Newton Grove’s town hall was packed Monday evening, with residents lined up outside the board room, all there to hear what town board members had to say regarding the current fire tax situation. This was the first public meeting since last Tuesday’s public meeting hosted by the fire department. Town board members were not present at that meeting, so that they wouldn’t have a quorum on hand, without advance notice to residents.
Board members started off Monday’s regular monthly meeting with a presentation, narrated by Town Clerk Amanda Baggett. The presentation, it was noted, was read “to bring facts and to attempt to come to an agreement with the Newton Grove Fire Department.” Copies of the presentation were also given to those in attendance.
In addition to numerous residents and the town board members, a few members of the fire department, including Fire Chief Daniel Warwick, were on hand.
“We appreciate everyone for coming tonight and encourage you to come to every board meeting,” Baggett told the crowd. “Unfortunately, we were not able to attend the meeting at the Newton Grove Fire Department due to quorum laws, and we were also not formally invited. A town employee saw the post on Facebook and that is how the town found out.”
The presentation went into detail regarding the full timeline of contract discussions between Newton Grove and the fire department from last year.
“After the January 2025 board meeting, Chief Warwick approached Mayor Craig Warren about the 1999 contract,” Baggett explained. “Warwick suggested that we do away with it and create a new one. No record of it could be found in Town Hall, (but) Chief Warwick found and provided Clerk Baggett the contract on Jan. 29, 2025. After the January 2025 board meeting, Chief Warwick and Clerk Baggett met to go over numbers. Chief Warwick called and requested the tax numbers for the upcoming budget year on Jan. 14, 2o25. We do not receive tax scrolls now that Sampson County collects our town taxes. Clerk Baggett reached out to Tax Administrator Jim Johnson for the information. The town does not receive these numbers until the tax office is finished with their valuations.”
Baggett also stated that she was accused of withholding the tax information from Chief Warwick and showed an email dated Jan. 14, 2025, illustrating the conversation between the county’s tax administrator and the clerk. The email showed Baggett asking Johnson for the new tax base for the town, and that the fire department reached out to her. Johnson said that it was “extremely early to predict the projected tax base, as January is the vising period for personal property and we are still picking up new construction.”
Johnson would then use historical data to project a total amount of $105 million. This projection for the 2025-26 tax base was later increased to $107 million in a email sent from Johnson to Baggett on Feb. 11, 2025.
The town sent the 1999 contract over to legal. Town Attorney Lew Starling, Mayor Warren and Mayor Pro Tem Chris Raynor spoke with Chief Warwick to inform him there has never been a fire tax for the town of Newton Grove.
“The fire department was sent a certified letter informing them of the termination, at their request of the 1999 contract,” Baggett pointed out. “The town was legally bound to give 180 days notice. The certified letter was signed on April 8, 2025. The contract was still in effect until Oct. 1 of 2025.”
Mayor Warren also gave insight as to why this decision was made.
“It was terminated at the request of the chief,” he said. “He said that his board felt like what we needed to do was, we need to terminate the contract and we need to sit down. We need to draw a contract with their current board and with our current board, so that the people that are here working now understand what it means.”
The town board then approved a new contract on Monday, May 12, 2025, with Mayor Warren handing a copy of the contract to Chief Warwick after the meeting. The town board then sat down with fire department board members on May 28, 2025 to discuss changes that the fire department wanted to make.
“They asked for certain verbiage on the exhibit page to be changed, and the contract to go from three years to one year,” Baggett informed. “Both sides discussed pursuing an actual town fire tax on the correct way during the next fiscal year. The town sent the request to legal and a new contract was made. The town of Newton Grove approved the new contract on Monday, June 9, 2025. In addition to the contract being approved, the town of Newton Grove’s 2025-26 budget was approved. A copy of the new contract was given to Chief Warwick right after the meeting. June 24, 2025, Chief Warwick delivered a copy of the contract that he stated was the only one the fire department would approve. They requested that the entire exhibit page be taken out and the monetary payment be changed from $46,000 to $65,000.”
Baggett revealed that the fire department met on Monday, June 16, 2025 without presenting the town with the requested changes they made until June 24, 2025. The budget for the town had already been approved on June 9, 15 days before the requested changes from the fire department presented the changes to the town board.
During the rest of the presentation, the town also revealed more information regarding the budgeted tax revenue, the property tax and motor vehicle tax ending balances for the 2024-25 fiscal year, the specific items within the current budget and how tax revenue is calculated. It was also revealed that the town of Newton Grove in 2021 was also on the Local Government Commission (LGC) Unit Assistance List, which is a takeover process for water and wastewater systems within a town. A forensic audit was conducted by Danna Layne, a CPA from accounting firm Nunn, Brasher, and Uzzell, along with an internal audit by Baggett.
“Water and sewer rates were not being charged appropriately,” Baggett explained. “Taxes were not being collected, people were not being charged for services in town that they were supposed to be. That’s the forensic audit that was done and the internal audit. I actually rode on the trash route with GFL and wrote down every trash can in town. I realized there were so many people that weren’t paying for trash service. A lot of people weren’t paying for water and sewer and consumption. They were paying for service but not consumption. That adds up.”
Newton Grove was removed off the Unit Assistance List by LGC at the end of 2024 after three years. There were no public comments made by those in attendance. Mayor Warren gave remarks during the mayor’s comments section of the meeting.
“I do want to thank all of you coming.” he said. “You’re always welcome to come to our meetings. Everybody always knows it’s the second Monday night in the month. We do have certain people that come on a regular basis and we appreciate you for coming and don’t mind asking a question. We don’t talk during public comment, but as most of you know if you come on a regular basis. Generally, if it’s a subject that can be answered, instead of making you wait until next month. I generally talk to people after the meeting.”
The meeting went into closed session after this and adjourned shortly after. The next meeting will be held on Monday, March 9