Black Mountain sets budget priorities for 2023-24

Town council identifies framework for upcoming fiscal year

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
March 6, 2023

Warren Miller of Fountainworks, a Raleigh-based facilitation management organization, leads a 2023-24 budget retreat, Feb. 25, inside the In the Oaks Manor House, where Black Mountain elected officials gathered for the annual workshop. Photo by Fred McCormick

Black Mountain elected officials gathered within the walls of the In the Oaks Manor House, Feb. 25, as the town held its strategic budget planning retreat for the second year. 

All five town council members, the mayor, town manager and town clerk participated in the special call meeting, structured by Warren Miller of Fountainworks, a facilitation management organization based in Raleigh. The workshop determined the town’s top priorities for the 2023-24 budget, which will be passed in June.

The session, which was attended by multiple town department heads and several members of the public, served to guide the decision-making process for staff, as they prepare the town’s spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.

Miller, the president of the firm he founded in 2013, told council members the environment would foster a casual and engaging conversation from which a budget framework could be determined.

“We want to give you a chance to a have a different experience than you typically do in your meetings when your head is town and focusing on the issues,” he said. “Today gives you a chance to step back, relax and think about where you’ve been and where you want to go.”

An orientation activity encouraged participants consider and share their individual ideas of a successful retreat, before the group reviewed priorities and accomplishments in the current fiscal year.

In its 2022 retreat, the town council focused on a compensation and classification study for town staff, which was completed last year and implemented in January. Additional priorities included updating and implementing the recreation & parks master plan, which was presented as a draft in February. While renovations for the Grey Eagle Arena, which hosts recreation programming such as the town’s indoor youth soccer league, and dedicated pickleball courts were also listed as focus areas.

The board voted unanimously to pursue grant funding for curbside recycling carts last month, consistent with its 2022-23 priority of reducing waste and expanding the town’s recycling program.

“I feel good that the top five from last year did get addressed, and are in the works in one way or another,” Councilmember Pam King said. “Of course (American Rescue Plan Act) money was enormously helpful, and it gave us some flexibility on those things. We still have some choices to make with that, because there is still some money that needs to be allocated.”

Following the evaluation of the current budget cycle, officials participated in a visioning exercise, allowing each to create a title and utilize magazine images as a visual depiction of their preferred long-term goals for the town.

Mayor Mike Sobol presented a community with increased outdoor exercising and more greenways.

“This was based on when we first did the comprehensive plan, 15 years ago, we envisioned a town that was connected, and you could walk everywhere,” he said. “We’re getting closer to that, but we need to proceed further.”

Black Mountain as an outdoor hub for residents and visitors was also a theme in the Councilmember Doug Hay’s vision.

“The ultimate place to play, live and experience the beauty of WNC,” he said.

Other concepts represented by elected leaders during the exercise included King’s aspiration to utilize composting and recycling programs, solar panels on municipal buildings and electric vehicles for local departments to create “the greenest town in N.C.,” while Bill Christy considered an increasingly diverse future in Black Mountain. Alice Berry favored a community with a strong sense of belonging, where residents work together, and Archie Pertiller, Jr. presented the concept of “creating a healthy community.”

Miller then asked participants to continue the exercise by adding five additional “headlines” to their presentations. Sustainability, pedestrian and cycling options, recreation and public safety were among the themes that emerged in the subsequent discussion.

Black Mountain elected officials gather, Feb. 25, as the town establishes priorities for the upcoming budget planning season. Photo by Fred McCormick

“What we’re going to do is shift from this picture of where we want to be, and bring it back into focus in the next year to two years,” Miller said. “This is where we want to say we care about these things, long-term, and these are areas we can focus on tactical and operational programs or policies that will help move it forward.”

Twelve strategic focus areas were established during the process, before town council members were asked to rank their first and second choices among the ideas listed.

The board identified five top priorities to guide staff in budget planning: address aging BMFD vehicles; update and begin implementing the recreation and parks master plan; continue to seek funding to provide trash and recycling carts to town residents; coordinate a facility needs assessment and develop parcels of land that were donated to the town last year for recreation.

The town also committed to reviewing a downtown parking study, which was completed by Traffic Planning and Design, Inc. in August of 2019. That document cited a high utilization of parking of spaces on Cherry Street, with lowest parking distribution on Terry Estate Drive, where the town offers free public parking across from the public works and recreation building on Black Mountain Avenue.

“I’m going to recommend you leave this on the board, and ask staff to pull that study back out so you have time to really go through it in a structured way,” Miller said.

Improving communication with the public represented an issue for Hay, who asked staff and fellow board members to consider ways in which the town is effective in delivering information to citizens and areas where those efforts could be improved.

The town began the process of updating its website this week, according to town clerk Savannah Parrish.

“I’m hoping we can simplify it and make things easier to find,” she said.

Information is often received by the public on social media, Town Manager Josh Harrold said, creating challenges for staff.

“From a staff perspective, it is impossible for us to stay on Facebook, we just can’t do it,” he said. “If that is something that is wanted, we need to hire a staff who does that, full-time. There is so much misinformation that goes around there, you can not combat that with a person who already does three jobs.”

Hay suggested the town begin issuing a regular newsletter in an effort to inform residents.

“Maybe a quarterly newsletter, or something that collects all the projects we’ve worked on or has updates on grants that we’ve been awarded,” he said. “I also wonder if it’s time for us to consider having a communications director, or a full-time communications staff. Not to counter misinformation on social media, but ensuring the correct information is out through various forums.”

Those efforts could help increase communication between the town and public in both directions, he added.