Angie Arp’s “are we getting our money’s worth?” crusade extends beyond funding Blue Ridge Elementary School’s School Resource Officer. (see accompanying article “BRES School Resource Officer Position Eliminated in Angie Arp’s Budget Cuts”). Arp’s proposed savings is $50,000.

At the Aug. 26^th Blue Ridge City Council meeting, Arp proposed and then made a motion that the City of Blue Ridge not pay its $5,000 bill to Morganton resident Rick LaRosa for his firm’s design for City Park bathrooms.  Council Member Kendall concurred that the Mayor had told him that the design was free, so Council members Herndon, Pack, Arp and Kendall voted not to pay.  Mayor Whitener and Council Member Thomas were not at the meeting.

In an email prior to the meeting, City Attorney David Syfan said about the contract with LaRosa, “I understood the City, at least, for Rick’s fees only had the $5,000 at risk.”

When FetchYourNews asked Mayor Whitener about the $5,000 bill, she said, “Angie got him to do the drawing.  Angie knew Rick was getting $5,000 and discussed with LaRosa what the design costs would be if the city scales back the project.” Arp had told the Council that she could draw out a plan herself and arrange local contractors to build.  When asked about it by FetchYourNews, Mayor Whitener responded that the bathrooms are a commercial building and are required by law to have a licensed architect to design them.  Arp’s proposed savings is $5,000.

Arp proposes that she can whittle down the $1,000,000 plus East Main Street renovations by picking and choosing which parts of the project to work on. The East Main Street renovation project is set up to solve several downtown problems at one time: repairing sidewalks to meet ADA requirements and increase visual aesthetics, replacing outdated water and sewer infrastructure and paving the street.  This way, downtown life will be interrupted for one time rather than many different and sporadic times. Arp’s first concern is paving the street.  She did not say if infrastructure repair should occur while the street is being repaved or after the new pavement is there.

Arp is concerned about the price because she heard “3^rd or 4^th” hand about the project specs and what the “200 to 300” pages of the specs contain.

At the Sept. 19^th City Council meeting, Arp told the Council that the way the engineering firm sets specs that are above standard and are more than what the county and state require.  “We shouldn’t have to go above specs.  Other counties don’t do it.  [We] don’t need an engineered design.”  Mayor Whitener reminded her that there are still some unresolved problems that smoke tests of the sewer system found.  Council Member Rhonda Thomas said that when the project first started that the city uncovered many issues, like fire hydrants hadn’t been hooked up properly.  Thomas also told Arp that an engineered design helps the city plan for different scenarios for storm water drainage.

Arp has taken it upon herself to contact Matt Smith, the engineer assigned by Carter & Sloop to oversee the project.  She is negotiating with him about which parts of the project can be done away with or put off until later.  It is not sure what Council motion gave her this authority.  Carter & Sloope also contracts with the Fannin County government.  They are currently working with Fannin County Water Authority on water lines and water main placements.

Arp’s proposed savings is up to $400,000.  Potential future costs to downtown businesses and city for not making all necessary repairs is uncalculated. Arp’s actions mirror the Council’s decision to install a sprinkler system in the newly-landscaped City Park.  This decision was made after the City Park was torn up, sod laid and new plantings installed.

Arp wants to reduce the cost of repaving Blue Ridge streets.  The Council only received one sealed bid for the project from Johnson Paving Company for $100,000.  Arp believes this is too high.  Unfortunately, the Council cannot advertise for other sealed bids at this time because Arp announced in two public meetings that Johnson Paving Company submitted a $100,000 bid.  This negates the possibility of advertising for more bids because now other companies know what they must bid lower than.

The City is running out of time to pave roads using state money.  Each year, the DOT returns gas tax money for road repair to local governments based on the amount of road miles inside the government’s tax district.  The plan was to bundle 2014 and 2015 money together to pay for East Main renovations.  However, those have been continually delayed.  If 2014 money is not spent by January 2017, the City loses that money.  Arp’s proposed savings by not hiring Johnson Paving Company is undetermined.

A full picture of Arp’s proposed savings emerges when compared to Arp’s actions that have cost Blue Ridge taxpayers’ money.

At the Aug. 26^th meeting, Arp persuaded the Council to reject a $300,000 Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grant to build a restroom/welcome center at the site of the bathrooms on the corner of East Main and Church Street.  This would be bundled together with $225,196 from the City, and $355,750 from SPLOST.  In her argument, she incorrectly informed the Council that the city does not know if they will have $355,750 from SPLOST because it hasn’t been voted on yet.  However, the $355,750 if from SPLOST 2010 and not SPLOST 2016.  SPLOST funds must be spent on capital outlay projects that the voters decide on when voting for SPLOST.  This money cannot be taken from one project and put onto another.

Arp also added that the $880,946 facility was too much.  She used the same arguments as she did with the East Main Street renovations (see above), namely government grants require building specifications, vendors and contractors that end up costing much more than it would if the city arranges the project entirely on its own, without grants.  She also said that the cost of submitting the grant and that the city may be forced to pay out an architecture contract for a building design it doesn’t use will leave the city with bills it can’t afford to pay.

The thing is the city had already been awarded the grant back in December 2015.  The actions the Council needed to make in August were just tidying up loose ends.

In an Aug. 22^nd  email, Angela Steedly, the City’s grant writer and consultant, warned all Council members that the $300,000 ARC grant and future ARC grants were in jeopardy if the Council did not complete everything for the application.

Mayor Whitener validated Steedly’s statement.  Whitener said that when Bill Sowers was City Clerk, the city had applied for a Community Block Development Grant (CBDG), received it, but never spent the money.  CBDG officials called Sowers and told him that the city would not receive further grants because the city did not use them.

Mayor Whitener continued saying that the city needs to apply for $300,000 to $400,000 in infrastructure grants each year because of aging water infrastructure problems in the city.  Blue Ridge is about to lose its funding cushion it had for water infrastructure repairs because the city must make along Church Street from the Catholic Church to behind the jail.  “Not getting ARC grants will hurt residents, roads and people getting water,” said the Mayor.

House Speaker David Ralston and Blue Ridge organizations like Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association sent in letters of support for the ARC grant.  “If you start alienating those folks, you lose help, “said Mayor Whitener.  Arp’s cost to the city is $300,000 plus future grants and local community and political support.

Arp, as well as other Council members, is at the center of the City Park playground debacle. Arp’s decision to rip out the newly-installed landscaping to put the playground back in its original location could cost the city $60,000.

The Vaughn-Jordon Foundation granted the City $120,000 to build a horticulture and arboretum in City Park alongside the playground.  The foundation will not ask the city for the $60,000 of the grant it has already spent.  However, Mayor Whitener said that the city will not receive the remaining $60,000 until park renovation is complete and acceptable to the foundation. Currently the city is not fulfilling its contractual obligations to the Vaughn-Jordon Foundation.

While the Council was deciding which end of the park the playground should go, Arp was already designing the landscaping.  According to the Mayor, Arp picked out all the landscaping herself.

Arp and other Council members also tabled voting on playground equipment until it was too late for Blue Ridge Kiwanis to apply for the grant which would pay for the playground equipment.   After presenting the City Park design to the public, Mayor Whitener left playground equipment magazines in City Hall so that Council members could choose which ones to buy.  The members didn’t choose until Arp presented her selection of $97,000 playground equipment at the Aug. 26^th City Council meeting.  “If we had applied for the Kiwanis grant in 2015, we could have received $100,000 for the equipment,” said Mayor Whitener. Arp’s cost to the city, $97,000 for playground equipment plus a potential $60,000 more from unfulfilled grant obligations.

Arp’s legal expenses have also cost taxpayer money.  Arp initiated the $35,105 Jarrard and Davis inquiry into the City Council to see if Mayor Whitener was a legal resident of Blue Ridge.  Jarrard and Davis said she is. Jarrard and Davis also noted the “regrettable levels of unbecoming behavior by certain City’s elected officials”.  The City, through its liability carrier, is also paying for Arp’s defense in the Ada Street LLC litigation.

Angie Arp, as well as all other Council members, receives $6,000 per year for her public service.  The Mayor receives $8,400.

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Related Posts: “Council’s Coup Affects East Main Street Improvements“