Commissioners meet Tuesday
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on September 5, 2004 8:59 AM
The Wayne County commissioners will hear an update Tuesday on the Parkstown redevelopment project.
The county received a $700,000 state grant last year. That money has been used to relocate some residents of LaGrange Road, Parkstown Road and Sam's Lane from dilapidated homes that would be too costly to repair.
The new homes have been outside the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base flight zones.
The county originally planned to install water lines in the area and pave Sam's Lane, but David Harris of RSM Harris Associates Inc., the project manager, has since pointed out that the infrastructure might encourage more development in the flight zone.
The commissioners will hold a public hearing at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday on the project. Afterward, the board is likely to change the budget so that the money set aside for paving and water lines can be used to move another resident.
U.S. 70 eyed
Also Tuesday, the commissioners will consider ways to get the N.C. Department of Transportation to focus on U.S. 70 improvements.
The board will likely approve a resolution calling on DOT to study the corridor around U.S. 70 from its Interstate 40 intersection in Raleigh to Beaufort. The goal would be to eliminate congested areas by either bypassing them or reducing the number of driveways and stoplights.
The study is needed as an economic development tool, the proposed resolution says. Slow traffic on the highway drastically increases business costs and hampers growth.
The commissioners are also planning to ask DOT to assign a single staff person to track U.S. 70 projects and issues. The state used to have a U.S. 70 overseer, but that position is now vacant.
Other business
Also Tuesday, the commissioners are scheduled to do the following:
*Approve updated bylaws for Wayne Health Corporation, operator of Wayne Memorial Hospital.
*Approve a revised fee schedule for the Wayne County Health Department.
*Appoint Tammy Peele as tax collector. She has been serving in the job on an interim basis.
*Ask the federal government to pick up more of the cost of the Medicaid program.
*Proclaim Tuesday, Sept. 14, as "National POW/MIA Recognition Day" and call for the POW/MIA flag to be flown over the courthouse that day.
*Recognize the Services on Aging for its recent reception of a Ralph W. Ketner employee productivity award.
*Sell a landfill compactor that had previously been declared surplus.
*Cancel the board's Oct. 19 meeting and schedule its November meetings on Nov. 9 and Nov. 23, instead of Nov. 2 and Nov. 16 to avoid a conflict on Election Day.
The commissioners will convene at 8 a.m. Tuesday for a briefing on the agenda. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room, third floor, Wayne County Courthouse Annex, 224 E. Walnut St.