Vote slated on $2.77M Spring Hope town budget

SPRING HOPE — Commissioners are scheduled to vote next week on a $2.77 million town budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The spending plan leaves property tax and water and sewer rates unchanged, but fee increases set to take effect include an extra $1 per month for curbside trash pickup.

Town Manager Andrew DeIonno said Nash County’s 2024 revaluation produced an overall assessed value of $122.6 million for all Spring Hope properties, providing a projected revenue increase without adjusting Spring Hope’s tax rate of 67 cents per $100 in property value.

“With the higher assessed values, the budget has space to address still-increasing price inflation,” DeIonno wrote in his budget message to commissioners. “The costs of goods and services continue to grow exponentially higher than official figures. Often, the town encounters prices 40-50% higher than just two years prior. Revenues are forced to keep pace with real-world prices.”

The manager’s proposed budget allocates $668,330 to public safety, $498,965 to administration, $178,647 to sanitation and $153,818 to building maintenance. Four new full-time positions account for much of the increase.

“The town struggles in attracting and retaining staff members,” DeIonno wrote. “This has been particularly acute with police officers but is also the case with the public works crew and especially administrative staff. To address this challenge, the town is revising the adopted personnel policy to modernize the classification system and provide for differentiation based on certifications, licenses, training, etc. This allows further flexibility for salary increases and establishes compensation based on job responsibilities and supervision. It also encourages promotion from within and succession planning.”

DeIonno’s budget funds two police sergeant positions at $51,412 and increases the starting salary for patrol officers to just over $48,000.

“Although the town experienced difficulty hiring a seventh officer, thanks to the frugality of the FY ‘24 budget, the town saw police department staffing restored to seven,” the manager wrote. “If annual revenues come in as anticipated and barring emergency expenditures, the police department should be able to hire the eighth officer in the last half of the fiscal year.”

Spring Hope’s budget also funds a new full-time utility technician job in public works and a new full-time finance clerk in administration.

“Under a planned reorganization of administration, the finance officer position will be elevated to a department director supervising two clerks as well as the customer service representative,” DeIonno wrote. “Finance and compliance have grown significantly as an overall function of governance, thus requiring increasing delegation of the varied duties.”

A proposed fee schedule compiled as part of the budget process includes the following increases:

• Grave opening fees at the town cemetery would rise from $600 to $650 for Spring Hope residents and from $840 to $850 for non-residents. Cremation opening is set to increase from $365 to $375 for residents and from $415 to $425 for non-residents. Spring Hopians would pay $650 rather than $600 for a cemetery plot, with non-residents charged $1,200 instead of the current $1,120 fee.

• Curbside garbage pickup will increase from $22 per month to $23, with the monthly pickup fee for each additional cart rising from $10 to $11 per month.

• Utility deposits are on track to increase from $250 to $275.

• Connection fees, also known as tap fees, are set to increase from a $1,000 minimum deposit for water and $1,000 for sewer to minimum deposits of $1,500 each for water and sewer service.

• Zoning certificate application and fence permit application fees would rise from $50 to $55, while processing fees for recombination subdivision and exception lots forms would see a $10 increase, jumping from $50 to $60.

• Subdivision fees — currently $150 for 10 lots, with additional lots charged $10 each — would be replaced by a $200 flat fee for minor subdivisions and a $400 fee plus $10 per lot surcharge for major subdivisions.

• Plan review fees would increase from $50 to $150 for residential development and $200 for commercial.

• The special use permit application fee is set to increase from $200 to $250, while the fee to apply for a variance would jump from $50 to $250.

• Processing fees for appeal requests, text amendment applications and map amendment applications are scheduled to rise from $200 to $250 each.

• Spring Hope’s sign permit fee would increase from $50 to $60 per sign.

• The application fee for golf cart registration, currently $5, would rise to $10.

• The town’s $50 food truck application fee would be converted to a $100 annual fee, and the cost of peddler/solicitor permits would jump from $35 to $125.

DeIonno said the proposed budget “builds on the previous two years and lays further groundwork for succession planning, sustainable operations and appropriate staffing.”

“Over the previous two years, the Board of Commissioners and town staff have worked diligently toward stabilizing town services and improving operations without any tax increases. However, labor and material costs have skyrocketed, and unfortunately, revenues must expand to keep pace,” he wrote in the budget message. “The proposed FY ‘25 budget expands service provision in the town of Spring Hope in the face of ever-escalating costs. The proposed FY ‘25 budget preserves and expands services to the residents and businesses of the town of Spring Hope.”

A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, June 3 in the Town Hall boardroom at 118 W. Railroad St.

CORRECTION , May 28, 3:22 p.m. — A previous version of this story misstated the amount of Spring Hope’s proposed budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The initial $1.8 million figure reflects the town’s general fund budget. Spring Hope also has a $950,000 proposed enterprise fund for its water and sewer systems. The total proposed budget is $2,770,010.

The headline and story above have been updated with correct figures. The Enterprise regrets the error.

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