Free Daily Headlines

News

Set your text size: A A A

Laurel Park to launch alert service

Laurel Park Town Council members Paul Hansen, Mayor Carey O’Cain, Bob Vickery and Rich Cooke discuss the 2014-2015 budget.

LAUREL PARK - The Laurel Park Town Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a 2014-2015 fiscal year budget that raises the property tax rate by 3 cents.

The $2.2 million dollar budget raises taxes to 39 cents per $100 valuation, or about $68 a year for the average household, town officials said.
The increase covers pay and benefit increases for employees, fire protection for residents and health care premiums for town employees. In the past two years, the town has absorbed higher costs equal to a half-cent worth of property tax revenue for fire service, 2 cents in health insurance premiums and 1.7 cents for employee raises based on a pay and classification study. Water and sewer rates are unchanged in the new budget.
"The increase will allow us to both stabilize the Town's use of appropriated fund balance for operational needs," Mayor Carey O'Cain said, "and implement some needed citizen communication and service initiatives, such as the update to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the acceptance of credit cards for payment and Blackboard Connect to communicate instantly with residents."
Blackboard Connect, a program that sends out text messages, emails and phone calls, will be used to communicate to Laurel Park citizens if they sign up. The service is free to residents. Messages could include emergencies in the town or county or non-emergency information such as changes in garbage collection. Town leaders plan to sign the contract with Blackboard Connect immediately and implement the program within a month. The town will include more information in the Laurel Park newsletter and in water bills.
During the meeting, the council also adopted a 2014-2015 fee schedule that includes an increase in mulch delivery to $40 from the current charge of $30 a load.
The council also authorized Town Manager Alison Melnikova to negotiate with Tarheel Paving, the lowest bidder, for paving services to begin this summer. The budget allocated $118,000 for the project, well below a low bid of $200,000 by Tarheel Paving.
The section of Hebron Road will be resurfaced from where it splits from Laurel Park Highway to where it rejoins it.
"This is probably our norm going forward," Melnikova said. "We will be bidding projects out annually because we're not going to be able to afford to do them all at once. But we'll do as much as we can each year."
The council also:
• Agreed to pay J.M. Teague Engineering Services up to $2,900 to assess the retroreflectivity of Laurel Park's current road signs and make an inventory of signs that do not meet the standards established by the Federal Highway Administration. The FHA is requiring agencies replace the substandard road signs by 2018.
• Authorized replacing mulch at Laurel Green Park with 295 bales of pine straw, a cheaper alternative. The expense will come from the current year's budget and will not exceed $4,200.
• Recognized Officer Andrew Griffin for a certificate the Hendersonville Police Department gave him for his response to a fire at Ivy Terrace in April. Griffin, one of the first responders on the scene, helped many of the residents get out safely, Laurel Park Police Chief Bobbie Trotter said.