Roof funds spark budget debate

Two supervisors, one resident cite fairness

By Amy Boucher

 

      INDEPENDENCE – While Grayson County residents will be pleased to learn that the county’s proposed $21.1 million budget means no increases in taxes or fees, one of the smaller line items is generating the biggest controversy.

The section of the budget devoted to the expenses of the Board of Supervisors includes $8,300 for materials to replace the roof on the Flat Ridge Community Center. This was added at the request of Wilson District Supervisor Glen “Eddie” Rosenbaum, whose home is in Flat Ridge, and he defended the expenditure at a recent budget workshop, saying, “Flat Ridge don’t have anything.” The labor will be donated.

Several community organizations similarly lease old school buildings from the county. The agreements require that the lessor maintain the property.

Supervisors Kenneth Belton and Brenda Sutherland said at the budget session that giving the money to the Flat Ridge Community Center was unfair to the other community groups, such as Elk Creek Fire Department, which replaced the roof on the old Elk Creek School, and Fires Fire and Rescue, which replaced windows at the old Providence School.

Goodwill Grange has maintained a school building at Grant for more than 25 years.

Indeed, the one speaker at a public hearing Thursday night on the 2015 fiscal year budget agreed. Karen Hollifield of Comers Rock thanked the supervisors for creating a balanced budget with no tax increase, and then asked that Comers Rock Community Center also get $8,300. “I’m sure we need a new roof.”

Hollifield said that the community puts on plays and dinner theaters at the center to raise maintenance funds, “large and complicated projects,” because the lease requires that the community maintain the building.

While the overall county budget is up only 2.2 percent, the Board of Supervisors’ $58,600 portion is up a much higher percentage. Detailed final budget figures were not available Friday from the county administrator’s office, which said they could be obtained Tuesday. In an earlier draft of the budget, the supervisors’ outlay totaled about $63,606, up 8.5 percent from this year. This included Rosenbaum’s additions of the Flat Ridge roofing materials and a $5,000 annual coyote bounty fund.

(As of Thursday night, the county has spent $460 for 16 coyote carcasses.)

County Administrator Jonathan Sweet said the goals the supervisors set for the budget included ensuring that it balanced; maintaining a healthy fund balance; retiring debt; and delivering the current core services without raising taxes or fees. The spending plan maintains a 10 percent operational reserve, gives fire and rescue squads the same amount they received this year, gives the school system $75,000 more than the amount required by the state, and pays off three bonds totaling $741,600. This will save the county $352,000 in interest, Sweet said.

The real estate tax rate remains at 49 cents per $100 of assessed value. Other tax rates remain the same, including: personal property, $1.75; machinery and tools, $1.75, and merchants’ capital, $6.70, all per $100 of assessed value.

The supervisors plan to adopt the budget at a June 25 meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m.