De-annexed areas might keep lights
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 20, 2014 1:46 PM
sherring@newsargus.com
After nearly two years of study, a way has been found to turn the street lights back on in the de-annexed areas northwest of Goldsboro, but only if residents in that area agree to the plan, Wayne County Commissioner Ray Mayo said.
The county is proposing to use a provision in state law that allows the creation of a special street light district and to assess a tax on residents in the district to pay for the lights.
Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday to consider establishing six such districts in the de-annexed area.
The hearing is part of the board's regular meeting, which gets under way with an agenda briefing at 8 a.m., followed by a formal session at 9. The meetings will be held in the commissioners' room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
All six of the proposed districts are in District 1, which is represented by Mayo, who said he had been contacted by residents ever since they were de-annexed and their lights were turned off.
Getting the lights turned back on is a matter of safety and security, he said.
"What I decided to do was try to get it done through the legislature -- go through Progress Energy, the Utility Commission," he said. "I talked to a couple of legislators to see if we could get it grandfathered and put it back the way it was. We cannot. So what we have done is that the county has come up with a way that we are going to be presenting to these six districts.
"We are going to present our plan to them what we can do on the county level and what we can do within the county and turn those lights back on. They are going to have to agree to what we present for that to happen."
Mayo said residents have told him they do not mind paying a monthly fee as long as it is not exorbitant.
"I am really excited for the people," he said. "It has been a long process, but I think we are on the verge of getting something done."
Once everything is ready Mayo said he, County Manager George Wood and County Attorney Borden Parker would meet with a representative of each of the potential districts. The meetings will be open to the public.
"These areas were de-annexed from the city and the problem is that originally when the developer had it for each subdivision, they had set up agreements with Duke that everybody would pay a fee monthly," Wood said. "That was paid to Duke by the developer. That is how the street lights were done.
"When you annex into a city, cities pay for the street lights. So basically the contracts (between the developers and power company) are canceled. The areas were de-annexed. At that point, Duke does not have an entity to deal with because the contract with the developer is over. What their concern is that you can't do a hit-or-miss where some people pay for it and some people don't. Duke has a business to run, and they want assurances they are going to get paid."
Under state law, commissioners can create special districts, such as fire districts, and assess a tax to pay for a service. But before the tax can be assessed, at least 67 percent of the property owners in a district must sign a petition saying they want it.
At that point, commissioners can levy a special assessment. Then the county contracts with Duke. The contract is that the street lights are owned by Duke, which operates everything and bills the county.
The special assessments will be included on the tax bills only for the people who live in those districts.
Wood said he is not sure what the initial assessments will be, but added that he does not think it will be that much. The first year will probably be higher to help offset people who do not pay and to help build a reserve, he said.
"We do not get 100 percent tax collection the first year. So the first year we are going to bump it up just a little bit to make sure that when the bills come in from Duke, we have the money to pay because it should not impact any other taxpayers."
The county prepared the petitions to ensure they are done in accordance with the law, Wood said. However, the petitions will be given to residents in the different areas to circulate, get the signatures and bring back to the county.