BY DEBBIE PAGE

During the Troutman Town Council’s annual annual planning retreat earlier this week, department directors discussed each division’s accomplishments as well as sharing their vision for their department and needs for the upcoming fiscal year. 

HUMAN RESOURCES

Human Resources Director Lou Borek listed several accomplishments, including establishing an employee assistance program with mental, legal, and financial counseling to enhance staff wellness through a grant from the N.C. League of Municipalities.

The department also instituted a new payroll software system, offered a new life insurance option for employees, rekeyed town facilities to increase security through a NCLM safety grant, and standardized printer and copier equipment to decrease cost and increase dependability.

Borek has instituted a standardized onboarding process for new employees and implemented a standardized performance improvement process. 

Borek’s goals for this year include conducting a staffing analysis to examine tasks, job assignments, and current positions and capability to establish a data-driven growth plan. He will also conduct a salary study (last completed in 2019) in an effort to align salaries with current market rates and future needs.

Borek plans to further standardize the hiring process and create formal training plans for each employee to ensure compliance and career development. He also plans to establish a structured performance evaluation system tied to specific position.

To ensure smooth transitions, Borek also wants to create a formal off-boarding process for departing employees to identify retention challenges. He will also review personnel policies for any needed updates as laws and regulations evolve.

Additionally, Borek is overseeing modernization of audio/visual capabilities for the council chambers to improve town meeting broadcasts.

PUBLIC WORKS

The Public Works Department maintains Troutman’s water, sewer, and town street system as well as all town-owned grounds, facilities, and equipment. The department serves roughly 4,500 residents and nearly 8,000 water customers.

Director Adam Lippard detailed water and sewer system updates, installation of new sewer pumps, and testing, monitoring, and inspections completed over the past year. He was particularly proud of a 7 percent water loss rating, which surpassed the department’s 10 percent goal.

The department also completed a street condition study and improvement plan, replaced and repaired damaged street signs, and recoated a crosswalk to improve safety.

Lippard also detailed all critical needs equipment required to conduct water and sewer services and the replacement of several outdated pieces of critical equipment, including a sewer jet vac machine, sewer pumps, an excavator, a tractor, and a dump truck.

Lippard also stated the need to add to the department’s nine members to continue providing excellent services to the increasing number of town citizens. The department has increased in size by one employee since 2008, despite the dramatic increase in infrastructure and population growth.

Lippard said that Mooresville employs 2.7 public works employees per thousand customers, while the average of area municipalities employing 3.89. Troutman employs roughly 2 per 1000.

To increase efficiency, Lippard wants to reorganize the department into two sections: a public works division with water, sewer, and street two-person crews each headed by a leader and an equipment maintenance tech and a new facilities division led by a crew leader with three techs.

To achieve this vision, Lippard needs to hire six additional employees over the next few years, along with providing proper training and recruitment to fill the leadership roles.

“Infrastructure systems will need to continue advancing along with the department, changing in size and function to achieve the necessary efficiency to provide Troutman residents with high-level services and work,” he said.

PLANNING AND ZONING

Town Planner Lynne Hair impressed upon council members the importance of creating a vision for Troutman’s growth because “if we fail to plan, we plan to fail.”

Hair said a vision is important to ensure the town is in the development driver’s seat and to encourage general and high-density development in identified areas to decrease suburban sprawl and reduce traffic impact.

Proper planning will also increase the tax base and spur economic development, position the town for state and federal funding, and become a better partner with the development community in identified core areas.

To implement a planning vision, the town needs to identify core areas and assets such as the Town Hall (and future new Town Hall), ESC Park, Richardson Greenway, and the block structure of streets near Town Hall.

Creating a comprehensive plan for the new Town Hall as a centerpiece of planned surrounding residential and retail, in partnership with developers, will help create a vibrant downtown that will spur additional economic development.

Hair suggested working with the Iredell County Economic Development Corporation to create development incentives in these core areas and to add language in the Unified Code of Ordinance to promote implementation of these core area plans.

She also suggested creating a streetscape plan for these specific areas and begin implementation of these plans as the town continues banking pieces of land for future uses.

Hair urged creation of “doable” small area plans for the core areas to encourage mixed use and higher density development, connectivity, and walkability.

Potential core areas include the Town Hall/Downtown, Wagner Street, and Exit 42 areas. Hair pointed out that high-density development like multi-floor condos or mixed-use residential with retail on the bottom floor bring more tax dollars. For example, a big box store returns about $21,500 per acre while a three-floor mixed-use building brings in about $60,000 per acre.

Hair wants to create a working group to identify the core areas on which the town wants to focus, create and finalize a vision with core area plans, and identify needs to bring plans to fruition.

In reviewing the past year, Hair noted a 125 percent increase in permits issued in 2022, rising from 346 in 2021 to 778 this past year. Zoning cases also rose from 13 to 17, and commercial site plan review rose from 12 to 13. However, subdivision reviews dropped from 14 in 2021 to three last year because of the drop in zoning cases with the pandemic in 2020.

Hair expects to issue more permits this year because of already approved rezoning and plans from the past few years. She also expects more commercial site plans to come in because businesses follow an increase in rooftops and because of the recently approved mixed-use Smith Village and Wakefield projects.

This year so far, the number of zoning cases (4) and issued permits (111) continues to rise above previous year levels.

In residential development, 3,238 homes are under construction, with 3,648 more approved but with no plans submitted (including the 2,700 lots approved for Wakefield.) Another 484 homes are being requested but have not yet been approved by Town Council. Build-out of all these homes is anticipated to take at least 15 years.

Hair’s department is fully staffed with Assistant Planner Andrew Ventresca and the addition of a full-time code enforcement officer, who has addressed 83 new public nuisance cases, six abandoned vehicles, and 10 minimum standard housing cases.

Hair and Ventresca also led the Future Land Use Map update, adopted by council in December, and created a new bike/pedestrian plan. The department also successfully implemented the EnerGov online permitting system to improve customer experience.

A new mobility plan is currently under development, and the Tally Street sidewalk project is awaiting NCDOT approval so right-of-way acquisition can begin. NCDOT is also reviewing greenway extension cost estimates.

In 2023 Hair plans community outreach to help residents understand the land use process and will begin holding bi-monthly open houses for citizens to ask questions and get information on the rezoning process.

An extensive project to update and rewrite the Unified Code of Ordinance and the addition of new language to support new planning efforts is also underway. She is also working with NCDOT to create a memo of understanding process to commit developers to TIA requirements for new projects.

FINANCE

Finance Director Justin Moody reported that revenue was up $813,000 (17 percent) during the first eight months of this fiscal year over 2021-22. However, expenditures are up $502,000 because of the addition of new positions to serve the growing town and inflation increasing operating costs.

The utility fund is up 60 percent over the first eight months of last fiscal year, with water and sewer sales up $556,000 and collected water and sewer availability fees totaling $973,000. However, expenditures are up $655,000 with the purchase of additional water and sewer capacity, water meters, and new vehicles to serve an increasing customer base.

Mundy said his three-person department is the same size as it was 15 years ago, although the town has grown 50 percent since then. Similarly sized municipalities have five or six employees in their finance departments, he said.

Mundy has modernized the department in the past year, “moving away from the paper world.” He instituted a new payroll system with Borek, improved operating procedures and practices, and eliminated phone utility payments by instituting a more secure online payment service.

The department also installed an electronic filing system to scan invoices for better record keeping and retrieval.

To further improve services, Mundy wants to move to cloud-based SmartFusion software to provide more documentation on customer accounts and add more features.

Mundy also wants to upgrade to a single platform meter reading software to allow direct communication from the field and capture 96 days of historical meter data. He also plans to update utility policy procedures.

Echoing the need for more space expressed by other departments, Mundy said the town must begin moving toward building a new town hall. Additional space is needed for current employees as well as positioned planned for the future. 

The town has nearly $4 million in its fund balance.

Town Manager Ron Wyatt told the council that a new Town Hall would cost between $25 million and $30 million to construct “a 20-year building.” 

However, Wyatt said that they have to build a new Town Hall to provide the services Troutman needs.

“We have no space. It will cost a lot of money, but we must do it,” he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Paul Henkel asked Wyatt to start looking into getting architectural drawings and estimates for a new Town Hall as well as remodeling costs for the current Town Hall to accommodate the police department.

PARKS AND RECREATION

Parks and Recreation Director Emily Watson said her department is committed to offering appealing, diverse, and equitable social and recreational opportunities to enhance the quality of life for all of Troutman’s citizens.

Watson cited a number accomplishments for her department, including installing a new trash collection system and dumpster, the completion of the baseball dugouts, and installing additional bike racks, pet waste collection stations, and park signage.

The staff also painted parts of the pavilion, replaced several playground pieces, and added benches in several park areas.

The baseball field scoreboards will be installed by mid-March.

The department acquired a performance stage for public events, several pieces of equipment for ball field and grounds maintenance, and a Dodge truck and Kubota utility vehicle for hauling. Watson is also in the process of acquiring CivicRec program registration software to streamline citizens’ registration for town programs, rentals, and other events.

Upcoming needs include replacing homemade soccer goals and worn-out picnic tables and re-striping the original parking lot. Fit Trail stations also need repair or replacement. Watson also wants additional cameras in ESC Park to prevent vandalism and protect town assets.

Other needs are ball field amenities such as backstops, bleachers, and ADA compliance. The park landscape plan also needs to be completed.

Watson noted the park’s master plan expired in 2020 and needs updating to meet current recreational needs and tastes. The previous plan’s incomplete amenities include a basketball court, horseshoe pits, and a picnic shelter.

The council directed Watson to create a community survey to determine if these remaining amenities are still desired by the community or if others, like pickle ball or other newer activity spaces, are now more appropriate.

An anonymous donor is in talks with the town to build the park’s planned amphitheater, and the council has been banking funds in the budget for the last several years toward the construction of a concession stand and restrooms at the baseball field.

Watson also reported several new programs and events for 2023, including a six-week, all player level pickle ball program starting March 4, a spring craft expo on April 1, yoga in the park beginning in May, a family bike event on May 13, and a Walk of Honor on Memorial Day weekend on the greenway.

Party in the Park will return in June and July, and the Jingle Run 5K is being moved up a week to the second Sunday in December to avoid staff exhaustion with three events (tree lighting, parade, and 5K) in one weekend.

The Farmer’s Market is being taken over by the Rotary Club of Troutman now that the park pavilion grant requirements have been met. The market will move to the lot beside Your Coffee Place on Main Street and operated on Saturdays starting in late spring.

Watson is in the process of hiring a special events coordinator. She is the only full-time recreation employee, assisted by three part-time employees who do park upkeep, mowing and field care, and general maintenance.