It's time we end the Pittsboro spray site lease

By James Hinkley
Posted Sunday, November 4, 2007

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Pittsboro, NC - When I first heard that there was a special meeting called for by Town Board Members, Chris Walker, Gene Brooks, and Clinton Bryan, I thought that just maybe we were finally going to take some action on Pittsboro’s water and sewer crises, or better yet, that the $50,000 land use planning process was at long last going to be discussed. That turned
out to be hope against hope.

When I learned that Walker, Brooks, and Brian called the special meeting to effect the crucifixion of Mayor Voller just before town elections next Tuesday, November 6, I decided that it was time to bring up again the matter of these board members’ squandering $96,000 a year on an inactive, mostly unusable 800-acre site for sewage land spraying.

The boondoggle is one of four I am aware of that this majority of the town board is culpable of, including: 1) the $200,000 embezzlement at the ABC Store right under their noses; 2) the refusal of a $360,000 offering from the County to establish Affordable Housing for Pittsboro; and 3) the waste of $50,000 to pay for a land use planning effort placed on the back burner.

At the Pittsboro Public Hearing of October 22, 2007, I mentioned that a number of interesting things in Town Records were found. One was a town-approved lease agreement with Ricky Spoon Builders, Inc. for the development of an 800-acre wastewater spray field until December 2015. The agreement was to pay the amount of $8,000 per month to Spoon
to lease the property amounting to an annual cost of $96,000.

$8,000 has been paid monthly since June 20, 2006, amounting to $128,000 as of this month to lease these 800 acres for a spray field that does not exist. It has never been activated
and has no public road access.

I said that a soil survey was conducted, and it showed that only 10 percent of the 800 acres has decent soil for spraying, and that 10 percent may not be even concentrated in one place where it could be usable. Moreover, I asked if the Town was leasing a boondoggle.

I said that, as I understand the situation, the County was to have paid a share of $5,000 which would have reduced Pittsboro’s payment to $3,000 per month but the County has
been unwilling to do so because no spray field actually exists.

County Manager Charlie Horne noted that those county payments were to begin when the selected site came on line and was actually being used; that is, when the spray site became active. Horne asked if there was a time frame to make the Spoon site an active spray field.

I said that from what I could gather, Pittsboro is nowhere near installing a spray field on the site that lies north of the failed River Oaks proposal. Toll Brothers has pulled out and will not now be, as preceding Mayor Nancy May exclaimed, The Savior of Pittsboro.

Then I went on to say what $96,000 per year could mean, giving 15 sensible proposals and identifying public projects for Pittsboro. These are listed in my October 22 testimony.

At the end of my presentation, I asked if there were any questions. There was none.

However, near the end of the evening’s meeting when Mayor Pro Tem Max Cotten verified that 90 percent of the spray site soils were not suitable for receiving sewage spray. At
this point, Mr. Spoon honorably offered to end the agreement with the Town.

Commissioner Gene Brooks replied that the Town needs to continue to pay the $8,000 per month just in case the town needs the mostly unusable spray site.

I have worked with Mr. Spoon. My experience with him is that when he says he will do something, he does it. His completed projects are proof of this. I do not fault him for accepting
this sweet deal; $8,000 per month was nothing less than a good deal for him.

Therefore, as a citizen concerned about the good stewardship of our financial resources, I request that the Town Board now accept Ricky Spoon’s offer to end the agreement and save the taxpayers of Pittsboro $96,000 per year.

Prepared testimony of Jim Hinkley for presentation before the Pittsboro Town Board emergency meeting of November 1, 2007, during a public input portion (No public input was
allowed or received.)