Meghann Evans

Mount Airy News

ELKIN — On Monday night, the Surry County commissioners discussed how to move forward with several projects, including a sports complex and school renovations.

County Manager Dennis Thompson reported to the board that Mount Airy City Commissioner Todd Harris would like to create a steering committee for a proposed project to build a sports complex in Mount Airy. A map for the proposed complex was presented at the Mount Airy/Surry County Liaison Committee meeting on March 4, and Harris would now like the city and county to each appoint two commissioners to take a closer look at the feasibility of the project.

Board Chairman Paul Johnson spoke up. “I truly don’t think we need to be doing that.”

He reminded them that the county is in a spending crunch.

Commissioner Jimmy Miller, who attended the liaison committee meeting, said the committee would just explore the idea. He also said he believes it will help the county’s economy.

“It’s more of an economic tool than anything else,” said Miller.

“How many jobs would be created with four million dollars?” Johnson asked, appearing to be agitated about the idea.

Miller told him to calm down, that he just thought they should further explore the project, not make any commitments.

“The concept is good,” said Commissioner Jim Harrell Jr. “Along with Paul, I question, we have so many other needs.”

Commissioner Bill Hamlin said, “I think four million is a lot of money to put out.”

Once again, Miller told the commissioners that they should just explore the idea. Commissioner Craig Hunter was not present to comment. He was in Texas on an education trip with his son.

Johnson made a motion to not approve two commissioners for a steering committee, but his motion was not seconded.

The commissioners instead voted for the liaison committee to keep discussing the project instead of creating a new committee. They also agreed to not commit funds at this point to the project.

“Just leave things as is,” Johnson agreed.

Also during the meeting, the commissioners voted to approve a $300,000 change order to the Elkin High School renovation project. The school will now move up construction on the cafeteria to this summer. It had originally been part of phase III of the school renovation project. Phase III construction is supposed to take place from August to February.

By the end of the eighth phase, the Elkin High School campus will include renovated classrooms, sports facilities and an auditorium; new and expanded parking lots; and various other changes. The school is now in phase II of the project.

The county commissioners allocated a little more than $7 million for phase II, which actually came in at $4,117,968. The school hopes to be able to come in under the county allocation with both phases combined.

Tom Balke with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting told the commissioners, “We’re trying to get all those numbers as fine tuned as we can.”

Dr. Randy Bledsoe, superintendent of Elkin City Schools, thanked the commissioners for moving up the project.

Also at the meeting:

•Thompson reported for Michael Hartgrove, tax administrator, that the county collected 94.38 percent of the owed taxes by the end of February. This was down by less than a percent from last year at that time. Thompson said the tax office collected more than it was expecting to over the month. He said Hartgrove was pleased.

•The commissioners approved a resolution to endorse the establishment of a scholarship in honor of Jeff Hall, who served on the county Board of Education until he died Dec. 18, 2009. The Surry County Board of Education also has endorsed the scholarship.

• Commissioners Hamlin and Miller agreed to meet with N.C. Department of Transportation officials to address concerns about the closing of a bridge on Hamlin-Ford Road. Local school and EMS officials have been concerned that the recent closing of the bridge will mess up bus routes and emergency response times.

The commissioners went into closed session at the end of the meeting to discuss legal, personnel and economic development issues.

The board will reconvene on March 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Surry County Government Center to hear a presentation from a University of North Carolina School of Government team on water partnership projects.

Contact Meghann Evans at mevans@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.