<< Back 10/9/02 Courthouse decision may seal project By Scott McLeod Haywood County commissioners — still divided along now-familiar lines — agreed this week to move forward with a controversial courthouse and parking deck project. Commissioners approved final cost estimates for the $22 million project and gave staff the authority to begin cutting checks for the project as bills come due. The financing plan for the project was OK’d Oct. 1 by the N.C. Local Government Commission. The 3-2 vote — with Wade Francis and Mary Ann Enloe objecting — could seal the fate of a project that has divided the county for nearly two years. “This is just to formalize the capital projects ordinance. It tells me I can start writing checks,” said Finance Director Julie Davis. The major items in the financing plan are $12.4 million for a justice center and $3.5 million for a parking deck. Architects will get $1.5 million and construction managers $540,000. In another divided vote, the same commissioners voted 3-2 to dedicate the new 1/2-cent sales tax the county will begin receiving in December to the construction of the project. The resolution dedicating the money — expected to total about $2 million per year — to the courthouse project was presented at the meeting by Chairman Jim Stevens. “If we dedicate this to the justice center and maybe part of the jail, then maybe next year we can lower the tax rate. It is already set this year, but maybe we can lower it a little because this will cover the cost,” said Stevens. Payments on the courthouse project have been projected at an average of about $2 million per year over the life of the 15-year loan. Commissioner Wade Francis, however, said he would like to see the sales tax revenues go toward immediately reducing the property tax rate, which remained at 61 cents per $100 of valuation even after the property revaluation this year. County attorney Chip Killian, though, said once the tax rate is set and the budget adopted the rate can’t be changed until the following year. Enloe was upset that Stevens’ resolution was not included in packets passed out to commissioners prior to the meeting. She asked that the resolution be tabled until the next meeting, but that motion was defeated on a 2-3 vote. Francis voted with Enloe on the proposal. The justice center project has been hotly debated and some believe it was a major issue in the results of the primary election. Many candidates in that race urged commissioners to put off taking the final step of approving the financing until after the election. Monday’s decision to accept the financing may make it too expensive to turn back on the project, which many say is too large and too expensive.