Town commissioners voted to fire Pilot Mountain Town Manager Blair Knox after a closed session at the board's Monday night meeting, and neither side is telling why.
Commissioner Andrew French made the motion to terminate Knox's contract, which was adopted two years ago today. The contract said Knox would "serve at the pleasure of the board until such time as the agreement is terminated."
Commissioners Linda Needham and Carolyn Boyles joined French in the 3-0 vote. One town commissioner seat is currently vacant.
Knox, who has been town manager for about six years, had an annual salary of about $70,200. His last day is Thursday.
Reached via email, he said he couldn't talk about personnel issues but offered a gracious farewell.
"I can say that I wish the people of Pilot Mountain and Surry County the very best," he wrote.
Mayor Earl Sheppard, who votes only to break a tie and did not cast a vote in the matter, said he couldn't talk about what had happened but that he has since called a company that provides temporary town managers.
"We'll go with a temporary, and then we'll advertise the position of town manager," he said. "I'm looking at filling it within three to six months."
The closed session and vote came after the board voted unanimously Monday to adopt a $1.3 million budget for fiscal 2011-12.
The budget leaves the property-tax rate at 56 cents per $100 valuation.
But for the second year in a row, water and sewer rates increased by 10 percent for customers using more than 2,000 gallons a month. The rates vary, depending on a number of factors, with sliding scales for customers. A base rate before the combined 20 percent increases was $33.60 for water customers using between 2,001 and 7,000 gallons a month.
The town has been struggling to have its water and sewer operations pay for themselves while repaying a $1.4 million debt incurred shortly before its biggest water user, Armtex Inc., a textile maker, left town in 1998.
Armtex used about 1 million gallons of water a day, and accounted for about 60 percent of the town's water-use revenue. The town borrowed federal money to install pumps and other equipment to better handle the company's discharge, and is struggling to repay the loan without its biggest water customer.
The town has subsidized its water and sewer operations over the past several years with about $240,000 from the general fund.
Knox and the board had struggled during this year's budget process to come up with ways to keep from having to use property tax revenues to pay for water and sewer.
Last month, Knox told the board that the town had about $400,000 in cash, and that the water and sewer fund had no cash. He recommended a property-tax increase of 5.2 cents per $100 valuation.
Commissioners had balked at raising taxes and instead asked for spending cuts.
Pilot Mountain has a population of 1,477, according to the 2010 census.
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