Board to hold special session
By Steve Herring
Published in News on May 12, 2014 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners will meet in special session Tuesday morning to discuss and possibly act on an amended and increased loan application through North Carolina's Eastern Region.
The meeting will start at 9 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse annex.
In March, commissioners applied for -- and received -- approval to borrow the county's $576,923.08 share of the Eastern Region Trust Fund to help several municipalities with economic development projects.
The Eastern Region is being dissolved and will be replaced by a privatized Eastern Regional Alliance.
The trust fund was created by the state when the Eastern Region was first formed. The stipulation is that the money can only be used by member counties for economic development projects.
Commissioners have discussed using some of the loan money for repairs at the county's Genoa sewer plant and lines.
Counties that decided not to borrow their share of money set aside for them can allow other counties to use it instead. That is where the additional funds that the county is applying for would come from.
In April, the board followed up on its first $576,923.08 application and applied for up to an additional $1 million, and then in a third application asked for another $576,923.08.
The county has been notified that additional funds have become available. Tuesday's discussion will be on increasing the third application from $576,923.08 to $1.5 million.
The first $576,000 that the county received included a one-time one percent fee and no interest for 59 months.
Additional fees are tied to the second pot of money made up of the funds that other counties do not use.
Those additional loans will each require a one percent fee and then each county that is putting money into the pot wants a one percent fee as well.
An annual interest rate of a quarter of one percent will be charged as well.