County commissioners will hold hearing on light district Tuesday
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 5, 2015 1:46 PM
sherring@newsargus.com
Wayne County commissioners on Tuesday will hold their second public hearing on turning the street lights back on in one of the de-annexed subdivisions north of Goldsboro.
The public hearing for the Buck Run Light District will be held at 9:15 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
An agenda briefing will be held at 8 a.m. and the formal session will start at 9 a.m.
The board also will meet Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive, when commissioners are expected to discuss upcoming initiatives, projects, programs and financial information relating to the 2015-16 county budget.
Buck Run and several nearby subdivisions lost their street lights two years ago after being de-annexed from Goldsboro. It is the second subdivision to take advantage of the street light districts that commissioners created for each of the areas. Ashby Hills was the first and was approved last month by commissioners.
In October, commissioners used a state law that allows them to create special districts, similar to fire districts, and levy an assessment to pay for a service -- in this case, street lighting.
To qualify, at least 67 percent of the lot owners in a district must sign a petition agreeing to pay a yearly assessment to cover the cost of the lights.
The assessment is $88 per lot for Buck Run. People who own more than one lot in a district must pay the assessment for each lot.
The assessment is not a property tax, but instead is based on the number of lots and the number of street lights in a district.
When the developers built the subdivisions they had an agreement with Duke Energy to provide street lights. That contract was voided when the area was annexed into the city because state law required Goldsboro to take over street lighting.
That cost was paid through property taxes.
When the area was de-annexed the city was no longer legally obligated to provide street lights. Nor did Duke Energy have an entity, such as a government or homeowners association, to contract with to provide the service.
Creating the special district provides an entity Duke Energy could contract with. Duke will bill the county, which will use the revenues from the special assessment to pay the bill. Tuesday's public hearing is not required by state law, but commissioners said they wanted to hold it to be fair to everyone in the district.
Also on the agenda Tuesday are:
* A presentation on the Wings Over Wayne Open House and Airshow and how commissioners can be involved
* A presentation on the Governor's Highway Safety DWI/Task Force grant
* A motion by commissioners to approve the Wayne County Animal Services Department mission statement
* Discussion of the 2015 N.C. Association of County Commissioners federal legislative agenda
* A motion to ask that the N.C. Department of Transportation fund the proposed U.S. 70 Havelock Bypass
* A work session to discuss proposed amendments to the county's Outdoor Advertising Sign Ordinance.
Items on the consent agenda include applications for property tax exclusion, elderly or disabled exclusion, disabled veteran exclusion and present use value; fire service funding agreements; changing four court bailiff positions from part-time to full-time; and the Health Department fee schedule.
Public comments will be taken at 10 a.m. when people will have four minutes to speak on their topic of choice.