At the bottom right of this page under main information links is a Hickory's Local Government link. If you click on that link, it takes you to our city’s website, at the bottom of the page you will see the future dates for meetings scheduled for this year.
At the top of the page, if you click on the “Documents” link, you will find historic Agenda and Minutes links. Agendas show what is on the docket for the meeting of that date. The Minutes is an actual summary of the proceedings of the meeting of that date.
Here is a summary of the agenda of the 1/19/2010 meeting. There were a couple of important items that were discussed at this meeting and the details are listed further below
Invocation by Rev. Robert Ford, Chaplain at Frye Regional Medical Center
Consent Agenda:
A. 2010 Census Proclamation Committing to Partnering With the U.S. Census Bureau to Help Ensure a Full and Accurate Count in 2010
B. Approval of Citizens’ Advisory Committee Recommendations for Assistance Through the City of Hickory’s Housing Programs -
Geraldine Wansley of 47 44th Avenue Place, NE is being recommended for approval to subordinate City’s second mortgage to BB&T due to refinancing the first mortgage provided the mortgage loan is no more than what is owed on the property. She is refinancing for a lower interest rate and payment. Pressly Development Company is being recommended for approval for assistance not to exceed $20,000.00 to assist with building materials for new construction of Grayson Elderly Housing located around 16th Street, NE and 29th Ave, NE. Assistance would be in the form of a 3% interest loan for a 20 year period. Funds are budgeted for the above through the City’s former Rental Rehabilitation Program income received in FY 2009 and/or program income received through the City’s Community Development Block Grant Program.
Vernal S. Duncan of 1781 15th Street Place, NE is being recommended for approval for assistance through the City’s 2009 Urgent Repair Program for emergency related repairs not to exceed $5,000.00. Funds are budgeted through the City’s Community Development Department funding received in FY 2009-10. The Citizens’ Advisory Committee recommends approval for all of the above.
C. Budget Ordinance Amendment No. 14
1. To appropriate $315 of Local Government Revenue and budget in the Police Department Overtime line item. This revenue is the December 2009 payment from Catawba County Mental Health for a portion of an Officers time spent when accompanying involuntary commitment patients.
2. To appropriate $62 of General Fund Miscellaneous Revenue and budget in the Fire Department departmental supply line item. The Fire Department received funds from the sale of scrap metal to Mountain Recycling.
3. To budget a $15,000 Library donation from the Friends of the Hickory Library in the Library Capital Improvements line item. This donation is for the construction of a small conference room on the second floor of Patrick Beaver Memorial Library.
4. To budget a $459 insurance claim check from Farm Bureau Insurance Company of North Carolina in the Water and Sewer Pipes, Hydrants and Meters line item. This payment is for damage sustained to a fire hydrant on 11-28-09.
5. To appropriate a $17,745 transfer of General Capital Reserve funds to the Police
Department M/A Com Radio System Capital Project Equipment line item. This transfer is necessary to pay for two additional handheld radios and two additional mobile radios for the city’s radio system upgrade.
New Business - Departmental Reports:
1. Quarterly Financial Report - Warren Wood delivered this presentation. Warren highlighted a couple of projects. $17.5 financing for the Northeast Wastewater Treatment Project funds were secured was financing at 2.48%. He thanked Chuck Hanson for that. Bonds might not be necessary to facilitate the project. The Cripple Creek Project ($3 million) was secured from stimulus money. $1.9 million is financed at 0% over 10 years and $1.19 million comes from the Clean Water Trust Fund. Warren next went over the funding of $2.5 million for Traffic Signaling, he stated that hard work by Chuck Hanson saved a $.5 million dollars on this project.
Through the first six months of the year, the city is behind 2.5% in revenues compared to the 5-year trend, while the city has also lowered expenses by 2%. He attributed this to the hiring freeze. Revenues are $4 million over expenditures. Last year it was $3.6 million.
Looking at the water-sewer fund, he stated that the projections are right on target as far as revenues. Expenditures are lower than the projected average, because of the funding in the Northeast Wastewater Treatment Project, mentioned above, that ended up not being needed. They are breaking even with the water-sewer fund.
Cash and Investments of $43.2 million are thrown off because CD's are now paying .01%. Usually investments are spread across investments 1/3-1/3-1/3, right now the city has 47% of its investments invested in US Agency securities.
Warren next went over sales tax revenues. They are off by 11% in both the state penny and the local penny from what they were two years ago. The Hotel/Motel tax is also off from the peak of 2007-2008. He believes that the situation is tapering off and is not getting worse - bouncing along the bottom. Building Permit activity included a $30 million permit from Catawba Valley Medical Center. That property is not taxable, so it will not help increase projected future revenues. Without that permit, the city only issued $23 million in building permits, which is about half of the peak of$42 million from 2007-2008. New single family building permits are 12 down from 12 last year.
Warren next went over the unemployment numbers. He stated that we have seen improvement. He says we are not alone and other areas are worse off.
The Mayor stated that he had felt we had turned the corner in 07-08 and everything pointed to that. He says he is flabbergasted about what happened.
The Hound would like to thank Warren for introducing this map of the USA's unemployment since 2007 (Click this link), that I sent to my blog subscribers on November 19, 2009. I was introduced to this graph by watching an interview of Catherine Austin Fitts. She was Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration. Her website is one of, if not the, best real world economic websites I have come across. The website is called Solari (click on the link). The Irony is that she is from a little town called Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, which is east of Memphis.
Warren talked about the lower unemployment rates in North Dakota. He believed it was because of lower populations and farming areas. He talked about Slope County, North Dakota, which has a population of 675 in the county. I can show you it is because they have found oil. The Bakken Formation flows through North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan, Canada. Shale Oil production is creating major sources of jobs and revenue in that region. Slope County is one of the counties in this region.
The lesson to be learned is if Hickory wants to help facilitate jobs, then they could rise off of their derriere and get involved in energy. Yes, everyone is in an economic death spiral, which is caused by government crowding out the capital markets, emasculating our currency, spending future generations into oblivion, and regulating everything to death. Even in these uncertain times, we need to be making plans for the future or there will be no future for this area.
The areas of the country that are more viable are areas involved in energy, such as the upper Rocky Mountain plateau, Texas, and southern Louisiana. We won't find oil here tomorrow, but we can find alternatives. Look how successful the Biomass Center is at the Landfill in Southwest Catawba County. We must build on that momentum.
About the Mayor's comments - I honestly believe that the Mayor has come a long way in the past couple of years on this issue. I know that he does care. I think the problem is that our leaders are insulated from many of these issues, because of this inherent need of the bureaucracy to justify and compartmentalize plans, actions, and functions. The bureaucracy wants to market everything and put a happy face on everything, even when it is just bad policy. The average person on the street has understood what has happened and is happening, that is where the frustration comes from. We are like, "What are these people smoking?"
We lost much of our manufacturing capacity and we really have not had any advocates to press this issue. All politics starts on the local level and our local representatives must hold higher-ups accountable. The jobs that were lost in 2001 were replaced by low paying service sector and temp service manufacturing jobs. These jobs were as disposable as the products the workers manufactured and sold.
We put ourselves at the forefront of a cyclical structure that did not build in any resiliency. We were at the mercy of the bubble (fake) economy. When the United States structure failed, we were vulnerable because of the temporary fix and band-aid economy that had been created. Hint-Hint, the retirement village concept has been advocated by local authorities under similar reasoning.
2. Update of the Greater Hickory Metropolitan Planning Organization (GHMPO) Transportation Projects - Chuck Hanson made this presentation. This presentation was mainly about road projects. Chuck went over the projects that have occurred during the last 24 years.
Chuck mentioned that the DOT has revamped and reprogrammed how they are tracking, financing, and planning projects. He talked about how separate plans in our area have evolved into the Hickory-Newton-Conover plan. Hickory is in 3 different DOT divisions. The DOT has created a more regional area.
Next, Chuck went over rankings of projects in our area. The next few years will be thinner for us. The US321 and bridge replacement project has the highest priority. The 321 corridor holds the top 3 priorities from HWY70 up into Caldwell County. Most of these projects are unfunded.
Chuck went over various other current projects that are currently underway.
Jill Patton asked about the progress of the L-R extension? Chuck stated that the DOT got caught out by the wet November and December. The project is now scheduled to be completed in late March or early April. Alder's Patton and Fox asked about the windows for planting? Chuck stated that if they are given permission to go onto the job site, planting can occur up into the middle of May. If this does not occur, then it will happen in the Fall.
3. Present to Council the Newest “Hickory Highlights” -
Recognition of Persons Requesting To Be Heard - Steve Ivester addressed the council about the Interbasin Water Transfer issue. He was very involved in the process. He stated that mediation is very much the way that conflicts such as these are resolved. He just hopes that our pirates are just as aggressive and blood thirsty as their pirates.
He is concerned that 10 years from now that Concorde and Kannapolis go to the Yadkin and not the Catawba. Under the IBT, they came in asking for 25 to 30 million gallons per day, but they were reduced to 10 million gallons per day out of the Catawba, which was already in place and the methods to deliver this were already in place. By their studies the cheapest way to get the water was from the Yadkin.
What Ivester is worried about is that the infrastructure is in place to take it out of the Catwba and no infrastructure exists to take it out of the Yadkin. He believes that as part of negotiations, it would have been good to have a bond, to create the infrastructure and access to obtain water from the Yadkin. When the faucets run dry, they will be coming back to the Catawba.
The Coalition (Catawba Water) put the infrastructure in place that will make sure that this never happens again. He also believes that it was a victory, because they asked for 30 million gallons per day and only got 10 million gallons per day.
Ivester is concerned about Lake James, which he says is part of the Hickory Metro. The threat is that when there is a drought they are going to be drained down to put water into Kannapolis and Concord unless the Yadkin River link is in place. He would like to see the 10 million gallons per day from out of the Yadkin increased to 20 million gallons per day. The Yadkin River basin and participants weren't parties, so they could not be negotiate without another IBT.
Ivester made comments from the letter below from George and Suzy Johnson, who were also participants in the IBT issue. They live on Lake James.
The Mayor stated that he had the great respect for the Johnsons.
4 comments:
You'd be better off not commenting on economic matters, because it's clear you have no idea what you're talking about. Really. It's embarrassing.
On Wisconsin...
Why such hostility again... same ole story, same ole song and dance my friend. Does the bitterness come from the cold weather?
Point to me where I am wrong. I'm more willing to listen than most people. Do they teach the art of debate up there? What is embarrassing is the hit and run politics of the leftist progressives?
"Yes, everyone is in an economic death spiral, which is caused by government crowding out the capital markets, emasculating our currency, spending future generations into oblivion, and regulating everything to death."
That is an ludicrous statement, factually incorrect and absurdly hypocritical. Your snotty regional remark is absurd too, considering the intellectual output of the Catawba Valley. Also, why do you try to mind-read someone who disagrees with you? Is that part of your debate artistry? There's no hostility or bitterness in my comment (in fact, I find your little blog amusing); I'm suggesting you recognize the limits of your "expertise." Finally, you resort to playground name-calling on top of meaningless crap like "hit and run politics." And you think your leading an "out of the box" discussion? (Maybe I overestimate your desire for interaction, seeing there is almost none).
Care to comment on the effects of the Bush tax cuts on that deficit that has you wringing your hankie? Or explain how government regulation led to our current economic malaise as you stated?
I'll say what I want since I am the director of this blog. I don't see any expertise in you trolling posts.
I don't have problems with tax cuts. It is the out of control Bush spending that bothered me.
I'm not into the endless spending that has been racked up for this "War on Terrorism" that continues to shut out our liberties. I'm not into the Corporatocracy's welfare to the Wall Streeters or the same money payments I have seen at the State or Local level. I'm not into the wasted money we continue to throw at schools of indoctrination. I'm not into paying money to sanction bad behavior. The rest of us are taking pay cuts, losing jobs, and getting our hours cut; why not Government officials? And are spending money into the stratosphere -- trillions. How soon until we start to spend quadrillions?
You really are obsessed about Bush aren't you?
Look at the economy. The numbers point to what I am saying. The only thing up is the stock market and that is because the Fed is targeting banks to buy stocks to prop it up. Your tARP money at work. It is a matter of time until the stock market crashes, unless this country finds fiscal sanity.
How was I making fun of Wisconsin? All I was doing was letting your anonymity know that I knew this was the scripted same ole, same ole and I knew where it is coming from.
I know that Catawba County is far from perfect, as am I. Wisconsin has some fine dairy products, the Milwaukee Mile, Road America at Elkhart Lake, and Harley-Davidson. If you think I am going to get into a little cat slapping, then you have come to the wrong place. One of my accounting professors was a graduate of Wisconsin.
Now, as for you, can you tell me your economic position and what you would do. If not then this discussion is over in my book. You never tell anyone what you stand for, only attack, attack, attack... It's the same ole Huffington-Soros material and style. We all know it by now.
Thank You for continuing to come back. Maybe you could contribute a directional-constructive comment eventually.
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