Schools' requests fully funded; college boosted too

A year ago the Johnston County Board of Commissioners cut the property-tax rate by 15 cents – from 67 to 52 cents per $100 valuation. That was done after countywide real-estate revaluation, and it wasn't enough to prevent sizable increases in most Johnstonians' property-tax bills.

This week, in adopting the county's budget for fiscal 2026-27, commissioners cut the rate by a penny – to 51 cents per $100. County Manager Rick Hester had recommended keeping the rate at 52 cents to balance his proposed budget. (The Town of Smithfield tax rate remains at 45 cents for another year.)

The county manager had also recommended a $3-million increase in appropriations for Johnston County Public Schools, yet commissioners voted without dissent Monday night to fully fund the school board's requests: $116.3 million for operations (up from $110 million this year) and $5,478,000 for capital outlay (up from $3.5 million). Those increases total almost $8.3 million.

In addition, the adopted budget fully funds Johnston Community College's operations request at $14,659,564 – up from $9.3 million this past year. Commissioners were told the increase is primarily needed to raise salaries of "hard-to-fill" teaching positions. Meanwhile, the new budget allocates $3.1 million for capital outlay at JCC – down from almost $4.6 million this past year.

Mr. Hester had recommended just four new staff positions – all in Public Utilities funded by water and sewer user fees. Commissioners added 24 more, including eight in Emergency Services, seven in the Sheriff's Department, five in 911 Communications, and one each in Building Inspections, Cooperative Extension, Health Department, and Animal Services.

To cover all those increased expenses beyond Mr. Hester's proposed budget, the final plan adds $2.3 million to anticipated property-tax revenue, $3.5 million from "premiums" returned by county bond buyers (see explanation below), a $1.2-million reduction in debt-service payments as another byproduct of those AAA-rated bond sales, plus additional revenue from raising the county's open-space fee for residential subdivision developments by $200 – to $1,200 per lot.

The new budget provides for 3% pay raises for county employees in July plus a 2% "performance based" increase for qualifying employees later on.

Commissioners agreed to continue making contributions to specified non-profit agencies at the same level as this year's, but served notice that starting next year such direct appropriations won't be made – to be replaced by contracts negotiated between those agencies and appropriate county departments.

The new budget makes the following allocations to non-profits:
Harbor Inc. – $325,000.
Triangle Land Conservancy – $155,000.
Boys & Girls Club of Johnston County – $100,000.
Johnston Health Foundation – $100,000.
Partnership for Children of Johnston County – $50,0000.
Smithfield Rescue Mission – $23,700.
Special Olympics Johnston County – $15,000.
Johnston County Arts Council – $10,000.

How do "bond premiums" benefit the county budget?

Martha Lasater, bond specialist in the Johnston County Finance Department, provided this explanation:

"We transfer bond premiums from the sale of general obligation bonds to the General Fund. A premium is the amount an investor pays for a bond that exceeds its face/par value. Premiums occur in bond pricing when the bond's interest rate (coupon) is higher than current market interest rates. The county uses the bond premiums to offset interest payments on the bonds. Interest earnings on the bond proceeds, if not needed to pay costs of issuance, are also transferred to the General Fund to offset interest costs on the bonds."

It's another benefit of Johnston County's achieving the highest rating awarded local governments by the national bonding agencies.

County issues revised schedule for UDO's adoption

Commissioners on Monday approved a revised schedule for review and adoption of Johnston County’s next Unified Development Ordinance: posting of the latest draft and revisions online for public review starting August 4; community meeting to follow on September 10; Planning Board review on September 15; public hearing before the County Commissioners on October 5; adoption of the new UDO on November 2.
 



SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED TO HEALTH-CARE STUDENTS

UNC Health Johnston volunteers recently awarded $1,000 scholarships to 15 students headed into health-care fields: (left to right) seated – Chloe Sullivan of Smithfield, Amiyah Grace of Newton Grove, Sophia Pak of Clayton, Maya Fotopoulos of Clayton; standing – Myles General of Clayton, Ja’Niyah Christmas of Clayton, Kadynce Mittleider of Smithfield, Talia Cox of Clayton, Alyson Reevey of Benson, Amanda Tran of Clayton, Naidelin Nery of Clayton, and Elizabeth Vasquez of Garner. Absent from photo: Amani Leonard of Clayton, Addison Taylor of Princeton, and Conchita Rodriguez-Catana of Kenly. (UNC Health Johnston photo) 
 

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Town Council delays decisions on three items:

DSDC contract, electric-service fees, loitering in parks

The Smithfield Town Council Tuesday evening put off decisions till next month on renewal of the town's contract with the Downtown Smithfield Development Corporation and two ordinance changes: one to charge subdivision developers fees for electric-system infrastructure provided by the town, the other to restrict the length of time persons may occupy facilities inside the town's recreation parks.

A hearing on renewal of the DSDC contract drew no public comments, yet Councilor Travis Scott raised questions about the non-profit agency's "transparency." (DSDC was the only agency to put in a bid to administer programs funded by Downtown's Municipal Service District, which collects an extra property tax on commercial real estate. DSDC has been in operation since 1986.)

Mr. Scott asked if DSDC is subject to rules under the state's Open Meetings Law. Town Attorney Bob Spence said it's a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and therefore isn't included under that statute. Even so, he said it "should be a transparent organization" since it receives public funds through Town Government.

Mr. Scott suggested the DSDC board and staff needs to be "transparent with all businesses." Interim Town Manager Kim Pickett responded that a new clause lists "quarterly business engagement sessions" as one of the proposed contract's goals.

She suggested the contract be renewed for five years instead of three as in the past to "give them a little more time" to meet new goals, but Mr. Scott insisted on keeping the three-year term.

The council agreed to withhold a decision on the new contract until its next regularly scheduled meeting on July 21.

Also postponed until next month's meeting were decisions on proposed ordinance amendments to impose electric-service fees on real-estate developers and rules to forbid loitering in Smithfield's parks. The electric-service proposal would mirror the town's current policy that requires builders of "major subdivisions" to pay for water and sewer extensions provided by the town.

Parks & Recreation Director Gary Johnson said rules putting time limits on occupancy of facilities was recommended by the town's Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee in response to citizens' complaints about "monopolization" of courts, pavilions, and playgrounds by some individuals and groups.

Advertised public hearings will be required before either of those ordinance amendments can be enacted by the council.

Councilor Wood was in Duke Hospital Tuesday

Roger Wood missed Tuesday night's Town Council session, and he had a very good reason to be absent. He spent most of the day in an operating room at Duke University Medical Center undergoing a long-awaited kidney transplant. The good news this morning (Thursday) from Town Manager Kim Pickett was that following surgery "he was awake and talking (and) very sore, but the doctors were very pleased with how surgery went and very confident he was on the road to recovery."
Mr. Wood is also in line for a liver transplant, we've been told.

RIGHT UP TO THE BUFFALO CREEK GREENWAY

Clear-cutting has begun for the first of three subdivisions approved for sites adjacent to Buffalo Road near Smithfield Middle School. "Skybrook" will place 170 houses on 138 acres southwest of the town's Buffalo Creek Greenway (shown here) – behind the existing Bradford Park subdivision. On the other side of the paved trail at this point is another 78 acres of woods the Lampe family has donated to the Town of Smithfield, where a new stadium is being planned for the former Wilson Tobs collegiate-level baseball franchise that's moving here next season.
 

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 WHAT'S COMING UP 

Freedmen's Schoolhouse ribbon-cutting this Friday

The Historic Smithfield Foundation will host a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the restored historic site at 11 a.m. Friday in the sanctuary of First Missionary Baptist Church at North Fourth and Caswell streets. Tours of the nearby school house will follow the ceremony.

Dr. Crystal R. Sanders, a Johnston County native and descendant of freedmen who attended the school, will be the keynote speaker. She is an award-winning historian, author, and professor who serves as an Associate Professor of African-American Studies at Emory University.

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The Historic Smithfield Foundation and the Johnston County Heritage Center have been collaborating for almost a decade to rehabilitate the building and interpret its history for the public. Private donations and a $250,000 grant from the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources have made the work possible.

Additional information about the schoolhouse and its history, including names of students, can be found online at https://www.johnstonnc.gov/freedmenschool/>

3 Little Pigs Triathlon will close part of parkway Saturday
Durwood Stephenson Parkway will be closed most of Saturday morning between Buffalo Road and Kellie Drive at Smithfield-Selma High School for the 17th annual Three Little Pigs Triathlon, a project of the Rotary Club of Central Johnston County and Smithfield Parks & Recreation. Cyclists will use Stephenson Parkway and Kellie Drive to access a road course that extends northward along Buffalo Road to the Live Oak community north of Selma and back.

Register of Deeds 17th annual Shred Event on Saturday
Hosted by Register of Deeds Craig Olive, the event continues from 9 a.m. till noon in the parking lot of Rose Manor Shopping Center in West Smithfield. It's open to the public free of charge. Mr. Olive advises participants to limit the number of items to be shredded to three boxes or trash bags per vehicle.

Juneteenth celebration steps off with a Saturday parade
Starting at 10:30 a.m., the parade proceeds along Martin Luther King Drive from the Belmont neighborhood to Smith-Collins Park where food trucks and vendors will be stationed all day. Juneteenth is a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when enslaved African-Americans in Texas finally learned of their freedom – more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Summer Solstice occurs this Sunday, June 21 at 4:24 a.m.
It's the astronomical beginning of Summer, yet we Southerners feel the three-month season starts at the beginning of June. Actually our summertime heat usually arrives in May and extends well into September. In any event, the Summer Solstice marks the time of year when days are longest and nights are shortest.
 

 DEATHS AND FUNERALS 
Click on the name to read an obituary, usually posted by the funeral home:

BRINDLE WOOD GOODWIN, 74 – died June 13

JUDY FRANCIS DUNCAN, 80 – died June 10

EDDIE THOMAS LEACH JR., 73 – died June 9

VICTORIA ROSE HILL, 78 – died June 8

 

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 A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR 

Down Home NC is persistent, but slightly off target

Representatives of Down Home NC, a grassroots group of citizens championing the needs of oft-neglected "working class" folks, have appeared numerous times before our local governing boards in recent months. Their latest push implores Johnston's County Commissioners to be "transparent" and "reveal the local impact of state and federal budget cuts" on "working families."

Trouble is, commissioners at this point appear to be in the dark about all that and are just as apprehensive about those pending cuts. They expressed their worries about future state and federal funding as they adopted a new county budget this week.

Down Home has repeatedly railed against President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," especially its cuts to Medicaid and federal food-stamp assistance (rebranded as "SNAP," Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Now the citizens' lobby has added to its outrage proposed amendments to the N.C. Constitution that would cap local property-tax increases as well as state income-tax rates – sources of revenue Down Home says are critical for maintaining public support for struggling families. Those amendments will be on our ballots for November's General Election.

Meanwhile, we trust our County Commissioners will be forthcoming about funding cuts as they happen, whether or not the county board adopts a Down Home resolution calling for "transparency" about what's coming.

The trouble with all this starts in Washington and Raleigh, not here.
 

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