City budget gives $89,203 to outside agencies

Published 4:14 pm Monday, May 30, 2016

Washington’s budget for fiscal year 2016-2017, which begins July 1, appropriates $89,203 to outside agencies in the form of direct funding or in-kind rentals.

The directing funding represents a 10-percent reduction in what the agencies received for the current fiscal year, except for the Zion Shelter. It’s $7,650 appropriation for the next fiscal year remains at the level it received this fiscal year.

In direct funding, the Purpose of God Annex receives $16,200, followed by the Beaufort County Boys & Girl Club with $12,960. Cornerstone Worship Center’s community program gets $8,100. Other appropriations include Beaufort-Hyde-Martin Regional Library, $7,800; Wright Flight, $2,835 and The Blind Center, $1,012; Eagle’s Wings, $810.

As for in-kind rental (what an agency would pay the city if charged for using space in city buildings), Sound Rivers receives $24,024, Pamlico Pals/Horizon receives $3,528, the Beaufort County Police Activities League receives $1,260 and Special Olympics receives $3,024.

In the economic-development arena, the new budget allocates $50,220 to the Washington Harbor District Alliance, $16,200 to the North Carolina Estuarium, $12,960 to Arts of the Pamlico and $6,750 to the Highway 17 Association. The budget also includes a $35,000 subsidy for the Civic Center (managed by the Washington Tourism Development Authority) and an $118,656 subsidy for the Washington-Warren Airport.

The budget includes a full-time public-works employee dedicated to working in the downtown area, keeping it clean and performing other related duties to make that area more attractive and conducive to enhancing the city’s tourism efforts. The employee, whose salary and benefits are budgeted at $31,436, would take care of the area from Second Street south to the north side of Stewart Parkway between Gladden and Bonner streets.

Last week, the city made its case to the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners for county dollars to help pay for city programs used by county residents who do not live in the city. The commissioners are expected to discuss and act on the city’s request during their upcoming budget sessions.

The city is seeking $1,323,490 to help pay for operating the city-owned Brown Library, the city-run Grace Martin Harwell Senior Center, the city-run Hildred T. Moore Aquatic Center and the city’s recreation facilities.

The breakdown of the request is $539,488 for recreation facilities, $357,263 for the aquatic center, $293,822 for the library and $132,917 for the senior center.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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