ROWLAND — The Rowland Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved going ahead with a $1 increase in the fee residents pay for water and sewer service each month.
The fee increases were contained in a proposed 2019-2020 budget presented to the commissioners, who saw the spending plan for the first time during their regular meeting.
“They did move forward on the $1 water and sewer fees,” Town Clerk David Townsend said.
The commissioners also scheduled a public hearing on the spending plan for June 11, which is the board’s next regular meeting. It takes effect July 1.
The fees hike means a resident who receives water and sewer services will see a $2-a-month increase in fees, Townsend said.
There are no other fee increases and the property tax rate, now at 79 cents per $100 of property value, will remain unchanged in the $1,449,490 spending plan, Townsend said. The 2019-20 plan is an increase of $20,501 over the 2018-19 budget of $1,428,989.
The proposed budget also has no spending for new capital projects and no pay raises for town employees. But Townsend hopes the commissioners will take up possible pay raises as they debate the spending plan.
The proposed budget does allocate $17,801 for the Rowland Library, unchanged from the previous fiscal year. It dedicates $4,375 for the Rowland Depot, also unchanged from the year before.
“It’s a maintain-what-we-got type of budget,” Townsend said.
The money for the library is for day-to-day operations because the library renovation and repair work that has been taking place since Hurricane Matthew struck in October 2016 is all but complete, he said.
“We’re through,” Townsend said. “We starting putting the books up today and started hooking up the computers.”
The commissioners scheduled an open house for the library for 4 p.m. May 30. The public is invited.
The town’s commissioners voted on Feb. 12 to pay for the $10,000 cost for repairs to the library by using certificates of deposits. Townsend told the commissioners then that the town had two existing CDs that would mature that month — one in the amount of $25,000 and one for $26,000.
“We could cash in a CD and pull out $10,000 to go towards the library,” Townsend said during the commissioners meeting.
The library on Main Street suffered flood damage caused by hurricanes Matthew and Florence. Interior work done on the building included caulking the front storefront window, replacing water-damaged Sheetrock, painting the walls and repairing the entrance. The most expensive project was replacing the carpet, which was estimated to cost about $7,000.
