BAKERSVILLE — Starting next year, Mayland Community College plans to make an annual contribution from its Pinebridge Inn revenue to both Mitchell County and the Town of Spruce Pine to provide something in return for the services both entities provide.
The decision was made Tuesday, May 18 during a special called meeting of the Mitchell County Board of Commissioners that also featured Mayland President John Boyd and County Attorney Lloyd Hise.
The meeting was called after concerns arose over Mayland’s ability to pay taxes on the inn as an educational nonprofit organization.
Boyd explained that the intent is to transfer the property from Mayland Community College to Mayland Enterprise Corp., the entity that will run the hotel. He added that even if it can’t be taxed as a nonprofit, he wants to see the county and town compensated.
“We’ve done everything to separate it from the college for a lot of reasons,” Boyd said. “If there’s a problem with it being taxed, we would write a check for whatever we have to do and give it to the county and town.”
Hise acknowledged that the discussion on how to structure the property has been ongoing for nearly a year and added that his recommended course of action is to put the hotel in the name of Mayland Enterprise Corp., refrain from taxing it at this time but enter into an agreement with Mayland Enterprise Corp. that it will make annual contributions to Mitchell County and Spruce Pine from its revenue.
Hise recommended the setting of a “reasonable agreement” on what the annual contributions will look like.
Hise added that he recommends starting the payments in 2022 as the Mayland Enterprise Corp. will likely not have any revenue this year. The first floor of the hotel is not open yet but is getting close, Boyd said.
“There are people all over the place working over there,” Hise said. “Someone’s paying them and it’s not us.”
Hise said the agreement would boil down to a simple equation— the town and county provide services and the Mayland Enterprise Corp. provides an annual contribution as a gesture of gratitude.
The agreement would be with Mayland Community College and Mayland Enterprise Corp. therefore, even when Boyd retires, the agreement would remain intact for his successor.
Hise, Boyd and County Tax Assessor Blair Hyder will sit down together in the coming days to put an agreement into writing.
Mitchell’s agreement with Mayland will be structured very much like a similar, existing agreement between Duke University and Durham County.