Holly Springs Financial Position Remains Strong 2/27/2009

The recession’s effect on state and local revenues will be the focus when Holly Springs Town leaders gather this weekend at a Wake County conference center.

The Holly Springs Town Council is holding its annual planning retreat close to home this year, trading overnight stays for a full day of presentations at Historic Yates Mill County Park south of Raleigh.

The agenda and supporting materials are available at www.hollyspringsnc.us.

Holly Springs remains in comparatively good position despite recessionary woes that are plaguing state budgets and many city and county governments.

“We’re very fortunate in that we’re in better shape at this point in time financially than a lot of places,” Town Manager Carl Dean said. “We’ve done a lot of planning to make sure we’re not so dependent on housing [construction] to meet our budget.”

For example, most of the development fees that the Town collects go into reserves instead of being used for operating expenses. The Town is also conservative in projecting revenues during budget preparation.

“The things we can control we’ve done very well with,” Dean said.

State budget pressures could affect Holly Springs and other local governments if the General Assembly holds back some revenues that otherwise would be disbursed to cities and counties.

“Right now, we’re in good shape,” Dean said.

Holly Springs has proposed seven projects for the federal stimulus money that Congress approved in February. The Town has submitted transportation, water and wastewater projects totaling $20.6 million to state agencies that will handle the federal money.

The projects are those Town administrators believe best meet the still-evolving criteria for stimulus money.

“We will be very fortunate if we get funding for even one project, as the competition is great for limited funds,” Engineering Director Stephanie Sudano wrote in a report for the council.

Among the projects submitted for stimulus money are water and wastewater lines to serve land near U.S. 1 that Holly Springs plans to use for industrial development.

The 130-acre site on Friendship Road is zoned for light industry and is certified as shovel-ready for development. Numerous environmental studies, surveys and development analyses already have been performed.

Topics for the 2009 winter retreat include the economy, investment, growth management, and innovation and partnerships.

Retreat sessions are scheduled to run almost until the 5 p.m. park closing on Saturday. Council members will decide then whether to return Sunday for more discussions.

Just as regular Town Council meetings, retreat sessions are open to the public.

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Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us