WHITMIRE — Whitmire Town Council decided in a 4-2 vote to not pursue testing on the Whitmire Golf Course to see if it would be suitable for sale.
“My personal opinion is we stop it tonight, but that is up to the Council,” said Mayor Billy Hollingsworth.
His reason as to why he wants to do away with the testing is partly due to the town budget.
“Right now, with the town budget, we’ve got to either cut $62,596 or find $62,596,” he said.
Council-members Michael Thomas and Charles Worthy voted yes while Council-members Debbie Harris, Galen Roche, Dwight Lane and Jimmy Dunaway voted no.
Thomas said that Council needs to start thinking about the future of the town and move forward with the testing. He added it will cost around $2,000-2,500 for environmental studies to be completed.
“If we don’t put it up for sale, people won’t come knocking on the door. You keep looking at the town budget, the town budget isn’t going to get better in a year unless we get proactive and try to move forward, try to find ways to attract businesses here. Yeah, we might put it out there and it might not get a business, but you don’t put it out there, they’re not going to come to you. I say, find ways to cut $2,500 or whatever, $5,000, to do the soil sampling, they said you could do the basic and that’s all you need and move forward. If we don’t start looking at the future of Whitmire there isn’t going to be a Town of Whitmire — I’m sorry,” Thomas said.
Dunaway, who voted no, expressed his concerns.
“I don’t think the town’s got $5,000 to put out there on it to look at your workforce in and around Whitmire, that’s not going to get any better, it’s only going to get worse,” he said.
With the 4-2 vote, Council will not pursue testing on the golf course.
In other business, a motion was made by Harris and seconded by Dunaway to approve the first reading of the Town of Whitmire 2019-20 Budget.
The budget for the town of Whitmire this year was $735,405 and the proposed budget for next year, based on anticipated revenue, is totaled at $714,250. The expenditure budget comes in at a total of $776,846.
“This proposed budget already includes decreasing the garbage rates from six to two dollars, increasing $12 to $14 and $22 to $25 per month,” Hollingsworth said.
This leaves a difference of $62,956.
“Not anticipating on going up on taxes this year because it is an assessment year, see where that takes us with the assessment and make our adjustments moving forward,” he said.
On the public works side, water, last year, totaled at $861,306. Hollingsworth said the town is going to be very close to taking that amount in this year.
Proposed revenue is projected at $865,600, while proposed expenditures are totaling to $839,307 for a $26,293 in public works revenue. The proposed revenue also includes a base rate increase of two dollars for water and a base rate increase of two dollars for sewer for both inside and outside water rates.
Other business:
• Officer Josh Wilbanks reported the Whitmire Police Department filed 125 incidents for the month of May and issued 103 citations for the month. Some of the department’s calls included; burglary, possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine, possession of psilocybin mushrooms, FTC card fraud, minor possession of alcohol, driving under the influence and use of vehicle without owners consent. Seven traffic collisions were investigated.
• A motion was made by Roche and seconded by Lane to offer Donya Jenkins the recreation director position.
• A motion was made by Harris and seconded by Dunaway to approve the Duke Energy Agreement.
• The Town of Whitmire had a beginning balance of $26,594.65, deposits $60,224.16 and expenditures $59,222.13 for an ending balance of $27,596.68. On the public works side, the town had a beginning balance of $152,848.53, revenue $82,384.21 and expenditures $118,991.10 for an ending balance of $116,241.64.