City fleet maintenance workers get permanent air conditioning

ASHEBORO — Some shuffling of funds could help Asheboro’s fleet maintenance crew keep cool this summer. 

At their April 9 meeting, Asheboro City Council members agreed to ask the state to move money originally set aside for the David and Pauline Jarrell Center City Garden and install permanent air conditioning units. 

Members also heard Randolph Community College’s workforce goals and the city audit report. And at the beginning of the meeting, Tom Carruthers took the oath of office to become Asheboro’s new fulltime city attorney.

Air conditioning funds

Finance Director Deborah Reaves asked the council to set aside $125,000 for the air conditioners. She said she talked with other departments about freeing up funds they won’t need as the fiscal year ends.

Right now, fleet maintenance is renting temporary units. Reaves said, “We want to get this project done early before it gets hot, because we want to capitalize on the good feeling that our employees have.”

Council member Charles Swiers made the motion, saying one of his grandsons works parttime in fleet maintenance. “He was over the moon about the possibility of having a permanent air conditioning system in there,” Swiers said.

Once the council voted to amend the General Fund, they opened a public hearing and prepared for a second vote because some of those funds came from the state.

Assistant City Manager Trevor Nuttall explained how the money will move around. 

Asheboro was awarded a $1 million community development block grant (CDBG-CV) to pay for the garden construction on South Cox Street, but it must be spent this fiscal year. While they selected J&K General Contractor to begin any day, Nuttall said they know they can’t complete all that work in time.

Therefore, he asked council members to make two requests of the NC Department of Commerce:

■ To reallocate $600,000 of the CDBG-CV to pay for the air conditioning and breathing equipment for firefighters.

■ To ask to substitute money from another CDBG grant to pay for the rest of the garden. The city council approved both.

Nuttall said they are working with a consultant to secure funds that won’t expire before the garden is complete. “We’re going to spend as much as we can spend before that deadline,” he said.

Workforce projections

Dr. Lisa Johnson, vice president of learning and workforce development and chief academic officer at RCC, shared the college’s enrollment projections and some of its upcoming job training programs.

She started by saying RCC has 10,660 enrolled for the next academic year so far, surpassing their goal of 10,000 and last year’s unduplicated headcount of 9,066.

She highlighted the opening of Education Engagement Center on Jan. 23, the Gateway Math program to help boost math proficiency, and the first class of graduates of the TEACH program aimed at getting more educators into schools.

Johnson said across the Piedmont, the largest workforce projections are in manufacturing and health care. As an example, the HVAC company EAS came to them looking for 300 welders to work at its upcoming facility.

“With our manufacturing changes, automation, pandemic-era workforce disruption, that’s where we’ve really focused on short-term credentials,” Johnson said.

She added that they are working to keep up with adoption of artificial intelligence in trades. “There’s a lot of different skills they need,” she said. “They’re using virtual reality to look at things, and lasers, changing what that work looks like.”

Audit results

Next, Hunter Wiseman with the firm Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams & Co., presented the 2024-25 audit. He said they did not find any uncorrected material misstatements. They noted three issues: A $4,494 deficiency in a prior period restatement, a low water and sewer fund capital asset condition ratio, and that the audit was submitted two months late.

Council member Kelly Heath said they should have no trouble responding to the state about the capital asset condition ratio. “That’s all we’ve been talking about for months,” she said.

Wiseman said the Local Government Commission, which oversees audits, does not consider ongoing construction when it does its asset condition ratio, so the number could rise to an acceptable level once its water projects are complete.

Annexations along Business 220

■ Homeowners Phillip and Brittany Leonard got an annexation request approved. They asked for their 38,000-square-foot property on US 220 Business South be brought into the city to help them fix a failing septic system.

■ City Engineer Michael Leonard asked council members to schedule an annexation hearing for 3.6 acres at 3359 US Highway 220 Business South. He also announced that they will have to consider more land at 4402 U.S. 220 Business South for the future EAS plant. He said the surveyor left out .672 acres when the council annexed the parcel in February. Both hearings are scheduled for May 7.

■ An annexation request by Stanley Martin Homes for 38 acres on Crestview Church Road was continued to May.