By Joshua Lucas
Staff Writer
The Orange County commissioners Tuesday night nudged and tweaked the county’s budget for next year – nipping here, tucking there, ending up with a budget that spends about what they planned to before adjusting it.
In the end, the commissioners agreed to a $177 million budget that, barring last-minute changes, they plan to approve at their June 21 meeting. The commissioners spent considerable time discussing a library agreement with the Town of Chapel Hill.
In tweaking the budget, the commissioners gave some hints as to their priorities in the coming year, especially in the area of solid waste. They are balancing competing priorities – the desire on the part of some residents to extend service hours at the county’s disposal sites and the need to upgrade those sites for the day several years hence when the county closes its landfill and begins sending waste outside the county.
“If we just use the fees to increase hours, that is not going to be sustainable,†Commissioner Pam Hemminger said.
The board eventually approved the county’s recommended plan, which calls for rolling out improvements to the sites, but asked the county to explore a model that keeps all convenience centers open for at least a few hours each Sunday.
In other business:
• The commissioners signaled they have no plans to spend money to improve the site once intended for an 11th Chapel Hill-Carrboro elementary school in the Northside neighborhood and plan to reach a final decision on what to do with the property within the coming year.
• County employees would see a one-time bonus payment of $500 to offset three years of essentially flat budgets under an amendment the board asked county staff to make. The bonuses would cost an estimated $600,000 and would come from savings in this year’s budget.
• The board voted to increase fire taxes in four districts – New Hope, Orange Grove, Orange Rural and White Cross. Two commissioners expressed concern at how high the fire tax would reach in New Hope district – 8.95 cents on $100 assessed value of real estate – but unanimously approved the increases in all four districts.
“It’s not that they’re not being careful with their money; it’s just that they have different demands,†Commissioner Earl McKee said of the New Hope Fire District, citing their efforts to improve the district’s insurance ratings by improving fire coverage.
• The commissioners unanimously rejected a plan to spend $152,000 on the county-owned building at 112 N. Churton St., opting instead to explore selling the building on the open market. The building had once been considered as a small-business incubator site for economic development.
“The building and the location have a greater value than it would have as a business incubator,†Commissioner Steve Yuhasz said.