The federal government has awarded a grant to six North Carolina cities to help subsidize flights to Raleigh. It appears, though, that the amount awarded is not large enough for the flights to begin.

Earlier this year, Fayetteville, New Bern, Kinston, Wilmington, Moore County (Southern Pines and Pinehurst), and Hickory formed a consortium and applied for a $3.6 million grant from the federal Small Community Air Service Development Pilot Program. The N.C. Department of Transportation filed the grant request on the consortium’s behalf. The communities pledged a combined $1.8 million in additional local support.

Corporate Airlines has indicated that it is willing to fly at least three times a day between the six cities and Raleigh if the grant were approved in full. Corporate, which is based in Tennessee, does most of its existing flying in support of American Airlines’ hub in St. Louis. It operates 19-seat Jet-stream turboprop aircraft.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, however, awarded the N.C. consortium only $1.2 million.
“The $3.6 million… That’s what we figured would happen,” Don Howard, director of airport operations in Kinston, said to The Free Press of Kinston. “We didn’t inflate our request. We asked for what we actually needed.”

Officials from the six communities and the N.C. DOT are searching for additional funding to allow the flights to begin.

Town awaits key property-tax ruling

Canton is awaiting a ruling from the state Property Tax Commission on the valuation of the town’s major industry. The outcome of the case will determine whether Canton has to raise its property taxes or reduce the services it provides to residents.

At issue is the valuation of the Blue Ridge Paper plant. Haywood County values the plant at $211 million, a figure that company officials say is far too high.
The factory was originally operated by Champion International, which sold it in 1999 to an employee group that uses the name Blue Ridge Paper. Blue Ridge Paper contends that the amount it paid for the plant, $142 million, represents the fair-market value of the facility and is what the county should base its valuation on.

The company notes that Champion’s liquid packaging division had been for sale for two years previous to the employee buyout. A national real estate agency aggressively marketed the facility, and would have earned a larger commission had it sold the plant for a larger amount.

The county, in turn, contends that the sale by Champion to the employee group was not for fair-market value and that the $211 valuation, which it also arrived at in 1999, was the plant’s true value.

Blue Ridge Paper currently pays Canton more than $1 million a year in property taxes. The town’s operating budget is more than $6 million per year.

“It depends on if the state reduces the value and how much it reduces the value,” Mayor Pat Smathers told The Citizen-Times of Asheville. “Depending on that, (the town) could have to raise the tax rate, could have to do a cutback in the services that we currently offer.”

Expensive upgrade: burying wires

Winston-Salem officials are experiencing a case of sticker shock in their attempts to bury utility lines along a key corridor leading to downtown, reports the News & Record of Greensboro. Duke Power’s cost estimate is far higher than what the city had projected it would cost.

In June or July, the Kivett Drive interchange on the U.S. 311 Bypass will open. A city task force has determined that the best way to improve the look of the new gateway to downtown is by burying the utility lines along Kivett Drive.

City electric officials estimated it would cost about $1.25 million to bury electric, telephone, and cable TV lines along the route.

Duke Power’s estimate came in much higher: $3.7 million just for the electric lines.

“You can build roads cheaper than you can get Duke Power to bury (power) lines,” said Councilman Bill Bencini.

The city is exploring other option, including the possibility of having its crews do the work to Duke Power’s standards. Duke Power also suggested some less-costly options, including burying telephone and cable TV lines while hanging the power lines higher off the ground to make them less visible.

Rutherford restrictions illegal

The N.C. Court of Appeals has ruled that Rutherford County violated public-notice requirements in adopting a new zoning restriction.

On June 21, 2001, the county ran an ad in a local newspaper announcing a July 2 public hearing on a proposed ordinance restricting where “polluting industries” could locate. At the public hearing, the county issued a 120-day moratorium on the siting of new heavy industries within 2,000 feet of a school. In September it approved a school zone protective ordinance with similar restrictions.

At the time Hanson Aggregates Southeast had an option to lease land from Sandy Mush Properties on which Hanson wanted to build a crushed-stone quarry. Hanson’s building permit request was rejected because of the moratorium. Hanson and later Sandy Mush Properties challenged the legality of the moratorium, arguing that it was adopted without adequate notice.
The Court of Appeals agreed with the plaintiffs. Localities typically do not have to give notice before adopting an ordinance. North Carolina law, however, requires that localities “hold a public hearing on the ordinance… [and] shall cause notice of the hearing to be published once a week for two successive calendar weeks” when it involves zoning, subdivision regulation, building inspection (including issuance of building permits), and community development.

As Rutherford County ran an ad only once, it did not follow state law.

The case is Sandy Mush Props., Inc. v. Rutherford Cty., (02-1587).

Lowrey is a Charlotte-based associate editor at Carolina Journal.