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P ST Voice
Inside this edition...
The Pender-Topsail
&
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Volume 47, No. 38
513 Roland Ave Surf City, NC (910) 328-2105 www.shopthebee.com
Burgaw’s Mojotone, a music company that does world-wide business with artists such as ZZ Top, Eric Clapton and Rush, is expanding. Read more on page 2A Two former Trask Titan baseball players are making it in the college ranks. Read
more in Sports on page 9A.
Local Fourth of July celebration guide. See page 16A.
The Media of Record for the People of Pender County
50 Cents
Burgaw officials question town retention study
Meeting artists, promoting art in Burgaw
May says number of ex-employees is significant By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher Burgaw officials met with Cape Fear Council of Governments Director Chris May Tuesday morning to discuss the recently released town retention study. The study, commissioned by the town, gave an unflattering picture of elected officials’ interaction with town employees. Councilman Vernon Harrell conducted the meeting, asking May about the number of respondents to the study. May said he was given a list of six names and he contacted all six. Harrell said six seemed a small number to survey. “Six employees leaving in an 18
CFCOG Director Chris May month period is significant,” May said. It was also pointed out that since
Continued on page 3A
Property tax revaluation to begin soon, assessor says By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher
Staff photo by Katie H. Pettigrew
Burgaw Antiqueplace owner Johnny Westbrook pours a glass of wine for a guest at last week’s Fourth Thursday gathering at The Arts at Burgaw Antiqueplace. The monthly gathering is an opportunity to meet the resident artists and see their work. The event is sponsored by The Arts at Burgaw Antiqueplace and the Burgaw Area Chamber of Commerce. See more photos on Facebook.
Waiting on Pender water test results
Chemours Company to capture GenX From Staff Reports The Chemours Company says it will take steps to keep the GenX chemical compound out of the Cape Fear River. In a news release last week, Chemours said it will capture, remove and safely dispose of wastewater that contains the byproduct GenX generated from fluoromonomers production at its manufacturing plant in Fayetteville. Chemours says the process began last week. This action complements the abatement technology already put in place at
the Fayetteville site in 2013. The announcement from Chemours comes a day after the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality began taking new samples from the river. It also comes after local governments called on the company to stop dumping GenXcontaminated water into the Cape Fear River. Pender Utilities began testing water at its treatment plant for GenX last week and hopes to have results within two weeks of submitting the samples.
Pender County Commissioner Jackie Newton said at last week’s BOC meeting the company responsible for the contaminants in the river needs to bear the cost of cleanup. Chemours says the GenX in the river is not from the chemical produced at its plant for use in the industrial process. The contaminant is coming from another facility on the site which shares its waste water permit. The company says the GenX is an unregulated byproduct of the production of vinyl ether and has been in the wastewater since 1980.
Olde Point Road to get speed flashers
By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher
ondary roadway maintained by the state with a posted speed of 35 miles per hour. According to information the average speed along the road is significantly higher than that of the posted speed limit. After looking at alternative traffic calming devices also known as speed bumps, the bumps were not deemed acceptable. The NCDOT recommended an electronic speed alert to notify motorists of their
Pender County Commissioners approved a request to install two speed alert flashers with driver feedback signs along Olde Point Road in Hampstead. With speeding continuing to be a problem along the road, homeowner representatives met with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to seek remedy to this issue. Olde Point Road is a sec-
It seems as it only recently county residents went through a tax revaluation. But it’s time for another. Pender County will begin a property revaluation soon and Tax Assessor Justin Pound says the revaluation must be complete by the end of 2018. Pender County is scheduled by North Carolina General Statute to conduct a county-wide revaluation. to be completed on or before Jan 1, 2019. The Pender County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution June 19 for the new revaluation software and technical support with Tyler Technologies for $1,155,600 to begin 2019 Countywide Revaluation. “Revaluation is probably one of the most important projects a tax office does,” Pound said. “We will start the process as soon as possible. We want to have plenty of time to conduct a clean revaluation. We are going to try to do as much new data as possible.” Commissioner Jackie Newton asked how long is it going to take for the tax office staff to be brought up to speed on the new computer system. “You are saying we need to start
the tax revaluation immediately, but we are instituting a new software system and training the whole department again.” Pound says the revaluation begins with a transfer of data from the old system, identifying which properties have not changed since the last revaluation and deciding which properties need to be visited. “The training of the county staff on the new system comes later in the process so we have to do that after beginning the revaluation,” Pound said. “They will be learning the system as we work on converting the old system to the new. The staff will be hands-on with the system through the entire process.” The new software company will handle the transfer of data from the old system to the new. Commissioner Newton questioned Pound on the cost of the software company performing the data transfer. Pound said the cost of the data transfer is not an additional cost, but is included in the resolution total cost. “I’m bringing this information out because I think the people of this county ought to know how things are decided and how much things cost,” Newton said.
Master plan to be designed for Push MowersBurgaw’s • Lawn Tractors • Zero Turn Mowers Pender Memorial Park Trimmers & Chainsaws By Andy Pettigrew The primary objectives of this SALES • SERVICE PARTS • DELIVERY Post & Voice•Publisher project will be to research and evaluFinancing Available ate the existing conditions of the site,
Continued on page 10A
ITʼS TIME TO GET -
Pender County Commissioners approved of the selection and contract with the John R. McAdams Company, Inc. to provide a park master plan for Pender Memorial Park in Burgaw. The cost to complete the park masterlan is not to exceed amount of $34,000. The funds will come from the Pender Memorial Park capital account.
engage a steering committee to solicit input regarding the desired program elements, create a master plan for facility improvements and improved accessibility, develop an associated estimate of probable cost and strategies for funding, develop strategies for land acquisition, and prepare
Continued on page 2A
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