Wednesday, Mar. 02, 2011

Public notices back on agenda

The Town of Clayton might once again ask the General Assembly for permission to move some of the town's public notices from newspapers to a website.

North Carolina law requires towns to post public notices in local newspapers. But Clayton officials say the town could save money by putting some of those notices online instead.

"Citizens would benefit because the town wouldn't spend as many of their tax dollars," Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod said. "It would also allow for a quicker form of communication."

Town Manager Steve Biggs said Clayton spends nearly $10,000 a year to advertise public notices in newspapers. It wants to move some of those notices to its website.

"It would primarily apply to matters involving land-use decisions," Biggs said. "Other public hearings which do not involve supplemental notice would continue to be advertised in the classified section of the local paper."

Biggs said Clayton's website, townofclaytonnc.org, receives about 10,509 visitors per month.

For those who have limited computer access, the town manager suggested they take advantage of the free Internet use offered at Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library.

The Town Council has not yet asked Johnston's legislative delegation to introduce a bill on the town's behalf. It might do so after its March 7 meeting.

But State Sen. David Rouzer said his position on the matter hasn't changed since Clayton made the same request last year. "The primary issue is the fact that public notices should be there for everyone to see, and there are a lot of folks throughout Clayton and Johnston County that don't have access to the Internet," Rouzer said. "I firmly believe that any public notice should be published through a third party."