Town has Requests for General Assembly

The Town of Clayton intends to once again ask the NC General Assembly for permission to officially use its web site and town television channel to notify residents of upcoming public hearings and other important public business rather than having to buy advertising space in local newspapers.

The choice has already been extended to other municipalities.

Town officials also intend to seek authority to levy an "Occupancy Tax" of two percent on local motel bills, with the funds going to promote area tourism. Other towns across the state and country have been levying a similar tax for years. Town Manager Steve Biggs said the figure "is on the lower end" of what municipalities usually charge.

Using modern technologies like television and the town's web site for public notices rather than local newspapers would save the town between $5,000 and $8,000 a year, money that could go to other needs, Biggs said. The move "is also a reflection of changing times," he said, where newspaper readership is going down and the use of television and the internet is going up.

Printing public notices in local newspapers has served fairly well over the years, though the sometimes cumbersome process of getting time-sensitive legal notices into print has delayed town business from time to time. Officials say using the town's web site, which is updated daily, and the town's new Governmental Access Television Channel on Time Warner Cable to post notices would be easier, quicker and require no printing costs.

The General Assembly balked at approving the change last year when the measure came under fire from the newspaper industry, which stands to lose advertising revenue at a time when their business is already being adversely impacted by the sputtering national economy.