By Staff
Water, sewer project will help town to better serve Southtech Plastics
By CHRISTINA HALE
Staff Writer
CHOCOWINITY — The Board of Commissioners, during its meeting Tuesday night, approved contracts for water and wastewater improvements that will enable the town to better serve Southtech Plastics, a company relocating from New Bern to the Chocowinity Industrial Park.
The improvements project, estimated to cost just over $1.3 million, is scheduled to begin in March 2008 and end by January 2010, according to town documents.
Beaufort County, which recruited Southtech, is contributing $179,145 toward the project.
Additional project funding includes a $442,000 Community Development Block Grant, a $260,000 N.C. Economic Infrastructure Supplemental Grant and two grants totaling $500,000 from the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Industrial Development Fund.
The wastewater improvements will include an on-site pump station and installation of a 6-inch sewer force main. Water improvements will include 1,900 feet of a 12-inch waterline, a 12-inch detector check assembly, a fire pump system and a 2-inch commercial water-service line.
After moving to Chocowinity, Southtech Plastics is expected to retain its existing 74 jobs and create 26 new jobs.
In other business, the board rezoned a piece of land located between the old and new sections of Poore Farm Road just east of the town.
Landowner Fred Hunter Poore Jr. asked that the back portion of his 11 acres near Poore Farm Road be reclassified from R-1, low-density residential, to B-2, highway business. The front portion of his property is already classified B-2, according to town documents.
Eddy Davis, the director of economic development and planning services for the Mid-East Commission, said the property is a prime location for business uses because the U.S. Highway 17 bypass, which is under construction, will be adjacent to it.
Previously, the property had been subdivided into 12 separate lots. Poore said he wanted those lots to be reconfigured into three tracts if his rezoning request was approved. He plans to request voluntary annexation of his land by the town. Poore also said he plans to ask the town to provide water and sewer services to those tracts.
The board approved a request by God’s Mission Holiness Church for a conditional-use permit to erect a metal building that would serve as a fellowship hall. The church is on Railroad Street, just outside the town.
The board’s approval came with a condition — the new structure must meet the town’s building codes and related requirements.
The board reappointed Commissioner Louise Furman to serve another two-year term on the Mid-East Commission’s Board of Directors.
Commissioners M.L. Dunbar and Arlene Jones, re-elected to the board last month, were sworn in by Town Attorney Wayland Sermons.
The board meets again Jan. 8, 2008.