By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
The Belhaven Town Council and Beaufort County Board of Commissioners will hold a joint meeting Monday night at the Belhaven Civic Center.
Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal said the council wants to use the meeting to address three issues with the county:
• the town and county’s joint EMS services;
• Belhaven Recreation Department services;
• the town’s sewer system.
“It’s a continuation of what we started last year and, actually, the year before last,” he said.
O’Neal went before the commissioners at a public meeting two years ago and asked that they hold a meeting outside of Washington, the county seat, at least once a year. The commissioners agreed to his request, and they held a meeting at the then-named Boyette Civic Center on Jan. 5, 2009. The commissioners have gone one step farther this year, agreeing to a joint meeting with the Belhaven council.
County Manager Paul Spruill and Town Manager Guinn Leverett discussed the agenda for the meeting during interviews Wednesday afternoon. Afterward, Spruill said he is “very comfortable” with it.
O’Neal said the town will ask for county money to support its upcoming sewer bypass project and help its recreation department.
The Belhaven Recreation Department’s annual budget is about $112,000, according to O’Neal. Of that amount, the county provides $12,000 a year, he said, with the rest of the funding coming from the town.
While the county provides the department with 10 percent of its annual funding, 90 percent of the department’s participants are from out of town, O’Neal said.
“We want to see if they can increase their share of that expense,” he said, adding that he hopes the two elected bodies will “listen and talk it out and negotiate something acceptable to everybody.”
Spruill said the county gets about 30 funding requests a year from nonprofits and municipalities, many having to do with recreation.
“They are certainly welcome to those requests. It’s something we accommodate annually,” he said, adding that Washington, Bath and Chocowinity have made similar requests. “We will accommodate them the best we can within our fiscal resources.”
O’Neal said the two governing bodies also will discuss the joint EMS services provided by the town and county. He praised the ease with which the services have integrated, and he said the town will ask if there’s “anything we can do to make it better.”
He also expects the public to take advantage of the public-comments portion of the meeting, especially in regard to property-tax revaluations. Similar to a regular council meeting, anyone who signs up for public comments will have three minutes to speak.
O’Neal said he’s gotten plenty of positive feedback from town residents regarding the commissioners’ visit.
“It’s very admirable of the commissioners to reach out to the citizens,” he said.
O’Neal and Leverett said they hope for an audience of at least 100 people.
“Different people will come for different reasons. Some will come for the Belhaven part, some to hear what the commissioners have to say,” Leverett said.
They expect all to come for the pig-pickin’ leading up to the meeting. At 6 p.m., the town will serve free plates of pork barbecue, barbecued chicken and the usual side dishes.
“People who eat our pig have a moral obligation to attend the meeting,” Leverett said with a chuckle.