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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1961-06-26 Special Meeting Minutes of the Meeting June 19, 1961 BEER LICENSES - Upon motion of Mr. Broadhurst, seconded by Mr. Metts, the following applications 04A- ? were approved and referred to the Sheriff for his investigation and consideration. Mrs. A. P. McAdams T/A Mac's Grili Highway #421, Carolina Beach Gloria Poole T/A Junction Snack Shop RFD #2, Box 253 C Varser Stephens T/A Oleander 66 Service Station 4800 Oleandcr Dr. Steve Cooper Strickland T/A Strick's Trading Post Highway 117 City F. N. Johnson T/A Johnson's Variety Shop 5749 Oleander Dr. COMNMVITY HOSPITAL BUDGET - i A letter was received from the Board of Directors of Community Hospital request- ing an appointment for the presentation of the3r annual Budget. By common consent of the Board, the Executive 5ecretary was authorized to schedule them at 9:00 A. M. June 26th,1961. RAILRbAD DRAWBRIDGE - ?- Plotice was received to all mariners from the Corps of Engineers advising that a vessel had struck and damaged the drawspan over the Hilton Railroad drawbridge across the Northeast River. A discussion of this problem brought out the fact that the damage was caused by one of the ships to be scrapped out of the local lay-up basin which pinpointed the necessity for adequate clearance on any new bridges across our navigable waters. The draw- bridge is not expected to be in operation before August 13, 1961. VOTER REGISTRATION - ???? r Mr. Broadhurst reminded the Board that at the last meeting, it was suggested that a joint committee be appointed to study the proposed new voter registration system, particu- larly with reference to participation in the cost by the City. After a Prief discussion, the Chairman appointed Mr. L. E. Broadhurst as a Committee of one to confer with a Committee appointed by the City Council and the Chairman of the Board of Elections and report back his recommendations at his convenience. REPORTS AND LETTERS - The following reports and letters were reviewed and ordered filed for further reference: ?- 1- Grand Jury Report for Criminal Term - June 1961 2- Wilmington Public Library Report for May 1961 3- Wilmington Colored Library " " " " 4- Farm Agentts Cooperative Extension.Report for May 1961 5-- U.S.O. Report through May 1961 . 6- Memorandum from State Highway Commission regardfng traffic counts shown on maps for New Hanover County for the year 1960 (on all hard surfaced roads). 7- Bulletin giving further information on the proposed merger of the ACL Railroad i_ and Seaboard Railroad. C?-„?,'•- 8- Thank-you letter from Mrs. E.C. Keith for the Board's efforts in behalf of ? retaining the Corps of Engineers in the Wilmington District. 9- Lett.er from Mr. W.F. Schaub, Asst. 5ecretary of the Army commending the repre-?"?? • sentation from New Hanover County and their efforts and interest in the U. S. Army Engineers. AD J OURNMENT - Upon motion of Mr. Metts, seconded by Mr. Braak, the Board nanimously voted to ad,journ the meeting. ? ? W. G. Houck, Executive Secretary SPECIAL MEETING June 26, 1961 ASSEMBLY The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners met in special session today at 9:00 A. M. in the Commissioners Room of the Court House for the primary purpose of receiving the Budget Estimates as outlined by the County Auditor and to consider several other matters of importance. The members present were as follows: Chairman J. M. Hali, Jr., Commission- ers J. Van B. Metts, Jr. Peter H. Braak, Ernest R. Mayhan and L. E. Broadhurst; County Auditor T. D. Love and County Attorney L. Bradford Tillery. INVOCATION - Chairman Hall called the meeting to order and asked Dr. L. A. Taylor, Consultant for the Cape Fear Memorial Hospital, to open the meeting with a prayer for guidance. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES - Upon motion of Mr. Braak, seconded by Mr. Metts, the minutes of the last meeting were unanimously approved. WILMINGTON COLLEGE - A Pursuant to the promise made at the 4'ast meeting, the Chairman of the Board and President headed a group of Trustees from Wilm3ngton College to receive the decision by the Commissioners with reference to their request for $25,000 out of the current fiscal year for the purpose of assisting in the project of a combined Physical Education Building and Assem- bly Hail. The County Auditor reported that the General Fund surplus will increase about $50,000 to $60,000 over Anticipated Revenues and that sufficient funds from non tax sources are available in event the Board wishes to consider the request. After briefly discussing the matter, Mr. Metts offered a motion that $25,000 be appropriated as follows, out of the 1960-61 Budget for the purpose toward Lhe building of a Crymtorium at Wilmington College: (continued) J Minutes of the Meeting June 26, 1961 Continued WILMINGTON COLLtEGE - (continued) Appropriation: From Unanticipated Revenue ABC $10,000 Jail Fees 1,000 Refuse Disposal 1,600. Interest on Investment 9,450 General - Emergency 2.950 $25;000 to Wilmington College-Building Fund $25,000.00 The motioa was seconded by Mr. Braak and unanimously approved by the Board. ANNUAL BUDGET ES1'IMATE - 4vvtor>4`- County Auditor T. D. Love presented the annual Budget Estimate for the fiscal year, July 1, 1961 through June 30, 1962 with the following comments: As required under General Statutes 153-118, I submit to you herewith the "Budget Estimate" for the fiscal year 1961-1962. Ali information as required by Law is contained in Lhe Estimate. General Statutes 153-119 requires that a copy of this Estimate be filed with the Clerk to the Board for public inspection, that a copy be made available to the newspapers and that you publish the Estimate in the paper. General Statutes 153-120 requires that not later than the 24th of July, you adopt and record on your minutes a Budget Resolution, i urge that you start Budget meetings immediately in order that the Law is compiied with and that the tax books get out on time. -Requests by various Departments of the County Government totalled $5,078,105.1+5 My recommendations total $4,788,866.70. You can see from this that substantial cuts have been made. My Revenue Estimates are based on our experience of past years. The General Fund: The required tax levy to carry this fund is well within the 20 cents as allowed ' by Law. There are no unusual items in this fund but the Budget as submitted con- tains increase in salaries for all County empioyees except the elected officials. I have not included in this Budget the following requests which are before you: Wilmington Co2lege Building Fund $25,000.00 New Hanover County Museum Request 10,000.00 Beach Erosion Control 10,000.00 Electrical Changes in Court House . 15,000.00 Additional Site Saline Water Piant 30,000.00 F 5ome of these items can probably come from our Advertising E Industrial Develop- ment appropriation. You, of course, will consider ali of these items during Budget discussions. Hospitalization Fund: You will note a considerable decrease in the tax levy for this item and this is brought about due to our reserve figures being larger, Community Hospital receipts being anticipated larger, and due to Legislation this year in Raleigh that will allow the Federal and State Governments to pay a larger part of our Hospital bills. School Fund: School requests have been cut back substantially and the recommendations are in line with actual expenditures this year. It is anticipated that recent tax in- creases made by the State of North Carolina will help relieve some of the local taxes that go into the Schools. The best information available now is that the State will pay some of the items that have been in our local Budget. All of these $udgets should receive your most careful attention and nothing shou2d be done to hurt our School 5vstem. All other funds contain nothing of an.unusual occurrence. Tax Rate: I estimate that we will be able to collect on $145,000,000.00 of taxable values during 1961-1962. ' If a Budget in line with these recommendations is finally adopted a tax rate of $1.25 will be sufficient. After a brief discussion of the matter, the Soard unanimously agreed to meet on Wednesday, June 28th at 9:00 A. M. for a detailed discussion of the following departments: Airport, Clerk of Superior Court, Coroner, Register of Deeds, and Sheriff's Department, and the Executive Secretary was instructed to notify and schedule them to meet before the Board for the purpose of discussing their particular Budgets. v L_ Minutes of the Special Meeting June 26, 1961 Continued COMMUVI TY HOSP I TAL The Board of Directors of Community Hospital, headed by the Finance Committee Chairman, Mr. A1 E. Glbson, presented their proposed Budget for the fiscal year 1961-62. He reported that the Board had ?de many general improvements at the hospital during the past year and had compiied wit mandate of the Commissioners for the installation of the air.conditioners. The income rom outside patients has increased considerably and they anticipate an additional amount for the next year. 62% of their patient load are charity patients. The average census is 55. They are asking for a small increase in some of the salaries for the supervisory nurses. The total request from the County amonnts to $203,315.00 compared to $188,000.00 during the last f;scal year. He pointed out that be- cause of the increased income it was not necessary for them to spend the total appropria- tion last year and stressed the 8oardts concern for economical operation of the hospital. The above request does not cover the Capital Outlay expenditures which are recommended by the Board of Directors. There are four necessary items in this category such as a dish- washing machine, bedpan sterilizers, replace obsolete beds and a new elevator Which totals $31,93$•25• He announced the resigriation of Administrator Paul R. Reese, effective July 31st, 1961. He spoke very highly of the work which had heen done by Nr. Reese and while they regretted to see him go, he was entering a field that would challenge him to greater achievements. Dr. H. A. Eaton, representing the medical staff, reiterated some of the reports above and stated that the condition of the hospital for the treatment of the sick had generally improved during the past year. He said that the Capital Outlay replacements requested above were extremely important as infectibns from poor dishwashing facilities and bedpan ste"rilizers were.dangerous to the patients. He'mentioned that some of the beds had been there since the opening of the hospital originally and that the medical staff had requested the minimum use of the elevator by the administration personnel in order to conserve the wearing parts as much as possible he reported that they were now without a house physician since Dr. Grey left. In the past, many of their house physicians have come from foreign students graduated from Class B medical schools. The Chairman thanked them for their presentation and advised that proper consideration would be given to their requests. CHAP+IBER OF CAMMERCE Mr. Michael C. Brown,President of the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, accompanied by General Manager P. M. Camak, presented their Budget ftequest for $9,453-30, broken down into Advertising of $5,353•30 and Agricultural Development of $4,100.00 to come from the Industrial Developmenti Fund for the promotion of the'Junior Dairy Show and the Fat Stock Show which are annual events sponsored in this County: They respectfully requested consideration be given to their.Budget requests. NNSEUM Mr. Jack C. Da'vis, representing the various cultural interests reported that a request for space and"utilities in'the City Hall for the Museum had been presented to the City Council and while no definite answer had been given them they were led to a favorable conclusion. In addition to presenting their Budget requests for $10,000 the details of which are recorded in the minutes of last week's meeting they asked that an appointment be made for a Board of Directors and that it be made up of qualified people with no political connections. Mrs. W. A. Fonvielle reported that much interest had been shown since the publicity given their request last wee}i and she presented letters from various interested people urg,ing the moving .and improving of the museum in better quarters. CONSTABLE FEES Attorney R. M. Kermon reported that there was an inequity in the collection of seruice fees for constables doing the same work as the Sheriffts Department. He cited General Statutes 94'3, 151-4, and Chapter 616 of the 1957 General Assembly which sets the Sheriffts service fee at $2.00 but apparently'overlooked changing the constables? service fee from $1.00 to $2.00. He thinks_,that the intent of the General Assembly was to make them equal and asked the Commissioners to request an advisory opinion from the Attorney General through the County Attorney's office. Sy cominon consent,,the Board agreed to.grant this request. . :: HURRICANE DONNA DAMAGE - . , ,., . .. • Mr.Charles E. Davis, engineer, representing Henry Von Oesen 8 Associates,report- ed that OCDM had approved $37,460.00 for the r.esto'ration pro?ject originating out of Hurri- cane Donna Damages. He said the contract had been broken down into two sections. (1) 'debris removal, the low bidder on which was $4,516.00 by the I3'anover Company and section (2) was for beach repairs and 'sand fence installation,: the low bid on this was the Tallman Construction Company at $33,600 for beach restoration and $3,200 for the sand fence. He reported that so far approval for the free use 'of fill material out of the Buffer Zone area had not yet come through but that the Executive Secretary wa's continuing his efforts to have permission granted for it. The Executive Secretary reported that he had made the proper application and follnwed them through the various agencies and the last word was Erom Congressman Alton A. Lennon's office saying that it had reached Washington and is now iii-the process of being transmitted to their Savannah office which will notify us through tM local real estate office headed by Mr. A. C. Cole, After a brief discussion, it was finally decided to allow the County Attorney to confer with Mr. Von Oesen and recommend the proper awarding of the bids. BEACH EROSION CONTROL - ' ? Covnty Auditor T. D. Love reminded the Board that,they had an item of $10,000 in the present fiscal year budget set-up for the,purpose of beach erosion control and recom- mended that if it was the intention of the Board to'build up a fund for this purpose this money should be set aside in a separate savings`account that would draw interest nntil used. After discussing this matter, P7r. Braak offered a motion that $10,000 be set aside in a special fund entitled New Hanover Beach Eros3on Control Fund `to be'spent at a later date. This motion was seconded by Mr. Mayhan and as there were no negative votes, the Chairman ruled it unanimously adopted. ? -A Minutes of the Meeting June 26, 1961 (Continued RECE55 - Mr. Broadhurst then offered a motion that a recess be taken.until 9:00 on Wed- nesday, June 28th for the purpose of ineeting and further discussing the Budget Requests- of the Airport, Clerk of Superior Court, Coroner, Register of Deeds and the Sheriff's Department. The Executive Secretary was instructed to schedule the hear ngs at thirty minute intervals and notify the interested department heads. This mo on was seconded by Mr. Mayhan and unanimousiy approved. ?? e::- + A ;,.?! ?c SPECI.4L MEETING June 28, 1961 RECONVENTION - The special meeting was called to order by the Chairman as per recess June 26th 1961 with the following members present: Chairman J. M. Hall, Jr., Commissioners Peter H. Braak, L. E. Broadhurst, Ernest R. Mayhan and J. Van B. Metts, Jr.; County Attorney L. Bradford Tillery and County Auditor T. D. Love. HEARINGS - The proposed Budget requests for the following departments were considered in detail and adjustments noted wherever they seemed advisable: Airport, Clerk of Superior Court, Coroner, Register of Deeds, and Sheriff. INTERIM BUDGET - Upon motion of Mr. Broadhurst, seconded by NYr. Metts, the following Resolution was unanimously adopted: BE IT RESOLVED SY THE BOARD OF NEW HANOVER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Section i- That in order to operate the County and its subdivisions from July 1, 1961 to date of adopt?ion of the 1961-62 Budget Resolu- tion, appropriations are hereby made for the purpose of paying salaries, the principal and interest on indebtedness and the usual ordinary expense of the County and its subdivisions at the same rate of expenditure as provided for in the 1960-61 Fiscal Budget Year. Section 2- This Resolution shall cease to be effective from and after the adoption of the 1961-62 Budget Resolution and all disbursements made in accordance with tIlis Resolution shall be chargeable to appropriations made in the 1961-62 Budget Appropriations. APPROPRIATION - ? County Auditor T. D. Love informed the Board that an adjustment of $470.21 r was needed to complete payment of the allocation promised the. Chamber of Commerce. ' Mr. Mayhan moved that $470.21 be appropriated from Unanticipated Revenue-Back Tax Inter- est to County Aid,- AdvertYsing. It was seconded by Mr. B'raak and unanimously approved. MUSEUM DIRECTOR - / Mr. Metts reported that Mr. J. C. Davis asked that the Committee of three per- sons be appointed to act as joint Directors with a like number to be appointed by the Ci.ty • for the Nuseum. Upon motion of Mr. Broadhurst, seconded by Mr. Metts, this request was tabled unf.il such-tfine as they considered the budgetary request. ! ADJOURNMENT - Upon motion of Mr. Metts, seconded by Mr. Broadhurst, the Boa na ously voted to adjourn. ? ?- ? , /Executi5e' Secretary Wilmington, N. C. July 3, 1961 ASSENBLY The regular semimonthly meeting of the New Hanover County Board of Commission- ers was held on this date at 9:00 A. M. with the following members in attendance: Chair- man J. M. Hall, Jr., Commissioners J. Van B. Netts, Jr., Peter H. Braak, Ernest R. May- han and L. E. Broadhurst, County Auclitor T. D. Love and County Attorney L. Bradford Tillery. Vice Chairman Metts presided over the first part of the day's session as Chairman Hall was unavoidably detained but arrived later on during the meeting. IIWOCATION - The invocation was given by the Executive Secretary in the absence of the min- ister scheduled to serve as Chaplain. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES - By common consent, the Board unanimously agreed that in the Special Meeting of June 26th, it was their intent to appropriate funds for Wilmington College and in the meeting of June 28th under the paragraph relating to the Museum they asked that the Dir- ectors be appointed at the time the joint Budget requests were discussed and thaL the appointment be tabled until that time. After these amendments, Mr. Mayhan offered a mo- tion that the minutes of both meetings be approved as amended above. It was seconded by Nr. Broadhurst and unanimously approved. ` I FiJEL BIDS - atlJw` Complying with'the annual routine manner of advertising for fuel bids for supplying gasoline, fuel and lubricating oiis for the County during the next year, the Executive Secretary presented the following bids which were opened and read: ,