Washington City Council shelves new police station | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Washington City Council held its regular monthly meeting Monday (8-8-11). It was one of the shortest meetings in recent months. You can review the agenda, background material, as well as the detailed minutes of the last meeting by clicking here.

    One item of information that was discussed you will not find the background material at the link above. The Financial Statements were apparently mailed to the council members but not included in the public package. But there was a discussion of the financial health of the City when Councilman Doug Mercer once again raised the issue of whether revenue and expenditures were tracking the budgeted amounts or whether the council should be considering adjusting the budget, specifically the expenditures, to match the revenue trends. Mercer or Councilman Bobby Robertson have raised this issue at nearly every council meeting in recent months.

    On Monday night Mercer indicated that his read of the financial statements was that there could possibly be as much as a million in revenue shortfall. Finance Officer Matt Rauschenbach offered a very detailed explanation of variation in both revenue and expenditures cause by routine cash flows but ended up acknowledging that there would be a $600,000 and perhaps even a million dollar revenue shortfall if trends continue as they have been.

    This seems like a broken record. We've all been treated to the debt ceiling debate in the other Washington last week and most of us recall that the state faced a shortfall of over two billion dollars last year. The County likewise had to raise taxes to cover a shortfall between revenue and expenditures this past year. Mercer and Robertson both expressed concern about what the current trends are in relation to the shortfall over the last several years. But this did not seem to be a major concern of Mr. Rauschenback's, the Mayor's or other council members. No action was taken. You can watch the exchange in the video clip below:



    Concern for the financial health of the City did cause action when the Council voted unanimously to put the construction of a new police station on hold. In the agenda packet you see a letter from the U. S. Department of Agriculture which says "...we do not want to delay this project..." You can read the letter on page 107 of the meeting materials (link above). The Council had previously determined that it did not have adequate funds on hand or the ability to service the debt on the project so it voted to withdraw the loan application to USDA.

    The discussion seemed to focus on delaying the building of a new police station until more funds are available rather than scraping the idea entirely.

    With no discussion, via unanimous vote, the Council approved a recommended ordinance prohibiting graffiti on buildings or property within the City. Beyond outlawing the defacement of property by graffiti, it also makes it the property owners responsibility to remove the graffiti. If the owner refuses to do so or fails to do so within 10 days, subject to an appeals process, then the city can remove the graffiti and bill the owner the cost of removing it. You can read the ordinance at page 85 of the meeting materials at the link above.

    The Council did approve an appropriation of $2000 for its part in a proposed "branding" project that you can read about beginning on page 109. Here's a video clip of that project being explained and the council's discussion and vote:



    In other business the Council approved appropriating an additional $44,000 matching funds for the Brown Street bridge replacement. The project was originally projected to cost $600,000. The total cost now is expected to be $820,000, of which the City will pay $164,000 from "Powell Bill" funds (state highway funds.) You can read more detail on page 118.

    They also approved spending $35,000 for a bicycle trail, with the City's part of that project being $7,000. You can review the specifics of that project on page 136.

    As you will see on page 154 they approved the purchase of a $600,000 fire truck and $131,413 for a new EMS truck and $12,000 for a "power stretcher" mostly from grant funds. The details are on page 158.

    The meeting was the first official meeting for the new City Manager Josh Kay. All members were present.

    A presentation was made to Mrs. Evelyne Roberson for her service on the Human Relations Council. That clip is below: