06/02/13 — Council to eye bid on property

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Council to eye bid on property

By Matt Caulder
Published in News on June 2, 2013 1:50 AM

The Goldsboro City Council will consider an offer of $500,000 by The Little Bank for the former Arts Council of Wayne County property at the corner of Ash Street and Spence Avenue at its meeting Monday night.

The city bought the property for the same amount in July 2011 from The Arts Council of Wayne County.

The city Finance Department has recommended accepting the bid.

The structures on the property are currently in the process of being demolished at a cost of $197,000.

The property is valued at $518,000 without the property on it.

At one time, the council was considering using the structure for an Air Force museum but the plans fell through.

The council's work session will start at 5 p.m. in room 206 of the City Hall addition and the City Council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the council chambers.

The City Council is expected to approve the proposed 2013-14 budget during the meeting.

Minor changes have been made to the budget such as the change in the proposed fee to reconnect water to a dwelling that the city shuts off for non-payment.

The new fee was proposed to be $25 in accordance with surrounding municipalities but was lowered to $10 after concerns were raised by Councilman Chuck Allen about the added burden of the fee in addition to the cost of catching up on an overdue bill.

However the need for the fee was agreed upon due to the cost of sending out resources to reconnect a customer's water service.

The fee is part of a document proposing a change to the wholesale water usage rate to $1.59 per 100 cubic feet.

Both changes would be made effective July 1, 2013.

A resolution will be voted on whether to adopt the Nation Incident Management System.

NIMS is a standardized system of communicating between agencies during times of incident management. It would allow Goldsboro officials better cooperate with outside agencies on the federal, state and local level to handle a wide variety of incidents.

The council will discuss the budget amendment to make allowances for the Berkeley Boulevard widening project to draw funds from street bonds and the Utility Fund to cover the cost of acquiring 12 properties for the project to continue.

The council also will discuss land use issues involving multiple properties in Goldsboro's city limits as well as setting a public hearing for the annexation of J&J Farming Enterprise, LLC for the public to make comments on the issue.

Deputy City Clerk Laura Getz will be sworn in during the work session.