Leaders of the town and county governments in Wilkes, Wilkes Regional Medical Center and the Wilkes Economic Development Corp. shared some of their plans and goals for 2015.
Wilkes County
Eddie Settle, elected chairman of the Wilkes County commissioners by fellow commissioners on Dec. 1, said economic development and the public schools are among his top areas of interest.
Settle also cited keeping county government financially sound. “We are responsible to about 70,000 people (residents of Wilkes) and those 70,000 want to make sure we are fiscally responsible.”
He said he believes the economy is starting to pick up in Wilkes.
“The Career and College Promise (CCP) between the schools and Wilkes Community College will give us a more educated workforce. That (an educated workforce) is our key to getting ahead,” said Settle.
CCP is a partnership between public schools and community colleges through which high school juniors and seniors take college courses and simultaneously earn college credits toward a certificate, diploma or associate (two-year) degree and high school elective credit. Students in CCP can choose a transfer pathways toward earning a four-year degree or a technical job skills pathway.
“I think the Wilkes EDC (Economic Development Corp.) is doing a much better jobs. There are some small things in the works,” he added, referring to efforts to assist companies that would result in additional jobs.
“There is a manufacturing company that would like to come but it needs (an existing building with) about 250,000 square feet of floor space,” said Settle, who represents the county commissioners on the EDC board.
He said he understood one local building that would be large enough is about to be sold to another company.
Settle said the EDC is engaged in identifying land available for economic development on U.S. 421, but finding suitable and available buildings remains a challenge. “U.S. 421 is our key.”
Settle said the widening of N.C. 268 East to four lanes from North Wilkesboro to the Airport Road intersection should help with economic development and that he would like to see it widened to four lanes all the way to Elkin.
He said he is optimistic about the possibility of Boone-based Samaritan’s Purse expanding in Wilkes County. A spokesman for the Christian disaster relief ministry said more details on its plans in Wilkes would be shared in the first quarter of 2015.
“We’ve got a lot of pluses here that a lot of counties would love to have,” said Settle.
Citing construction of a new raw water intake on W. Kerr Scott Reservoir in 2015, he said these include availability of good water supplies. Construction is expected to start in the first half of 2015 and take 18 months to complete.
County government is advertising for bids to a raw water intake with a pump station on the reservoir, electrical building and waterline to N.C. 268 West, estimated to cost $7 million to $8 million. North Wilkesboro is advertising for bids for installing waterlines costing about $10 million that will take untreated water from the reservoir to the Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro water treatment plants.
Under an agreement between governments of the county, Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, the towns will reimburse the county as the county pays off an interest free loan of up to $8.3 million from a state revolving loan fund for the raw water intake and water line to N.C. 268 West and electrical building. The two towns will pay back a loan of up to $12 million made to North Wilkesboro from the revolving loan fund for installing the waterlines.
Other capital projects in 2015, already funded by county government, include a short extension of Courthouse Drive in Wilkesboro and renovation of a former Northwestern Bank building to make it the Wilkes County Ag Center.
Settle is a voting board member of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners and said the association’s state legislative priorities include making sure the state doesn’t again make county governments partly responsible for Medicaid expenses and also make sure the state doesn’t pass on secondary road maintenance costs to the counties.
EDC plans
Dan Little, president of the Wilkes Economic Development Corp., said Wilkes EDC goals in 2015 include addressing needs of existing businesses to help them retain and add jobs and expand to increase the county’s tax base.
Little said the “virtual office” concept for mobile entrepreneurs and availability of revolving loans, funded by Wilkes EDC and with a North Wilkesboro Small Town Economic Prosperity (STEP) grant, will be promoted.
The Wilkes EDC set aside $50,000 and another $10,000 came through the STEP grant for a revolving loan pool for small businesses as a “loan of last resort to aid in job creation.”
Through coordination with the Small Business Center at WCC the virtual office program can offer entrepreneurs temporary office space within the Wilkes County Library and offices of the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce and EDC.
Little said a major emphasis for the EDC will be to continue efforts to get Wilkes County certified as WorkReady.
A county is designated “work ready” if it meets certain standards of educational and workforce quality on a certification index through this effort, which involves the governor’s office, N.C. Chamber of Commerce, N.C. Department of Public Instruction, N.C. Community College System Office and N.C. Department of Commerce.
The initiative is designed to increase community engagement in workforce improvement issues and provide a comprehensive tool to evaluate a community’s needs.
With a grant from the Small Business Entrepreneurial Assistance Program, said Little, the EDC will initiate a program aimed at helping small businesses develop websites to market their products.
He said planning for a business plan competition in Wilkes County will be completed and it will be held in 2015.
Little said efforts will continue to secure private financial support of the EDC’s Local Expansion and Attraction Program (LEAP) initiative, which he said allows the EDC to move quickly with financial support when needed to help create economic activity that benefits the community.
He said the EDC will continue its emphasis on agribusiness, including the Wilkes Cattle Quality Improvement Program, which makes artificial insemination available to help cattlemen improve the genetics of their beef cattle herds in Wilkes. This initiative was funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation.
Wilkesboro
Wilkesboro Town Manager Ken Noland said the town’s biggest challenge in 2015 will be managing additional needs in the face of restricted revenue.
Noland said several large projects are in the forecast and certain funding sources have been lost.
Last year, the N.C. General Assembly eliminated cities’ authority to levy privilege license taxes on businesses beginning July 2015. The town collects about $120,000 with this tax.
The town will begin implementing a Historic Downtown Master Plan in 2015. The plan was adopted by the council in 2011.
“It’s going to be a huge project over the long term,” Noland said.
He said the multi-year project could involve design elements such as vehicular traffic flow, gateway improvements, wayfinding signage, public space improvements and landscaping work. Noland estimates the work will be ongoing for 15-20 years and will be a multi-million dollar project.
“We will develop a financial plan that will encompass borrowing, as well as setting aside money each year,” he said.
Noland said that the council’s budgeting for the project in 2015 will be the most important step.
“If they can find a way to budget this first year, the rest will fall into place, and it will get easier as you go,” he said.
The budget will also have to fund specific expenses with the fire department because certain federal grants will end in 2015 or soon after. They include a grant that funded fulltime firefighters and a second grant designed to help retain and promote volunteer firefighters.
“We have to figure out how to fund the fire department and maintain the service the public expects,” Noland said.
“It’s up to us as to what level to maintain,” Finance Director Bob Urness said. “What’s going to be a difficult move for us, is that as we roll out of privilege license taxes, we’re rolling into paying in full for our fire department expenses. It’s not all going to hit this year, but we’re going to have to keep it in mind for this budget.”
Two water projects are also in the works for 2015.
The town plans to upgrade its sludge handling system at the water treatment plant to handle the silt and sludge removed from the raw water during the treatment process.
Also, the town plans to replace an aboveground water tank on N.C. 268 West and place waterlines along Brown’s Ford Road to connect with the existing water lines on U.S. 421 West. The lines would complete a “loop” to improve service and pressure to the commercial area along U.S. 421.
Noland said the additional waterlines will provide a second route of water, in case a line goes down. He said the second tank will provide the town with more water capacity.
Noland said the project will likely receive bids in the spring, and construction on the project could last into 2016. He estimated the project could cost the town $5 to $6 million.
Also in 2015, construction will begin on the new concession/restroom facility at Cub Creek Park. Using the same plans that were used by the county for the concession/restroom facility at Rivers Edge Park in 2006, the new facility will cost about $70,000.
Wilkesboro Mayor Mike Inscore and councilmen Mike Testerman and Jimmy Hayes are up for re-election in November.
North Wilkesboro
Many of North Wilkesboro’s plans for the year ahead involve downtown development. Town Manager Larry South said the staff is continuing a focus on promoting and marketing the downtown through projects, concert series and other events.
South said work on the Yadkin Valley Marketplace, which will be a farmer’s market and performance area on the downtown parking deck, is planned to be one of the town’s biggest projects in 2015. News of two grant funding sources (one from the N.C. Department of Commerce, the other from Lowe’s Hometown Grants program) should come by the end of January.
Downtown event series like Window World Concerts on the Deck and Third Saturday will be held once again his summer.
Appalachian State University collegiate cycling races will return to downtown North Wilkesboro in April, and the there are plans to again host the Hare Scramble cross-country motorcycle races at North Wilkesboro’s Industrial Park on River Road.
South said there also may be new development in the town’s Industrial Park in 2015, since a few companies have expressed interest in combining operations or moving to the park. He said the completion of the northern access road to the Industrial Park will encourage new business.
“With both access roads complete, opportunities for development at the Industrial Park will improve,” South said.
Main Street will also be a focus point of town efforts in 2015.
South said efforts on Main Street will include beautification and streetscape improvements. A new information kiosk, similar to one on Main Street in Wilkesboro, will be constructed outside of North Wilkesboro’s town hall.
Tourism Director Crystal Keener said she is communicating with Wilkes Art Gallery Director Cindy Pardue about commissioning a mural for the Yadkin Valley Marketplace site.
South said the town will also focus on addressing dilapidated properties within town limits.
North Wilkesboro commissioners Joe Johnston, Bert Hall and Dr. Leo Baugham are up for re-election in November.
In Ronda
The new year could bring new leadership in Ronda, with five out of six commissioner seats and the mayor’s seat becoming available in the November election.
Commissioner Rheajan Benge is the only board member not facing re-election in 2015.
Commissioners Helen Porter and Manuel Wood were named to their positions in October to replace Kevin Reece and Deborah Goldman who resigned in July. Their four-year term were less than half over, so the two seats will be open in the November election.
Commissioners Sam Foster and Rex Ashley will also be facing re-election.
Mayor Victor Varela will be completing his second term as mayor this year. He has not decided if he will run for re-election.
Varela is optimistic about the New Year and said the board is working together. He said town officials learned in the past year they needed to improve regulations and procedures within the town and have made progress to accomplish that.
“The new year will be a time of renewal and reorganization. “We are working hard with Ron Niland, a consultant hired by the town in April, to get our operations streamlined,” said Varela.
He said the town officials are looking forward to waterline being installed along N.C. 268 East beginning in 2015, which will add about 100 water customers to the town. Work can begin once the Wilkes County commissioners approve a construction bid.
The new customers will include 21 households near wells contaminated by old underground gas tanks that leaked. The tanks have been removed.
Earlier this year Wilkes County commissioners agreed to apply for grants and serve as a “passthrough’ for Ronda, meaning the money goes through county government to Ronda.
Officials have said Ronda wasn’t eligible to apply for the funds because it already received grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and N.C. Rural Center.
Town officials are also working to market the town in new ways by building a website.
The town will continue to apply for grants from the state to improve the town’s park on the Yadkin River. The hope, said Varela, is to get bathrooms into the park and begin looking at placing sidewalks along town streets from Ronda-Clingman Road to N. C. 268 onto the town hall.
Town officials also hope to apply and receive a USDA grant to renovate town hall.
WRMC
Beginning in January, Wilkes Regional Medical Center’s OB-GYN clinic will include telemedicine, which will allow patients remote access to a geneticist from Charlotte’s Carolina Medical Center.
Gene Faile, Wilkes Regional’s president and chief executive officer, said the new advancement will allow patients to seek specialized care without traveling to Charlotte.
Construction on WRMC’s Rock Creek Family Medicine and Urgent Care should be complete early this year. The new facility in eastern Wilkes County is expected to open in February and will serve patients seven days a week.
Faile said Wilkes Regional also looks forward to bringing in new physicians throughout the year.
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