Turkey facing money woes, seeks solutions

TURKEY — While board members are facing a financial decision that could make or break the town, the Board of Commissioners also have to figure out how to fix the problems the town faces with the limited amount of funds and resources they have.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Commissioners brought up three issues that they need to resolve soon, including repairing a ditch that goes behind a resident’s house, fixing a hole at the corner of Moore Street and Turkey Highway and figuring out what is the best way to continue paying for a code compliance officer to come to Turkey regularly.

First up on the agenda was fixing the ditch.

Mayor Rudy Blackburn explained what the issue was, and what one of the options to make those repairs looked like. He explained that he had been able to meet and talk with two contractors and they told him that they would have to lay down 300 feet of pipe, a storm box and a dirt crate before completely filling up the ditch to “eliminate it.”

“The storm box with the crate cover, he’s going to have to have 300 feet of 12-inch diameter pipe,” Blackburn explained. “The cost of that is $10,600.”

Blackburn said when he was talking to Commissioner Tony Moore, the commissioner asked how much dirt it was going to take to fill up the ditch. He said that one of the contractors went back out to measure the ditch and came back to him and said it would take 1,800 cubic yards of dirt to fill it in.

“So, Mr. Perry was able to get back down there. He was able to do his measurements, his depths, his widths and everything about how much dirt it would take,” Blackburn continued. “All right, 1,800 cubic yards of dirt to fill it in because he said, ‘Rudy, it’s a deep ditch.’”

This would take, according to the mayor, about 180 dump truck loads to fill in. And he explained to the board that if the dirt cost $200 a load, and there had to be 180 loads, it would cost around $36,000 for just the dirt.

“So right now, with just the material, no labor, no nothing like that, it’s $46,600,” Blackburn asserted.

“I say you probably add another $40,000 to this deal. And so you’re probably looking at what, say $86,000, $90,000,” he stressed.

Town Clerk Tereasa Frack said th town was in contact with the Mid-Carolina Regional Council to get help in trying to find a grant that could fund the ditch repair project.

“She’s looking for anything to do with this. Just to help out,” Frack said.

Travis Anderson, a contractor who provides water maintenance to the town, spoke to the board about asking the Department of Transportation for a quote on repairing the ditch and then have Blackburn take that quote to the contractors he was already talking with about the fix.

Anderson explained that they would know how many storm boxes would be needed for the 300 feet of pipe, and also what codes would have to be followed when filling in the ditch. This, at least, would help the town know exactly what needed to be done and what the price range would be so they can start the bidding process.

The board agreed to follow through with that plan.

Next was talking of filling in a hole.

Blackburn explained that he had flagged where the hole was and roped it off, but they were trying to figure out what caused it, thinking it could be a faulty pipe. but unsure if that was the culpret. He said he was asking a few people to figure out what the true problem was.

Commissioner Mike Smith brought up calling the DOT to fix the problem since it was on a state road, and that way the state would fix the problem instead of Turkey having to foot the bill to fix it.

The board decided it would be best to call the DOT and see if someone would come out and look at the hole before they proceeded with any other plans.

Lastly, Blackburn informed the board that during the recent budget cuts the town had to make in order to operate in the green, they had to limit funding for contracted code compliance officer, Tony Porter.

In previous budgets, they had allocated $11,000 to $12,000, money set aside to pay for the code compliance officer when he was called in to help. For this year, it was cut by $4,000.

Frack explained that if Porter came twice a month, the cost for that month would be $1,000.

“His time, all his time when he comes here, the letters, his milage from Fayetteville, it adds up to be about anywhere from $950 to $1,100 a month,” Frack told the board.

The suggestion from Samantha Wullenwaber, the deputy executive director for Mid-Carolina Regional Council, when making the budget was to cut down how many times Porter came out.

“She suggested that we let him come in the summer and cut him off through the winter time,” Frack said. “Like cut him off October, November, December, January.”

Moore said instead of doing that, they needed to look at how much they’re paying him and if they can bring the total price down a little.

“I basically think we need to just totally revamp and look at that,” Moore stated. “I’m not in favor of cutting him back just a few months out of the year. I think if we need to change an enforcement officer, great. But I think we need one that comes at least once a month.”

There was no decision made about what to do about the code compliance officer. Instead, it is an issue that the board will handle at a later date after getting more information.