Daniel Prince
Council approves master county road list, commissions code enforcement officers among other business
At last week’s Union County Council regular monthly meeting, council voted to commission five code enforcement officers—David Kitchens, Kevin Mitchell, Valerie White, Arthur Smith, and Holly Wise. County ordinances state that code enforcement officers have to be commissioned by council.
Council voted on a resolution approving a master county road list. County Engineer Jerry Brannon and Public Works Director Rusty Snider, with input from the council’s transportation committee, have been working on this for a number of months, trying to form an official county road list. The list may still need to be tweaked, and there still needs to be a roads ordinance drawn up and voted on that would set the criteria for inclusion of a road in the master list. The vote was unanimous.
Council agreed on a resolution committing to negotiate a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement between the county and Project George Washington, an upcoming economic development project.
Council gave third and final reading on the county budget for fiscal year 2022-2023. The budget totals $22,181,066. It is balanced by drawing over $700,000 from the general fund balance. If spending comes in below the budgeted amount, the amount needed from the general fund balance would go down accordingly. The county has not had to dip into its fund balance in several years.
Council also gave final reading on an ordinance to lease 103 West Main Street to Mycoworks for an annual rent of $28,000, or $2333.34 a month. Per the agreement, Mycoworks can rent the building for a year, with an option to extend the lease another year.
There is still more to report from that meeting, and we will do that in a future newscast.