By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
Commissioners will revisit the issue of a long-term fairgrounds lease Monday as well as look at the county’s worsening financial situation.
Commissioner Raymond Coltrain is asking county commissioners to extend the Rowan County Fair Association lease on the county-owned fairgrounds to 2017.
Coltrain is also asking the lease rate be reduced to $5,000 per year or $200 a day for the month of September, the lease period.
Under the current three-year contract approved in January 2008, the Fair Association pays 20 percent of gate receipts, or a minimum of $25,000 per year.
Since the Fair Association’s 50-year lease expired in 2007, commissioners have rejected any long-term lease proposal.
In a memo to commissioners, Coltrain wrote that the Fair Association is willing to make improvements at the fairgrounds.
The county’s worsening financial situation is expected to spark most of the discussion.
Commissioner Tina Hall has requested a discussion of the proposed state diversion of lottery funding and how that will impact local funding for the county and school system.
County Manager Gary Page and Finance Director Leslie Heidrick will provide commissioners with an update on reduced revenue.
Page said last week the county’s potential deficit is now in excess of $2 million.
He will also offer options to commissioners on how to close the gap.
In other matters, the board will:
– Appoint a jail annex committee and authorize the committee to discuss selection of an architect, determine the scope and size of the facility and select a site.
The committee would present its findings to the board within 90 days.
Page is recommending two commissioners serve on the panel along with the sheriff, county manager and finance director.
– Sheriff George Wilhelm will make a presentation on the information capabilities of new software being used by his department including the benefit to county residents;
– Conduct a public hearing on an amendment for a conditional use permit for a remediation trailer operating at 7565 Bringle Ferry Road, the site of a fuel leak from an underground storage tank.
– Conduct a public hearing and adopt an action plan for spending $213,000 for housing rehabilitation, new home construction and down payment assistance for first-time home buyers.
– Hear a report on reduced state funding for Piedmont Behavorial Healthcare.
– Approve revised by-laws for the Parks and Recreation Commission upon recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Commission.
– Hear a request from Piedmont Behavorial Healthcare, the regional mental health agency, to change its name to PBH.
The Board of Commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the Cohen Administrative Offices Building, 130 W. Innes St.
Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254.