Board to hold two public hearings
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 1, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners will hold a public hearing Tuesday morning on a preliminary assessment resolution they approved Jan. 5 for Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions.
Following the public hearing, commissioners will convene as the Board of Adjustment for a public hearing on requests for special use permits for solar energy facilities.
Both hearings will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse annex. An agenda briefing will begin at 8 a.m. followed by the formal session at 9 a.m.
Residents in the subdivisions have petitioned the county to repair the subdivisions' streets to standards acceptable to the state Department of Transportation so they can be taken into the state's secondary highway system.
At least 75 percent of the property owners, representing 75 percent of the road frontage, had to sign the petition in order for the county to act on it.
The DOT has agreed to the specifics of the project.
The proposed project area includes 123 residential lots fronting on the subdivision streets of East April Lane, Abbey Place, Adler Lane, Chancery Drive, Coventry Drive, Helms Court, Helms Drive, Hyde Park Drive, Lane Tree Drive and Londonderry Drive.
All expenses incurred by the county to repair the streets, and project costs, will be assessed against the benefiting property owners as special assessments.
Property owners can pay the full assessment within 30 days after the day that notice of confirmation of the assessment roll. A second option is that any portion of an assessment not paid within the 30-day period must be paid in 10 equal annual installments.
The first installment, with interest, is due on the date when property taxes are due, and one installment with interest is due on the same date in each successive year until the assessment is paid in full.
The interest rate for installment payments will be 5 percent per year on any outstanding balance.
However, the actual assessment will not be known until the DOT can determine what needs to be done to the streets and what the cost will be.
At that time commissioners will hold another public hearing to allow residents a chance to either add or delete their name from the petition. However, in order to remain valid the petition still must bear the signatures of at least 75 percent of the property owners, representing 75 percent of the road frontage.
The public hearing on the special use permits are for separate solar energy facilities projects at 898 O'Berry Road, Dudley, and 385 Daw Pate Road.
In other business Tuesday, commissioner could award a study and design contract for a new 911 call center.
At its Jan. 19 session, the board authorized County Manager George Wood to negotiate a contract with Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects to study possible design options.
Wood said in a memo to commissioners that the deign portion has been negotiated, but that more information is needed from the company before finalizing negotiations for the study of five possible options for the call center.
If those negotiations are completed by Monday, Wood will ask that the contract be added to the agenda. If not ready by then, it would be added to the Feb. 16 agenda.
The commission's Facilities Committee along with staff came up with the five options:
* Renovate two buildings in front of the facilities office and possibly add on to the buildings.
* Renovate the facilities office and move that department elsewhere.
* Renovate the existing brick building at the communications tower site.
* Build a new building behind the animal shelter.
* Build near the communications tower.
All five are on county-owned property at or near the county's facilities building near the old Wayne Community College campus.
Commissioners also will consider a motion Tuesday to approve a bid for the lease of county-owned farmland at ParkEast and will hear a presentation on the county's comprehensive annual financial report for the period ending June 30, 2015.
Public comments will be heard at 9:15. Speakers will have two minutes for non-agenda topics and four minutes for agenda topics.
Consent agenda items are: Applications for Present Use Value; Amnesty Days for 2016 at the Wayne County Landfill; appointment of chairman of the Wayne County Tourism Development Authority; allocating funds to the Town of Fremont for the Norwayne lift station repair; and budget amendments.