BY DONNA SWICEGOOD

Statesville Mayor Costi Kutteh called a motion made by Councilman C.O. Johnson on Monday a potential historical event.

“I want to do something that I haven’t done lately,” Johnson said as he made a motion to approve the city’s 2025-2026 budget.

The budget maintains the current property tax rate of 51 cents per $100 valuation. It does include a 9 percent increase in water/sewer rates and a jump in stormwater fees from $4.70 to $6.20 per equivalent residential unit (ERU) per month.

City Manager Ron Smith said the budget sets aside $1.5 million for future construction of Fire Station 5.

The $157,025,153 budget also includes a 3 percent COLA increase for city employees.

Council approved the budget unanimously.

AIRPORT UPDATE

Statesville Regional Airport Manager John Ferguson updated council on ongoing projects, future growth and operations of the airport.

Ferguson said that various grants have allowed the airport to expand buildings and runways, enabling the facility to grow.

In the past three or four years, some $46,800,000 in grants have fueled the growth. The city’s matching portion of those grants is around $3.2 million.

Ferguson said hangar space is one of the biggest issues facing the airport.

“We have 65 to 70 people on a waiting list for hangar space,” he said.

Ferguson said a couple of other needs will require addressing in the future. There is a need to construct a building for a fire station. Currently, the fire department has a specialized truck for the airport. It is housed in a hangar.

Ideally, he said, the airport needs its own fire station, preferably a manned one. Also, he said, a control tower will likely to be needed at some point.

The airport has seen increases in the numbers of takeoffs and landings as well as the sale of fuel, Ferguson said.

Air traffic spiked in October of last year due to ferrying supplies to western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

Normally, the airport sees about 230 to 240 takeoffs and landings in a month but in October that number jumped to 924, he said.

“It only lasted 10 days but that’s the busiest 10 days we’ve ever seen,” he said.

Councilmen Steve Johnson and C.O. Johnson were involved in the expansion efforts for the airport.

Steve Johnson said supporting airport expansion has been one of his proudest moments in public service.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business, the council:

♦ Approved a resolution to permanently close a portion of Jackson and Jefferson streets.

♦ Heard an update on the repairs to a sinkhole that has closed the intersection of Tradd and Front streets for months. The city manager said work has started and the contracted date for completion is 45 days from the start of repairs.

♦ Heard an update on the Police Department expansion. Smith said most of the demolition work has been completed for the building and parking on Tradd and Front streets. A groundbreaking is scheduled for June 16.