Hope Mills retreat advances plan for November bond to pay for parks and streets as leaders warn of tighter reserves

At a March budget retreat, Hope Mills council members and department heads directed staff to prepare a November bond referendum to fund a package of parks, recreation and street projects after a detailed finance briefing showed the town’s reserves and monthly revenues remain under pressure.

Mayor Jessica Flowers opened the day by framing the retreat as an alignment session between the council’s adopted strategic plan and the upcoming budget process. "Council trust the expertise of our staff," Flowers said as staff and elected officials discussed how strategy, budgeting and delivery should connect.

Finance director Drew Holland told the group that the town’s reserve position has tightened: the administration used about $1,700,000 from reserves last year and reserves ran from roughly $8 million down to about $6 million, he said. Holland also flagged a significant drop in monthly sales-tax receipts tied to county allocation changes, describing a roughly 36% decline in monthly sales-tax inflows and recommending caution on capital outlays. "We spent about 1,700,000 of those reserves," Holland said in the presentation.

Those constraints shaped discussion of how to fund priorities the council identified earlier this year: staff and council listed top priorities as…