Mount Olive Mayor Jerome Newton listens during the public comment section of the Mount Olive town board’s Monday, Jan. 8, session as speakers talk about the need for improved communications and transparency on the town’s part in dealing with the public. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Two public forum speakers at the Monday, Jan. 8, Mount Olive Town Board meeting took the town to task for what they called its lack of transparency and communication with the public, especially where grants are concerned.
Another speaker wanted a progress report on the town’s plans to purchase a machine that will make street signs.
Annette Kirby said her family has resided in Mount Olive for generations and that she is one of many citizens who have watched the town decline over the decades — something that has accelerated recently.
“Our main concerns are flooding, the inability to expand and welcome growth to our town; fines that are being accrued from the state; documented poor relationship status with state officials, and that is due to improper reporting from our town.”
Also of concern are costly and repetitive engineering failures and delays and the inability of citizens to meet with town officials as a group to discuss concerns and find solutions, she said.
There is a lack of communications from town officials regarding grant expectations that are poorly communicated and documented, Kirby continued.
There are, she said, three examples of how the town has suffered harm in just the past six months despite millions of grant dollars coming into the town since 1995.
First, there have been business and personal property damages, she said. Secondly are environmental spills that result in fines. The town also has suffered loses of businesses and business revenues and growth, she said.
Kirby wanted to know the town’s plans for recouping what she said is more than $1.6 million in engineering fines due to late penalties.
Currently, the town is not responsible for those penalties, the contractors are, Town Clerk Sherry Davis said later in the meeting.
Kirby also questioned administrative and engineering expenditures. People do not understand grant language relating to those costs, she added.
The fees are part of both the design and construction phases and are regulated by the state, Davis said later in the meeting while providing an update on improvements to the town’s sewer system.
Also at that time, Commissioner Barbara Kornegay added that an engineer oversees that the construction is done.
Audience member Hobart Yates wanted to know who was watching the project for the town.
Jeremy King, the town’s utilities director, said a 25-year veteran superintendent at T.A. Loving Co. had been hired to watch everything being done.
So, Mount Olive has someone watching out for its vested interest unlike in the past? Yates questioned.
“Yes sir,” King said.
Kirby continued that she, her friends and neighbors are “very frustrated” by inaction, a lack of transparency and poor progress among the town and the engineers.
“We are respectfully requesting a positive change in 2024 with our new council, our new mayor,” she said.
Brenda Davis reiterated some of the concerns voiced by Kirby, adding her biggest concerns are communications and transparency.
While not specific, Davis indicated a group of citizens had begun “this venture” by asking former Mayor Pro-tem Steve Wiggins for an update on the state-imposed sewer moratorium.
Wiggins invited them to tour the sewer plant and to help, she said.
“We asked what can we do to help,” she said. “So this venture has just started off as an effort to give support and help in any way that we could to the town because we knew there were factors creating problems for businesses, factors creating problems for people in their homes with flooding and health issues as well.
“So we are asking, I guess, for the focus to be on transparency and communication with citizens. Probably the lack of it may be some of the frustrations that people are feeling now. Answers to these questions, that is what we would like to hear from you.”
Davis said they have been coming to board meetings since last July and that a lot of people have been at the sessions.
“I think people are really wanting some answers,” she said.
The town has been under the sewer moratorium for eight years which is a pretty long time to be unable to start a new business or new homes because of those restrictions, Davis added.
The final speaker, Samuel Faison, spoke of the need to address flooding, trash and the need for more street lighting in the southern part of the town.
All of the concerns raised are valid, Mayor Jerome Newton said.
“I think the key thing here, right now, is not so much that the town isn’t doing anything — it is more of the fact that you don’t know what the town is doing,” Newton said. “You feel you are not being communicated with, you feel that you are being ignored.
“We are sitting here because you had enough confidence to put us here. That being said, we are here to serve you. We are not here for any personal satisfaction or gratitude.”
He told audience members that it is important for them to attend the meetings.
Drainage on the south side is non-existent, he said, and is a problem the town needs to focus on.
“It is not about north or south, it is about citizens,” he said.
The town has a lot to do, and it can be done if everyone works together, Newton added.
“So, we are going to need your assistance, citizens’ assistance,” he said. “That doesn’t mean just coming to these meetings. It means you getting involved.
“We have committees that we will ask you to be a part of.”
Newton said he has asked some commissioners to have their own separate town hall meetings.The meetings would allow for two-way communications, he added.
“We may not be able to fix everything that we talk about, but at least you know it has been talked about; you know that we are doing something about them,” Newton said.
Commissioner Tommy Brown said it was “awesome” to see a packed house.
“On the issue of the line of communication, every one of you has my promise that from here forward we are going to work on that,” he said. “We are going to get that communication where it needs to be.”
At-large Commissioner Danny Keel agreed with Brown that communications is a problem that needs to be worked on.
“We have people who are concerned about our condition, and I feel they need to be involved,” he said.
Keel also assured the audience that he was as transparent as anyone in the room.
Commissioner Delreese Simmons thanked Newton for allowing the public to speak.
“I will continue to be more transparent because that is what I am,” he said. “We have got a major problem on the south side. We need funding on the south side.
“We don’t need all of that money going toward downtown revitalization. We don’t need all of that money going to a farmer’s market. We need money going to the south side to help. That’s how I feel, and I feel some of the other commissioners feel the same.”
Sewer
Town Manager Jammie Royall, who was sick, did not attend the meeting.
Town Clerk Sherry Davis said that Royall had asked her to give an update on the sewer moratorium.
Inflow and infiltration, where ground and rainwater enter the system, is the sewer collection system’s main issue regarding the moratorium, Davis said.
“The town has made great progress in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024,” she said. “On Aug. 21, 2021, the town was awarded a Community Development Block Grant — this is a planning grant for sewer line rehabilitation — for $136,000.”
All work on that grant has been completed and the grant closed, she said.
On Aug. 23, 2021, the town was awarded a $1,864,000 Community Development Block Grant for the construction phase of a sewer line rehabilitation project.
The project consists of relining about 8,800 linear feet of 8-inch sewer line and 31 manholes.
The project areas are Southeast and Southwest Center streets, Herring, Hillsboro, Nelson, Connor and Elizabeth streets.
To date the sewer lines and manholes on Southeast Center, Hillsboro and Elizabeth streets have been completed, she said.
The anticipated competition date for the remaining streets is September of this year, she added.
On Oct. 10, 2023, the town board approved a 7 percent increase in water and sewer rates to add monies to the capital improvement plan to fund future repairs and ongoing I&I issues, Davis said.
On June 28, 2022, the town was awarded an N.C. Department of Public Safety Grant for $964,100 for drainage improvements in the Maple and Nelson street areas and for the installation of additional culverts under the CSX railroad tracks to expand drainage capacity and to improve overall connectivity, she added.
Completion of the design phase is expected no later than this coming May. Construction is expected to be completed no later than August of 2025.
On June 8, 2023, the town was awarded an N.C. Division of Water infrastructure grant of $8 million for the wastewater treatment system rehabilitation and replacement.
The propose project includes the rehabilitation or replacement of about 59,210 linear feet of existing gravity sewer lines.
The design phase will begin within the next three months. The anticipated completion date is Dec. 31, 2026.
An updated report will be provided when the board meets on Feb. 5, Davis said.
Street signage discussed
Public Works Director Mitchell Davis addressed speaker Cindy Bell’s concerns about street signs — something that she called a safety issue.
The equipment has been ordered and is arriving in sections, Davis said.
Davis said he is hopeful the town will be able to begin making signs within the next 30 to 40 days.
In other business, the board:
— Appointed Brown to the local Fireman’s Relief Fund board.
— Approved budget amendment to use federal relief funds to reimburse the town between $58,000 and $59,000 for the paving of the town hall parking lot and $88,640 toward the purchase of 10.5 acres as the location for a new fire station. Both were unanimously approved.
