Town of Selma spending...or not

I was at the Selma Town Council Meeting on Tuedsay night. The council considered items such as a resolution to support the formation of a Selma Boys and Girls Club of America, the upgrade of the town's electrical plant, and a $1.5 million dollar spending plan. The spending would have expanded the present library and renovated the Harrison Gymnasium complex. A loan through the USDA would have been acquired and repayed over thirty years to accomplish the spending. That would have raised the tax rate in Selma by an estimated one to two cents for property owners.

I spoke up at the public hearing portion of the meeting and expressed my desire to see the council take into consideration the idea of taking care of existing facilities before acquiring new ones as well as the other proposed spending that the town was considering. I speak specifically towards the parks and recreation plan for new parks in Selma. I would much rather see the money spent on renovating the gym and adding to the library than adding more parks, including three dog parks to the town.

The good thing about the proposal was to expand the use of the gym for use for training by the fire and police departments, as well as for parks and recreation. The facility would also serve as an emergency shelter. I am all for utilizing existing facilities to their fullest before building or acquiring more. However, this spending would also have to be balanced with other proposed spending.

The council decided not to take action on the spending at the moment. The WMPM article I found online today mentioned reconsideration in the spring. I don't recall the spring reconsideration part of the discussion, but I may have missed that detail.

The town is spending more than twice that amount on the upgrade to the exising electrical system by adding a higher capacity electrical sub station that the town would own rather than rent from Progress Energy. That would save some money that way, and the increased capacity, as well as servicing Sysco would pay for the upgrade. That is not a bad way of doing things.

Here is the WMPM article from their web site. It is also covered in today's "The Selma News", but in greater detail.

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Selma Delays Funding For $1.5M In Expansion & Renovation Projects - The Selma Town Council has delayed funding the expansion of the Selma Library and renovating the Harrison School property. The projects would cost about $1.5 million. Officials said they would reconsider the projects next spring, but felt for now the town was just spending too much money.