County manager outlines FY26 capital requests including courthouse waterproofing, landfill scale-house and sheriff evidence building

County Manager April Snead presented the county’s preliminary capital requests for the fiscal 2026 budget at the April 2025 Board of Commissioners meeting and asked commissioners to review priorities ahead of a dedicated budget meeting at the end of April.

Snead said staff and public-works leaders reviewed the master capital plan and recommended several projects for next year: courthouse wall waterproofing on the building's north side; relocating the county maintenance shop to property the county expects to acquire and colocating it with an East Laurinburg recycling center; a new landfill scale house (staff estimated roughly $100,000); and work on the sheriff’s evidence building where quotes for a new roof were comparable to replacing the entire structure.

Snead noted the $100,000 figure for the landfill scale house came from a contractor’s quote to gut and rebuild the existing structure but warned that renovating an older on-site building can reveal hidden costs; she recommended obtaining quotes for modular or prebuilt alternatives as a bidding option. She also said two capital items for the 911 communication center were considered “required” because the county receives 50% reimbursement from its 911 fund for those items.

Snead told commissioners that departmental capital requests across the county totaled approximately $3.3 million and asked the board to be prepared to make more definitive budget decisions at the April 30 budget meeting. On the courthouse project specifically, Snead said she had spoken to state-level contacts and did not expect state funding for a new courthouse during the current budget cycle.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions on the scope and sequencing of the projects, including the difference between waterproofing a wall and replacing a roof and whether the county should pursue replacement buildings versus gut-and-rehab options.

Next steps

Staff asked commissioners to review the materials ahead of the April 30 budget meeting and to expect more detailed cost breakdowns. The board did not take final votes on capital expenditures at the meeting.