DOBSON — A land developer who has proposed a project for the town of Dobson has charged the board of commissioners has been negligent in following up on what he has proposed for the town.

Gordon Duggins of Monte Vista Properties LLC, based in Winston-Salem, sent a letter with those allegations to Mayor Ricky Draughn, several board members and to The Mount Airy News. In his letter he charged that the town is missing a chance at garnering a YMCA, and possibly missing out on the chance for more homes being built in its borders — thus increasing its tax base — by failing to take a more active role in seeking government grants.

The company purchased land in Dobson with the intention of building 71 homes that would be sold at the $100,000 price range, and Duggins said his firm has asked the town to partner with him in seeking $250,000 in grant money to provide streets, water and sewer service to the homes. Duggins said the grants could not be sought by a private firm, but could by a government entity, thus his request that Dobson partner with him. He said the town would receive $25,000 of the money for administering the grant.

“Monte Vista Properties subdivision and the Y(MCA) seem to be solutions to several Dobson issues,” Duggins wrote in the letter. “And as I understand it, both would be driven, not by taxpayer dollars, but by sales and government grants on the subdivision side and by donations and grants on the Y side. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I, for one, would like the conversation with elected leaders to begin again.”

Draughn, however, said the developer is asking the town to get more involved in the private development than is appropriate for a government entity in a way that could potentially make the town liable for selling the homes or paying back part of the grant money.

Draughn said the board has discussed the project, and potential grants, with Duggins, but arrived at an impasse earlier this year.

“He talked about the town’s participation in some grants and us doing some things and that caught me completely off guard,” Draughn said of a meeting he and a town-appointed committee had with the developer. “We (the town’s board) were all aware that these people had bought the land and were working on a subdivision. We were all aware of that. But as far the town having any input, as far as being a participant or partner with this it was never brought to the board’s attention. We’ve had plenty of developers come in over the years and we’ve approved subdivisions as long as they go do it by the specs. The town is not a player or involved from that point on,” Draughn said.

Last week Duggins said he believes the town’s lack of a permanent town manager is hurting his efforts to bring development to the town. Manager Lynn Burcham has been on paid suspension since June while under investigation for alleged embezzlement of town funds.

“The commissioners don’t seem to understand the project and part of that is that they have been without a town manager now, for how many months — six or seven months. And the absence of a town manager has ... The reason they told me they weren’t going to do it is because they didn’t have any ability to go forward to monitor the grant and oversee it, that sort of thing,” Duggins said.

Draughn countered the reason the town has not pursued a partnership with Duggins is because if the town would have applied for the grant to support the project, it would have been responsible for paying back the grant money with no guarantee that the project would be successful. He said Duggins is welcome to come before the board at any meeting to further discuss his intentions.

“As from my stand point, he (Duggins) needs to come to a meeting. You come tell us what you want us to consider. The subdivision was approved by the board. When he came before the board before, he started talking about CDBG (Community Develop Block Grant) that the town could apply for that and use the money toward this project — but we would have to be the one to apply for it in our name. His said his company would do all the leg work, we would have no involvement, we wouldn’t have any time involved except put our name on it. And that’s the way it was presented at our board meeting,” Draughn said.

Draughn said a committee was formed and heard from Duggins on June 30.

“What he had to say was a surprise to us, but we were willing to meet and talk and discuss and see what was going on. We met with him on the 30th, that was myself, Wayne Atkins, Paul Hensch and two or three of his people. He said he was going to go over the grant and then we would have to apply for it. We learned at this meeting that there was more strings attached to that. He acts like he is going to give us $25,000 free money. Well that money... we would have to contract with someone to administer that grant,” Draughn said.

By applying for this grant Draughn said the town would have been agreeing to sell the houses within two years. Plus, Draughn said they had to be sold to families with an income of around $40,000 a year to meet qualifications for the proposed grant.

“If we sold the houses to someone who didn’t meet the income level it was the same as not selling it. At the end of this period, if all the houses were not sold or sold to people of a certain income level, it was the same as not selling it and the town would be liable to pay that money back per unit. And in further discussion with him, and we became aware of all that, the timing of this with the housing market the way it is, we didn’t know if we wanted to go stick out neck out in the housing business. Plus, there were a lot of questions that were never answered on this deal,” Draughn said.

“Nobody figured out how he was going to pay to get the water from here to the development or how we were going to get the sewer from here down to the pumping station, meaning that we were going to have to upgrade our pumping station. We were never presented any figures there. The board had concerns that we just could not take that gamble,” Draughn said.

Duggins said Draughn is wrong on those points.

“It’s a total gross misunderstanding that they would be on the hook for the units,” Duggins said. “That particular grant would have helped with the infrastructure for the first 14 units. And by infrastructure, I mean building roads, the sidewalks the curbs, sewer and water. These are very common grants that municipalities partner with developers in getting. The grant money is not to be spent for construction or anything else,” he said.

Duggins said he is simply trying to build “affordable housing.”

“These would be sold to first-time home buyers, seniors and those who are scaling down. So in order to be able to do that, it has to be as cost efficient as possible. I managed to buy the land at a reasonable price. I sold part of it to the county to build some offices, that brought the price per acre down a little more. Now in order to keep the price of the houses down, it’s common to turn to the use of available grants, which there are many considering the stimulus bill,” Duggins said.

He said the proposed housing units would be a step up for families now living in substandard housing in the county.

“Do you know how many rotten out trailers there are sitting around Surry County? Those people are often times paying more for rent than they would be paying for a mortgage for one of these houses. I maintain that this sort of housing is far superior for their family and for their children than living in a rusted out trailer paying exorbitant rent, sharing wells, maybe two or three trailers are on one well and on one septic system. We are talking about the substandard housing in Surry County is third world,” Duggins said.

Draughn said regardless of what Duggins is proposing, he is a developer and it is his job to make his project work.

“There have been three major housing developments in town that I know of. Those developers came in, got the zoning approved, those people went in and put their money out to put the water lines in and the streets in. We took it over from them if it was to our specs. But we didn’t have any money involved and the town was not liable. If he got the impression from any of us that we were going to do this he didn’t get it from the board,” Draughn said.

Duggins said he would be back to speak to the Dobson board about the project.

“It makes me wonder how competent people are to understand local government if they have such a bizarre understanding of this grant. The person I started working with in the beginning was Lynn Burcham. She was great. She understood the grant. She understood exactly what we were talking about,” Duggins said. “No one has returned one call since Lynn Burcham has left her office.”

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.