BERMUDA RUN – How bad has the winter of 2014 been? Just ask Lee Rollins, the town manager here.

“I think it is interesting we will have spent more in the last two months on snow removal and debris removal than we have in the last five years,” Rollins said at last week’s town council meeting. “Stacy (Cornatzer) and his team are doing an admirable job, but it will be weeks before this is all complete. I’m very thankful it was 75 degrees today and sunny.”

That was just four days removed from the latest winter blast when the town was coated in ice. Only a few weeks earlier, there was snow.

Rollins said that the town spent a total of $12,000 from 2009 to 2013 on snow removal, but in this winter alone, Bermuda Run has spent $19,000 on snow removal and anticipates adding another $15,000 for debris removal associated with the ice storm.

“Certainly, I think it’s one of the core services in what a town should be doing,” Rollins said. “There is a 5 percent contingency in our budget for these types of unexpected and underestimated expenditures, so we are in good shape.”

The town has a contract with Twinbrook Builders for public works activities. Cornatzer is the owner/operator for the company.

In business action items from the March 11 meeting, the council approved the planning session priorities from a January meeting that include town character, infrastructure and economic development.

“I hope this is confirmation as to priorities for the council for the remainder of the current fiscal year, and looking out two to five years and five-plus years,” Rollins said. “The goals and objectives come from our Comprehensive Plan.”

The council also approved a new agreement with Martin & Van Hoy LLP and town attorney Brian Williams, who has served in that capacity for nearly five years.

The council voted to extend the landscape maintenance contract, including a 3 percent increase, with Blakley Landscaping Services for entrances and postal kiosk areas at Kinderton Village.

Blakley, which is contracted with Kinderton Village HOA for its landscape maintenance, took over the existing contract for the town last year.

During his comments, Mayor Ken Rethmeier provided an update on the Bermuda Run EMS station.

Rethmeier said that the county has contracted for five acres less than a mile south from the current location to construct a new EMS station that will be a one-story building instead of two stories.

“It will be large enough to handle two teams and will be designed to have an enhanced area for vehicles,” he said. “The county decided to go with one story and had to find a more suitable location. The advantages, based upon my conversation with (Davie County) commissioner Robert Wisecarver, involved easy access in and out, and movement both up and down (US) 158 to all areas that they cover. Mark Hancock, who is director of EMS, told me they are seeing more and more calls coming from the northern section, and they think this will be a good location.”

Rethmeier also said he and Dr, John McConnell, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist, had sent letters of support to the county for the effort and to recommend that they fund it appropriately and quickly.

“It is something we desperately need,” Rethmeier said.

Prior to the business portion of the meeting, three individuals with different businesses were given plaques and keys to the town.

Chris Meade of Hampton Inn was honored after the Bermuda Run hotel won the Spirit Award and the Circle of Excellence Award for worldwide recognition of outstanding customer service.

Also recognized were Chris Owens of Carolina Center for Eye Care, which was selected the 2013 Business of the Year by the Davie County Chamber of Commerce, and Sarah Lewis, which was voted the 2013 Best New Business in the Best of Davie Awards.

“This is really unique in a couple of different respects — one, in terms of a global economy in the corporate world, and then, the local, hometown environment of the organizations that are representing the very best of class in our community,” Rethmeier said.