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Stokesdale Mayor Randle L. Jones says the uproar about the town hall is being spearheaded by a group of citizens who don’t want to pay taxes.

“Any time there is a capital project, people worry that a tax will have to be levied to pay for it,” Jones said.

Since the Town Council approved a Town Hall site plan Aug. 13, some residents have spoken out about the plan and one town councilman has resigned.

“I don’t know who you’re listening to on this town hall, but you’re not listening to the citizens of the town,” resident Jim Flynt said at the Aug. 20 Town Council meeting.

Flynt said a majority of the town’s residents are against building a town hall at this time.

In a special meeting called on Aug. 13, the Town Council voted unanimously to approve a site plan by Stewart Cooper Newell Architects to build the town hall on Angel Pardue Road.

The town’s planning board had rejected the site plan, citing incomplete documents.

Pam Lemmons , co-founder of Revitalizing Our Ancestors Dreams in Stokesdale, said the council is moving too fast to build this town hall.

“I suggest the council form a new long-range financial committee to study this,” she said.

In one of his last motions before resigning from his position as a council member, Norman Cook made the motion to form a committee to study whether to build the town hall at this time.

The motion died for the lack of a second.

Cook handed in his letter of resignation after the Aug. 20 meeting.

“I’m probably not going to open my mouth, because we don’t have enough people who are smart enough to listen,” he said.

Cook said he’s been against the town hall from the beginning, and the council is not listening to the citizens in this matter.

“We’re whipped before we even start,” he said. “You’ve got this handful of people, who were elected, who are for this and the residents who are against it.”

Jones said he believes residents are not against a town hall in general — just this one.

“I think they would like for us to explore those other options,” Jones said.

Those options include:

• Remaining in the current town hall, leased office space
• Leasing office space in the Stokesdale Business Center for $1,500 monthly for five years with a 3 percent increase every year
• Leasing unimproved tracts at the business center and making the improvements or buying the entire building for $1.9 million
• Having T. Cooper James & Associates build a space to the town’s specifications and lease it to the town with an option to buy
• Leasing a space in the King’s Crossing Center with the Food Lion as the anchor store.

Remaining in the current town hall space is almost not feasible because the town is growing, Jones said.

As for the Stokesdale Business Center option, “that proposal has been made to previous councils and it has been declined,” Jones said.

The other options will be explored if the construction bids come in at a higher cost than expected, he said.

The architects estimated the cost to build the town hall at $1.4 million.

Cost estimates are just that, Councilwoman Cheryl Steele said.

“We don’t know how much we’re going to spend,” Steele said. “We’re just putting it out to bid.”

The project will be opened up for contractors to submit bids to the town, Mayor Jones said.

“Once the bids come in, the council would have to vote to accept or reject the bids.”

Once the bids come in, the council will have a better idea of how to proceed.

The economic downturn could benefit to the town, Jones said.

Because they need the work, a lot of contractors’ bids are coming in significantly lower, he said.

“This is a good time to explore this,” Jones said. “It can be built now for cheaper than it can ever be in the future.”

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373-7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com