Editor

EAST BEND — Mayor Stewart Maples says that he's not looking for a handout — just a hand. Well, more precisely he would like the county to help pay for a public sewer line to accommodate new and existing downtown businesses.

Maples asked Yadkin commissioners earlier this month for $25,000 — one third of the estimated cost to extend a sewer line from N.C. 67 along Neill and Main streets. Maples said that a developer wants to transform the recently renovated Pickett & Huff building into a retail complex. The town would pay the remaining $50,000 for the utility line.

The 9,100-square-foot building, built in 1947, was severely dilapidated until the new owners did some extensive interior and exterior renovations. The owners, Johnny Brown and Sacramenta Aguilar, are asking $199,000 for the two-story structure.

The 61-year-old building, which now sports a stucco finish, sits on a narrow lot of less than one-third of an acre. With such a small area, Maples said that the prospective owners will need public sewer service for their new business. The sewer line would also serve existing businesses on Main Street owned by Ronnie Fletcher, Maples said.

Using town money and a state grant, the town extended public sewer lines two years ago along N.C. 67. They later extended sewer service up Paulene Street to accommodate two new restaurants and a laundry mat.

"There's a party interested in the Pickett & Huff store," Maples told commissioners. "This party is interested in providing three shops on the bottom and three shops at the top. There are also several other businesses that would benefit from this line."

Although he has nothing in writing, Maples said that the prospective owners could "make things happen by the end of the year."

"We have no written commitment," Maples said. "It's more or less verbal conversation."

Commissioners, without a more definitive commitment from the investors and some assurance that the additional users would not affect sewer capacity at the East Bend Industrial Park, were reluctant to allocate any money to the town.

Maples said that the new sewer line would not adversely affect the industrial park, adding that the town's sewage-treatment plant is currently at 40 percent of its 10,000 gallons a day of treated capacity.

"We could handle it pretty good," he said.

Commissioner Joel Cornelius encouraged Maples and town commissioners to get a written commitment from the potential investors and an impact statement on the industrial park.

"Before we move forward we need to see some hard numbers," Cornelius said. "If you reach a certain point and if someone wanted to come in and expand at the business park, they couldn't. That's what should be focused on."

Maples agreed to speak to the investors and assess how the new sewer line would affect treatment capacity at the industrial park. Town commissioners are expected to discuss the proposal at their June 16 meeting.