ROWLAND — Town employees here will have a little something extra with which to stuff their Christmas stockings.
Twelve employees who have been with the town for more than a year will receive a Christmas bonus during the town’s Christmas dinner on Friday, Town Clerk David Townsend said Tuesday. The bonuses will be the equivalent of 1 percent of each employee’s annual salary. The town has only 13 employees.
Townsend said “it’ll make for a happy Friday.”
This bit of Christmas joy was relayed to members of the Rowland Board of Commissioners during their meeting Tuesday evening. They also were reminded that the Rowland Christmas Parade is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday. The grand marshal will be county Commissioner Roger Oxendine.
The parade originally was scheduled for Dec. 1, but was rescheduled because of rain.
Board members approved a resolution stating that the town’s plan for water usage and conservation during a time of drought has been updated.
The plan and the resolution are a state requirement, Townsend said. Each North Carolina municipality that provides public water service is required by the state to develop and implement a plan that sets out the municipality’s response to a water shortage. The plan is to be updated every five years.
Rowland’s plan, and the resolution will be submitted to the state.
Board members also were told the town will work with the Lumbee Tribe to pursue a Community Development Block Grant that will be used to help pay for the construction of a community center in the housing development the tribe wants to build on N.C. 130.
Plans for the development were begun about a year ago, Townsend said. Then the plan stalled, but it is moving again.
The town also plans to help with the development’s infrastructure, he said.
A public hearing on the grant and development is scheduled for the Jan. 23 board meeting.
In other business, the board members reviewed the budget numbers for the first three months of the current fiscal year. Four budget items were higher that projected when the budget was crafted.
Those higher numbers were a result of response and repair costs caused by Hurricane Matthew, Townsend said.
“We’re waiting on FEMA reimbursement,” he said.
