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Heavy Agenda for Boone Council Tonight: Budget, Black Cemetery, Booting, Standard & ETJ Issues Up For Action

By Jesse Wood

June 19, 2014. The Boone Town Council finalized the agenda for its meeting on Thursday, June 19.

It’s a heavy agenda concerning a number of intriguing matters. View the meeting packet here and supplemental packet here.

Adoption of 2014-15 Fiscal Year Budget

The Boone Town Council will adopt its 2014-15 fiscal-year budget, which includes – at least in the recommended budget – increasing the property tax rate to 43 cents per $100 valuation – up six cents from the current fiscal year. During a public hearing on the budget this prior Monday, only one person spoke before the council – Tina Krause, the incoming executive director of the Hospitality House, thanking the council for reinstating funding to the nonprofit.

View a rundown of the budget here or peruse the entire recommended budget here.

Cemetery Signage

The Boone Town Council will discuss and possibly act on a recommendation by the town’s Historic Preservation Commission to erect signage at Jordan Councill Memorial Cemetery declaring that the property is a cemetery and it’s a crime to vandalize the property.

The cemetery features two sections – a fenced in section that features white people’s graves and an unfenced area for the graves of black people. While dozens of people are estimated to be buried in the unfenced, black section, only two headstones remain. Even headstones of black Union soldiers in the Civil War have been stolen, and the grassy hill has been a “place for pet dogs to relieve themselves and as a burial ground for pets,” a member of the Junaluska Heritage Association wrote to the HPC.

For more on this issue and pictures of the cemetery that located off of Howard Street, click here.

Parking Fiasco at Marketplace

The Boone Town Council will discuss and possibly act on the issue of booting complaints that have come from the Marketplace lot in between Murphy’s and Mellow Mushroom. Over the past two months, numerous people have spoke before the council either on behalf of or opposing LMS Parking, the company managing the lot. The issue escalated two weeks ago with one of the lot attendants being charged with assault after an altercation.

For more on this issue, click here.

The Standard of Boone Development

The Boone Town Council will vote on whether or not to rezone property for The Standard of Boone development in between Blowing Rock Road and Faculty Street near McDonald’s. The Boone Area Planning Commissioner earlier this month voted to recommend that the council rezone several parcels of property Conditional District General Business.

The mixed-used development would house 450 beds amidst its student housing. For more information on this development, click here.

Soucek’s Anti-Boone ETJ Bill

The Boone Town Council will discuss and possibly act on legislation that Sen. Dan Soucek filed in the N.C. Senate – a bill that would eliminate the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction authority. The bill has since made its way to the N.C. House and has passed its first reading.

For more information on this bill and issue, click here.