Spring Lake presents budget to the Local Government Commission

At the Spring Lake Board of Commissioners meeting Monday, Town Manager Jon Rorie presented the fiscal year 2024-25 budget to the N.C. Local Government Commission.

The N.C. Local Government Commission, which is continuing to provide oversight on the town’s fiscal operation, held a public hearing on Zoom on the budget at 7 p.m. during the commissioners’ meeting Monday. 

This marks the third year the LGC has held a budget hearing during a Spring Lake board meeting; the first was in 2022 after the state took financial control of the town amid concerns about budget deficits, fiscal disarray and an investigation into missing money.

Public hearing for the 2025 budget

Rorie presented a balanced $15,037,768 budget, including $8,959,006 from the general fund and the rest from three enterprise funds — sanitation, stormwater and water/sewer.

The proposed budget included rate increases and a property tax increase as follows:

• A sanitation annual rate increase of $89
• A stormwater annual rate increase of $15
• A water and sewer rate increase of 5%, or between $2-9 a month depending on usage
• An ad valorem tax increase of 9.1 cents per $100 valuation, or between $70-140 annually

Manchester Fire Station 

In preparation for Monday’s meeting, the Spring Lake board tried to figure out how to save the Manchester Fire Station without further raising taxes for residents at a special four-hour budget meeting Saturday.

At the first budget session on May 29, Rorie said that the high cost of operating the Manchester Fire Station on N.C. Hwy. 210 was driving a shortfall in the budget. He said he was hopeful that the county would provide 50% of the shortfall to help cover operational expenses. The town could then add additional funds from the general fund to supplement expenses needed to operate the station, Rorie said.

However, the town received notice that the Cumberland County budget would only allocate $161,479 for the Manchester Fire Station. This included $78,979 from a 10-cent service district tax, $7,500 for extrication response and a $75,000 grant to go towards the building.

Rorie and the town board said the town would need to increase property taxes by an additional 6.6 cents in order to cover what the county is not paying. 

The bulk of the already proposed 9.1-cent increase was to cover the revenue shortfall for Manchester Fire District, he said. 

In the presented budget Monday, Rorie proposed the following for the Manchester Fire District:

• Increase tax rate by 6.6 cents in the general fund in order to fund the shortfall of the Manchester Fire District for July through September.
• Renegotiate the 2019 Fire Protection Agreement between Cumberland County and Spring Lake, which expires at the end of this month. Terms include that the county will cover 80% of the Manchester District budget, or $612,847 of the $766,059 request for fiscal year 2024-25.
• In the absence and each successive year after fiscal year 2024-25, the annual contract will increase by a CPI-U inflation factor based on the 12-month rolling average from March of one year to March of the following year.

Rorie said if an agreement cannot be reached, the Town of Spring Lake will discontinue service to the Manchester Fire District effective Sept. 30.

“Our contractual agreement ends June 30, but for budget purposes, we are going to extend this through the tax increase and give them three months to decide,” Rorie said.

Spring Lake assumed the fire protection service for the unincorporated Manchester District in 1996, taking over for volunteer firefighters in that district, according to a Spring Lake Study Area Land Use Plan published in 2002. However, with road construction widening N.C. Hwy. 87 and eliminating two-way traffic on Spring Avenue in 2017, according to a draft of the 2022 Spring Lake Area Land Use Plan, challenges in reducing response times made a new station necessary. The new station was opened in 2021.

Fire Chief Jason Williams said Monday that response time is down in those areas from around eight minutes to two minutes.

Williams said that he had been promised a possible $300,000 from the Cumberland County Fire Chiefs Association, but did not have an official agreement yet.

Rorie — a former fire chief with a career in fire services spanning more than 20 years before his work in town government — said the bottom line is more funding is needed.

“If you want to have the district, you need to ante up,” Rorie said of the county. 

Discussion of change in county tax distribution

Members of the Local Government Commission questioned why Cumberland County was moving from a per capita tax distribution method to ad valorem. 

Commissioner Michael Philbeck pointed to Cleveland County, which is located four hours to the west of Cumberland County and made up of 15 municipalities, as an example. The county made a similar decision, Philbeck said, but allowed for a gradual move in order for the towns to create the growth needed and not lose funds. 

“It took the county seat of Shelby 10 years,” Philbeck said of the time the municipality needed to not lose funds based on the tax distribution change.

Residents spoke out against the increases

Two citizens, Juanita Bonds and Fredricka Sutherland, spoke out against the rate increases.

Sutherland, who has attended all three of the town’s budget meetings, asked that the audits be completed so they could get a better understanding of where the town stands financially.

“Taxes do rise, but it will affect some of our residents,” Sutherland said. 

She also added that she felt keeping the response time low in the Manchester Fire District and in the areas of Spring Lake off of N.C. Hwy. 210 was important, and she was hopeful an agreement between Cumberland County and the town could be reached.

FAMPO boundary assessment 

What happened: Luther Langley, a transportation planner with the Fayetteville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (FAMPO), presented a new boundary agreement in order to plan for transportation needs in the region. The boundary expansion in Spring Lake will now cover the southern half of Harnett County, the Town of Erwin and a portion of Moore County.

Why it matters: This boundary assessment comes ahead of the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan update. The boundaries are reviewed after each census (every ten years) and used to forecast growth areas for economic development.

What’s next: The board agreed by consensus to continue the agreement.

Appearance Commission update

What happened: Cynthia Wilt, chairperson of the Appearance Commission, updated the board on the latest projects including two murals with the Spring Lake Art Trail, biannual trash pickups and Yard of the Month awards.

She also announced that the town had received a $3,000 grant from the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County for a one-year lease of an art sculpture. The sculpture will be placed in the traffic circle at the end of Main Street.

Why it matters: The commission is working on three upcoming murals. One mural will have a theme of Special Operations Forces and will be located at 412 S. Main St. in Spring Lake. A second mural will be located at the corner of Priddy and Main streets with a historical theme. A third will be a postcard mural with a location yet to be determined. 

Another project that will be brought back and offered to the community is the Adopt-a-Street program. The agreement allows a business or individual to clean litter on their adopted street. A $150 annual fee would include a sign on the adopted street.

What’s next: The Appearance Commission will be looking for the community to sponsor art projects and will continue to expand the Spring Lake Arts Trail. 

Two events approved

What happened: Two events approved by the town board were a Greekfest 2024 for National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities and a second Cancer Run/Walk and Community Festival.

The Pink DYMONS Cancer Run/Walk and Community Festival is the organization’s eighth annual event and the second event hosted in Spring Lake. The board voted to waive their town fees, which would include paying two police officers and one firefighter to staff the event, according to Fire Chief Jason Williams. Last year, Pink DYMONS event organizers estimated that they had 189 registrants for the Cancer Walk. 

Why it matters: The events were presented to the board by the Special Events team. The board voted Monday to dissolve the Special Events Advisory Committee and replace it with a staff-directed Special Event team to review events. The team is made up of staff from the administration, fire, police and public works departments. The board reviews events with expected attendees of over 150 people. 

What’s next: The Greekfest will be held on Sept. 14 at Mendoza Park off of N.C. Hwy. 87 and the 8th Annual Cancer Run/Walk and Community Festival will take place on Sept. 28 and will begin around Spring Lake Town Hall at 300 Ruth St. 

Budget next steps

Rorie said the budget will be ready for adoption by June 24. A finance director and human resources manager will begin working on July 1, according to Rorie. He said he is still looking for accounting staff to fill two to three positions in the finance department apart from the contracted finance staff through the N.C. Local Government Commission. 

“We are looking to provide high-quality services that are sustainable,” Rorie said. “You need a better plan and we are working on it.”

Residents can review the fiscal year 2024-25 budget at Spring Lake Town Hall or online here.

The Spring Lake Board of Commissioners will hold its next regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. June 24 at the Grady Howard Conference Room of the Spring Lake municipal complex. 

Jami McLaughlin covers Spring Lake for CityView TODAY. She can be reached at jmclaughlin@cityviewnc.com or at 910-391-4870.