ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners discussed several items during a special meeting June 30 that required no immediate action.
The first on the agenda was related to an agreement with Backpack Pals for the former McLaurin Center building in Hamlet.
“They’ve got an opportunity to come in and get some grant funding to rehab the building — it’s in pretty rough condition,” County Manager Bryan Land told the board. “They’re going to try to get a new roof …get some climate control in there, some additional lighting.”
But, Land continued, the organization has to own the building in order to be awarded the grants.
Land said he and Chairman Jeff Smart, with help from the county attorney, came up with a “simple deed,” with the county deeding the building to Backpack Pals for $1.
There will be provisions in the agreement that prohibit the organization from selling the building and having ownership revert back to the county should things fall through, Land said.
The agreement, Land said, should be ready for approval by the August meeting.
Commissioners didn’t seem as keen on the next item on the agenda: leasing space on Midway Road for United Rentals.
Land explained that United Rentals — one of the largest equipment rental companies in the nation — will be in the area to support the construction of the Amazon data center campus, leasing portable toilets, dumpsters and small equipment.
The proposed plan would have had United Rentals leasing the gravel lot and a metal building adjacent to the former Pee Dee Electric building, which the county purchased several years ago to house several governmental offices.
Land said there would be a three-year lease agreement for $2,300 per month with built-in escalators: “another lucrative deal for the county.”
United Rentals currently has no presence in Richmond County, Land said. A search shows the closest locations northwest of Monroe and two in Fayetteville.
Commissioner Jamie Gathings had Land confirm that the lot is the same where Cavco trailers were being stored prior to being moved to a lot owned by the county manager’s family behind Rockingham Dragway.
As with the hangar proposal, Gathings said he had known about the proposal since January from a resident before it was brought to the board.
“I think the county manager should tell me about this,” Gathings said. “...it might be the beginning of it…but just a little simple email … I don’t want to be sitting in a circle with people voting for me that say, ‘Hey Jamie, you know y’all are gonna get porta johns coming over there where you had the trailers at?’
Gathings went on to say that the county should have purchased the former Big Rock Sports property in the Richmond County Industrial Park — with Land saying that a call was made immediately about that building. Gathings said the building was bought by Joe Everett in February.
“We’re not strategically planning stuff here,” Gathings said. “I mean, how are we going to grow.”
“I think the goal is to have that growth and to put these properties on the tax books,” Land replied. “I don’t think you want the county owning all your investment property and having no one paying taxes.”
Steering the conversation back toward the Midway Road property, Commissioner Andy Grooms said he’d like to see the land used for something besides an equipment rental space.
“I’d like to see us build a new senior center over there, as opposed to making $25,000 a year,” Grooms said. “That’s not really doing anything for the community.”
Grooms then asked how much space was left in the industrial park.
Land said there’s a 300,000 square-foot site with a modular home that’s being used for marketing, a shell building with 15 acres and a current letter of intent, and a site beside American Woodmark.
Grooms suggested the latter for United Rentals, but Land said that would require spending $150,000 in prep work to make $2,300 per month.
“There’s not a lot of return there,” Land said.
Land said United Rentals needs about 2 acres.
Commissioner Jason Gainey suggested leasing property at the airport.
Land said a portion is already being leased to Lee Electric and there are talks with another group, “so there just isn’t a whole lot left at the airport.”
“All today was for is for discussion,” Land said. “If you guys don’t want to do it, we don’t have to do it…it actually makes my life a whole lot easier.”
Grooms said it’s not that he doesn’t want it in the county — he just doesn’t want it at the Midway Road property.
With the Board of Elections, board chamber and other county departments moving there soon, Commissioner Dr. Rick Watkins suggested that “...our image of our operations I think might be more valuable” than the proposed lease amount.
Gathings proposed cleaning up the property behind the Airport off of Stokes Road, to which Land agreed and said he'd follow up.
The RO will have more from the June 30 meeting in forthcoming articles.
