GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Town Council approved the budget for the upcoming fiscal hearing during the meeting on Monday, holding the tax rate steady and implementing several fee increases.

The primary change that Granite Quarry residents will see in the approved budget is the newly implemented $20 annual car fee. The fee, which will be collected annually for each registered vehicle, will be used to pay for paving and other street projects throughout the town. Town Manager Jason Hord has said that the funding would be only used for town-maintained streets and sidewalks and would allow for more frequent projects than the current state Powell Bill allocations.

The other primary fee increase that will affect residents will be the environmental fees from $13 to $15 monthly, which Hord has said would pay for increasing costs for the town’s pickup services.

The budget also keeps the town’s tax rate steady at $0.44 per $100 of property valuation, which town officials have often noted as a point of pride is the third lowest rate in Rowan County, only ahead of Faith and Cleveland.  

“I’d just like to brag and commend staff again for keeping us at a low tax rate, holding steady at $0.44, still the third-lowest rate in Rowan County and that’s two years in a row without a tax increase,” said Mayor Brittany Barnhardt.

Hord noted that during the process for the last year, he was still new in the role of town manager, having been named the interim manager in February of 2024, just three months before the budget was finalized. As part of that inexperience, he decided to hold the fee schedules for town departments mostly steady last year.

“This year, this one has been well thought out and meticulously been gone through by staff and all departments with an extreme focus on our planning, zoning and subdivision fees to get us more in line with the rest of the communities around us,” said Hord.

For the fee schedule, there was a discussion, initiated by Council Member John Linker, about whether the town should move to only half-day rentals for the shelters in order to maximize the slots and availability for town residents. Hord noted that the town had worked to be comparable to the county’s shelters in Dan Nicholas Park and that the overwhelming majority of rentals have been for half days (six hours). The council did not make any changes to the shelter schedules.

Following the public hearings for both the budget and fee schedules the members of the council voted unanimously to approve both. Nobody spoke during either hearing.

“I think we’ve all worked very hard on this and I believe what we’ve put together is a proper budget. It’s well thought out, it covers the needs of our community and it’s fiscally prudent,” said Council Member Rich Luhrs.

There will likely be one small change to the budget coming, as Granite Quarry and Faith both need to approve the contribution by Faith towards the police department. While the members of the Faith Board of Aldermen had voted to terminate the agreement, the two towns discussed and agreed to extend it for another year at a cost of $195,798 to Faith for the upcoming fiscal year.

Hord said that officials from the two towns are discussing a three- or four-year contract and have agreed to set a February deadline for them “to come back to the table” and “know where we’re going moving forward so both communities can move forward with what’s next.”

More information on that agreement will be coming following the Faith Board of Aldermen’s meeting and decision.