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Cleveland County adopts $228 million budget, approves Kingston Road rezoning and adds Emergency Operations Center
Summary
The Cleveland County Board of Commissioners on June 4 approved the manager's recommended fiscal 2024-25 budget with no tax-rate increase, unanimously approved rezoning of a 10-acre Kingston Road parcel to traditional residential, and accepted a change order adding a $2.34 million Emergency Operations Center, backed by a $2 million state appropriation.
The Cleveland County Board of Commissioners on June 4 approved the county's fiscal 2024-25 budget, a rezoning request for a Kingston Road property and a construction change order to add an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) alongside a new 9-1-1 center.
County Manager David Cotton told the board the recommended all-funds budget is just under $228 million, with a general fund budget of about $110 million and no proposed tax-rate increase. "It does not recommend a tax rate increase," Cotton said, and the recommended ad valorem rate remains unchanged. He said staff were unable to fund roughly $8 million in prioritized requests and that the budget includes an appropriation to cover inherent overtime for shift workers to avoid the shortfall the county encountered this year.
Why it matters: the budget funds core services including public safety and education while avoiding a tax increase before the June 30 statutory deadline for adoption. Cotton said the plan "comports with the commissioners' vision" and reflected priorities identified in the review process.
On land use, the board approved a request from Johnson Land and Farm Holdings to rezone about 10 acres at 2206 Kingston Road from Neighborhood Business Conditional Use to Traditional Residential. Planning staff said the parcel, north of the town of Kingston, is surrounded by residential zoning and that the county planning board recommended approval; one commissioner who said he drove through the area described it as "very residential." The public hearing produced no speakers and the motion to approve carried unanimously.
The board also approved a change order to add an Emergency Operations Center as an alternate to the 9-1-1 center. County staff reported the value-engineered EOC cost after reductions is $2,344,530.11; staff confirmed $2,000,000 of that comes from a state appropriation. Blake Marsh, who presented the project, said staff had worked to reduce costs and that the EOC and 9-1-1 center will be constructed simultaneously to gain efficiency. "That should give some efficiency in the cost," a commissioner said.
Votes at a glance: the record shows the agenda and consent items were approved by voice vote; the rezoning (planning case 24-09), the fiscal 2024-25 budget and the EOC add-alternate were each moved, seconded and recorded as carried by voice vote (the board recorded these as unanimous; individual member votes were not recorded in the transcript).
What's next: staff scheduled a groundbreaking for the 9-1-1 center and EOC at 10 a.m. on June 14, 2024, at 1333 Boston Road (the former Red Cross building). The board set its next meeting for June 18, 2024, at 6 p.m.
Sources: county manager David Cotton and county staff presentation; planning staff presentation; Blake Marsh. The public hearing records showed no public speakers on the rezoning or the budget.
