SPRING LAKE — The Spring Lake Board of Aldermen is expected to declare almost two dozen vehicles and pieces of equipment surplus when it meets today. The surplus items will be sold on govdeals.com.
Interim Town Manager Jason Williams, who also serves as the town fire chief, said in order to sell the property it must no longer be needed for government use and it must be declared surplus by N.C. general statute.
Williams has spent the last few weeks looking into missing cars and at broken equipment that has been neglected while trying to find opportunities to replenish the general fund.
“We have also had cars that have been sold years ago, some of them for scrap that still had titles,’’ Williams said. “It’s unclear why we still had the titles, but we are documenting and moving forward. Some of what I’ve found is waste that can be sold.”
The vehicles include vans, trucks and even a dump truck that have been out of commission for several years. Other pieces of equipment include a woodchipper, bush hogs, rollers, mowers and a leaf vac.
Earlier this year, Alderman Marvin Lackman said he would like to see items like the wood chipper and roller replaced with better equipment to help beautify the town.
Williams said one of his priorities has been to help clean the town and update equipment for staff in order to pay attention to the details of town buildings, streets and parks.
“Declaring surplus hasn’t been done in a while, but we can use the money to replace equipment or help build the general fund back up,” Williams said.
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The board also is expected to discuss unattended donation boxes and parking semi-trucks and 18-wheel trucks in residential neighborhoods.
Alderwoman Sona Cooper will be addressing both issues. Cooper said donation boxes have become a nuisance and contribute to the blight throughout the town.
According to Williams, most of the current donation boxes are on private property and lots.
“What (we) will have to do is look at eliminating or restricting donation boxes within town limits,” Williams said.
The board will look at sample ordinances, including one from Folsom, California, to address donation boxes. The sample ordinance would require anyone wanting a donation box to get a permit from the town and would limit the types of donations.
The other possible ordinance change is to restrict semi-trucks on residential roads, which, according to Cooper, causes potholes on residential streets, which were not constructed to support heavy vehicle traffic.
According to the information on potholes included in the agenda packet, potholes are caused by weather conditions such as a freeze-thaw cycle and rain as well as heavy vehicles, or trucks with multiple axles, which cause surfaces of pavement to collapse.
The board also is expected to go into closed session citing the N.C. general statutes for attorney-client privilege and personnel.
The board meets at 6 p.m. at the Spring Lake Town Hall, 300 Ruth St.
Jami McLaughlin covers Spring Lake for CityView. She can be reached at jmclaughlin@cityviewnc.com.
