News in brief

Rotruck-related lawsuit dismissed

Dismissal is a win for the Town of Summerfi eld, which has spent over $223,915 in legal bills related to former council member Todd Rotruck

by CHRIS BURRITT

SUMMERFIELD – A lawsuit filed against the Town of Summerfield by Summerfield residents Danny Nelson and Teresa Winfree Perryman, a former council member, has been dismissed. The suit, filed in January in state Superior Court, related to the 2018 removal of Todd Rotruck from the town council, Mayor Tim Sessoms said.

The suit was the latest legal claim that the town improperly spent taxpayers’ money for the legal defense of Dianne Laughlin, who was appointed by the council to succeed Rotruck after his seat was vacated.

After Rotruck subsequently sued Laughlin for taking his council seat, the council voted to pay for her legal fees.

Elected in November 2017, Rotruck was removed from the council in April 2018 after the Guilford County Board of Elections determined he didn’t permanently reside in Summerfield, and was therefore ineligible to serve on the council.

Sessoms announced the dismissal of the suit during the council’s meeting May 10. In an interview earlier this week, Finance Officer Dee Hall said the town has incurred more than $223,915 in legal bills related to Rotruck litigation.

The total will go higher, she said, after the town gets the April bill from Nelson Mullins, the law firm representing the town in the latest suit.

Carolina Marina Store plans reopening after fi re

STOKESDALE – Carolina Marina Store at Belews Lake is preparing to reopen as early as this week after a May 9 fire caused extensive damage.

A final connection of electrical service to a temporary store awaits approval by a Rockingham County inspector, according to Dan Kasper, the marina’s director of member services. Once approval is granted, the store will reopen with a limited supply of merchandise, he said.

No one was injured in the fire, which caused “extensive smoke and water damage of anything that didn’t melt,” Kasper said in a recent interview.

The fire was confined to the store at 548 Shelton Road in Stokesdale and didn’t damage the Deck restaurant and other adjacent buildings, Kasper said. An insurance appraiser will determine whether the store is salvageable or considered a total loss.

An electrical problem may have caused the fire, Kasper said.

Photo courtesy of Dan Kasper, Carolina Marina A fi re on May 9 caused extensive damage to Carolina Marina Store at Belews Lake in Stokesdale; a temporary store with a limited supply of merchandise may be open as early as this week.

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Tax rate unchanged in Oak Ridge’s proposed budget

by CHRIS BURRITT

OAK RIDGE – Despite projections for higher property and sales tax receipts, Oak Ridge’s proposed budget for next fiscal year keeps the property tax rate intact.

The budget draft presented to the Town Council during its May 5 meeting proposes a tax rate of 8 cents per $100,000 valuation. While the Finance Committee considered the possibility of lowering the rate to 6.74 cents to create a revenue-neutral budget, it concluded the lower rate “would be inadequate to fund planned capital improvements, provide essential services in an environment of increasing costs, and maintain adequate reserves for future uncertainties,” Town Manager Bill Bruce wrote in his budget message to the council.

The $7.36 million spending plan projects a 20% increase in property tax

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Developer proposes halving number of apartments

A new text amendment application by landowner David Couch aims to address criticism of his previous proposal

by CHRIS BURRITT

SUMMERFIELD – A month after Summerfield Town Council rejected his application to amend the town’s development rules, landowner David Couch submitted a new request and offered to reduce by half the number of apartments he wants to build on his 973 acres.

In his May 10 application to Town Hall, Couch said he wouldn’t build apartments “immediately adjacent” to traditional subdivisions of single-family detached houses. Duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes wouldn’t fall under that restriction.

These are among the concessions offered by Couch in response to criticism by some Summerfield residents and Town Council members to his proposal to build 1,192 apartments in the Villages of Summerfield Farms, a planned development of 11 villages spanning the town. As an example, some residents of Armfield objected to his plan to build apartments between their subdivision and Interstate 73.

After a year and a half of divisiveness among Couch’s opponents and supporters, the owner of Summerfield Farms proposed a collaborative approach in a letter to Town Manager Scott Whitaker.

“The intent of this submittal is to open a dialogue with the Town to come to a mutually acceptable pathway for moving forward,” Couch wrote in the letter that accompanied his text amendment application.

The new application drew criticism of Couch’s proposal.

“Perhaps his intention is to wear the citizens and the Council down,” according to a Facebook post by Stand Up For Summerfield. “We know revisions were made, but at its heart, this is the same (text amendment) packaged slightly differently.”

The application starts anew the process for Couch and Summerfield leaders. If the council approves amending the town’s development rules, Couch would seek the creation of a new zoning district – open space mixed-use village (OSM-V). Then, he and town leaders would negotiate an agreement with specific requirements for development of his property.

In his new application, Couch sought to clarify what he described as misinformation about the process.

“One criticism of the prior proposal was that the text amendment didn’t

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