Reporter – Leigh Hester – County Commissioners voted Monday night in support of accepting a grant from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission.
Mr Pete Burgess, head of a commission on the feasability and creation of a Vance County Farmer’s Market stood to announce the awarding of the $300,000 grant, which is to be used on infrastructure and buildings for the Farmer’s Market.
Before any of these funds can be disbursed, however, the County must purchase land for the Farmer’s Market. None of the funds from the Tobacco Trust Fund may be used for the purchase.
Burgess suggested a 9-acre site off of Beckford Drive as the ideal location. In addition to being right off of highway 85, “everybody knows where the liquor store is,” he said. The 9-acre tract is indeed available for sale at $150,000 plus closing costs.
Burgess told the Commissioners, “Give me $25,000 plus closing costs, and I will find a grant to cover $125,000 of the purchase price of the land.
Commissioner Brummitt asked Burgess if the Commissioners voted to approve spending the $25,000, how much more would the county have to commit to building the buildings. Burgess responded that there is still more grant money out there to be had.
After a unanimous vote in favor of the $30,000-or-so expenditure, with the caveat being that Burgess find the $125,000 he promised before moving forward with the land purchase, Burgess asked Thomas Shaw, President of the Vance County Farm Bureau, to step forward.
In a startling surprise, Shaw presented the Commissioners with a $125,000 check to be used towards the purchase of the land for the Farmer’s Market.
Everybody knows where the liquor store is? Sound reasonig.
absolutely.
Who is the owner of the 9 acre tract? Just nosey!
Prudence, Tommy Hester does own part of that land, along with 3 other people having tracts too. However, Mr. Hester did recuse himself for voting on this at the BoC meeting.
Do you know who the other owners are? Thank you.
Class here is your assignment.
Situation: A community’s elected leadership intends to commit 500,000 tax payers’ dollars to build a direct farmer to market stand that will be located off the side of a side street deep behind government housing. An entrepreneur has erected a direct farmer to market stand on a rented parking lot with ease of access from a main road and curbside visibility.
Compare and contrast the two approaches assuming no political interference will impede the entrepreneurial approach, and that both approaches will have similar products, hours and dates for operations, which approach as the greater sustainable return on the total investment costs over time? If you were a venture capitalist or a commercial lender, which approach would you invest?
But Michael, it will be near the liquor store!