Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011

Holly Springs candidates talk growth

Holly Springs bonds are key

In a town that boomed for a decade, the election question is how to weather the downturn while building amenities and infrastructure.

The town's rapid growth rate fell by half in recent years, cutting revenues and undoing surpluses. Yet new residents' needs persist. Parks and football fields are crowded, leading the town to ask voters for permission to borrow $20 million over several years to pay for new parks facilities.

A slate of seven Holly Springs Town Council candidates offers a spectrum of solutions. All support new residential and commercial growth, but while some say the town needs an immediate infusion of new neighborhoods to bolster its tax base, others stress a preeminent need for town investment in parks, roads and infrastructure.

Candidates' responses to the bond proposal have illustrated that divide.

Gerald Holleman, unaffiliated, and Cheri Lee, a Republican, spoke out against the referendum, which voters will decide on Election Day. They said that residential growth, not debt and a potential tax increase, should fund the parks expansion.

"You see every day businesses going out of business, homes are underwater," said Holleman, a former mayor of Holly Springs. He and Lee argued that the town must expand its tax base by encouraging new subdivisions and other development, potentially with lower fees and costs.

"Let's use that money we're going to get through growth to pay for our parks and recreation department," said Lee, who named new growth as her top priority.

Other candidates said the town needs a more proactive approach; Holly Springs must invest in itself soon to create a more attractive community, they argued. A successful referendum would allow the town to build $20 million worth of playgrounds, sports facilities and greenways.

"The town can't build restaurants ... We can build parks," said Tim Sack, the sole incumbent in the race for two seats, as he advocated for the bonds. "This is the one thing that the town can do to improve the quality of life for the citizens," he continued.

Sack, who is unaffiliated, and Ray Riordan, a Democrat, said the town's facilities wouldn't keep pace without money from the bond referendum. The town has to make "continuing investments to transform our community" if it's going to become more than a bedroom community, Riordan said.

Ken Henke and Arthur "Pete" Utley, both Democrats, also support the bonds, while fellow Democrat Otis Byrd didn't take a firm position, saying he'd follow voters' wishes.

"My No. 1 priority is ... for our growth to continue, but I would like to make sure that we do have a balanced growth," Byrd said.

Henke said the town should worry about its downtown instead of encouraging growth along N.C. 55, which he said is inevitable.

"I believe we need to focus on the community of Holly Springs to make this a destination," he said, just before pulling out an artist's rendering of a downtown parking deck that he wants to see built.

The candidates' forum was also an introduction for the town's next prospective leaders. They've lived in Holly Springs from years to decades, and they represent its newest wave of residents and its hometown folks alike. Among them was a desire to see the town gain permanence and identity.

"Holly Springs is a place that I love, and I will always be here," Utley said.