County approves airport agreement with City
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE t
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners approved an agreement
with the City of Winston-Salem to provide
funding for the Smith Reynolds Airport,
potentially bringing to an end the possibil
ity of de-annexation.
The agreement, approved in the com
missioner's Monday, May 9 meeting, has
the City and County giving the airport
$150XXX) each for eight years. City fiinds
will be used for capital expenses and
County funds can be used for operating or
capital expenses. The City version of the
resolution states that the agreement is con
tingent on it not being de-annexed.
"It's an agreement that's beneficial to
all three parties," said County
Commissioner Ted Kaplan, who also
serves on the Airport Commission.
The City Council finance committee
approved the agreement, which will be
voted on by the full council on Monday,
May 16.
The airport has been a source of ten
sion between the City and County for
months. Smith Reynolds is owned by the
County and is run by an Airport
Commission, which asked the City for
relief from stormwater fees on its runways
and taxiways last year, an issue that is still
in committee. The Airport Commission
voted in March to explore de-annexing the
airport out of the City as a solution. The
airport officials argued that if the airport
didn't pay $118,000 annually in stormwa
ter fees, they could use the money to
secure state and federal funds for needed
capital improvements. They also say that
airplane owners paying both City and
County taxes make Smith Reynolds less
competitive than competing airports in the
? Chronicle file pholo
The Smith Reynolds Airport will stay a part of the city
and will receive new funds for capital projects as part of
a new City/County agreement.
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state, which are usually outside city limits.
County commissioners presented the
idea of de-annexation to Forsyth County
lawmakers last month and legislators
uiged them to find a local solution. That's
exactly what they've done, said County
Commissioner Walter Marshall, who
didn't support de-annexation.
"My whole thing was that we need to
sit down and work something out," said
Marshall.
County commissioners recently
approved a resolution requesting that state
lawmakers exempt municipalities from
city stormwater fees statewide. Marshall,
along with County Commissioner Everette
Witherspoon, opposed the measure.
Marshal^said that the fees are important to
fund programs to prevent stormwater pol
lution, which are federally mandated in
larger cities, and doubted the resolution
would become legislation.
When the City Council public works
committee heard the airport's request on
stormwater fees, there was resistance on
the committee to granting an exemption
just for the airport/Instead, the committee
is exploring giving stormwater fee credits,
commonly used by other cities, for busi
nesses who install preventative stormwater
measures.
County moves to combine Sheriff's Office
forensics unit with W-S Police Department's
Sheriff's Office
also requests more
pay ana staff to
combat high
turnover and
understating
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Forsyth County com
missioners approved con
solidating the forensic
services of the Forsyth
County Sheriff's Office
with the Winston-Salem
Police Department during
its Monday, May 9 meet
ing.
Currently, the WSPD
has 38 non-swom staff and
the Sheriff's office has five
sworn staff in their forensic
units. Under the agreement,
the WSPD Forensics Unit
will add five non-sworn
positions paid for by the
County and, along with its
normal duties, will provide
forensic support outside the ing at the Forsyth County
city limits, excluding Detention Center, and an
Kernersville. After indoor firearms
the first year, cost
sharing will be
determined by
how much work is
done inside the
City versus outside
the City limits.
The entire
Forensic Service
Unit will be on the
second floor of the
Beaty Public
Safety Center on Patterson
Avenue when renovations
of that space are complete.
This will free up space
used at the former sheriffs
administration building on
West Third Street, which
SciWorks and ' the
Children's Museum of
Winston-Salem have
expressed interest in using
as a new joint location.
It's the latest in a series
of jointly funded law
enforcement functions by
the City and County
including evidence man
agement, arrestee process
Schatzman
\
training facility.
This latest
measure will
save the County
$94^000.
"This is
another step in
the right direc
tion;" said
County
Commissioner
Walter Marshall.
The commissioners
also heard a budget request
for the Sheriff's office last
week during their
Thursday, May 5 briefing.
Sheriff Bill Schatzman told
commissioners his office
has. two big needs: more
staff to deal with the
increased demand on sher
iff services and "competi
tive and reasonable com
pensation" to "recruit and
retain good employees."
"No law enforcement
agency can protect its com
munity without enough
people to do the work," he
said. "The people who do
the work must be motivat
ed; they must be motivated
because they feel valued."
Schatzman asked for
$1.5 million dollars in
salary adjustments to make
pay competitive with other
law enforcement agencies.
He asked for incentive pay
for officers in SWAT, the
detention center's special
response team, K-9 units
and field training. He also
asked for incentive pay for
education for all qualified
personnel. Both are com
mon incentives for law
enforcement agencies, he
said.
Schatzman asked for
compensation for sworn
JL.
and detention personnel be
revisited to counter high
turnover and vacancies that
are costly in training new
officers and in overtime
paid to compensate for the
lack of staff.
For new staff, he asked
for 24 full-time and one
part-time new positions,
which would cost about
$1.8 million, including
eight officers for patrol to
address increased calls for
service, five narcotics
investigators, three court
bailiffs, two investigators
for the joint FBI Safe
Streets task force and four
civil deputies to help with
the backlog on child sup
port cases. Non-sworn
positions are an office
assistant for the "dramatic
increase" in recent years in
pistol purchase an<J con
cealed carry permit
requests, a public informal
tion officer and a part-time
position to deal with
accreditation paperwork.
The issues the Sheriff's
office has with competitive ?
pay and retention are simi
lar to the. ones that the
WSPD brought before .the
Winston-Salem City
Council last year. The City
took action increasing
sworn police pay across the
board to get officer wages
closer to market.
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Submitted photo
(l-r) Berline Sima, Charity Hampton, Brian Stroud, Bernie Buckles, Claire
Culbreath, Jennifer Finley, Howard Patterson and Anastasia Powell.
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7 local singers selected t
for National Blind Idol
semifinals on Saturday
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Seven area singers were selected as
semi finalists for the national A Brighter
Path Blind Idol competition hosted by
Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind
(IFB). The seven local area singers are:
?Bernie Buckles, Winston-Salem
?Brian Stroud, Winston-Salem
?Claire Culbreath, Winston-Salem
?Howard Patterson, Winston-Salem
?Jennifer Flnley, Winston-Salem
?Charity Hampton, Rural Hall
?Beriine Sima, Winston-Salem
The 2016 Blind Idol singing competi
tion is sponsored by A Brighter Path
Foundation, the supporting foundation of
Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind.
Anastasia Powell; program associate for
IFB's A Brighter Path, and Chris Flynt,
director of A Brighter Path, are returning
as the event's co-organizers.
"Music has the ability to move all of us
- young and old, sighted and not sighted,"
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said Powell. "Blind Idol is a great oppor
tunity to showcase our talents on a nation
al stage and enjoy these tremendous per
formances."
The 2016 Blind Idol singing competi
tion is open to any legally blind adult who
is 18 years or older and a resident of the
United States. The Blind Idol winner will
receive a Grand Prize package of $1j000
cash, eight hours of recording time at a
recording facility in Winston-Salem, pnd a
professional headshot. -The total prize
package is valued at $3BOO.
In total, 20 singers from across the
country were selected for the semifinal
round being held on Saturday, May 14 at 3
p.m. at the Southeastern Center for
Contemporary Art (SECCA). The public is
invited and the event is free of charge.
Five finalists will move on to the live
finale competition on Aug. 6, also being
held at SECCA. Complete event details
are available at www.blindidol.com.
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