BAKERSVILLE — The Mitchell County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on Monday, Nov. 23 to receive input on the proposed allotment of $150,000 to Mayland Community College to be used for costs in the ongoing renovations to the Pinebridge Inn.
President of Mayland Community College Dr. John Boyd was the first to speak at the hearing and reiterated the value he believes the college brings to the local economy.
“We, as Mayland, have kind of stepped up to the plate to help with the economic and community development here in the region,” he said.
While speaking, Boyd handed out pages detailing the cost of the hotel thus far, estimated costs, a timeline and population trends for Mitchell County.
“The way things are trending here in the region is not healthy and it doesn’t benefit any of us,” Boyd said. “The age group below five years old is down over 11 percent. The age group of school age is down almost 20 percent. The age group of the workforce is almost 10 percent down. The only age group that’s growing is the senior citizen age group.”
He emphasized the importance of growth to the local economy in order to keep locals here and draw more people in.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is to stimulate more people, more of our kids and stuff, into staying here and raising families,” Boyd said. “When it comes down to it, everything depends upon some level of growth...You want more restaurants, you want more shops, you want recreation facilities and better schools?
“There’s only one way in government you get money and that’s taxing. You either raise taxes or you raise the revenue which means growing the tax base.”
Chairman Jacob Willis agreed with Boyd and said when the project is completed, it will bring money and growth to Mitchell County.
“This is going to bring occupancy tax, sales tax and it’s going to bring people to Mitchell County and hopefully they’re going to come back and buy or build homes and develop some things around here,” Willis said.
Willis went on to explain the project with Mayland is not new, but is a commitment the commissioners made last year to continue into the future.
“This is a really important thing that we committed to last year to do for the next five years,” he said. “This is not something that’s been brought up willy-nilly...And for all the money that we’ve spent, to me, this is an investment that’s going to bring us money back.
“And we don’t get that opportunity often in government. Usually you just send that money out and it’s gone. But this is an investment we can make that will actually bring money in.”
Additionally, Boyd brought along Zan Sistare and David Whitson, two local citizens and business owners who have taken part in the hotel project.
Sistare, the owner of Sistare Contract Services, said working under a commercial contract with Mayland has allowed the qualified construction workers of Mitchell County to stay in their home county and ultimately give back to the local economy.
“I’ve heard you talk about job creation, but it’s not so much job creation as it is job sustainability,” Sistare said. “And what that does, with a project like this, is it keeps us from having to go outside of the county and find people there to work for us. It allows us to stay home and hire people here locally...and that is going right back into the local economy.”
Sistare acknowledged he has benefited personally from working with Mayland, but said the community college has been and will continue to be a great partner to the community, as well.
“With all transparency, Mayland’s been good to me,” Sistare said. “I have benefited from it. But, also, Mayland is a great player in our area. They’re solid and they’re always going to be here. So, we’re not rolling the dice on someone who may come here and bail out on us as a community. They’re bringing higher education and things to our area that we sorely need.”
Local citizen Van Phillips, a member of the Mayland Community College’s Board of Trustees and a member of the Mitchell County EDC Board, said this project was likely the only affordable way for the county to gain a new hotel.
“We’re running critically low on hotel rooms in Mitchell County,” Phillips said. “To build 60 hotel rooms in Mitchell County, low-end, would cost $100,000 a room. That’s $6 million...And the numbers don’t work. They just don’t work. Plus, the occupancy rate is around 50 percent. You can’t make a debt service payment based on it. What this guy [Boyd] is doing here, the numbers work. So, if we want to have a hotel, we can afford this one.”
While no one spoke against the allotment to the hotel project at the hearing, ahead of the meeting, the county office and commissioners-elect Harley Masters and Brandon Pittman received an anonymous letter at their private residences.
The anonymous writer explained they were not in favor of their tax money going toward the funding of the hotel.
“As commissioners you need to know that us taxpayers watch and know the decisions you make,” the note read. “This ain’t monopoly money. This is money that us taxpayers work hard for.”
The letter went on to intimidate the current commissioners about taking action on the matter before the new board is sworn in Dec. 7.
“To the commissioners getting off the board, you should not be spending county dollars before you leave and should do the right thing and not vote,” the note said. “To the three staying on the board, I would advise you to be very careful of the decision you make. To the new commissioners coming on the board, you should be concerned with what the commissioners are trying to pull now before you get to take office.”
The anonymous letter was provided to the News-Journal by Masters, who said she considered reading it during the meeting but ultimately decided against it.
At the end of the hearing, the commissioners agreed to meet on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 9 a.m. to consider the appropriation of the $150,000 before Chairman Jacob Willis and Commissioner Danny Burleson leave the board.