BY DEBBIE PAGE
Troutman Town Council members voted on Monday to contribute $150,000 to the Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County’s (HPCIC) efforts to build a grief and bereavement center in Statesville.
The funding, paid in $30,000 installments over five years, will come from the town’s portion of ABC Board revenues, which normally amount to around $44,000 per year, according to Finance Director Justin Mundy.
The $5 million fundraising campaign for the facility, which is being built on nearly two acres on Simonton Road adjacent to the HPCIC administrative building, has raised $3 million so far.
The Brown Family Grief Center will feature an inviting front porch, which can be used for meeting with grieving individuals and offer a place of reflection. Because of its previous association with Front Porch Fest, organizers asked the Town of Troutman to sponsor the front porch of the center.
Director of Development and Marketing Mindy Rice and Rainbow Kidz Director Leigh Ann Darty said the need for grief and bereavement support for children and adults in the community is in much higher demand for sudden and accidental deaths of loved ones.
In the last five years alone, Rainbow Kidz, the HPCIC pediatric grief and bereavement program, served 2,783 children between the ages of 4 and 18, an increase of more than 66 percent.
The program offers services through weekly grief groups in the school systems, individual one-on-one counseling, and summer programming such as Camp Rainbow. A monthly parent-caregiver support group was added in 2024 to help parents and guardians deal with their own grief and better support their grieving children.
HPCIC can better serve these children and their families in an environment that provides space for year-round grief groups for children, therapy group play, and additional resources, said Darty.
The purpose of the grief and bereavement center is to create a supportive and healing space for individuals who have experienced loss. This project aims to provide a safe environment where people can find solace, comfort, and support as they navigate the difficult grief journey.
By establishing a dedicated facility, HPCIC can offer counseling, group therapy, educational resources, and community events to help individuals cope with their grief and find a sense of connection and understanding. The goal is to foster resilience, promote healing, and honor the memory of loved ones.
This family grief center will allow for additional structured support that can better meet the needs of grieving children and adults year-round, including more specialized groups for those who are dealing with specific losses such as suicide, overdose, or homicide.
Grieving individuals would be welcomed into a large and beautiful open floor plan, including a residential-style kitchen, living area, and fireplace, an inviting setting for family-style meals and a home-like setting for people to meet. The center will also include two large adult meeting rooms with comfortable seating, calming decor and a large conference room for workshops and education.
In addition, the center will feature three therapy playrooms specifically designed for different age groups, a theater room, and an art room. The center will additionally house six private offices for grief and bereavement staff to conduct private counseling sessions.
The children’s spaces will host creative play therapy for children to help encourage their healing and even desensitize their traumatic losses.
For the first time, HPCIC will have the ability to treat the entire family unit and then separate for adult and child-specific grief support.
Street Paving
Director Public Works of Austin Waugh presented his suggestions for utilizing budgeted money for street repairs prioritized in the 2023 Street Condition Study and the 2025 Streets Condition report.
Waugh suggested focusing on two Level D streets, which will need repair or replacement in the next one to five years, including Streamwood Road to Ashwood Circle (1,100 feet long serving 36 residents and thru traffic) and West Avenue from Talley Street to Downing Street (1,100 feet long with heavy traffic cut-through serving 28 residents).
Streamwood has visible dips, moderate to severe cracking, and multiple patches, which has caused numerous customer complaints. West Avenue has moderate to severe cracking, including longitudinal cracks, which has also yielded resident concerns.
Waugh is also looking into changes at the speed tables on West Avenue. He will collect pricing information on all projects on the 2025 report, also including Bleinheim Court, Briarcliff Drive, Autumn Frost Avenue, Pinewood Street, and Scruggs Street, to help the council with final selection of street repair projects.
Septic Limits Proposed
Town Planner Andrew Ventresca discussed a planning staff recommendation to amend the water and sewer requirements within the Subdivision and Land Development section of the UDO.
Council members have expressed concern that with the 30-month development moratorium in place, developers may seek to utilize septic systems for projects, which will cost the town customer revenue to support its wastewater infrastructure, which is now undergoing extensive expansion and improvements.
The Unified Development Ordinance currently sets requirements of developments using town water and sewer based on distance from existing utility lines and the number of lots in the proposed development.
The purpose of this amendment is to limit the number of developments, both residential and commercial, that are in the town limits using septic systems.
The new proposed language would place limits on development utilizing septic systems for wastewater treatment and would require “developers to connect all lots shown on the Subdivision Plat with the municipal water supply and sanitary sewer systems for any residential or commercial development in the town limit.”
“Any single-lot residential property in the ETJ requesting annexation for town water must also connect to town sewer if the lot is within 500 feet of an existing sewer line unless the extension of the sewer line is deemed unfeasible by the Town Engineer.”
“All residential subdivisions greater than 5 lots in the ETJ requesting town water shall connect to town sewer if within 1,000 feet of an existing sewer line unless the extension of the sewer line is deemed unfeasible by the Town Engineer.”
“All non-residential development in the ETJ, requesting town water shall connect to an existing sewer line unless the extension of the sewer line is deemed unfeasible by the Town Engineer.”
The changes will be presented to the Planning and Zoning Board for its recommendation this month and are expected to be voted on at the December 11 council meeting.
Old Mountain Road intersection Improvements
Ventresca also asked council members for input on the $5.5 million Old Mountain Road intersection improvement project. He is no longer certain Wakefield developers will contribute to the town’s 35 percent (approximately $2 million) match for the improvements as previously discussed.
The council told Ventresca to continue investigating the intersection improvements because the intersection is heavily traveled, and pedestrian improvements are badly needed since many students use that crosswalk over Main Street/Highway 21.
Ventresca noted that Prestige developers will still have to contribute to some of the Old Mountain Road intersection improvements because of the Wakefield development’s traffic impact analysis requirements.
He will gather and send council members more information and continue discussions with them in December.
Council member Jerry Oxsher added that since this project is part of the town’s adopted mobility plan, NCDOT should help with the improvements as well.
Thursday’s Agenda
At its Thursday night meeting, the council is scheduled to consider:
♦ Rezoning of 19.5 acres in the Rocky Creek (Norman Creek) development on Byers Road from mixed-use conditional zoning to suburban residential to allow for development of five larger homes on estate size lots (reduced to .25 lots per acre). The smallest lot would be 3 acres. This decrease in homes will also reduce impacts on community services and traffic. The homes would have septic systems, but developers will request connection to town water.
♦ Approval of Town of Troutman Water Infrastructure Asset Management Plan.
♦ Approval of the final report for the Water Asset Inventory And Assessment Project completed with a NCDEQ state grant.
♦ Approval of an engineering services agreement amendment for the 2022 Wastewater Capacity Improvements Project.
♦ An annexation hearing request for 1.35 acres at 407 State Park Road.
♦ A text amendment to allow longer periods and size requirements for temporary signs for nonprofit events.
♦ Selection of an engineering firm for the Wastewater Master Plan.
♦ Acceptance of all roads In Phase 2, 3, and 4 of Falls Cove Lake Norman for Town Of Troutman maintenance.
♦ Annexation of 1.24 acres located at 491 and 495 Perry Road.
The council will also hear:
♦ A presentation by the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) Risk Management in honor of the Town of Troutman Police Department.
♦ An ABC Store quarterly report from ABC Board Chair Layton Getsinger.