of 16 sq ft to 60 sq ft (seems a little large don't you think?) 13. Reappraisal of Real Property in 2017 (yup - reappraisal time is upon us again) 14. Lake Adger Dredging Study (Altamont Engineering) Review 15. Preliminary Discussion of Future Locations of major County Water Trunk Lines (Odom Engineering) 16. Polk Fresh Foods Financial Update (John Britton) 17. * Polk Fresh Foods Grant Agreement (430,000 to Polk Fresh) and Grant Addendum (an ADDITIONAL $25,000 for expansion). Does anybody know the details on this one? It seems like an awful lot of taxpayer money to support a commercial enterprise start up their business - am I wrong on this?? 18. Groundswell International/Grow Food Where People Live Cooperation Agreement (Dawn Jordon) 19. Green Creek Waterline Update (Jeff Walker) 20. Budget Amendments (Sandra Hughes) 21. July-December 2015 Regular BOC mtg schedule for review Hope some of you can make it. Be sure to arrive early to sign up to speak and let us know how it went! We'll there was actually a pretty good turnout for the Commissioner's working group mtg. at 6am yesterday. About 25-30 intrepid people came in early for the mtg. A bunch of them showed up in bathrobes to make a statement about the unusual hour the mtg was being held (they say because they could not find another time that worked). Here is a link to the Chn. 13 news coverage of that: http://www.wlos.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/meeting-pajamas-21172.shtml#.VV4x8UYprdF
Basically Tom Pack had them go through the document page by page and raise any concerns, suggestions for changes. They discussed each change and adopted it or rejected it. Items they discussed included things like the total amount of water ICWD is requesting (up to 6 million gallons per day from lake Adger and 2 MGD down stream for a total 8 MGD at their proposed downstream water treatment plant they would build in South Carolina); added dam upkeep and lake upkeep to ICWD for entire length of the contract rather than just the initial upgrade of the dam and clarified words regarding the $100,000/yr ICWD would put towards the Polk County water system "backbone" (main transmission lines) All in all it was a very civil mtg. with good, constructive comments coming in from all of the commissioners and excellent comments from Marche Pittman. Ray Gasperson took the opportunity to take issue with the long length of the contract stating that there is no way to know what our needs will be in the decades ahead as our county grows and 75 years is just too long AND to comment that there was no revenue sharing in it for Polk County and we shouldn't give up the right for future generations to make a percentage of the money ICWD will make selling this water. These were broad comments that did not make it into the detailed changes being made to the specific document. ** We will make the contract with these new changes available as soon as the county lawyer finishes them and puts them out to the public. I'll be sure to get some comments out on that at that time and BEFORE the next meeting which is a PUBLIC MTG. on the water contract scheduled for June 29th at 6PM to listen to citizen comments. Be sure to mark your calendar!! June 29th at 6PM You read that right! The Polk County Commissioners will be reviewing the latest water contract draft written by the Inman-Campobello lawyer at 6am Thursday morning. Public comment will not be permitted at this board review, but we need people to show up and let them know that we ARE paying attention.
Latest reviews of the new contract that would give the Inman-Campobello Water District the right to withdrawal water from Lake Adger for 75 years (not 50 like the last one) are that it is a warmed over version of the last one and continues to be very one-sided in the favor of Inman-Campobello Water District and not a favorable deal for Polk county. Please show up if you can (you don't have to stay for the whole thing)! Here is a letter to the editor asking people to show up in pajamas to highlight the ludicrousness of holding a public meeting at 6am (unless you are trying to keep people from being in attendance): http://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2015/05/18/if-you-think-our-water-matters-come-in-your-pajamas/#respond ** Here is a copy of the draft contract for your review: Latest Contract from ICWD Hope to see you there! May 4, 2015 There were 4 or 5 people who made comments about the paving of River Road. All were in favor. Thought the meeting the week before many more were not in favor but that was never mentioned. Basically, these folks said they wanted the 600 feet paid because they either had breathing problems or were upset when they had their car detailed and had a little dust on it. Funny, was the road paved or graveled when the moved there? How about putting street lights up? I lived on a gravel road in Indiana and Missouri and it was never as nice and much more dusty than what they have to live with. Renee McDermott sent an email in favor and said she has never received a more hateful letter like she had received from a horse person. Again, have a car speed by you on horseback and it will change your outlook. Lots of horse owners in the county and we spend a lot of money here and should have a say. I don't think people have any idea of what we spend on our animals. Like I said, it was always a gravel road and they knew that. And yes from two previous experiences, traffic will go faster. Just my two cents. Federal Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act Consortium Agreement for dislocated workers, low income adults and disadvantaged youth for on the job training - approved. Juvenile Crime Prevention Funding Allocation requiring 11,959 - approved. Rumblestrips and Brighter Marking for Hwy 9 - state cost of $245,000 approved. Safety issue. Moseley Architects Detention Center Feasibility Study Agreement - Ray had concerns that maybe two firms should have been interviewed for this. Concerned about property tax increase. Proposed to amend that Polk county not raise property taxes and notify Moseley. Commissioners approved, Ray opposed. Ray opposed 1st budget amendment, rest approved - detention center feasibility study. Library, recreation and tourism budget amendments were unilaterally approved. Consent agenda - approved. Manager's Report - On target with Sunny View, progress on Lake Adger. Motion made to cancel May 18 meeting. Ray opposed. Rest approved. There was a refinancing of loans at a cost of $6500 for savings of $300,000 - 3 loans total. This would be an extention of the time period. Approved. Volunteer Boards - approved. This was it in a nutshell. |
AuthorVarious Archives
August 2017
Categories |