Dear Editor; Holly Springs was already over $46 million dollars in debt due to buying land for Novartis (and other spending when times were better) before it agreed to a $10 million expansion of the Hunt Center. Now we’re $56 million in debt, and according to mayoral candidate Gerald Holleman, we have $26 million more in sewer improvements and a contract with Apex’ water treatment plant coming down the line in the next couple of years!

All this on a $22 million annual budget, $14 million of which is payroll for the 297 people employed by the Town of Holly Springs, which our taxes pay for! This lopsided debt during a period of national recession unlike anything we’ve seen since the Great Depression bothers many residents of Holly Springs. Our little town, which we’ve been told is in GREAT financial shape, is actually seriously in debt with no visible plan to pay off that debt.

In addition to issues of debt, we have serious infrastructure issues facing our town. Our population is currently at 22,000, and the town has already approved 6,000 new homes to be built. When all of those are built and sold, our population will be over 40,000. All of our new schools are currently over capacity, and there are no plans to build any new schools in Holly Springs. This means that when those new homes are filled with families, the anticipated 10,000 new students will have to be bussed to schools outside of Holly Springs. Although the 6,000 homes were approved by our council, there was no apparent consideration of the school space, traffic concerns, public safety needs, or infrastructure improvements needed to support those additional homes. Will any of that be addressed before the homes are built? Despite Mayor Sears’ assertion that we have no control over schools and road systems, both DOT and Wake County Schools work with towns to resolve infrastructure issues and it is time for the staff or council to aggressively negotiation solutions with those two agencies. Gerald Holleman was responsible for procuring the land for three of our schools, and will actively pursue similar arrangements for new schools in Holly Springs.

The home permits have already been approved, so no infrastructure concerns have to be addressed before the developers start building, so when will these issues be addressed? This is the main reason that mayoral candidate Gerald Holleman is calling for our town to slow all additional residential growth until the impact of the currently-approved residential grown can be analyzed. We need to plan for what the already-approved home permits will do to our town before we approve still more, otherwise the explosion of growth that will occur after the economy improves will catch us completely off-guard and ruin the quality of life that many of us moved here for.

This is a critical turning point year for our town – only once every four years do we re-elect three councilmen and a mayor. This is the year, and in this ugly economic environment, we need to be asking tough questions! All politics is local, and we have to be able to trust our local leaders to safeguard our tax dollars and grow the town wisely. It’s time for new leadership, from the mayor to the town council. Gerald Holleman will bring his proven leadership and connections to state agencies to the mayor’s office, and Councilman Vinnie DeBenedetto and council candidate Tracy Goodwin will fight for the needs of the current residents of Holly Springs. Get out and vote on Nov. 3!

Lynanne Fowle