The Rose Hill Board of Commissioners head a presentation on sewer meter upgrades at its regular meeting on April 9 at Town Hall.
The presentation was given by representatives from Core & Main. They presented a PowerPoint on new sewer meter options.
Brady Myers sales representative and meter specialist Vance Hikes and Neptune Meter territory manager Dillon Boil told the board that the upgrade would be a drive-by system that will keep the town from having to manually read sewer meters. The public works department would only have to drive by the meter and the system would provide a readout. Currently, six staff members read meters for six to eight hours per month.
The new system would also provide information about leaks, excessive usage, and slow-flow issues so that the staff won’t have to do as many manual inspections, the presentation stated.
The new meters are expected to last 20 years before the town should expect any usage issues. It should have 200 percent accuracy for the entire 20 years. According to Myers, "they are a lot more efficient.”
The total cost of the project would be $328,272.41. The board tabled the issue until its next meeting.
Public comments
A letter that was submitted to the board was discussed during public comment session about a property that keeps receiving complaints.
Two residents twho live next to the property on East Blanchard Street submitted the letter. There have been several complaints issued to the resident of the house about the disturbances and the smell of the various animals on the property.
The letter also stated that there is currently an ordinance in place about the number of birds that can be located per square foot. The owner currently has chickens, geese, rabbits and turkeys.
“It’s not about the animals as much as it is about the filth," the letter stated. "We have always sat on our deck on Saturday nights and cooked, ate, listened to music and danced. We can’t do that now because of the stench, blow flies, maggots and noise. We can’t invite people over because they can’t stand the smell or flies. Last year, we spent $50 a week on fly traps (each one held 20,000+ flies), and we used five per week. I think they should pay for the fly traps and keep them in their traffic.”
According to Town Administrator Angela Smith, the property was inspected on March 28.
"A police officer and public works director went over there, and they are in compliance with the ordinances," Smith said. "I don’t know what else to do for it.”
“(The property owner has) always tried to make the best of it. He had peacocks before and that was a real issue and he took care of that. Everything he is doing now is right by the book,” Fire Chief Gary Boney said.
Commissioner Ross Powell noted that if the town chooses to do something about the property mentioned in the letter, it would have to do the same at other residents’ houses who have a lot of dogs. No decision was made since the resident was in compliance with local ordinances.
In the action agenda, Smith announced the four planning board members who agreed to be appointed for another three-year-term. All of the members were in attendance. Maple Chasten, Evelyn Tuten, Steven Jones and Johnny Williams' new term will be effective as of May 11. The board approved the re-appointments.
A tabled discussion, about the new ordinance that talks about the use of streets by 18-wheelers of weights of 20,000 or more, was also brought back up during the meeting. Magnolia Street and Main Street were two places of concern due to the board wanting to take care of the roads and make driving safer in town.
Also, there had been a lot of illegal parking of these trucks within city limits, officials said. At the last meeting, the board decided to make a few streets exempt because of business-access issues.
By the end of the discussion a few amendments were made to the ordinance.
Theses streets were added to the exemption list:
All of Magnolia Street from 117 West;Main Street from 117 East to the city limits.
The board also decided to remove the following areas from exemption:
Main Street from Railroad Street to Mallard Street;Mallard Street;Marshall Street.
Also during the meeting, Smith announced that they will have a public hearing on May 14 to discuss the budget.
Smith also announced that the town received the Golden Leaf Grant for the flood mitigation storm water project. The award was for $395,800. With the project there will be engineering and construction to enclose portions of the ditches, installing catch basins, and to reshape and stabilize of the ditch banks along Walnut Street to alleviate flooding at the intersection of N.C. 117 and Charity Road.
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