Commission eyes school land buy
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 16, 2013 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners are expected to be asked Tuesday to approve the purchase of 35.45 acres in Indian Springs Township for a proposed new Spring Creek Middle School.
The purchase price of the property is $212,500.
The site is located on the east side of N.C. 111 South at Park Road just north of Spring Creek High School.
Wayne County Public Schools officials are scheduled to make the request and to ask that lottery funds be used to purchase the land.
No plans have been approved for the school. However, the commissioners' $258 million capital improvement plan does call for the $17.6 million school to be built in 2017-18.
The plan is a proposal only, and no money has been appropriated.
The meeting gets under way with an agenda briefing at 8 a.m. followed by the board session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse annex.
The school board took an option to purchase the property owned by Edna Garris Stancil on April 25 for $2,500.
In June, the school board asked commissioners to consider funding 50 percent of the district's next three projects, which include construction of additional classrooms at Charles B. Aycock High School and Spring Creek Elementary schools as well as projects in the central attendance area, and to pursue a loan option to build the new Grantham School.
However, commissioners came up with their own version of a plan and an architect's rendering based on a prototype of a school in Johnston County.
The commissioners' tactics came under fire during a five-hour meeting between the two boards in July.
Commissioner John Bell expressed a need for further study of the financial picture, suggesting representatives from both the county and the school district's financial departments meet with Davenport and Associates, the consulting firm that works with the county in financial planning.
Oct. 8 was set as a target date to reconvene the two boards, but the school board voted in August to hire its own architect for the proposed facilities projects.
In other business Tuesday, a public hearing will be held at 9 a.m. on the proposed $229,928 Rural Operating Assistance Program application for the Goldsboro-Wayne Transportation Authority.
The state grant provides funds for elderly and disabled transportation assistance, employment transportation assistance and for transportation for people living in rural areas of the county.
Other items include:
* Commissioners will be updated on the county's previous payroll system, which overpaid some employees and underpaid others.
* Barbara Byers, county coordinator for the Oct. 5 Big Sweep. will ask commissioners to adopt a proclamation designating that day as Big Sweep Day in the county.
* The board will be updated on the Wayne County 4-H robotics club.
* Eric Collins of Time Warner Cable will talk about the company's upcoming digital service changes.
* The board will be asked to approve 10 fire protection contracts with area volunteer fire departments.
* Commissioners will be asked to proclaim Sept. 17-23 as Constitution Week in Wayne County and September as Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month
* Rob Will of the Eastern Carolina Rural Planning Organizational will ask commissioners to adopt a resolution expressing gratitude and appreciation to the U.S. Armed Forces.
* The board will consider establishing a public hearing at 9:15 a.m. on Oct. 1 on a request from Methane Power Wayne, LLC, to extend its lease with the county to remove methane gas from the Wayne County landfill and to lease a small lot upon which the company's equipment is located
* Commissioners will consider a resolution forwarded by the Wayne County Detention Advisory Board asking that the state convey the Wayne Correctional Center once it is closed so the county can use it as jail.
Two subdivision plats are on the agenda.
The first is for 23 lots in the Olde Mill Creek section two owned and developed by Sasser Home Builders. The lots are located on the west side of Perkins Road in Stoney Creek Township.
The second plat is for four lots in Willow Brook section five owned and developed by James W. Teachey. The lots are located in the north side of Willowbrook Drive in Buck Swamp Township.
Public comments will be taken at 10 a.m. People may speak for four minutes on their topic of choice.