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Volume 44, No.4
POST Voice The Pender-Topsail
&
Thursday, October 23, 2014
The Media of
Early voting Oct. 23 Early voting begins in Pender County Oct. 23 at five locations across the county. Visit the county’s website for polling locations.
50 Cents
Record for the People of Pender County
Meadows withdraws from commissioner’s race By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher In a surprise move Oct. 16, Pender County commissioner candidate Eugene Meadows withdrew from the race. Meadows, a democrat, made the announcement at the Post & Voice candidates’ forum at Topsail High School. Meadows cited health issues as the reason for his withdrawal from the race.
“It was a big disappointment not to be able to run. It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made,” Meadows said. “I guess I should have withdrawn sooner, but I just didn’t want to give up.” Meadows said he would support independent candidate Doris Carlton with his vote, but stopped short of officially endorsing her campaign. Pender County Elections Board Director Dennis Boyles said Meadows would
be on the Nov. 4 ballot, since it is too late to remove him. “If he does get the most votes, we would declare him the winner. If he refused, then the Pender County Democratic Party would appoint someone to fill his position on the commissioners board,” Boyles said. Meadows, along with George Brown and independant candidate Doris Carlton were in a three-way race for the district 3 commissioners’ seat currently
The cutest pumpkin in the patch
Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
Eugene Meadows (right) talks with Pender County Commission Chairman David Williams following the candidate’s forum Oct. 16.
Williams tax hike estimate is too high, official says Roper says School Board’s bond cost figure includes operating costs By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher
Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
There are a number of nice pumpkins in the Burgaw United Methodist pumpkin patch, but perhaps the cutest one is Banks Strickland, who was looking for that perfect pumpkin.
Brown, Carlton discuss school bond Commissioner and challenger talk about support for the school bond By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher When Pender County Commissioner George Brown and challenger Doris Carlton were asked about their support for the upcoming school bond at the candidate’s forum Oct. 16, both said they would not vote for it. Brown still says he does not support the bond. Carlton says she supports the bond, but not the possibility of a tax increase to fund it. In an interview with the Post & Voice, Brown explained he supported schools in the county, but had problems with the way this particular bond came about. “This was presented to us quickly and came to us at the 11th hour. It’s like it was thrown together,” Brown said. “I was unhappy with the way we had to vote on it so quickly without knowing what the operational costs were going to be. I wish we had more time to sit down and work with the school board. I think this bond would be better
presented two years from now when we had time. We put the cart ahead of the horse. I’m not saying we don’t need a bond. Penderlea needs the attention. That is the reason I’ve supported this as much as I have. They truly need the attention.” School Board member Tom Roper says the bond was not a knee-jerk process and has been in preparation for the greater part of two years. “The day we kicked off this school bond effort, the commissioners were involved in it,” said Roper. “It started with tours of the schools several years ago with the commissioners. That was our goal to show them first hand what the needs were as we started to put this together. This has been a very long and methodical process. It’s not like we came up in the spring and said, hey, we need a school bond. They were involved from day one. We put together the plan that we thought was the best for the county. ” Roper says the commissioners had May through
August to consider the school bond, with August the final deadline to decide. “That is 120 days they had to ask questions, to secondguess our decision process, to raise any red flags they wanted to. Not one of them asked for any additional information other than what we presented to them. To say it came to them too fast is just an excuse,” Roper said. “They had ample opportunity to question things.” In a letter to the Post & Voice, Carlton explained her position on the school bond. “I am not 100 percent sold on the way in which the bond is to be funded. Please be assured that as a former school board member for eight years, I am in full support of our schools and am not against the new school buildings, additions and renovations in which the passing of this bond will provide. I only wish that there were other creative funding options that had been investigated by the Board of County Commissioners rather than the raising of
ad valorem taxes... The overcrowding in our schools is increasing daily and an
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Pender County School Board member Tom Roper says the school bond won’t cost taxpayers as much as commission chairman David Williams says. In a story published in the Post & Voice Oct. 16, Williams said the school bond could bring as much as a 10 cent or more tax hike due to increased operating costs. Roper says the school board estimate of around 8.5 cents includes both the bond and increased operating costs and the commissioners are using the school bond as an excuse to raise taxes “I feel this is a way we are balancing their books from the financial debacle over the last year on the backs of the kids through the school bond,” Roper said. “They are already repurposing all the money from the previous bond to pay out their mismanagement of the last couple years of debt. We could pay for this bond with the money that is coming off the books from the old school bonds. They are repurposing that money to pay for the new jail because that can’t get a bond for that because it won’t pass and to pay for their mismanagement on the sewer
project and whatever else.” Roper says the School Board went to the commissioners with detailed information on the cost of the bond, including estimates for increased funds for operating expenses and asked commissioners to come up with a tax cost figure. “We told the commissioners exactly what we were going to ask for because we wanted to put it in our presentation to the public. They came back with the 8.5 cents figure as a worst-case scenario and said with growth in the county, it probably won’t be that bad,” Roper said. “We gave them estimates on operating expenses and asked for the high-end figure. We don’t want to misrepresent anything.” Williams says commissioners were given a range of 7-10 cents in possible tax increase by financial advisors and the 8.5 is right in the middle. That included the School Board’s operational cost estimates. The possible 10-cent increase was the high end of the range. “I don’t have a crystal ball and none of us know exactly what it will take. There are so many variables. How can we say exactly when we don’t know what bids are going to be? There is no way to hon-
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Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
Dancers enjoyed the beach music sounds of Craig Woolard and the Embers Sunday at Autumn With Topsail. See more photos on page 11A and on Facebook.
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