Tommy Parker, a Laurinburg councilman who serves on the airport board, expressed reservations about the increase as the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport looks at increasing fees for water customers.
The budget for the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport will need final approval from the Maxton and Laurinburg town boards.
Parker said he expects a negative public perception and said airport officials were heavily criticized in 2008 when they budgeted for a 2.3 percent cost-of-living increase. That raise has been the only increase in pay for airport employees since 2004.
Parker backed the idea of making a retirement contribution, calling it a "moral obligation" the commission has to its workers.
Airport Commissioner Emmett "Chip" Morton, a Maxton councilman,said he supported a cost of living allowance as Maxton approved a similar 2 percent pay increase on those who had gone two years without a raise.
With the $4,100 budgeted for either a salary increase or retirement contribution for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the airport will still see a reduction in salary from $276,000 last year to $250,000.
No one was laid off, according to Interim-Director JoAnn Gentry. Instead, that figure reflected $80,000 set aside for a permanent airport director.
In the upcoming budget, that figure was taken out, though $30,000 was put in the budget for the possible hire of temporary or part-time employees that can be used for administrative tasks in the interim before a new director is hired or other tasks as needed.
The overall budget also contracted, shrinking more than $30,000 from last year's budgeted $1,022,041.
This drop is from a loss of revenue since Umicore closed last year.
The budget must now be approved by both Laurinburg and Maxton.
House of Raeford
Owners of a poultry processing plant that burned down, are looking at expanding as they rebuild, according to Gentry.
The commission unanimously approved a 25-year lease agreement by House of Raeford, a major U.S. seller of chicken and turkey, for the property behind where the remnants of their plant is.
House of Raeford's Maxton plant caught fire just before midnight on April 1, destroying the plant. No one was injured in the fire.
Investigators have yet to complete the investigation but currently believe it was electrical in nature, according to Sheriff Shep Jones.
The company is gung-ho about rebuilding, Gentry said, but is waiting for the insurance claim to be finalized.
In the lease agreement, the chicken company would pay $1,800 annually to use 4.93 acre-tract of undeveloped, landlocked property. The rate will be adjusted every five years by the Consumer Price Index.
"It is a good thing for us and a good thing for them," said board attorney Terry Garner.
The lease will now go to Laurinburg and Maxton boards for approval.
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