County to adopt spending plan
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 20, 2016 11:58 AM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday morning are expected to adopt a new budget and to move forward with the Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center.
The meeting will get underway with an 8 a.m. agenda briefing followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
Commissioners made only a few tweaks to the county's $148,292,780 general fund budget proposal during two budget workshops last week.
One of the tweaks was a 5-2 vote to increase funding for the WATCH program from $110,000 to $145,000.
Other changes in the budget include the elimination of the director of animal control position to decrease the budget by $55,664; adding an additional $6,000 for job reclassification in animal control; increasing the donation to Wayne County Firefighters Association from $17,460 to $18,000; and creating a communications director position that would be split with the city of Goldsboro, with both the county and city contributing $30,000 for the position.
The budget also changes how the $500 bonuses are handled for all full-time county employees. Instead of a lump sum payment, the $500 will be added to the employee's base salary and paid out over the year,
There are no fee increases in the proposed budget that reduces the tax rate from 66.50 to 66.35 cents per $100 of property value.
The tax rate reduction will cost the county about $118,000.
In other business Tuesday, the board is expected to announce a $25,000 contribution from BB&T for the Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center.
In February, it was announced that the Maxwell family's Goldsboro Milling Co. had made a $750,000 donation to secure naming rights for the center.
Earlier this month, AgCarolina Farm Credit donated $50,000 for naming rights for the farmers market at the center.
Commissioners also are expected to schedule a groundbreaking for the facility for 10 a.m. Thursday, July 14.
Construction is anticipated to be completed by December 2017 or January 2018.
A contract for site work for the center is expected to be approved as well on Tuesday.
The apparent low bidder is Bridgepoint Civil, at $2,726,895. This is $223,105 less than the next lowest bidder, Allen Grading.
Other bidders are Barnhill Contracting, $3,605,413 and Hine Sitework, $3,430,918.
The site work could begin next month.
Also on the agenda, the board will discuss approval of a contract with Municipal Engineering Services.
The $820,000 engineering contract is for the county's sewer system.
Items on the consent agenda are: Application for Present Use Value; applications for Disabled Veteran Exclusion; Wayne County Public Library conditions of use agreement for the Local History Collection and Laptop Loan Proposal as approved by the Wayne County Public Library Board of Advisors; promotional agreement with AT&T to market ParkEast as a certified fiber-ready park; budget amendments.
The public comments portion of the meeting will start at 9:15 a.m.
Speakers are limited to four minutes on agenda-related topics and two minutes on non-agenda topics.
Those wishing to comment must sign up 10 minutes prior to the start of the 9 a.m. meeting.