Stantonsburg grant hurdle - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

14 February 2008 — A case of ambiguous property ownership had temporarily halted progress on a Community Development Block Grant project in Stantonsburg, but the town council addressed the issue in its monthly meeting on Monday night.

As a part of the CDBG project, the town is installing water and sewer lines along the street. However, the town did not have a large enough right-of-way on several properties, and had to purchase small portions of the property before installing the lines.

Two particular pieces of property were owned jointly by the heirs of a former citizen, but ambiguity surrounding how many children the man had, as well as how it was passed on to the current owners of the property, muddled the issue legally. The town could not purchase the right-of-way from the current occupants, because they were not the owners of the land.

To further cloud the issue, one of the properties in question occupied by Dennis Parker was deeded to his family. However, the property had been passed on to its current owner by his wife, who had inherited the property from one of the heirs. He had a quick deed to show ownership, but because the land had passed from an heir, he is only legally entitled to 1/12 or 1/13 of the money received for the purchase of the right of way.

The board signed a resolution to condemn only the pieces of the property they needed to acquire, since the legal owner could not be determined. They then signed a resolution to purchase the land through the court systems. If the legal heirs to the property desire, they may apply for their share of the money with the North Carolina Courts.

In other business, the board received their annual update from Fire Chief Brandon Epps.

Chief Epps reported that in the past year, the Stantonsburg-Moyton department had responded to 125 fire calls and assisted with 105 emergency calls. The department also currently has 26 members, which is an increase of six since last year, and five auxillery members.

He also reported that the department had recently purchased a 1979 model 85-feet truck for the department.

“We responded to the Liberty Warehouse fire this weekend as mutual aid, and a lot of the other departments were really impressed by our truck,” he said.

Chief Epps added that the department had purchased the truck largely to improve the local ISO rating, which affects insurance rates. Currently, the town has a rating of seven, while the county has a rating of nine. The lower the rating, the better prepared the department is for a fire.

He added that his goal is to improve the Stantonsburg-Moyton department’s rating to a five. But to do that, he requested some assistance from the town.

The low rating, he said, is primarily due to a water issue. He added that several hydrants in town were not working, and asked that the town consider replacing them.

Town Manager Gary Davis said that replacements were in the plans for an upcoming water project in town. He said the town also planned to replace older hydrants without steam caps, which don’t allow larger hoses to be used without an adapter.

Chief Epps noted that improvement would be beneficial in the case of a large fire when mutual aid is required. He said the department had purchased an adapter for those hydrants, but that other departments coming in would not be able to use the old hydrants.

He also said that the department was examining the idea of purchasing a second truck that could store 3.000 gallons of water, which would assist in meeting water needs for fires in outlying areas.

Police Chief John Hunt also updated the council on a project to update communication devices in the department.

He told the board that the town was satisfied with the trial service they had received from Verizon for the department cell phone, and would continue to use the company.

He added that he had applied for grant monies to purchase two laptop computers for police cars. He reported that the cost to the town, which is about 25 percent of the project cost, would be $3,300.

Mayor Bill Edmundson expressed shock at the high cost of the computers, noting that laptops could be purchased for as little as $500 each.

Chief Hunt said the department was looking at purchasing more expensive computers because they were made to handle the rough conditions driving evoke on the machines.
He explained that the county had purchased Gateway laptops for their cars, but were reporting many problems because the traditional-style laptops were so easily damaged in a vehicle.

“They’ve got laptops being fixed almost every day,” he said.

The Mayor conceded, but reminded the Chief that he must get the permission of the board before proceeding with the purchase.

Chief Hunt said he would, but that the department was still in the planning stages and waiting to hear on the grant.

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Issue of 14 February 2008

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