Rowan County commissioners will kick off their regular meeting an hour earlier at 5 p.m. Monday in order to allow the board time to discuss the 2014-15 budget.
The proposed spending plan is due by June 30, and commissioners will consider adopting it Monday.
A public hearing concerning the budget took place June 2.
At the hearing, commissioners were hammered incessantly about West End Plaza.
The budget Rowan County Manager Gary Page submitted to commissioners included a 3.75-cent tax increase, but that proposed hike very likely will drop following commissioners’ consideration of a new application to the Local Government Commission.
The county paid for the mall, and Page put in a half-cent tax increase to be used to pay the debt down over a decade and replenish the fund balance.
At their last meeting, commissioners nixed sending the application to the LGC to approve the loan.
The funds never would have made it to the budget this fiscal year.
Since then, commissioners have crafted a new loan application that ultimately will necessitate having another public hearing.
The new application, submitted by Commissioner Craig Pierce, includes borrowing for additions to the heating and air system at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, the construction of an office building and 10 T-hangars at the airport as well as improvements at Rowan County Animal Shelter.
Those new items are in addition to the $3.9 million for the West End Plaza purchase and renovations included in the original application.
The total amount commissioners are requesting the LGC allow them to borrow is $6.6 million.
Two public hearings also have been scheduled for Monday – one for “Project Buck” and the other for a modification to the Bostian Heights and Mount Mitchell fire service districts.
With Project Buck, commissioners will listen to people interested in weighing in on the sale of almost 15 acres of land at Summit Corporate Center to James River Equipment.
The full-service equipment and tractor dealership, presently located at Klumac Road, is looking to build a facility on the site that will take up about 12,000 to 14,000 square feet.
Kannapolis homeowners along Goldfish Road, Tree Limb Lane, Naomi Court and Michelle Drive have requested a transfer of fire protection districts from Mount Mitchell Fire District to Bostian Heights Fire District.
County staff said the area in consideration for the transfer of fire protection districts consists of 60 total property owners, 28 of which signed a petition in favor of the move.