Graham city council budget session exposes growth costs on the horizon
Graham city council members and city staff met for six-and-a-half hours Monday to brainstorm about how to meet increased demand for city services that they expect to be generated by current and future growth, particularly new subdivisions.
Graham’s inspections and planning department has issued over 740 new home permits during the past 18 months, of which 240 were for new single-family homes, the city’s inspections director Jimmy Lloyd told the council Monday morning.
Within the past five years, 22 new residential developments have been approved for the construction of 1, 532 total new residential units, including: 726 single-family homes, 690 townhomes, and 116 multi-family dwelling units within Graham’s jurisdiction, Lloyd said. This year, Graham’s planning also processed requests for four new subdivisions that could have up to a total of 204 new single-family and multi-family dwellings, he told the council.
The theme for Monday’s daylong brainstorming session was how the city’s departments – such as police, fire, water/sewer, and public works – will meet the demand created by the influx of new residents, given current city staffing levels and funding that won’t cover big-ticket expenses.
The latest data shows that Alamance County’s overall population is expected to increase by about 5.5 percent within the next five years, from 185,255 this year to 195,390 in 2030, according to the latest population estimates developed by Carolina Demography, the state demographer’s office, at UNC-Chapel Hill. (Carolina Demography’s estimates do not include a breakdown of estimated population changes for each of the county’s municipalities; Graham’s population is currently around 20,000 residents.)
The big-ticket expenses on the immediate horizon include the construction of a fire station that is designated to be built at Graham Regional Park along South Jim Minor Road; parks and recreation initiatives; and street paving, Graham city manager Megan Garner confirmed for The Alamance News Monday afternoon.
Graham city council members have discussed a second fire station for 20 years or more, with a second station usually described as being needed in the southern part of the city.
A consultant hired by the city, Greg Grayson of the consulting firm NC Fire Chief Consulting, presented an analysis to the council last year that identified the highest priority for building a fire substation somewhere near Cherry Lane, Jimmie Kerr Road, and other new subdivisions along Jim Minor Road near the city’s regional park. The $14,000 study presented to the council in July 2024 factored in response times to calls over the past three years, with Grayson saying that in 90 percent of the cases, first responders arrived within 7 minutes and 49 seconds, compared to a national standard of just over six minutes.
Meanwhile, fire chief Tommy Cole told the council Monday morning that, given the current pace of growth in Graham, it’s likely that a third fire station could be needed soon. The Graham fire department has seen a 5.66 increase in calls for service between 2024 (when the department responded to 2,529 calls) and this year (when it responded to 2,672 calls).
Graham’s new police chief Brian Neil told the council Monday morning that his department needs additional patrol officers to fill five vacant positions, as well as two that are expected to become vacant due to retirements in 2026, though he emphasized his desire to offset the loss of health insurance benefits following retirement. He also floated the idea of partnering with the Burlington police department on its drone first-responder program, at an annual cost of $35,000, and a crime analyst, also in partnership with Burlington, at an annual cost of $41,779.28.
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For his part, Graham public works director Burke Robertson told the council Monday afternoon that, once the approved subdivisions are built, there will be 85 miles of city streets that his department will be responsible for maintaining – including 21.91 miles of streets approved and/or are under construction.
On average, the city has resurfaced about 2.15 miles of streets during the past 12 years – well under the average of five miles that need to be resurfaced annually just to prevent streets from getting any worse, Robertson said. That’s particularly true due to what the public works director described as “pothole season,” or what he loosely referred to as the potholes and cracking that occur as asphalt contracts during cold weather and expands when temperatures rise.
Graham’s city council is currently scheduled to hold another meeting on January 20 at the Alamance County board of elections office at 1128 South Main Street in Graham to discuss goals and funding priorities for the next fiscal year that begins July 1, 2026.
