Story originally published in The Sylva Herald, April 3 edition.
When visitors come through Sylva these days, they see a sign apologizing for the dust and empty lots where a Dunkin Donuts, Speedy’s or a farm supply store used to be.
For a 2.6-mile road construction project stretching from the bridge at the Innovation Brewery to beyond the cemetery at Lovedale Road, a total of 50 businesses were affected solely by the preparation for the road work. Of these, 33 moved within Jackson County, five closed permanently, two relocated within Sylva and two plan to reopen in Sylva. Only eight businesses affected by the road construction remained open, despite the NCDOT offering “benefits.”
As Tiffany Henry, Jackson County Director for economic development, explained in an email, determining the total number of demolished buildings is a bit more complex.
“Some structures housed multiple businesses – for example, the strip across from O’Malley’s. If you review the slide, you’ll see that nearly all businesses categorized as ‘relocated,’ ‘closed’ or ‘plan to reopen’ were in buildings that have since been demolished. These categories can help determine the total number of affected businesses,” Henry wrote.
Additionally, some businesses that “moved” were offered relocation benefits and chose to relocate, even though their buildings were not slated for demolition (e.g., Farm Bureau). The “doesn’t have to move” category includes businesses that were offered NCDOT relocation benefits but opted to remain in their current locations.
The work on the road will start in July and should be finished by 2029.
Tagged Out Hunting Supply, which has been in business since Feb. 15, 2020, was one of the businesses not required to move for the project. However, owner Dustin Hayes still has some concerns.
“We don’t really know the outcome of what’s fixin’ to happen. We get very little bit of stuff (information) from the state,” Hayes said.
The state bought eight feet of land in front of Tagged Out. Recently, trees are being cut down for power lines. Hayes said that while the tree cutting is not affecting his business, there are waterlines in front of his building that might affect his business.
“We don’t know how that’s going to affect us. We don’t know if it’s going to block our entrance off. So not really sure yet on how everything’s going to fall,” Hayes said.
Though Hayes is concerned, Town Manager Paige Dowling does not expect business to be affected much by the construction. If there are access restrictions, businesses must work with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to figure something out, Dowling said.
“Primarily, this is a day job; however, if the NCDOT and the contractor anticipates any opportunities for night work, overnight hours will be utilized,” said David Uchiyama, Communications Officer for NCDOT in Sylva for Divisions 11, 13 and 14.
There is no set plan for now, but Dowling said they know for sure there is a detour planned.
What is harder to predict is how much the town and the county will lose in revenue from the construction. Sylva Mayor Johnny Phillips is operating with a revenue loss of $300,000 for each year of the road work. Dowling, however, said this amount was a placeholder used to estimate what could be property and sales tax loss; the estimate is not accurate to look at today.
“I don’t think that there is a way to predict the loss – there are too many factors with other things in the economy,” Dowling said.
Mayor Phillips approached town board members last September about revising the distribution formula for ABC alcohol sale revenue. The current distribution formula states that 60 percent goes to the county and 40 percent goes to the town. Phillips wanted to change this to 50-50 for the town and the county.
“County commissioners decided to give the town $100,000 for a five year, a year for a five-year period. Instead of redoing the formula,” Dowling said.
The distribution of the ABC money stayed the same 60/40, and instead county commissioners decided to give the town $100,000 per year for the next five years to supplement the town’s budget and help with the lost tax revenue.
The first $100,000 will be distributed in the 25-26 fiscal year budget.
“That’s the year that we anticipated we would start to see revenue dips from 107,” Dowling said.
The current budget for the town is $5.9 million. The new town budget for 25-26 years will be approved on June 12 at the town board meeting.
“We are already in the process. The budget planning work session was moved from late January to February because of the flu,” Dowling said
Dowling assured the board the budget planning is still on schedule.
Schools
With the construction of the new middle school in Jackson County happening at the same time as the 107 project, Dowling does not expect the two to affect each other. It depends on where the school will be built.
Western Carolina University will also not be affected, Dowling said. WCU gave NCDOT specific dates when traffic is expected to be high.
Julia Duval, WCU Communications Manager, said in an email that WCU has not received specific requests from DOT regarding dates when traffic is high. Duval provided the dates from the fall commencement, Dec. 13, and Mountain Heritage Day, Sept. 27.
“Large events like Mountain Heritage Day, Greening Up the Mountains, days that traffic will be higher so that they can begin to plan for that and the construction contract,” Dowling said.
