Community invited to share input at Faison’s May budget hearing

FAISON — The Town of Faison will be holding a public hearing on Wednesday, May 7, for the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget, the board decided at its monthly meeting. The public hearing will give members of the community an opportunity to speak on the budget and learn more about the board’s priorities in the coming year.
As the town looks forward to a potential celebration of its 250th anniversary next year, renovations such as signs denoting historic sites have risen as budget considerations.
“I think we need more time to look over them,” said Mayor Billy Ward in reference to the signs suggested by Faison native Ron Oates at the board’s previous meeting, indicating that sign elements such as design, verbiage and placement needed further consideration before moving forward. “It’s a lot of signs, and some of them are right on top of each other. I think it might need to be tweaked a little bit.”
The mayor acknowledged that while the town doesn’t have money in the budget for the proposed signage right now, they would be budgeted for in the coming fiscal year. George Carr from the Faison Improvement Group added that the town would only supply the posts, hardware and installation, as Oates had volunteered to pay for the signs.
The meeting also included a vote for the town to upgrade its firewall in addition to two computers. Sharon Lee, Faison’s town clerk and finance officer, received notification from IPM Computers in January that the municipality’s firewall needed replacement, as well as the payment terminal and an additional computer. Though the company told her the upgrades could wait until after the new budget had taken effect in July, Lee thought it prudent to act now.
“Since we have some money left in this year in computers, I thought we’d go ahead and get it done this year and we won’t have to do it next year,” explained Lee. A motion was brought and approved to upgrade the firewall for $1,765 and both computers for $3,841.
Three budgetary amendments were approved by the board to reallocate funds for various purposes.
“We’ll probably have several of these between now and the end of June until we get everything straight for this budget year,” said Ward.

In other business, Faison Recreation and Wellness Center Director Matthew Scott advised the board that eight teams had signed up to play adult volleyball, a new undertaking for Faison Recreation.
“It’s something new. It wasn’t really planned, but there was a lot of interest,” said Scott, adding that teams will play on Sunday evenings to accommodate the adult players’ busy schedules.