Council to eye budget, plans for two eateries
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on June 1, 2014 1:50 AM
The Goldsboro City Council is expected to approve the city's 2014-15 fiscal year budget at its meeting Monday night -- and to review plans for two proposed new restaurants in the city.
Council held a public meeting on the budget as well as a May 19 public hearing seeking public comment on the proposal.
The property tax rate will remain at 65 cents per $100 valuation.
Council members must approve a balanced budget before July.
The council is also expected to vote in a budget ordinance, which would loan $2.7 million from the city Utility Fund to the General Fund to cover the settlement paid to Dwayne Dail, who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The initial payment to Dail, who was exonerated in 2007 in connection with a 1987 rape after evidence was discovered in a police storage room, was paid out of the General Fund.
The city plans to finance $1.7 million of the loan through a two-thirds general obligation bond, which allows the city to borrow up to two-thirds of the value of funds paid on its current debt during the fiscal year. The city decided to borrow the funds in the 2014-15 fiscal year to have more funds available to borrow against.
The city will use the $1.7 million to repay the Utility Fund, and then will pay $250,000 into the Utility Fund each year from the General Fund for four years to make up the difference. Those payments will begin in the 2014-15 fiscal year.
The council is also expected to vote on a number of planning issues at its meeting Monday night including zoning for a proposed Panera Bread as well as site plans for a Smithfield's Chicken and Bar-B-Q.
Investors connected to the proposed Panera Bread are requesting that the city change the zoning on the corner of Berkeley Boulevard and Ridgecrest Drive from a Neighborhood Business Conditional District to a General Business Conditional District to allow the installation of a drive-through window on the business.
The proposed Smithfield's Chicken and Bar-B-Q would be built at the intersection of U.S. 70 and N.C. 581 in front of the Rosewood Walmart.
Access to the restaurant would be provided through the existing parking lot at the shopping center.
Planning issues are also on the agenda for the work session, which will be held in the large conference room of the City Hall Annex at 5 p.m. ahead of the regular session at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers in Historic City Hall.