Contract awarded for new town hall

reporter@thefranklinpress.com

The Town of Franklin Board of Aldermen accepted a bid for renovations to the Burrell Building, future home of town hall, at a continued meeting Monday night, but the vote was not unanimous.

Sissy Pattillo made a motion to go with the lowest bid from Dalton Construction for $589,410 with 150 calendar days as the timeframe for construction. Joyce Handley seconded the motion, which passed with Verlin Curtis and Jerry Evans voting against it. Alderman Billy Mashburn was absent from the meeting.

"I ain't been crazy about going down there to begin with, everybody knows that," Evans said.

When Evans asked how the renovations would be paid for, town manager Sam Greenwood said that it would be financed through approval from the Local Government Commission.

Before voting on the motion Curtis said that he voted against moving to the Burrell Building in the first place.

Bob Scott asked if the $589,410 included any decorations, furniture or artwork costs and Greenwood said that it did not. Scott voted in favor of the bid, but with some hesitation.

"I'll vote for it, but I'm not gonna go for a lot of cosmetics at the taxpayers money," he said. "I don't want to see a lot spent on cosmetics."

Architect Tom Ritter said that the plans for the building include the installation of an elevator and an emergency generator. The lower level is designed to include the meeting room and the upper level will house employee offices complete with windows.

"The building, as it stands today, was planned for a future elevator," Ritter said.

Following the approval of the bid for the Burrell Building Sissy Pattillo made a motion to adopt an ordinance for the capital project fund for the capital improvements for the building. The ordinance includes $10,000 for architectural fees and $600,000 for construction fees. The motion passed 4-1, with Evans voting against it.

Nonprofit funding pool

Board members discussed criteria for the nonprofit funding pool. Greenwood has suggested that the town consider allocating funds from the $25,000 pool with a cap of $5,000 per agency within the given fiscal year.

The town would require a written description of how the agency would spend the money to benefit the town taxpayers and describing the activity of the agency within the town. The agency would also provide the town an annual audit or some type of financial statement verifying that the funds were expended for the intended purpose.

Greenwood said that the purpose of the $5,000 cap is to serve as a basis for the board to "have an anchor" and a policy in order to restrain the board's spending.

Mayor Joe Collins expressed concern that the $25,000 pool and cap of $5,000 per agency would be "too tight."

"Do we all realize how restrictive this will be to us?" he asked the board.

Handley also expressed concern.

"Is $25,000 gonna be enough? I don't think so," she said.

Collins suggested basing the amount of money the town could allocate each year on the tax rate, such as limiting it to one millage point based on last year's evaluation.

Scott made a motion to table the discussion until the next meeting.

Update on selection process for new public works facility

Greenwood presented the board with three possible locations for the new public works facility. One is the old county garage, the other is the co-op property north of town off N.C. 28 and the third is the 12-acre site adjoining the sewer plant. The board voted to move forward with the process and get cost estimates for the locations.

Also at the meeting

The board unanimously voted to sit down with the county and apply for a grant from the North Carolina Parks & Recreation Trust Fund. A local government can request a maximum grant of $500,000 and grantees must match the grant dollar-for-dollar, 50 percent of the total cost of the project. Applications must be submitted by Feb. 2, 2009. Greenwood said that the grant, if awarded, would be used for the Frogtown property, a combined project with the county.