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County leaders consider five-year construction needs list
By Derek Hodges
Jackson County Commissioners spent Thursday evening (March 9) discussing a capital projects plan for the next five years that includes a new Sylva library and a new home for the Department on Aging.
The meeting was a follow-up to their Jan. 9 budget work session. The purpose of the second gathering was to discuss upcoming construction projects.
Current construction projects – expansion at Albert Carlton Cashiers Community Library ($3.96 million) and Smoky Mountain High School ($5.5 million) – forced county officials to borrow $9.5 million this year.
County leaders have already approved projects for next year that will require $8.3 million of additional indebtedness. Those projects include construction of a recreation center in Cashiers ($4.5 million) and a kindergarten building at Fairview School ($1.5 million), expansion at the Recreation Center in Cullowhee ($1.1 million), and site and infrastructure work at the Webster Complex ($1.2 million).
County Manager Ken Westmoreland and county finance officer Darlene Fox presented plans for other possible projects through 2011. While the schedule is still tentative, the construction must be done and there is “little wiggle room” for moving the projects around, Westmoreland said.
The work is scheduled to be completed in order of need and is limited because of a need to limit annual debt payments, Westmoreland said. By statute, the county is not allowed to borrow more than $10 million in any single fiscal year and annul total debt payments cannot exceed 15 percent of the county’s expenses. For instance, with last year’s expenditures of more than $35 million, debt payments could not exceed $5.2 million, Fox said.
According to the plan presented by Westmoreland and Fox, the 2007-2008 fiscal year will see county leaders borrow $7 million for construction of a new Department on Aging building and senior center ($2 million), renovations to A Building at SMHS ($752,000), and construction of a new Jackson County main library ($4.2 million).
The next fiscal year is slated to include nearly $4.9 million in debt needs, include renovations to D Building at SMHS ($1.6 million) and money to match state bond funds for Southwestern Community College ($3.28 million).
Under the 2000 bond issue for community colleges, each institution’s home county must provide a 100 percent match to state funds provided to the schools. However, in order for SCC to use the money, it must acquire land currently occupied by the N.C. Forest Service and the school system’s bus garage.
SCC officials have already arranged a land trade agreement with Forest Service officials in which the school will receive the Forest Service property that adjoins the campus in exchange for some property on U.S. 441 in Savannah community that the school owns. While both groups have approved the exchange, construction of a new Forest Service facility will require funding from state lawmakers, who have been slow to approve the deal. Passing the funding through the legislature will require work by local lawmakers, Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said.
SCC leaders’ plans for growth are also inhibited by the school bus garage property, which also adjoins the campus. While county leaders would like to transfer the property to SCC, doing so would require a new bus service facility.
Under the plan presented by Westmoreland, Fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11 will both be dedicated to rearranging school system facilities so the bus garage property can be given to SCC.
In 2009-10, the county will borrow $2.75 million to build a new school system Central Office. The next fiscal year will require $2.95 million in debt for renovation of the current Central Office, which county leaders plan to use for the School of Alternatives, and demolition of the old Scotts Creek School, which currently houses the School of Alternatives. County leaders could then locate the bus garage on the former Scotts Creek property, Westmoreland said.
Some commissioners expressed concern that they are locking in those serving on the next board, which will be elected in November, to a strict construction plan and are committing all their debt before they are elected.
“Are they going to be able to have any money to spend or are we spending it all for them?” Commissioner Roberta Crawford asked.
“You’re pretty much obligating them for the next four years,” Westmoreland said.
Westmoreland reminded board members the plan could be changed by the next board if need should arise. However, the work needs to be done and there are not many options for how to complete it, he said.
County leaders also expressed concern that their options and the work they could accomplish are limited.
“It’s a big disappointment to me,” Commissioner Joe Cowan said. “I was hoping we could do more sooner.”
In addition to concerns about the construction budget, Westmoreland said county leaders will soon face a tough fight on the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
“It’s not going to be easy this year, folks,” said Westmoreland, who is in charge of compiling the budget requests from the county’s department heads.
Current requests exceed the county’s projected revenue by $4.5 to $5 million, and that figure does not include the request from the Sheriff’s Office, Westmoreland said.
Another concern for county leaders is the Whittier Sanitary District sewer line. The new sanitation system, which will serve part of the northwestern portion of the county, will be operated by a three-member board. Lines are being run for Whittier and to the Cherokee area. The line in Cherokee will serve Smokey Mountain Elementary School, as well as parts of the commercial U.S. 441 corridor. About 50,000 gallons of the treatment plant’s 200,000 gallon capacity will be used when the system is started, which will leave plenty for potential development along U.S. 441, Westmoreland said.
County leaders previously committed $40,000 to the completion of the project, which was to be funded mainly by grants. The county obligated that money since the line will serve SMES. The school has recently experienced severe problems with its septic system and would be forced to close should another problem arise, Westmoreland said.
Work on the system was slowed by the discovery of Native American archaeological sites in the dig area. That delay has led to an additional cost of $700,000.
“Either we step up as a county or we sit back and wait in hopes the sewer system at the school will hold,” McMahan said.
Several commissioners expressed reservations about making a commitment to the project before tribal leaders decide what they will do. The project is already partially funded by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“I think we should just wait and see what the tribe’s going to do,” Crawford said.
“I think the tribe will come forward because they’ve got a number of future development plans in that area that are going to require sewer,” Westmoreland said.
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