BY John Lentz

Staff Writer

The Whispering Pines Village Council has approved the development of a new subdivision.

The village board at its May 16 meeting gave developers of the Whisper Grove subdivision "more or less the green light to go forward," said Village Manager Sue Shuster. "They liked the developer's sketch plan, and he will now go forward with the preliminary plat stage."

A public hearing on rezoning the property will be on the June agenda as well.

The Whisper Grove property is a 19-acre tract currently outside of the Whispering Pines village limits. The area will be divided into 22 lots. A public hearing on annexing the property will take place at the June meeting.

All budget amendments on last week's meeting agenda were approved. These included an amendment to remove funds budgeted for the purchase and financing of fire apparatus and engineering expenditures for the Spring Valley Dam project; an amendment to provide funds to the Roads Department for the acquisition of a Ford 2006 F-450 dump truck; and a resolution to appropriate funds from the capital reserve acquisition and replacement fund to the general fund.

An amendment was also approved that would exempt subdivisions "that involve the recombination of existing lots and a minor alteration in the location of a street from the subdivision review process," Shuster said.

The next regular council meeting will occur June 13 at 6 p.m.

A second meeting to discuss the fiscal year 2012-2013 budget will occur Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Village Hall.

"We've gone through everything but the fire department and the roads department," Shuster said. "The new Whispering Pines Fire Rescue chief, Rich Lambdin, will be present that evening to discuss the fire department budget."

Lambdin will begin his new position July 2.

A public hearing on the budget will take place May 30 at 6 p.m.

The fiscal year 2011-2012 budget is $2,872,484, with the village property tax rate set at .37 per $100 valuation.

Contact John Lentz at (910) 693-2479 or jlentz@thepilot.com.