By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com

For the first time since it was created more than 50 years ago, Sanford’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will see its membership expanded.

Following a motion by City Councilman Walter Ferguson Tuesday, the city added two additional seats to the board. When it was first created by an act of the state legislature in 1969, three people were appointed to the ABC Board, which oversees the state’s ABC system locally. It’s remained that way since. State law said the board could have either three or five members, and the membership was set that year at three.

Ferguson broached the subject at the council’s workshop last week, saying he believed by adding additional members, the board would gain the benefits of a diversity of opinions and input.

But Ferguson’s suggestion at the workshop drew immediate fire from Councilman Charles Taylor, who is the council’s liaison to the ABC Board. Taylor blasted Ferguson for not going to him first with his suggestion, saying that’s not the way the council does its business, and that Ferguson should have talked with him because of his status as liaison.

Ferguson didn’t buy Taylor’s argument, saying Taylor had recently lied to him over another unspecified issue and that he could no longer trust him, and Taylor got no support from other members of the council. Taylor had nothing to say when the matter was briefly discussed on Tuesday and Ferguson again made his case. Taylor and Councilwoman Jean Dabbs were the only two members to vote against the expansion in a 5-2 final vote.

Later in the meeting when the council made its annual appointments to boards and commissions for the coming fiscal year, it chose radio personality Margaret Murchison for a three-year term on the ABC Board, Sanford attorney and former City Councilman Chas Post for a two-year term, and Southern Lee High School faculty member Jan Tart for a one-year term.

Budget adopted for 2024-25

If you were to attend a meeting of a governing body within Lee County at this time of year in hopes of seeing a lively discussion about that organization’s multi-million-dollar budget for the new year, you’d probably go away disappointed. Most of the leg work is done by staff with input from the ruling body generally coming in the form of a handful of broad goals to meet.

That’s how it was Tuesday as adoption of the 2024-25 city budget came up for action on the agenda. City Manager Hal Hegwer presented his recommendations to the council two weeks earlier, when he reflected that he has been with the city for 30 years, about 20 percent of its 150-year history.

The $95 million budget’s largest sectors are the $52 million in its General Fund and the $41 million in the Utility Fund. A $2 million increase in revenue from property taxes during 2023-24 will allow the city to maintain the tax rate on real and personal property at 53 and a half cents per $100 of valuation. The total valuation of property within the city is $4.6 billion.

The biggest expenditure by far for the city next year comes in the area of public service, including police and fire protection, coming to $25 million (49 percent) of the overall $52 million General Fund total. The budget contains a six percent increase in the costs to customers of water and wastewater services. Those who pay for the two combined services should see an increase of about $3.95 in their monthly bills.

As the city’s acquisition of Pittsboro’s water services becomes effective on July 1, Sanford’s new water utility unit, TriRiver, will add five new employees in Sanford and 19 others in Pittsboro. Although the city will own and operate the Pittsboro system, it will maintain separate cost centers so the costs incurred in one system are not reflected onto the other.

The budget includes funding for the nine new firemen hired earlier this year. Also on July 1, city employees can look for a 3.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment in their paychecks, along with a one percent salary adjustment.

Hegwer pointed out to the council that the city continues to see solid growth and because of that growth and the city’s assets, it is able take on expansions of services like the new fire station on Colon Road that will come online later this year, and with the assistance of the state, making use of our natural resources to build a regional water system that will support the growth of neighboring communities and create revenue streams that will keep the city in the black for years to come.