Most expense forms are in and the annual ElectriCities meeting earlier this month in Myrtle Beach cost the Town of Tarboro $5,318.

That will increase slightly when Councilman Melvin Muhammad files his expenses. He has 30 days from the date of the meeting, Aug. 7-10.

Muhammad, Jim Alford, Steve Hoard, Al Hull, John Jenkins and Buck Price – seven of the town’s eight councilmen – and town Electric Utilities Director Rick Page attended the three-day meeting at the Marriott Resort & Spa at Grand Dunes.

Mayor Donald Morris and Councilman David Smoot did not attend.

Each of the town officials drove and was reimbursed at 58.5 cents per mile, $1,701.76. Hoard did not turn in receipts for meals reimbursement.

Tarboro Town Manager Sam Noble attended, but he is chairman of the ElectriCities Board of Directors and all his expenses were picked up by the agency.

Noble said the councilmen attended business meetings beginning at 7:30 a.m. each day. Hoard was there with an ice pack on an infected eye.

"You can learn a lot if you go to the meetings," Noble said.

Featured speaker included Jim Goodnight of SAS, who spoke about the need for technology in schools; and WRAL-TV's Greg Fishel, who noted weather trends, especially the drought.

The conference cost ElectriCities about $175,000, about half of which was covered by corporate sponsors. An estimated 600 officials attended.

Earlier this summer, Edgecombe County spent $9,083 to send Commissioners T.C. Cherry, Viola Harris and the Rev. Wayne Hines and County Manager Lorenzo Carmon to Kansas City on July 11-15 for the annual National Association of Counties Conference & Exposition.

Their expense reports were interesting in that Cherry drove and his reimbursement at 40.5 cents per mile was $954.70, $110 more than what it cost Harris and Hines for a plane ticket.

Cherry and Harris also attend the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Conference last weekend in New Bern. Cherry’s expenses are not complete but that bill will total about $2,000. Harris is the District 7 director.

Four of the eight members of the county Board of Education and the executive assistant attended the National School Boards Association Southern Region Conference July 21-23 in New Orleans, which cost about $5,804.

Board members Janice Davidson, John Edmondson, Keith Pittman and Chairwoman Evelyn Wilson made the trip as did Juanita Westry, the superintendent’s executive assistant.