City approves lighting improvements

Two baseball fields at the Havelock Recreation Complex will be brighter this spring after Havelock commissioners voted to spend $146,000 for an upgrade in lighting.

Will Lewis, Jim Stuart and Danny Walsh voted for the expenditure, while George Liner voted against it. Commissioner Bob Priesing was not in attendance.

The city will take out a loan to purchase replacement lights for two Little League fields from the company MUSCO. The contract includes a 25-year warranty on maintenance of the lighting.

“Having looked at this and based on the fact that we’re going to get 25 years of service, my theory is we’re never going to buy them as cheap again,” Walsh said. “I think it’s the right thing we’re doing.”

Stuart said he wasn’t happy that the lighting issue came up between budget cycles.

“I think the timing is bad, but I’m going to support it,” he said.

Liner said the city has other items for which the money could be used.

“I’m not anti-kids,” he said. “I just think it was the wrong time.”

Liner said the money for the lights wasn’t in the budget for this fiscal year, and even though it would be paid for out of the next fiscal year budget, there still wasn’t money there for the expenditure.

“We’ve got some serious issues coming up that we’re going to have to pay for,” Liner said.

The lighting on the two fields had become so poor that it was below Little League standards and was considered dangerous.

Mayor Jimmy Sanders expressed a concern on whether the lights would be operating by the time Little League started on April 17.

Havelock Recreation Director Dave Smith said that MUSCO guaranteed that the lights would be operational within 60 days of the contract signing.

The city will finance the cost of the lights through a BB&T loan at an annual interest rate of 3.16 percent for a total cost of $160,127.75.

In other business Monday night, the board:

- approved a conditional use permit for the owners of Tryon Park, located at the corner of Speight Street and Karol Drive, on the city’s east end. The approval will allow the owners to make improvements to the subdivision and sell the individual apartment buildings while maintaining a property owners association to maintain common areas like sidewalks and parking lots.

- approved new graffiti rules that tighten penalties on those caught defacing area buildings and also institutes a means by which property owners can be made liable for cleaning up graffiti on their buildings within a certain period of time.

- passed sewer allocation rules that set up guidelines for the city for the allocation of the city’s scant sewer capacity.

- appointed Liner to be the board’s representative for the local Firemen’s Relief Fund.

- appointed David De Jetley, Shirley Kelly and Jennie Bruner to the Havelock Appearance Ccommission.

- honored retiring police Sgt. David King for 30 years of service by presenting him with his badge and service pistol.