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Princeton mayor says new community center is fully funded; town to reapply for missed state utility grant
Summary
The Princeton mayor reported the new community center will replace the old building and said fundraising and donations have covered construction costs with no taxpayer money. The town was not selected for a recent DWI utilities award and will revise and reapply this fall.
The Princeton mayor said Tuesday that the town’s new community center is "progressing nicely," the old center will be torn down and the project has been funded through a mix of state, local, public and private contributions, with "no taxpayer money" used for the construction.
The mayor provided a line-item breakdown of contributions during the meeting: the Princeton Library, $428,000; a North Carolina legislative appropriation, $815,000; Hanson Rockport, $68,000; Carnegie Family Farms and Produce, $15,000; and other private gifts totaling $70,000. Those figures sum to $1,396,000. Later in the presentation a project representative said the campaign had secured an additional $500,000 and stated "so we stand at 1.5," indicating a later update that would bring total funds nearer to $1.5 million; the transcript contains both figures (see clarifying details).
The mayor also reported that Princeton was not included on a July 16 award list for DWI vulnerability/utilities funding. Staff said the statewide competition was large (described in the meeting as $1,500,000,000 applied-for versus $500,000,000 awarded) and that Princeton scored a few points below the winning applicants. Town staff (TRC) will revise the applications and reapply this fall.
Board members did not oppose adding the funding update to the agenda; motions to adopt agenda changes carried unanimously during the meeting.
Officials framed the funding news as a milestone for local programs: the mayor emphasized that the new center will host community and library activities and reiterated that construction and related site work were funded by a mix of grants and private contributions. No formal appropriation or new debt for the center was discussed at the meeting. The next procedural steps mentioned were continued coordination with TRC for grant re-submittals this fall and construction timeline confirmations with contractors.
The mayor’s remarks and the fundraising breakdown appeared during the mayoral update and a later public presentation to the board; the board did not take separate formal action on the center at this meeting.
