Robbinsville – Leniency will soon go out the window.
While discussing the Town of Robbinsville’s planned 2024-25 fiscal budget at a special-called meeting Tuesday, town clerk Amanda Gyongyos revealed that water/sewer customers in the municipality have a combined $24,000 in past due balances. As of Tuesday, there are 1,089 residences and businesses alike who receive the town’s water/sewer services.
If all was collected at one time, the past-due amount would be a nice shot in the arm for the town, which has been hard at work catching up its books. Finance officer Linda Parton has finally provided some stability to a position that played musical chairs for a period of time; while awaiting questions on the proposed budget Tuesday, she noted that the cutoff list was going to become more strictly-enforced next month.
Gyongyos added that no customers are being charged late fees at the moment, but those could return as well. The town did not discuss a rate for late fees at the meeting, however.
Barring any last-minute changes, the budget ordinance for 2024-25 includes:
* A projection for sales-tax collections to bring in $159,800;
* Expenditures for departments estimated to be $106,271 (general government); $234,930 (finance); and $403,701 (public works). Each of the projected costs includes operating and added expenses that may come along;
* Just $2,742 in revenue from state beer and wine taxes. Currently, only two stores within the town limits (Ingles and Shell) have alcohol on-sale.
Other news & notes
* Town maintenance supervisor Chadd Carpenter spoke about the lingering need to implement Robbinsville’s “Code Red” system once again. The system has went dormant in the last couple of years, but has proved effective when needing to alert customers of emergency situations like water-main breaks and boil advisories. Carpenter said he would be willing to manage the program for a supplement; the board tabled the idea until an offer could be developed.
* After months of discussion and revisions, the town finally adopted a Code of Ethics. A couple of last-second changes were inserted, but mainly served to eliminate some incorrect language. For example, one section of wording was corrected to say that the aldermen and mayor “will involve” themselves in the process of hiring new employees; it had previously read “should not.”