LAURINBURG — Just over a year ago, in early June, Scotland County residents learned a “mistake“ was made with a pair of state grants attached to a county project.
That “mistake” will officially now cost taxpayers $575,000.
Scotland County officials never placed blame on any particular person, however, they said the snafu was due to several different errors that happened while working on grant paperwork with Edwards Wood Products to install a railroad spur.
The county applied for grant funding that would cover the cost of the project, but Economic Development Director Mark Ward explained that “something went wrong” and the grant application was not successful.
“Several documents were signed,” said Ward in an earlier article. “There was a document that was delayed, which was a legally binding agreement. This particular document stated that if Edward Wood Products did not fulfill their job and money investment, the North Carolina Commerce could seek to have Scotland County repay the funds.”
On top of the aforementioned mistake, the money was to be used originally for a water tank project until mistakes were made to cause the county to lose that original grant as well.
In July of last year, The Exchange uncovered additional information which pointed fingers at Ward that showed he had attempted to mislead the state about when the work began on the project. There are still many details that are unclear.
In the email to grant writer Emily Miller, Ward said, “Doesn’t need to come from me, but it would be awesome if TRAC stated the last two invoices were performed from January on. This would leave around $139,000 remaining funds that I’m pretty confident I could get the county to absorb.”
In this statement, Ward is referring to the work that had already been done on the project before the approval of the grant on Jan. 13.
Scotland County commissioners and County Manager Kevin Patterson ultimately settled on taking out a loan with the North Carolina Commerce to cover the debt. This did not have any effect on last year’s budget — however, the first installment is now due in July and there is no sign of the debt being forgiven, now or in the foreseeable future.
Back in February, the county learned it had been approved for the loan from the North Carolina Department of Commerce in the total amount of $575,000 to help cover costs incurred from the twice-botched grant application.
“The loan was executed by Commerce and the county in June of last year,” said Patterson. “Commerce finally processed the payment in February.”
Under the loan agreement, Scotland County will now be responsible for repaying the loan over the next 10 years.
“The loan has a zero interest rate,” said Patterson, “and the county will be responsible for paying $57,500 every year by July until the loan is paid in full.”
The county had been waiting to see if Commerce would forgive the loan, but according to North Carolina Department of Commerce Communications Director David Rhoades, there have not been any further conversations with the county since the loan was approved, putting the entire $575,000 on the shoulders of taxpayers.
“The Rural Infrastructure Authority has neither taken any additional action nor heard any additional input from the county on this project since the current loan agreement was put into place,” said Rhoades.
Numerous requests were made to the Scotland County Manager’s Office to view a copy of the new 2021-22, itemized budget. However, no response was given before press time on Friday.
JJ Melton can be reached at jmelton@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.