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Commissioners begin work on next year’s budget
By Derek Hodges
A planning meeting Monday (Jan. 9) for the county’s 2006-07 fiscal year budget brought heated debate about what the county’s priorities should be.
County leaders promised in 2003 to fund the construction of a new main branch of the Jackson County Public Library. Estimates of the county’s contribution to the project have been as high as $6 million.
“I think we owe the people of this county a new library,” Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said.
Some commissioners, however, argued the county might be better served by the construction of new facilities for other agencies. Among the ideas discussed were new homes for the county’s Health Department and Department on Aging.
A recent study of conditions at the Community Service Center, which houses the Health Department, showed the building is too crowded and ill-equipped to serve the needs of the growing department.
“I think the Health Department is going to need a new building. That’s pretty much a given,” McMahan said.
Despite that need, McMahan said he would rather see the county finish other promised projects, such as the library.
“It’s a matter of deciding what’s the most important issue in this county. Is it the health of our people, the aging population or a new library?” Commissioner Conrad Burrell asked.
Priority should be with the Health Department, since it serves a larger segment of the population, Burrell said.
“Everybody uses the Health Department. To me it’s really a no-brainer,” Burrell said.
Burrell suggested the library issue be sent before the public in a referendum “to see if the people really want that.”
“I don’t want to see that happen, and I’ll tell you why: It would be voted down,” Commissioner Roberta Crawford said. “If it fails in a referendum, then we can’t build the library because that would be totally against the wishes of the people.”
Building the library and keeping promises made to the people should be county leaders’ top priority, Crawford said.
“I’m not saying the library’s more important than the Health Department. I just feel like we’ve made some commitments and we need to follow through with those,” McMahan said.
Commissioner Joe Cowan agreed with Burrell, saying county leaders need to reconsider their priorities. However, Cowan said he thinks the money could be better spent on providing a new home for the Department on Aging.
“We need a new health department, but I think they can make do for the next couple years,” Cowan said. “I’d like to see the Department on Aging get priority.”
The department, which has been forced to move several times in recent years, deserves a permanent facility that can accommodate their needs, Cowan said.
Cowan suggested Burrell’s proposed referendum include both a new library and health department, though he made no mention of adding the Department on Aging proposal to the vote.
Several commissioners pointed out the county is spending money for other projects – such as expansion at the Albert Carlton Cashiers Community Library and the Recreation Center in Cullowhee – that the voters haven’t approved. Taking that into account, the potential for increasing taxes in the county was raised.
The idea of raising taxes, though, is out of the question, Crawford said.
“We’re not raising taxes. We’re just going to have to do without,” Crawford said.
“Don’t say that, Roberta,” Burrell warned. “You never know what might happen.”
In November 2005 McMahan promised library supporters county leaders would provide an estimate of the money they could provide “by the first of the next calendar year.” Monday’s discussion of the issue ended without a firm number, however.
On a proposal by county Manager Ken Westmoreland, conversations about the possibility of new homes for the Health Department and Department on Aging continued.
Westmoreland presented commissioners with a series of figures that included estimated costs of several projects.
According to Westmoreland’s breakdown, constructing a new facility for the Health Department would cost nearly $7 million, excluding the price of purchasing the land. The Community Service Center could then be renovated to house the Department on Aging, Golden Age Center, Jackson County Transit, Department of Motor Vehicles and Highway Patrol at a cost of $2.15 million-$2.65 million, Westmoreland said.
Westmoreland also presented a plan to renovate the Community Service Center to better suit the Health Department’s needs (at a cost of nearly $6 million) and construct a new facility for Transit, DMV and Highway Patrol ($500,000 excluding the cost of land and assuming a 90 percent grant from the N.C. Department of Transportation).
In discussion, commissioners appeared to favor constructing a new facility for the Health Department, despite the extra cost.
Westmoreland’s proposals also included potential projects to help the county’s public schools, as well as Southwestern Community College.
SCC officials have been looking to expand for several years. The school was given $6 million under a state bond referendum. If that money isn’t used within the year it must be returned, said Burrell, who is a member of the SCC board.
In order to complete the expansion, leaders at the school have been attempting to secure properties surrounding their main location on N.C. 116. Specifically they want to trade land they recently purchased in Savannah community for property adjoining theirs owned by the U.S. Forest Service. That deal should go through in the next few months, which would allow for the construction of a new library at the school. The project would require “the better part” of the grant money, Burrell said.
Officials at the college have also expressed an interest in buying the school system’s bus garage, situated on another parcel adjoining the SCC campus.
To accommodate that possible deal, Westmoreland suggested moving several school system facilities around.
Westmoreland’s proposal includes building a new Central Office, moving the School of Alternatives to the current Central Office (the former segregated school), demolishing the current School of Alternatives (former Scotts Creek School) and building a joint county/schools garage at that location. Those moves would allow for the destruction of the current school bus garage and a transfer of the land to SCC, Westmoreland said.
Commissioners agreed the proposals would need considerable discussion, and decided to schedule a joint meeting with the school board near the beginning of March.
Before the discussion was closed, however, the county’s support of local schools elicited comment.
Westmoreland told commissioners they are obligated by state law to provide nearly $5.5 million in support to the school system. That amount mirrors previous budgets. Commissioners also provide line items in the budget to meet specific requests from school officials. In the past those line items have included payment on such needs as a $300,000 allotment for technology upgrades, equipment for the new science building at Smoky Mountain High School and other incidental expenditures.
The technology money was approved at the recommendation of Smoky Mountain High School teacher and former Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan. Buchanan recommended commissioners add a line item to the budget every year allocating the $300,000.
The “blank check” for technology upgrades concerned some commissioners.
“You don’t say, ‘Here’s your money, now build a program around it.’ That goes against everything I’ve learned about budgeting,” Cowan said. “If we’re going to furnish this money, we’re going to call some of the shots.”
“I think every commissioner on this board has a real commitment to education. I feel like we’ve been very generous,” Crawford said. “Apparently some of that money was used to purchase laptops for board members. That certainly was never my intention. My intention was for it to be used for students.”
Superintendent Sue Nations disputed Crawford’s statement. Showing invoices for the purchases made with the money, Nations said she thought the money was spent “very wisely.”
“Not a single one of the board members got a laptop from that money. Each of those computers ended up in the schools,” she said.
Commissioners will schedule another budget work session during a meeting at 6 p.m. tonight (Thursday) at the Justice Center.
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