New businesses coming to Pikeville
By Sam Atkins
Published in News on November 2, 2004 1:57 PM
PIKEVILLE -- The town should have two new businesses in Cornerstone Plaza within the next few months.
A Pizza and Sub restaurant is planned to open after the owner receives approval from the Wayne County Health Department, said Lonnie Graves, town administrator.
Another business called Magic Tanning will also be in the plaza soon. Sewer service is available to both businesses, which will decrease the town's total sewer allowance, said Graves.
A Goldsboro company is the low-bidder for Pikeville's plans to build a new sewer plant. T.A. Loving Co. in Goldsboro offered a price of $2,769,000. All of the bids are being reviewed by Tyndall Lewis of McDavid Associates, the town's engineer.
Lewis said the bids exceeded the money budgeted for the project. He expects that the project will be reduced or additional funding will be sought by the town. The details concerning that have not been developed, said Lewis.
The board voted Monday to allow Mayor Herb Sieger to apply for another grant from the N.C. Clean Water Trust Fund to help fund the project.
Recreation
The board adopted the capital projects budget for the parks and recreation improvements. The revenues available for the project total $194,175.
The town's portion is $97,088 and the rest is from the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.
A large portion of the money, $70,000, will go toward demolishing the old school building. A new children's playground will cost $34,000, a sheltered stage will cost $17,500, and planning and the final design will cost $17,345.
The construction company has started removing asbestos from the school, and the school should be down by the end of the month, which is on schedule, said Sieger.
Christmas bonus
Eight full-time employees will receive $100 Christmas bonuses, one part-time employee will receive $75 and another part-time employee will receive $50. All employees were promised a one-percent merit raise during their last pay raise and will receive it in December.
The board continued discussions on employee performance evaluations.
Commissioner Johnnie Weaver presented the evaluations Monday and said they will be rated on a scale of 0-5 on different functions. If an employee scores less than a three in a certain area, he will be able to comment on it and an action plan will be developed to reverse the behavior. Each employee will be made aware of his responsibilities, he said. Details of the evaluations are still being discussed.
The board accepted a new town organization chart last month proposed by Weaver, who believes the town should be run more like a business. In the past, the town's chart had the administrator, Lonnie Graves, ahead of only the public works employees. The new chart has Graves ahead of the public works employees, police chief, police sergeant, other police officers and the town clerk.
Police computers
Police Chief Ken Barrett is gathering more information that he will present to the board on two new mobile data computers for the town's police cars.
The computers would be compatible with the computers in the police office. If the board approves, he will apply for a grant for the computers by the beginning of January and would probably purchase them around July.
Barrett has received two applications for reserve officers, who would patrol with other officers to get familiar with the town and then be on their own. They would work for free eight hours per month.
The board approved the reserve program and Barrett will bring the applicant's paperwork before the board before any decisions are made.
Other business
The board approved $3,283 for new carpet in the Town Hall. The money was appropriated in last year's budget.
The board adopted a parade route that will be used in the future for parades in the town. It starts at the old school building, goes down Mill Street to Main Street, across the railroad tracks and then back down.
The town received an audit report from John Anthony, a CPA in Wilson. The town had $110,000 more in cash in June than it had last year. All of the town's departments were under budget, he said.