Spring Splash event day Saturday May 9, 2009 9 AM -2 PM Edenton Town Docks

Is your boat's safety gear up to snuff? If not, you could wind up helping to reduce the State and County budget short falls when the man with the blue light decides to pay your boat a visit. Find out the cheap way by inviting a local Coast Guard Auxiliary Volunteer aboard this Saturday at the Edenton Town docks.

County Manager Rascoe provided a FY09/10 Budget to the County Commissioners tonight. It will be posted at http://www.chowancounty-nc.gov/ tomorrow morning.

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The following summarizes my observations of today's marathon (8:30-5:00) meeting of County Commissioners and various county department heads who are drafting the FY09/10 Budget. Unfortunately, there isn't much to report, as the commissioners once again provided no policy guidance to Peter Rascoe (Item 10 on the agenda was: "Consideration and Adoption of any FY 09/10 budget policies.") The only substantive action taken was a vote to remove from next year's budget $25,000 to conduct an employee pay study. To me this is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Recall that one highly qualified member of our group volunteered to do such a study for free, but none of the commissioners I spoke with is interested.

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Citizens Against the OLF in Gates county have secured critical support from two significant resource programs in our Southeast region -The Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Duke University's Environmental Law and Policy Clinic. At a NO OLF meeting on Thursday, April 23 at 7 PM at the Gates County courthouse the Executive Directors of these programs will discuss their work challenging the U.S. Navy's documentation for its proposed outlying practice field in Gates county.

In Edenton a workshop at the Chowan Arts Gallery on Saturday attracted six enthusiastic ta-ta holder makers who exchanged witticisms while developing their creations. Their new submissions can be seen by clicking above on the GALLERY header. You can vote for your favorite and generate the votes needed for its designer to win the get-away weekend in a Outer Banks cottage. But now, what began as a local ta-ta holder Relay for Life fundraiser is going national.

This story is a copy of an email forwarded to all Chowan County Commissioners on April 15th. No response has been received from any of them so far. The research on this was done by a member of the Citizen Advisory Group who were appointed by the commissioners to assist them in formulating the FY09/10 Budget.

One member of the Citizens Advisory group submitted to the Commissioners a macro-salary study, comparing total compensation of Chowan employees to that of other NC Counties. He used data from http://www.nctreasurer.com/lgc/units/unitlistjs.htm. and www.sog.unc.edu/pubs/electronicversions/csalindex.htm.
The study can be seen at http://www.johnsams.org/countycompensationstudy.htm. On a per-capita basis it appears that Chowan is paying far more to its employees than surrounding counties pay. Average pay/benefits here is $52,187 whereas similar population counties pay much less (generally around $30,000.) Total compensation in Chowan ($8,349,963) is approximately $3 million more than counties of similar population. These numbers have not been validated and could be in error, but are taken from the state treasurer's website. Tax base has not been factored in. From the data it appears Chowan is paying its employees (or at least the top-tier employees, who would raise the overall average) far above that of similar population counties.

The county commissioners need to examine this data closely to see if it is correct. If so, this could be where the budget overruns occurred that led to draw down of the Hospital Fund, and further analysis can point toward future budget savings.

Did you know that a $200,000 house in Perquimans County pays $820 in property taxes and the same house in Chowan pays $1300?

If you compare last year’s budget for Chowan County and Perquimans County, you will see that our tax rate is 58% higher than theirs (65 cents per hundred vs. 41 cents) and our spending is $3.5 million greater.

You would expect we would spend more, since our population is 17% greater (14,635 vs 12,498), but not 58% more. Their tax base (value of all property) is 7 % greater, ($1.54 billion vs. our $1.43 billion)—not that much different. Perquimans property was reassessed in 2008, so we can assume it is accurately valued.

So why is their tax rate so much lower? Are their citizens receiving far fewer services? Are they paying higher user fees for non-mandatory services? Is their county government more frugal? What accounts for the $3.5 million difference in our budgets? These are questions worth answering BEFORE our county commissioners develop our budget for next year.

Best Dressed Ta-Ta's Contest How to focus attention on breast cancer? A contest for the most creatively decorated brassiere! And let's call it "The Best Dressed Ta-Ta's Contest."

The Bills Bear Swamp Bunch, a Chowan-Perquimans Relay for Life team, came up with the concept, which generated an enthusiastic response within their team. Their whimsical bra creations are the featured exhibit at the Chowan Arts Council Gallery - An Artful Exhibit, The Best Dressed Ta-Tas - through April 20. Over 50 embellished brassieres designed by local women are on display at the Gallery. The captions the designers chose for their creations magnify the humor - but all with the serious purpose of raising awareness about breast cancer.

Click on GALLERY in the header on this site to view photographs of all entries. Vote for your favorite(s) with a $1 contribution per vote on the Swamp Bunch's Relay for Life page within the American Cancer Society website: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Best.Dressed.Ta-Tas.Contest.

Anyone is welcome to contribute her/his own artistic creation, either by personal direct submission or by participating in a group workshop at the Chowan Arts Council on Saturday morning, April 18. Register by phoning 482-8005.

This afternoon (3/23/09) the Board of Commissioners met to discuss county budget priorities for FY09/10. All were present with exception of Eddy Goodwin and the meeting was chaired by Emmett Winborne. The short summary of the meeting is that it did not provide Peter Rascoe with any specific Board guidance for the upcoming budget...instead each commissioner gave his individual opinion of what the budget priorities should be. No motions were made or votes were taken.

Following is a summary of today's (3/17/2009) Finance Sub-Committee Meeting. Members are Commissioners Kenny Goodwin, Eddy Goodwin, and Keith Nixon. They were briefed by County Manager Peter Rascoe and Finance Officer Lisa Jones. No Action was taken on the FY 09/10 Budget, but further shortfalls are predicted, and the County Manager asked the Board of Commissioners to prioritize services so he can submit a proposed budget that meets Commissioner objectives.