FAITH — The Faith Board of Aldermen have officially received the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year during the last meeting, which stays close to the prior year’s budget, including no changes to the tax rate.

While the property tax rate will remain the same at $0.41 per $100, Mayor Randall Barger said that there would be an increase of $1 to the town’s monthly trash fee and an increase of $1 to the sewer fee as well.

Both of those proposed changes were due to increases in the cost for the town’s contracts for each service. Town Clerk Karen Fink said that the trash change was caused by the “high cost of the contract, which is (the same) across the state” and Barger said that the town was losing money at its current rate.

Alderman Jayne Lingle said that the increase in the sewer rate was to keep up with Salisbury-Rowan Utilities’ own rate increase.

“Their increase, which came to $2.61 between water and sewer, we’re still going to be way behind when we have to deal with them with sewer. We’ll catch up eventually, we just didn’t want people to have sticker shock when the (rates increase),” said Lingle.

Faith’s proposed budget is being presented later than other towns because of the wait to see what the cost for police services for the town would be. The aldermen had voted to end the contract with Granite Quarry for police coverage and explored contracting with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. However, negotiations between Granite Quarry and Faith ended in an agreement between the two towns to extend the contract for another year at a cost to Faith of $195,798.

For more information on the renewal of the partnership and its future, read the full story at salisburypost.com/2025/06/12/gq-faith-agree-to-one-year-renewal-of-police-contract.

That number represents an increase of $20,000 over the current year’s budgeted amount, one of the few large increases in a budget that has a total increase of just under $25,000 for the general fund, bringing the fund up to approximately $880,000.

The town has set the public hearing for the budget for June 25 at 6 p.m., after which the board can approve the budget.

In other news from the Faith Board of Aldermen meeting:

• The board heard about a rezoning request from R-1 Single Family Residential to B-3 General Business, from Faith Academy Charter School for a property adjacent to the new school building. Fink stated that the planning board had given their recommendation for approval, but that the town needed a permit and application from the school before proceeding with a public hearing.
• The board heard a request from Faith Academy Charter School to keep chickens on their property for an agricultural club. While keeping chickens is against the town’s ordinances, the aldermen stated that they wanted the planning board to take a look at updating and potentially changing the law.