By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
A new road bond committee will hold its first public meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday at City Hall where they will hash out which roads should be fixed first with a proposed $5 million bond.
The committee was approved to be formed during the last city council meeting and was not limited by professional background, city ward nor a set number of members. Previously the council agreed to consider appointing a limited number of citizens with consideration of each person’s background.
Mayor Kurt Mayabb provided the list to the Piedmont-Surrey Gazette Tuesday. The 13-person list includes Mayabb as a voting member. The committee is expected to present its recommendations by Tuesday Dec. 3 during a special meeting. The city council could vote on those recommendations by Dec. 16 during its regular meeting.
The rush for a recommendation report is to meet the deadline for an April bond election schedule, set forth by the Canadian County Election Board.
City Attorney Mike Segler told council members if the council waits until the February council meeting there would not be time to call the election in April. The election board would have to receive the documents by Feb. 6, but the council’s meeting would be the end of that month.
Natasha Flurry, spokeswoman for the Piedmont Roads Community Action Group and road bond committee member was not optimistic about the Dec. 3rd timeline.
“I was just thinking,” she said, “we’ve been working on this a long time and now we have two months to come up with what you’re asking for in the resolution to present to you December 10th. That’s a lot of research, a lot of analyzing by 10 committee members because we were told we had to send in a resume for interest before they were even selected. So that takes another two weeks to organize the people. We’re looking at six weeks…we can do it. It’s just a crunch.”
Mayabb said there was no resume needed despite having agreed with Councilwoman Melissa Ashford in a previous meeting. Ashford was concerned too many members from the same background may have difficulty reaching an agreement.
Mayabb disagreed.
“I personally had conversations here and there and I kind of know everyone’s attitude on here, but I think after tonight once we have a resolution we can go ahead and list these people and you can get started,” Mayabb said. “I know it’s a lot to ask.”
Flurry asked for financial reports and other resources to be available for the committee to review. City Manager Jason Orr said most of the information was available and would be provided quickly.
Mayabb took a little pressure off Flurry and the committee.
“I don’t want to take this to a vote if its not right,” Mayabb said.
Councilman John Brown agreed.
“If they come back to us with a recommendation that they can’t put this together in time, then we have to accept it,” he said. “It needs to be done correctly.”
Mayabb remained encouraged.
“One positive note: we are moving forward,” he said. “It’s taking us some time. I know some people are frustrated, but even though it might not be as fast as we want, this is a step forward.”
