ASHEBORO — The Asheboro City Council met Thursday, Sept. 7, with multiple budgetary requests on the agenda.
The council approved an economic development appropriation for Downtown Asheboro Inc. in order to purchase property.
“In the FY23-24 adopted budget, there are some unallocated appropriations for the purpose of economic development purposes,” said Finance Director Deborah Reaves. “The request from DAI is $550,000 to purchase property and place four trash can receptors and two power transformers to address current issues with trash that exists on Trade Street. The second request by DAI is $60,000 for legal services associated with joint efforts to preserve the historic building on North Street, which was formerly owned by Acme-McCrary and is now owned by the City of Asheboro.”
The council then held a public hearing for a rezoning request for property located on the north side of Sherwood Avenue to rezone to an R10 conditional zoning (CZ) district to allow modifications to a previously approved residential planned unit development.
“We are specifically talking about phase 3 of this project,” said Community Development Director Trevor Nuttall. “This application only affects about an acre and a half of property within the development. It largely stems from a request to modify the previously approved setbacks along Sherwood Avenue. That’s the primary reason this application is before you.”
Following the hearing, the council approved the request.
The council also approved the acquisition of new radios from Motorola for the Asheboro Police Department.
“In the 2023-24 budget, we had projected and billed into the police department budget leasing radios from Motorola,” Reaves said. “When we got the paperwork, we determined that the lease rate was about 7%. So the City Manager authorized us to go to Truist and ask them if they would be interested in financing the purchase of police radios.”
The Truist rate was 5.46%, and the total purchase total was $803,922.66, which will take place over a period of 59 months or less. Per Reaves, this will save the City about $70,000.
The council then held two more public hearings related to the annexation of property into the corporate limits of Asheboro.
The first was for the contiguous annexation of land at the end of Kelly Circle, and the second was for the contiguous annexation located along W. O. W. Road.
Following the hearings, the council approved both.
The council was then presented with Change Order 9 from Terry’s Plumbing and Utilities related to work on the Zoo City Sportsplex.
The work includes the addition of 110 parking spaces adjacent to Field 1 and also the addition of a 2,200 square feet recreation office building. The total increase to the contract would be for $430,250.
“It’s a huge gift from a financial standpoint,” said Mayor David Smith. “If we decide not to do it, there’s a good chance we won’t ever be able to afford it. [Terry Tucker] decided that he wanted to contribute substantially, and this is his way of doing it. I want to see this thing finished. I don’t want to keep spending money, but this is an investment that we won’t be able to do otherwise.”
“Realistically, we’re going to need this building,” said council member Charles Swiers. “It’s pretty much an essential building whether we do it now or we put it off. We’ve got to have this kind of building out there to properly manage that facility. If we can get this kind of deal, I think we’d be remiss in not taking advantage of it.”
Finally, the council authorized the application for three state grants related to the water resources department. The grants will be for the Lake Lucas Dam Intake Improvements project, the City of Asheboro Lead Service Line Inventory project and the City of Asheboro Emerging Contaminants Treatment study.
The Asheboro City Council will next meet Oct. 5.
