News Article - Chatham Seeks Money to Offset Jordan Lake Expenses - News & Observer

2C The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Thurs., Dec. 12, 1985
Chatham seeks money to offset Jordan Lake expenses

By MIKE McQUEEN
Staff Writer
Chatham County Manager Mar-
vin K. Hoffman said Wednesday
that Jordan Lake might cost the
county up to $500,000 a year in
added law enforcement services
and lost property tax revenue, and
county officials want the state to
help make up the. difference.
Hoffman and county commis-
sioners chairman Earl Thompson,
along with Rep. William W. Cobey
Jr., R-N.C., on Monday will ask S.
Thomas Rhodes, secretary of the
N. C. Department of Natural Re-
sources and Community Develop-
ment, for money to help ease the
financial loss. County officials
said they would not ask for a
specific amount.
Cobey's staff, which set up
Monday's meeting, met in Octo-
ber with county officials and since
has been seeking possible federal
and state funding sources for the
county.
When the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers finishes building recre-
ational facilities at the lake in
1989, an estimated 27,500 people a
day are expected to use the lake
for camping, swimming and boat-
ing, Hoffman said. Chatham
County's permanent population is
about 34,400.
Sheriff Jack B. Elkins has esti-
mated he would need to add at
Ieast 12 deputies to his 25-deputy
staff to patrol the lake. Salaries
for the new deputies and new
patrol cars could cost the county
up to $300,000 a year, Hoffman
said in a telephone interview.
Until Sept.1, the Corps of
Engineers had been paying the
county $10,000 a year for the extra
law enforcement required by the
lake. The payments have stopped
now that the management of the
lake has been turned over to the
state, said David W. Hewitt, pub-
lic affairs officer for the corps'
Wilmington district.
Hoffman said he would like to
see the state pick up the law
enforcement tab by increasing
fees collected by the state for use
of the facilities, he said.
But no mechanism exists for
paying counties for such services,
said Don Follmer, NRCD director
of public affairs. He said in a
telephone interview that pay-
ments to Chatham County would
have to be approved by the
General Assembly.
To help offset local property
taxes lost when the federal gov-
ernment, acquired the 39,000 acres
needed for the project, the county
receives about $30,000 a year from
the federal government, Hoffman
said. But he said the county
property tax loss now stands
closer to $150,000 to $200,000 a
year. Federal land is not subject
to property tax.
Hoffman said the county could
recoup some of the lost property
taxes by getting a reduced water
rate for any future drinking water
the county may get from the lake.
"We ought to be looked at as
already paying," he said. "Chat-
ham County should get a claim on
the water."
Though no one has begun draw-
ing water from the lake, it is
designed to provide 100 million
gallons of water a day, Hoffman
said. The federal government has
set a daily fee of $50,000 to be be
charged to water customers using
1 million gallons a day.
Wake County has not requested
any state funds to offset losses
caused by Falls Lake, which also
was built by the Corps. of Engi-
neers and turned over to state
management, officials said. Wake
County receives about $12,000 .a
year from the federal government
in lieu of lost property taxes,
officials said.
At $14.5 billion, Wake County's
financial loss Falls Lake may
have caused, officials said. Wally
J. Hill. Wake County budget and
management director, said the
county bought a few four-wheel
drive vehicles to help in the extra
sheriffs patrol of the lake but
that he was unaware of any
request by the county for financial
help from the state.
Older Corps of Engineers proj-
ects, such as Kerr Lake, are still
run by the federal government,
Hewitt said. But more recent
federal law calls for water proj-
ects, to be turned over to states for
management once they are com-
pleted, he said.