Chocowinity to upgrade sewer system | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    The Chocowinity Town Board, meeting in its regularly monthly meeting Tuesday night (3-7-12) voted to borrow $2,896,000 to upgrade the sewer line running from the existing Bragaw Lane pump station to Cypress Landing. The current line is near capacity and the upgrade will allow for additional taps to accommodate future development . The action was to agree to a loan/grant proposal from the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development agency in Greenville. Monica Thornton was present to explain the agreement but in a subsequent interview the next day she refused to answer any questions about the project or agreement.

    She did explain to the board on Tuesday night that the deal would mean that Chocowinity would have annual loan payments of $126,990. There was a brief discussion of how to finance the payment and the Town Clerk presented several options for increasing revenue from the Water and Sewer funds to cover the costs but no action was taken on those rates. It was indicated that the costs would be disproportionately shared by the water/sewer users outside the town limits who would presumably pay twice as much as those in town.

    The board did agree to contract with River's and Associates to do the engineering on another project for a cost of $225,200 which will be paid by the County. That project will extend a sewer line to the county-owned industrial park on US 17 south of Chocowinity.

    The project will also serve the proposed Rest Area that the Department of Transportation is proposing to build on the east side of US 17 at the intersection with Harding Rd. There will be a pump station located on the east side of US 17 to serve the Rest Area and another pump station on the west side in the industrial park to serve those businesses that may someday inhabit the park.

    The County paid, according to tax records, $1,826,000 for 273.67 acres in April of 2008. Director of Economic Development Tom Thompson claimed at the time that they had a tenant for part of the property but nothing ever materialized from that. Since 2008 the park has remained empty, as does much of the existing industrial park west of Washington.

    At a recent Chocowinity Town Board meeting Mr. Thompson told the board that the park presents "a great opportunity for Chocowinity" but could not identify any prospective tenants.

    The action by the board is contingent upon agreement by the County Commissioners at their March 12 meeting.

    In other business, the Chocowinity Board departed from its traditional opening of the meeting with an invocation offered by one of the board members. After some discussion between board members and the Town Attorney, Keith Mason, it was decided that future meetings would open with a moment of silence in compliance with recent Federal court decisions which outlawed sectarian prayers at public meetings. The court did not outlaw all prayer, but only sectarian prayers. Rather than deal with the content of such invocations the board decided that the purpose of an invocation can be satisfied with a moment of silence that allows anyone to pray as they are so inclined.

    The board also appeared to have settled the recent uncertainties about the operation of the town recreational program. Retired Public Works/Recreation Director Jeff Haddock will continue as the Recreation Director but the non-profit Recreation Board will assume responsibility for the financial operation of the program. The decision was made for the town to simply pass along the $8000 it receives from the County and any town monies for recreation to the Recreation Board for the board to use as it sees fit. The board established no auditing or fiscal oversight of how the Recreation Board handles the money.

    The board also heard routine reports from the Police Chief and Public Works Director.

    All board members were present.