City, county at odds over how to spend 9-1-1 funds
By JONATHAN OWENS
owens@sanfordherald.com
SANFORD — The Lee County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution at its Feb. 4 meeting to take advantage of a little-known law change from the N.C. General Assembly’s last session and add almost $500,000 to its coffers for public safety. But now the county and the City of Sanford could be at odds on exactly how that money should be used.
At issue is a law, passed in the latter days of the Assembly’s 2007 session, which placed fewer restrictions on how local government could use the fund balance from revenue collected from 9-1-1 service fees. According to County Manager John Crumpton, until the new law was enacted, the state was very restrictive on how the money could be used — allowing local governments to spend the money only on improvements to reception and handing of emergency calls. For example, he said, the funds could not be used for salaries, building improvements or even the chairs that dispatchers sit in at the center. But, at the prodding of several counties in the state and the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, legislators passed a law allowing for any fund balance of landline fees collected prior to Jan. 1 to be transferred to the general fund of the local governing entity and earmarked for special projects.
In Lee County’s case, that fund balance currently amounts to more than $800,000. And since the county currently funds the city’s 9-1-1 call center through a special fund, as it has since 1989, as part of a gentleman’s agreement between the two governments, it has the authority to transfer the money to its coffers. There is no binding contract between the two entities on the funding arrangement, according to Crumpton, but it is understood that state funding would be funneled through the county to the local call center, which is operated by the city.
So county commissioners decided on Feb. 4 to take advantage of the allowance and transfer more than $ 470,000 into its general fund. The resolution it passed earmarked the new funds “for public safety and emergency management purposes,” presumably for use by the Lee County Sheriff’s Department and Lee County Emergency Management, among other county entities.
City Manager Hal Hegwer confirmed Monday afternoon that he and Crumpton have been in talks about the funds recently, and he expects more in the future.
Additionally, he expects the city council to discuss the matter as well in the near future.
“It’s a little premature to discuss it at this time,” he said. “We have raised some concerns, but I expect us to work together on it.”
The county’s request essentially leaves city departments such as the Sanford Police Department out in the cold in terms of additional funding, but Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough said the matter would be decided by the “boards and managers” and declined comment on it. Likewise, Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Brown said that most of the discussion on the issue had been between Hegwer and Crumpton and he didn’t expect it to come before his board at its next meeting.
“The 9-1-1 center is a cooperative effort between the county and city,” he said, “and it works well because it would be pretty expensive to have two separate ones.”
Crumpton said the money is currently on its way to the county’s general fund and has not been used.
Further, he added, county commissioners could decide to do what it pleases with the money, even offering a portion to the city.
Sanford Herald, Sunday March 9, 2008
Heavy rain shows LCHS’ blemishes
Giant puddles, leaky roofs just a few typical problems on aging campus
By CHELSEA KELLNER
SANFORD — It’s a rainy Friday at Lee County High School. Students arrive at Lynn Knight’s computer class damp from sloshing through “rivers” of puddles under the leaky canopies that are supposed to shelter them as they walk to class.
They’re used to it, Knight says; this is actually a good day.
“I’m just glad it’s not raining too much, or there’d be water in the light fixtures again,” she says.
That happens from time to time, Knight says, tripping the breakers and dripping through the tiles. She keeps a big box of black plastic garbage bags in the corner, ready to fling over the computers at the first drip.
That’s only one of the many quirks and kinks that plague the 55-year-old high school campus. Most buildings at Lee County High have not had major renovation work done since the school was built in 1953, and students and staff alike say it’s time for an overhaul.
Indoors, there are leaky roofs, heating problems, piecemeal wiring and an infrastructure that can’t keep up with modern technology; outside, the out-of-date drainage system creates a sea of puddles that crawl together and seep under doors and through tennis shoes as students walk to class.
“It’s not a very good learning environment to be in,” senior class president Jordan Ammons says. “Day to day, everyone talks about how bad it is. It makes us feel secluded, like they don’t care about us.”
Turn back to the middle of February, and you find chorus teacher Karen Huey, who has her window air conditioning unit running full blast to combat the stifling heat from the boilers working overtime to warm the unheated lobby of her building.
Across campus, English 12 teacher Charlotte Jones keeps a bucket of blankets by her desk for students shivering in temperatures that have gotten as low as 50 degrees in her classroom.
Still, it’s better than Jones’ old room. That one had a mildew problem that gave her constant sore throats and laryngitis.
Need is there
Renovations to fix these problems have been discussed in public hearings, school board meetings and county commissioner meetings over the past year, and in May, Lee County voters will head to the polls to vote for a sales tax increase that could mean money for either new buildings or upgrades at Lee County High School. Currently, the school district is putting a lot of man hours into keeping LCHS simply running.
Of the 5,000 repair requests fielded from Lee County’s 15 schools by Maintenance and Facilities Director Jerry W. Pittman and his crew last year, 728 of them came from Lee County High School. They scramble to keep up with them all, but Pittman and his 13 staff workers are responsible for more than 1.5 million square feet of educational facilities in the county. On top of that, Pittman says, many of the problems at Lee County High can’t be solved by simple repairs and maintenance.
The swamped sidewalks are due to the size of the outdoor drainpipes, still the original six-inchers when the current standard is between 24 and 36 inches. There is no centralized heating and cooling system. The campus relies on old-fashioned steam heat, which is difficult to regulate, Pittman says. Rooms are heated unevenly, ranging from “sauna-like” to frigid. The gym, which lacks air conditioning or doors to the outside for ventilation, reaches temperatures at or over 100 degrees in warm months.
“Maintenance is replacing a faucet, keeping after things, and we do that,” Principal Greg Batten says. “The problems we have here are much bigger than simple maintenance issues.”
A renovation or partial rebuilding of the decrepit campus has been sought for years. In early 2007, the architectural firm Hite Associates drew up a plan that would tear down some of the existing buildings and build a single larger structure as a central hub, originally estimated to cost $ 24.5 million. Projects have stalled in the planning phase, due to issues of timing and funds.
In the meantime, students and faculty find creative ways to work around the problems as they arise. Last year’s December student newspaper featured a photo of a girl in class with an umbrella.
Students know to dress in layers and always carry their jackets with them, even if their last class was comfortable. In the art room, they painted murals on the ceiling tiles to mask the tell-tale brown splotches that signal another leak in the roof.
“We’ve dealt with it for so long, we’re used to it,” sports marketing teacher Tracy McNeill says. “It’s part of the daily routine.”
Giant puddles, leaky roofs just a few typical problems on aging campus
By CHELSEA KELLNER
SANFORD — It’s a rainy Friday at Lee County High School. Students arrive at Lynn Knight’s computer class damp from sloshing through “rivers” of puddles under the leaky canopies that are supposed to shelter them as they walk to class.
They’re used to it, Knight says; this is actually a good day.
“I’m just glad it’s not raining too much, or there’d be water in the light fixtures again,” she says.
That happens from time to time, Knight says, tripping the breakers and dripping through the tiles. She keeps a big box of black plastic garbage bags in the corner, ready to fling over the computers at the first drip.
That’s only one of the many quirks and kinks that plague the 55-year-old high school campus. Most buildings at Lee County High have not had major renovation work done since the school was built in 1953, and students and staff alike say it’s time for an overhaul.
Indoors, there are leaky roofs, heating problems, piecemeal wiring and an infrastructure that can’t keep up with modern technology; outside, the out-of-date drainage system creates a sea of puddles that crawl together and seep under doors and through tennis shoes as students walk to class.
“It’s not a very good learning environment to be in,” senior class president Jordan Ammons says. “Day to day, everyone talks about how bad it is. It makes us feel secluded, like they don’t care about us.”
Turn back to the middle of February, and you find chorus teacher Karen Huey, who has her window air conditioning unit running full blast to combat the stifling heat from the boilers working overtime to warm the unheated lobby of her building.
Across campus, English 12 teacher Charlotte Jones keeps a bucket of blankets by her desk for students shivering in temperatures that have gotten as low as 50 degrees in her classroom.
Still, it’s better than Jones’ old room. That one had a mildew problem that gave her constant sore throats and laryngitis.
Need is there
Renovations to fix these problems have been discussed in public hearings, school board meetings and county commissioner meetings over the past year, and in May, Lee County voters will head to the polls to vote for a sales tax increase that could mean money for either new buildings or upgrades at Lee County High School. Currently, the school district is putting a lot of man hours into keeping LCHS simply running.
Of the 5,000 repair requests fielded from Lee County’s 15 schools by Maintenance and Facilities Director Jerry W. Pittman and his crew last year, 728 of them came from Lee County High School. They scramble to keep up with them all, but Pittman and his 13 staff workers are responsible for more than 1.5 million square feet of educational facilities in the county. On top of that, Pittman says, many of the problems at Lee County High can’t be solved by simple repairs and maintenance.
The swamped sidewalks are due to the size of the outdoor drainpipes, still the original six-inchers when the current standard is between 24 and 36 inches. There is no centralized heating and cooling system. The campus relies on old-fashioned steam heat, which is difficult to regulate, Pittman says. Rooms are heated unevenly, ranging from “sauna-like” to frigid. The gym, which lacks air conditioning or doors to the outside for ventilation, reaches temperatures at or over 100 degrees in warm months.
“Maintenance is replacing a faucet, keeping after things, and we do that,” Principal Greg Batten says. “The problems we have here are much bigger than simple maintenance issues.”
A renovation or partial rebuilding of the decrepit campus has been sought for years. In early 2007, the architectural firm Hite Associates drew up a plan that would tear down some of the existing buildings and build a single larger structure as a central hub, originally estimated to cost $ 24.5 million. Projects have stalled in the planning phase, due to issues of timing and funds.
In the meantime, students and faculty find creative ways to work around the problems as they arise. Last year’s December student newspaper featured a photo of a girl in class with an umbrella.
Students know to dress in layers and always carry their jackets with them, even if their last class was comfortable. In the art room, they painted murals on the ceiling tiles to mask the tell-tale brown splotches that signal another leak in the roof.
“We’ve dealt with it for so long, we’re used to it,” sports marketing teacher Tracy McNeill says. “It’s part of the daily routine.”
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