GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Town Council gave its approval on Thursday for town staff to begin work on a Capital Improvement Plan, a constantly evolving five- to 10-year plan that would lay out all of the town’s capital needs.

Town Manager Jason Hord said that the idea to implement a CIP had been put on the table a few times throughout his years with the town, before becoming manager. However, the town never followed through for various reasons.

“I think we need a good, (comprehensive) Capital Improvement Plan that’s going to show you those five- and ten-year items so that we don’t just come up two weeks before we have to buy a million-dollar fire truck. We have to plan ahead and put those plans together,” said Hord.

The CIP was discussed during the most recent budget discussions, said Hord, but the idea was put on hold because of the budget requirements. Hord said that the 2023-2024 fiscal year budget was running “tight,” and so town officials did not believe that they could commit funding to a long-term capital budget.

“You don’t necessarily have to fund these things every year, you fund what you can put away. But, not getting surprised by, ‘Guess what? I need an extra $100,000 this year to replace a tractor. I need an extra $80,000 this year to fund a dump truck.’ Most of us on the board know these are coming, but we owe it to our successors, as well as ourselves, to have a future picture,” said Mayor Pro Tem Doug Shelton.

Hord said that the town does not have an all-encompassing CIP. Instead, each individual department, such as fire or public works, keeps up with their future plans and presents what is needed for each budget year.

“Right now, what we have is department five-year plans that are on documents on each one of our computers. They get brought in once a year, probably four months before we finalize the budget and say, ‘Hey we need this.’ That’s not a good plan, that’s just taking a swing at something at the last minute,” said Hord.

After the discussion, the members of the council decided by consensus to direct Hord to begin work on a Capital Improvement Plan for the town.

In other news from the town council’s strategic planning meeting on Thursday:

• The council approved the purchase of two new vehicles for the Granite Quarry-Faith Joint Police Authority. Interim Police Chief Todd Taylor requested the vehicles as the result of a fleet assessment that had recently been performed. The total cost, including the vehicles themselves and the upfitting, was $120,000.
• The council discussed a recent initiative from the Rowan Municipal Association which asks each municipality in Rowan County to list their priority projects. The initiative asks each town to bring three priority projects along with documents and plans to the RMA, which would then be presented to the county’s representatives and senators to lobby for state funding. Projects that were mentioned by the councilors were industrial development along the interstate corridor and Chamandy Drive, the town hall renovation or relocation, the downtown master plan and ensuing projects and sidewalk extensions and repairs along South Main Street and other roads. The RMA asked municipal governments to have a list of projects and supporting documents by Dec. 1, so that the full priority list could be presented to the county’s legislators in mid-January for feedback.
• The council discussed the town’s goals for the past year and progress made towards completing them. Specific goals that were mentioned as still needing significant work were hiring a full-time planner, restarting the town’s merchants’ association, industrial growth along and expansion of Chamandy Drive and non-annexation agreements with East Spencer, Rockwell and Faith. Goals that the councilors discussed that were substantially completed or on a good path were the growth of GraniteFest into a signature event for the town, the updating of the town’s land-use plan and Unified Development Ordinances, the adoption of a competitive Downtown Master Plan and the implementation of a town newsletter.