Commission approves jail, ag center funding
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 23, 2015 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
The Wayne Center is seen this morning. The county Board of Commissioners has plans to construct a new center to house the county Extension Service as well as other agriculture-related agencies. Commissioners last week doubled the amount of money they are willing to spend on the center after local legislators told them that increased local funding would boost the likelihood of state financial support for the project.
Wayne County commissioners have appropriated an additional $7 million for a new jail and an agriculture center, bringing the total amount set aside for the two projects to $14 million.
Commissioners added $5 million to the $5 million already set aside for the jail and $2 million to the $2 million already allocated for the agriculture center.
The additional money will come from the fund balance in the budget's general fund.
The commission approved capital project ordinances for both projects, which allows them to be spread over several budget years and does not require that the money be appropriated each year.
The ordinance for the $10 million jail project covers fiscal budget years 2014-15 and 2015-16, while the one for the estimated $14 million agriculture center is for fiscal years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Commissioner Ray Mayo worried that shifting $5 million would decrease the fund balance below the board's targeted 14 percent reserve.
However, County Manager George Wood assured Mayo the 14 percent was already assured.
"Your policy that we amended last year says that anything over the 14 percent that you could use it for selected capital projects," Wood said. "So that is basically what we are doing here. But you still have a very healthy amount of money still there for additional capital projects not including the 14 percent."
Commissioner John Bell, who made the motion to appropriate the $5 million, said he wanted to explain why the county had established the 14 percent policy.
"If you remember, in 2008 everything sort of went south on us," Bell said. "We wanted enough money that, if things kept getting bad, we could operate the county without any real hardship, and I think that happened over the years and we were able to do that."
Bell is chairman of the commission's Detention Center Advisory Committee.
Commissioner Ed Cromartie said Bell was being too modest about his part in setting that policy.
"Watching county government over time, I think it is safe to say that some previous boards had a lot to do with putting this kind of fund balance in place," he said. "It reminds us to be, maybe the word is judicious, when we spend this money because it was probably some real hard decisions on the part of previous boards to put this in place."
The county plans to build the jail on the old Mason department store property on North William Street.
The $10 million includes design, additional land purchase and full construction.
Commissioners hope to have the project ready to bid this spring.
Wood said the estimated $14 million cost of the agriculture center is "still preliminary."
Along with the additional $2 million for the center, the county has about $165,000 remaining from a state grant it received several years ago to assist with the design cost, Wood said.
The county is waiting for a response from the state on its request for the state to donate the old Cherry Farm dairy farm property for the project site.
The property is located on the Old Smithfield Road across from O'Berry Center.
Commissioner Bill Pate, who chairs the board's Agriculture Committee, made the motion to approved the $2 million.
"As we all recall, we met about three weeks ago with our legislative group," Pate said. "It was suggested at that time that if we expect the General Assembly to give us any additional we need to show that we are willing to step up to the plate and add some more money to this.
"We are committed to this project and that is why we are taking this step."
A bill filed in an earlier legislative session seeking $3 million stalled.
During the meeting mentioned by Pate, local legislators were not optimistic about any state financial assistance.
Sen. Louis Pate suggested that the initial $2 million would not be sufficient to convince lawmakers to justify financial support
However, there is a "50-50 chance" that the state could chip in $1 million to $2 million, the legislators said.
Commissioner Joe Daughtery asked Wood why the agriculture center's capital project ordinance was for three years instead of two like the jail.
"Because we are thinking it may take that long to get everything done," Wood said. "It can take place sooner. You can add to those years also. The best thing about a capital projects ordinance is you can amend it at any time.
"Some people look at using capital reserve funds. The reason I didn't want to do that is once you put money in a capital reserve fund, it has to be used for that specific purpose."
Also, with a capital project ordinance if the project fall through, the money can be put back into the budget, Cromartie noted.