To the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation,
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Again, thank you all for being here and joining us this afternoon. Do we have a motion to approve our agenda?
So moved.
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
All right, approval of our consent agenda. Do we have a motion?
All in favor?
Aye.
Thank you for being here.
Okay so that brings us right to
our special presentations this
afternoon with us.
We have got.
Pender County joining us is
going to talk us through the
evaluation.
Process and how that looks.
And how that was done by
Vincent valuations this year.
So thank you for being here.
Absolutely.
And if you don't mind
introducing yourself to the
board.
For those who don't know
absolutely absolutely first off out of mayor commissioners thank y'all for
having me here my name is Colby Sawyer I'm the new Pender County manager really
excited to be able to be here and be in front of y'all and share some
information the regularly scheduled presenter is feeling a little under the
weather so y'all got to put up with me for just a little bit I'm gonna do the
best I can to answer all of the really technical questions we do have
some additional staff from Benson here who may be able to step in and I've
also got some county staff here. They introduced themselves real quick if y'all stand up and
introduce yourselves real quick.
We thank y'all for having us. So the purpose of this
presentation is really just to do a lot of good public education about this upcoming
re-appraisal, the 2026 re-appraisal. Do you have the slides for this?
We do, we should.
You do?
Yeah, it's just a moment.
Perfect. And my clicker works.
I'm also apologizing in advance. I'm on the backside of a little bit of a cough and
so a little hoarse. I start coughing. I apologize. I will step away from the microphone.
So, just a little bit about reappraisals in general.
General statute 105286 requires the North Carolina County's reappraise at least once
every eight years.
Basically what the reappraisal process is, is a process in which we reset all of our
real property values back to current market value as of January 1st in the reappraisal
year.
So the idea is that reappraisal should distribute the burden of property tax across the county based on current market value for current future tax billing.
And then it's really important to note that unless there's been some new construction, parcels have been combined or split or there's been some large physical change or structural change,
your tax value of a property is not likely to change between re-appraisals.
And as it sits right now there are just under 55,000 parcels of real property in
Pender County. So the county has has engaged Vincent to to do this re-appraisal
and their tasks are to appraise all of the real property in the county to
term in its fair market value, that is to find a statute.
And true value is basically what
we calculate market value
at is what a willing and unencumbered, unstressed buyer
and a willing, unencumbered, unstressed seller
are willing to exchange a property for.
That's basically the easiest way to tell it.
Now there are a couple of things that we exempt,
which I think are discussed in some later sessions and we'll talk about those as we
get to them.
Now, it's really important to note that the tax department does not set the market value
for a property, a real property.
The market itself does that.
It's the tax department's job to try to calculate and determine what that real market
value is.
So they do that by analyzing trends, looking at sales, qualifying sales, across the
study periods to figure out what what market value looks like. Now when we do
these studies we do a mass appraisal. There's no way we could do, there's two
kinds of appraisals, there's mass appraisal and fee-based appraisals.
So you know if you were to sell a property or buy a property you would
pay for an appraisal. It's just not practical to do that for 55,000
parcels an appraisal for all of those, a fee-based appraisal. So we do
utilize mass appraisal for those. It allows us to take a lot of things into
account and I can't remember the specific number but I believe there's almost 250
different tax neighborhoods in Pender County so it's only 200 different 250
different areas that we are looking at in terms of calculating what the market
looks like in this specific area. That's really important because there's
often a misconception that market prices and changes over here affected over here.
That's not necessarily the case.
Each discreet area is looked at individually, so property prices in Topsill do not affect
those in Atkinson or Bergall or anywhere else in the county, they affect those in Topsill.
So the reappraisal process is relatively straightforward, but it is pretty involved.
So the first part is data collection and field work.
Going in, looking at these properties in the field, laying eyes on them, doing data collection.
That's looking at qualifying sales. That's looking at MLS records.
That's looking at any data source they can get their hands on.
Delineating there's neighborhoods down and then using calculations to determine value of land and of building.
Now, what's important in this coming up is our value review and our appeals, which we
will be talking about a little bit later.
This is what the process has looked like.
So right now, the Vincent Valuations staff are re-appraising all of the information
or taking a look at all of the information that they've been given, doing some spot
checks to make sure that everything looks okay.
The next step is there will be a final public presentation to the board of commissioners
for Pender County, and then we will be mailing our value notices.
Now, when you get that notice of value, that is our official record from the tax office
saying, here is what we have assessed the tax value of your property be, the fair
market value of your property to be.
And then you have the right to appeal, which I said.
We will talk about in just a few moments.
Going back to this one for just a moment, it is our expectation
that we will be disseminating the notices of value changes
out probably the last week of March.
That is the time that we want to make sure we got all of our data right.
We want to make sure we've done as many spot checks as we can.
we're targeting the last week of March to get those notices out. So there's a lot
of different areas, a lot of different things that can involve, that are
involved in an evaluation and in determining value. So again we're looking
at typical sales, we're looking at those market areas, we're looking at property
conditions. You know there's certain things though that we can't assess from
the outside. We don't, our tax folks, our Vincent folks don't come in your
house, they don't take a look around and take a bunch of pictures. So from
In the outside, for example, we may not be able to tell whether you have a finished bonus
room or not.
We may not be able to tell if you have a second floor or a cathedral ceiling.
We can't tell those things from the outside.
That's why,
especially if you did it without a permit, and so if you did it without a
permit, that's a problem.
Our code enforcement folks are going to see you, but that can be challenging because
we can't tell exactly what is happening in every single house just from the outside.
That's one of the reasons why we send the notices out as well.
It gives you the ability to challenge it, to say, no, that's wrong.
I don't have a second floor.
It's just a vaulted ceiling or something of that effect.
It's how we're able to help you appeal that value.
We do mass appraisals because, like I mentioned earlier, it is just not feasible for us
to do a fee-based appraisal on every single property in every single parcel in Pender
County.
Again, we're talking about almost 55,000 individual properties.
This is a challenge that is shared across to most taxing jurisdictions.
And so there are industry standard methods by which we do this, an all-kind of Department
of Revenue.
Other state and federal entities have developed these industry standards for those appraisals
to use.
So they're not just making it up as they go.
They're using industry standards to do that appraisal.
And then we take a look and we see how do we know that we've done it right.
So we look at some various statistics to see how we've done.
So one example is looking at assessed value versus sale price.
If I assess a property to be worth $500,000 and it sells the next week for $501,000,
then we've done a pretty good job of doing that assessment.
And so we do those, again, those checks back to see how have we done,
and making sure that we're as close,
our ratio is as close as it can be.
Some of the exemptions I talked about,
we don't look at anything,
we disqualify a sale that was a foreclosure,
an auction, a short sale,
if there's multiple parcels on a single deed,
if it's an exchange from family member to family member,
oftentimes family gets the friends and family discount
or surcharge depending on how much your family likes you.
So we don't look at those things and again like I said in broad terms we know
that the market has changed in different ways in different parts of the
county. We know that the market hasn't changed here in Bergall the same as it
has in Surf City and in Hampstead and out on the western side of the county.
Excuse me.
So as we move on just a couple of slides we have in here I
want to start off by saying we've pulled a couple properties that have
We've had recent sales all within the last few months to show how the assessed values
compared to sales values.
Now, the last time we did a appraisal was in 2019, and there's a couple things to note
about that 2019 appraisal.
Number one, it was done right after Hurricane Florence.
So when we look at those qualifying sales, a lot of sales of property happened immediately
after Hurricane Florence.
So they may have been artificially depressed to begin with.
So there was also the whole COVID outbreak which changed the housing
market significantly between 2019 and now I know I bought a house
right before COVID and I really wish I still had it because I would
be putting it on the market market today.
So these are some various areas around the county and some various properties.
So, here's an example of a house in the Topsul township.
This was a 2018 built house.
It was assessed at 451,000 in 2019 and sold in November at 965,000.
So that was a 114% increase in value.
Here's another in Topsul, a 2,451% increase between value and market.
I will say we have pulled stark examples to show you what things could look like.
Here's another in 1968 for 146% increase between 2019 and when the most current sale happened.
We'll skip past.
It's not just on the beach either.
Here we have one assessed at 227 in 2019 sold for 414,000.
So about an 82% increase, 120% increase, about 100% increase, and so on.
Now here's an example of a parcel of a property in Burgalls built in 1978.
It was assessed at just shy of 121,000.
It sold in September for 263,000, so an increase of 118%.
Here was another, was assessed at $91,000 and sold for $257,000, that's a 181% increase.
Now, I will also say, the Vincent folks told me that this house had an incredible amount
of renovation done on the inside and was made to look absolutely beautiful.
There was a lot of upgrades done, which does account for a lot of the increase in the sale price.
Here's another example in the Grady township. We're looking at 85% increase, 88,
got Iraqi pulling, had 150%, 156% increase here.
But it's not just stick-boot homes that are seeing this. We're also seeing this in manufactured
homes and there's a number of reasons for that. This manufactured home, $80,000 assessed value
sold for 208th in the end of 2024, and so that's a 160% increase on that one. Here in
Rocky Point, 223% increase on this manufactured home.
So part of the reason that we are seeing these changes
the way that we are, also we believe at least
in the manufactured segment is for many people
that is actually the only home that they can take.
And so when that supply drops, demand stays the same,
we know it's gonna drive our prices up a little bit.
So we are seeing even significant increases in value
within manufactured homes as well here's a 99% increase for example but we're
seeing it commercial as well this food lion was assessed at two point two three
million in nineteen and sold for six million in twenty twenty four a hundred
sixty percent hundred sixty eight percent increase in that commercial and
now that I look at that picture I can't tell if that's the one in Burgo
or Rocky Point? Is that the burgallon? Okay.
Here's an example of just a small
commercial space in Rocky Point. 69% increase.
86% increase down in Rocky
Point on commercials. So I give you all this information about values to let
you know that there's a good chance you are going to see if you own
property in Pender County, you are going to see some increase in your property value.
Now what is really important there, and this is very much for public information, is the
appraised value and the tax rate and your tax bill are two entirely separate concepts.
Your appraised value is nothing more than what we have assessed the fair market value
of your property to be.
The governing board of course sets the tax rate which in turn drives what
people's tax bills are. Again the taxing jurisdictions within the county, so that
is the county, the various municipalities, they set their tax rate based on their
budget needs. And part of the way that part of the wisdom behind the way
in North Carolina does this, this actually makes a lot of sense, is we do appraisals
and we have those typically done by the spring, knowing that in North Carolina we're setting
the tax rate going into effect in July and then of course folks are getting their tax
bills in the fall.
We schedule it that way so that jurisdictions have time to take a look at their values,
use, take a look at their budget needs, and set an acceptable tax rate for that taxing
jurisdiction. But it is really important to note that the final tax bill can't be determined
until the final tax rate is set. But just to be incredibly clear, just because your
property value, let's just say it increased by 100 percent, that does not mean your
tax bill is increasing by 100%.
Taxing jurisdiction may decide to cut the tax rate in half.
Property doubled in value, tax rate went in half, your tax bill is the same.
So the property value and the tax bill are two separate concepts.
But of course, as I mentioned earlier, we do have, we are doing a mass appraisal.
We're doing it from a look on the outside of the property.
We're doing it based on data and statistics.
And we know people have more information about their properties that we do,
which is why we have an appeals process.
There are three steps in an appeal.
They are review, compare, and then appeal if you see fit.
So review.
When you get that notice of value change, take a hard look at it.
Look and see what it says.
See that we have all of the information correct.
We're dealing with computers here.
So you may be in a three bedroom and we've calculated you at a four bedroom
We may have calculated you at a two bedroom. I
Leave it to someone's good judgment and good grace as to whether they want to correct us when they tell us
Their property is is worth less than than it really is and then we have the compare tool. So
We want to make it really easy for people to be able to look at the qualifying sales in their area
that are comparable to their home, so they can make that comparison.
Now again, this is not to the same level that a fee-based appraiser is going to be doing pulling comps,
or a real estate broker is going to be looking at comps for a sale.
But we have created a tool where we are in the process of creating a tool at the county
where you can put in your information for your home,
and it will pull up sales near you that match your home's characteristics.
So, you can say I live in a four-bed, two-bath, 1,800 square feet, and it'll pull up the
properties closest to you that are qualifying sales that match those characteristics.
So, you can compare those properties and their sale prices to yours.
Now, once you've done that comparison, you have the opportunity to appeal.
We're going to talk about the appeal process in specifics in just a little bit.
But if
you feel that you have an error, you can appeal the value.
When you do that, a member of the appraisal staff will be reaching out trying to get some more information from you.
They'll complete an initial follow-up with you.
They will take a look at all the information that you provide and see what they assess.
Now if you appeal and we say oh we did make a mistake you only have you have
four bedrooms we thought you only had two. Your value post appeal may go up. It may
stay the same. It may go down. Now there's a lot of different ways that you can
provide information to help with that appeal. If you just say I think my
value is too high and don't give any supporting documentation it makes it
really difficult to do that appeal but perhaps you just had the home appraised
for some reason you were thinking about listing it. You chose not to and three
weeks ago you had an appraisal done and it came in significantly different. You
can bring a copy of that appraisal to us. We may have you graded as a good
condition and in all reality when you go inside it looks like the place has
been on fire. Well the condition of the property changes the value. So you can
bring us pictures and show this is what the inside of my house looks like. You
can appeal based off of that and our folks will work with you to get that
value, that tax value where it belongs. Now you can choose to either accept
or deny the results of the appeal. If you choose to accept the results of
the appeal, then oftentimes we can make that change right there and off we go. If you choose
to deny, your case is put before the Board of Equalization and Review, the Board of ENR
for short. So the Board of ENR convenes in March every year during appraisal years.
It lasts for a number of days, and you'll basically get a time and date to come before
them and give your case.
The board of ENR will consider the case, will give you a value.
You can choose to either accept the board of ENR's value, or if you disagree with that
as well, you can also take it to Riley, you can take it to the property tax commission
and go through the same process again, bring your evidence and a state body in Raleigh.
We'll hear the case.
Now what's really important to note in terms of value is that we have to make sure that
when we are appealing a value we are appealing something that is in fact appealable.
If you are concerned that your tax bill is going to increase and that is the only
reason for your appeal, that's not going to be a successful appeal because we're not debating
the value of your property. You're just concerned about the tax rate. If you want to appeal
because you say, I don't get the level of services I think that I should get from the county
or the town based on the amount that I pay, that's not the process here. This is appealing
the actual value the only issue that our tax office can address is that appraised
value the there was a question raised at another community meeting about the
breakup or the geographic breakdown of the board of B and R so the board of B and
R is appointed annually by the by the county commissioners it's actually on
the next agenda, the Board of B&R is, is on the next agenda.
We have five seats, five names were put forward
and they range from the east to the west.
So we do have geographic,
we do have a wide geographic representation
on that Board of B&R for the people
who have put their names forward
with an interest on being there.
So again, end of March, 2026 is when reappraisal notices
will be mailed. We actually need to update the slide. We intend to open the board of
ENR on April the 13th. That is when we will start hearing cases. It is on April the 13th.
That will last through until May the 15th. So that board itself will be open for, if
I can do math, 33 days. Prior to that, between April 13th and the end of March,
you have the chance to look at your information, compare the comparable sales,
look at the condition of your property, and go ahead and start building that case for the appeal.
Again, oftentimes you can go ahead and submit that ahead of the board of ENR coming into effect.
A lot of times our tax folks can just fix that on the spot with you when you bring in your evidence
and you can have a discussion with them. Oftentimes they can fix it right on the spot.
And then, of course, after the budget is set, the tax rate is set, your first tax bill that
is affected by the new value will be coming out.
So again, those are our next steps.
I'm not as good as Vincent is in explaining all of this, but I hope that has at least
helped a little bit.
I'm happy to take any questions from the committee.
Oh, yes.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Meg.
So, one of the other things that the county is doing this year is if we are holding one
of these educational sessions at a location, we have committed to coming back and doing
an in-person clinic to help people appeal their value if they need some help.
And so, the appeal is actually done online, now we do have a paper form.
Some people aren't comfortable doing things online, some people don't have reliable
internet service at their homes. Some people don't have the ability to make it
to burgall to come in person to the tax office to receive assistance so
anywhere that we are giving one of these educational sessions will be
scheduling time to come back out and actually have a clinic where we'll have
tax office staff and Vincent staff one site to help people file their appeals
and in many cases if they can come to an agreement get it resolved that same
that.
Your presentation and for being here. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Sawyer? You guys always know I have a question. Always. If you know me, you get to know me, I will have a question. Board of ENR, you stated that the Pender County Commissioners
appoint the ENR individuals and they vote on them. What are the requirements that will be needed to be a candidate for the ENR? So my understanding is a Pender County
resident of good moral fiber. I don't mean to be glib but this is meant to be a
group of community members who come to hear their community members, other
community members and their neighbors when they are filing appeals. So there
is no educational requirement. We don't require a background in appraisal. We
don't require a you know a master's degree or anything like that. There's
a short one day training the board all I think it's one day all board of E and R
folks go to so they can really fully understand their jobs. With that you
guys do vote on it the county commissioners and there's no prerequisite
of any kind of training my concern would be how about if everyone is from
the east side who doesn't know what the west side does could there be
something for that in our state that we need to have a person from every group
that can represent Pender County instead of one section of Pender County because
it would be highly unfair if you get a lot of people from maybe the west side
maybe don't go to that beach or from the east side to come to the west side
and know what our value of what we really do could there be some kind of
guidelines stating that it would be preferred if we have one or two individuals from certain
sections of the county to be on that board. To me it would be fair.
So not to speak on behalf of the board for that matter. I will say the applications
for members that they have received a range from districts if and forgive me I'm coming
At the top of my head here, I believe it's districts one, three, and five, so it is evenly
spaced around the county. Now, I'll ask for, can we make that a requirement? I don't, the
board of commissioners, that would be a discussion between the board.
We received five applications.
Is that correct, Brandon? It does make it easier to pay. Hopefully they're all from
one side. That would be my concern.
Yes sir that would be a decision by the
board commissioners as to how they wanted to appoint those individuals and
And again, I can say that the applications we receive, they do range from the east and
the west, not necessarily every single district, but from the east and the west.
Well, hopefully every commission that represent our district would love to have one of their local individuals to be on that board to make sure that it's fair.
Mr. Sardar, quick question. When the contractor brings in his application for the permit,
he has a $350,000 job he's doing. Do y'all use that number to begin with or did you have
somebody else reassess it for tax purposes? Where's the starting point? At the $350?
So the contractor and this is maybe a question that Vincent can help with on the on the specifics if you if you wanted to address that but
But my understanding and let me be very clear that I am not the the end-all be all expert on this area
my understanding is you know the cost of
construction if I'm doing a say
$350,000 building project. We know that the house is not going to be valued exactly
$350,000 and so if we're starting from new we're looking at the land value and
then based on the specific factors of the house for bedroom to bath is brand new
construction so we would expect it to be built average to good and then that is
that is how the valuation is determined because I'm sure different areas I work
in the East Side Waffle Area, 230 to 250 per square foot.
You go up to the beach side, you end up 350 or higher per square foot.
So there is a big difference from there to there.
Yes, sir.
And that's why we have those neighborhoods, for lack of a better term,
those tax characteristic districts spread all over the county
So what is happening price per square foot, price per value, price per land, per acre,
for what is happening in Sarf City isn't affecting that same value in Bergdorf.
This sounds fair.
As long as we've got equal, you know what I'm saying.
I believe the number is about 250 different character districts for lack of a better term
around the county.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Any more questions?
All right.
We appreciate you being here and presenting.
Thank you very much.
We're going to go over our employee recognitions at this time.
Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the board.
Della Matthews, who works in finance as well as the inspections department,
she recently completed a law and admin course.
This is a required course for all building inspectors and in the future it will be required for permit technicians as there is going to be a standard for them in the future, not currently required, but she continues to go above and beyond and has completed that course past the exam and the knowledge she's gained in there will greatly help her in her day-to-day work because she will have achieved a greater understanding of the laws of permitting and inspections in the state.
Wonderful.
All right.
Good job, Adella.
All
right.
Is that all the recognitions we have at this time?
It is.
Okay.
All right.
We'll put those to Adella.
All right.
Moving right along, bear with me, I'm going to read a proclamation as we show our support
for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, and as we celebrate throughout
the year, especially coming up in February, week February 21st to the 28th, as we
celebrate Morse Creek's role in that.
All right, whereas the United States of America will commemorate the 250th anniversary of its founding in 2026, marking a quarter millennium since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.
And whereas this historic milestone provides an opportunity to reflect upon the ideals of liberty, democracy, and civic responsibility that have shaped our nation and continue to guide its future.
And whereas the 250th anniversary, commonly known as America 250, encourages communities
across the nation to honor the diverse people, cultures, stories, and events that have contributed
to the American experience.
And whereas recognizing this anniversary fosters historical awareness, civic pride, and community
engagement while inspiring future generations to understand their role in preserving and
strengthening our democracy.
and whereas the Town of Bergo has a rich local history that contributes to the broader story of our nation
and provides meaningful opportunities to educate residents and visitors through programs, events, and partnerships.
Now therefore, it proclaimed that the Mayor and Board of Commissioners of the Town of Bergo
do hereby express their support for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America
and encourage residents, civic organizations, schools, businesses, and community partners
to participate in commemorative, educational, cultural, and historical activities leading
up to and throughout the year of 2026, and be it further proclaiming the Town of Virgal
commits to promoting awareness of the historic anniversary and exploring opportunities to
celebrate our shared past, present, and future as part of the America 250 commemoration.
So we witness whereof.
I'm here on TwoSet My Hand and calls the seal of the Town of Virgal to be affixed
this 10th day of February 2026 in support of the 250th anniversary of the United States
of America.
So thank you, and we
just encourage you to participate and support that way you can.
So show your American pride throughout 2026.
All right, without being said, we will go into our departmental updates.
We'll begin back with our building inspections department.
Sorry, Abby, you could have just stayed up.
in building inspections. We got a lot of commercial jobs going on right now in the town. I'm sure
y'all have seen out at the intersection of 53 and 117, there's new urgent care going up. They're
already up to working on the interior finishes. About to start the brickwork.
Opposite corner
next to Advanced Auto, new dentist office going in. They've just started on the foundation of
that, so it should start to see a build and take shape soon and always projects
going on at the hospital, they're still working on the new heat and air
condition system for the emergency department there. That should be wrapping
up shortly and they've just finished a improvement of the exterior, new
treatments on the brick and that type of thing. They've done a lot of projects
there to improve our local hospital. The New Pender County Law Enforcement Center
is moving right along. Sheriff's Office portion, they have scheduled that they
want their above-sealing inspections later this week. I mean it's getting close
to further than done in that area. The jail section is not far behind it.
They're already working on upfitting the kitchen and everything in there.
So it's really starting to take shape. And then the New Pender Health and
human services building is essentially complete they just got to get their final
inspections and that's what those are the major things that have been going on
this month we've had a few single-family residences final out and that's pretty
much what's going on any questions thank you for that big dance
department
Good
evening, Tiffany Bird, finance officer. Finance has been busy with end of year W2s,
1099s, and other items that have to be done. We got all that finished. We held budget meetings
January 14th and 15th with all the departments. That was myself, James and Kelly, and other
than just being really active, working with all the grants. I'm pretty busy with
Everything that's going on right now
But everything's going good
Any particular questions for finance at this time?
Okay, and I will be seeing more Tiffany in our budget
Good
evening everyone
Jonathan for that fire chief for town of burgall
So during the month of January as you saw in your reports
We responded to approximately 70 calls for service and also conducted about
420-ish hours of in-house fire training. We also had a few folks that went to weekend fire
college down at Cape Fear, and then we continued to work through our Plimo Vent System, which
was part of that AFG grant that we got funded. It's currently not in service just yet.
Contractors working through a few things they've got to finish up on their end,
but hopefully that'll be getting done here in the next couple of weeks. I'm supposed
have a follow-up phone call with the head contact for them in the next couple
of days. So hopefully that project will get continued on and then get finished up
here in the next few weeks and then we can have that in service. The safer
positions of course last month's meeting I was able to introduce those new
employees which were part of the other federal grant we received. They've all
now been on and on shift and stuff for approximately a month now. They've
a tremendous asset in addition to our department particularly within the last couple weeks with
some of the what I would call unfortunate weather because I'm not a big fan of the snow and the
cold but they paid tremendous dividends having those extra personnel here to help staff apparatus
and respond to calls especially with Pender EMS requesting that four-wheel drive apparatus
respond on all EMS calls. We had enough staffing here to stand up approximately
three four-wheel drive vehicles in case the need was there from Pender EMS
for us to respond on that number of calls at one time, which is, you know, far
greater benefit than what we've been able to provide previously due to
limited staffing. So that's about the most update I've got for you right
now. So does anybody have any questions?
What was the dog's name, I forgot.
I was going to say, if you went through this mention, how?
Yes, ma'am.
So, Mr. Tommy Lindsey, who I'm sure all y'all are very familiar with,
of course, has approximately 45 years of service into the town of Bergoff
as a volunteer with us.
Mr. Tommy is a very, very big dog lover
and has actually told me in the past that he'd always wanted to have a station dog.
there was some debate about his name until Mr. Tommy looked at him and said
his name's Halligan and it's Hal for short and so at that point there was a
little bit more brief debate and I informed everybody that when the man
that's given 45 years to this town says what the dog's name is that's what
his name is so his name we call him Hal for short he has not ever met a
stranger I was out taking him for a walk this afternoon and he saw a
lady come across the street and he just automatically knew that that was supposed to be his friend
and she was supposed to love on him so he started trying to take off running to her.
So he is fitting in great, seems to be very well mannered especially for how young of
a puppy he is.
We do have a meeting scheduled later this week with a local group for some training
that they've offered to provide and then we'll look to get that additional training
and certification down the road for some of the services that we hope to be able to utilize
them to provide, you know, for citizens, responders, all that kind of stuff.
So he's fitting in great, learning quite well.
In some cases he might be learning faster than the rest of us.
So he's fitting in well.
I think those people are aware, but I guess if you'll just tell a quick story on how
you all ended up with him.
Yes, ma'am.
So Officer Rossi with Virgal PD found him.
I believe she was out on a regular patrol and he was out
loose, unattended loss.
She found him, I believe, around some kind of a dumpster
or something due to some of the cold weather.
She had brought him up to town hall just to kind of keep
him warm.
We initially housed him overnight that first night.
The town made announcements of, you know, this dog was
located by a PD officer, you know, if you're the owner.
We housed at the fire station overnight, so on and so forth. No owners made contact.
Chief Raul, when he come in the next morning, brought up that we needed to contact animal
control for a required 72-hour hold. When the officers were there picking up how to go for
a 72-hour hold, we were just having conversation and, you know, we told them about how it
was kind of on our horizon to have a firehouse dog and develop one of those programs in
the future, you know, over the next couple of years. And everybody had already
fell in love with how and so I made mention that, you know, if the owners
don't show up in the 72 hours, you know, we definitely like to be contacted
and see if we could get approval to move forward with making how our
firehouse dog when he got the animal shelter. They were made aware of that
request and they immediately call me back within about five minutes of him
getting an animal shelter. Um and they said we're gonna do you one better. Um
they said we're gonna give him his vaccinations and we're gonna bring him
back to you and y'all can foster him for the 72 hour hold. Um and basically if
any owners come up, you know, obviously he would be returned. If no
owners come up, um, then he would officially be adopted by, um, the
burgall fire department. Uh, no owners came up within that 72 hour
period despite posts being made and things like that by animal shelter, town, all that
kind of stuff.
And so we officially adopted him at that point, which from what we saw on Facebook with some
of the town posts and stuff, there was a lot of people asking us to adopt him, even, you
know, not knowing that that was a process that was kind of in the works, you know,
following all the appropriate steps and protocols and everything like that.
And so since that time, once his, you know, since Officer Rossi picked him up, he's basically been with us ever since other than his brief little stay over at Doggie jail for about 15 minutes or so to get his vaccinations.
Other than that, he's been with us ever since.
Goes out a lot of times in the mornings with the crew while they're checking trucks to get used to the sound of the trucks running and stuff.
I'm sure everybody's seen because it blew up much more and we anticipated he's
going on his first firetruck ride. He really enjoyed that and has really gotten
a lot of positive support and stuff from the community as well. We've had EMS
crews stop by and ask if they can visit with him and pet him. Some of the
PD officers other town staff will stop by you know throughout their work day
when they just kind of need a little pick me up and they'll walk in and
Hey, where's how and you know, of course, soon as he hears his name, he's excited.
He comes out and knows somebody there should pet him.
We've even had citizens come out to meet our crews when they're out doing
routine tasks or even responding to calls during the snow.
We had a crew that was clearing a vehicle in a ditch.
And they said they had a lady come out running, waving them down.
They thought something was wrong with her.
They stopped, you know, said, Hey, ma'am, what's wrong?
How can we help you?
And she said, Oh, no, nothing's wrong.
She said, uh, do you got how with you?
She said, we wanted to meet how.
And so, of course, the guys were like, you know, well, no, ma'am, we don't, he's back at the station, but he really has gotten a lot of positive support and feedback and stuff like that from the community.
We've even already had some other agencies within the county contacting me and asking me once we get him trained, would he be an available resource to assist with them as well?
You know, if they have calls or they have responders or something like that, that need that kind of emotional support.
and so it's it's been a I think it was a need maybe that maybe wasn't realized
how big of a need it was and so it's one of those things that's just been a real
blessing ma'am so the vet and animal shelter both list him as a lab mix and
he's just as pretty as can be just as sweet as can be he does a little bit of
puppy teeth and then stuff like that and he doesn't like the word no when
you tell him no he'll kind of get back at you to let you know he doesn't like it
but of course he listens so very good dog yes ma'am thank y'all
I'm going to start off with the support metrics so there was a uptick in the amount of support
requests for the month of January with approximately 65 IT support requests that were worked and
completed for the month.
Moving on to projects, just a couple of projects that we have going on that I wanted
to note.
I'm happy to say that we've just wrapped up on a project to replace our time clock system.
This was a full replacement of the time tracking software as well as the physical time clocks
that our employees use.
This was a joint effort between IT, Finance, and the Human Resources Department and we
spent weeks on evaluation, setup, and testing of the new system before going live just
a week ago.
We've also started working on a replacement for our mass notification system with a move
toward an improved system that will allow for mass notifications not only to the public
but also internal notifications for town staff.
The newer system has some capability to hook into our social media platforms and our
website for faster deployment of notifications.
This project is about 50% completed at this point and should be wrapped up within
the next two weeks.
We have also started a project to implement C-Click Fix, which will provide a one-step
tool to receive track and respond to resident service requests through our website.
I'm also continuing to work on testing for an all-in-one solution that would replace
our aging phones, access control systems, and camera systems, and be able to integrate
those together with features that are improved for our staff's safety as well as the safety
the safety of the public.
The last thing I wanted to mention
is that the United States Department of Justice
has finalized a rule clarifying that municipal websites must
be accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Municipalities serving less than 50,000 residents
will need to comply with these guidelines in the rule
by April 26 of 2027 in an effort
to make sure that we effectively serve our residents I will be working with the
town clerk to ensure that all current and future content on our website will
meet those standards. What does that entail?
There's there's various
guidelines to it. It'll be like
pictures will have once you hover over them you'll you'll be able to see a
description and things like that so because they're not able to type in
something they can find something yet. Yeah there's and we actually use our
vendor that supplies our website that does the build out does build those
websites with compliance in mind but it is a shared responsibility so any of
the content they they can't really control the content that we put on
there so any of the content like pictures and those types of articles
and things like that. It is our responsibility to make sure that those
are in compliance. I think it depends on color too. Yes. It has to be user-friendly and I mean a lot of just some
some practical things. And it covers municipal websites as well as any
mobile applications and things like that. Thank you. I have a question, Justin. You just mentioned something about the time clocks. Was something wrong about old time clocks?
They were extremely aged.
We had also some very negative feedback from supervisors and human resources and different
departments.
It wasn't very user friendly.
Our time clocks, the physical time clocks were just very, very much aged needing to
be replaced.
so it was it was sort of all you know culmination of those things that led to
looking at replacing that
yeah every few years for the for the hardware the system
you know they regularly would put out updates or most systems did so that
depends on how well the system is like.
But for us, we did see a value in moving to this.
This was a system that was accepted
by our financial software.
It was actually the only system that was officially
accepted by our financial software.
And it seems to be, based on the feedback
that I'm getting from people this week,
It seems to be a lot faster, more responsive, easier to use.
It's been a very good transition, I will say.
So we're very, very pleased with that.
Always looking to improve and it actually ended up being cheaper, believe it or not,
than our current solution.
And so that's always a positive, but especially when it goes above and beyond what we already
had.
Any further questions?
Any questions?
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Jaina, is yours quick?
Or?
Okay.
All right.
So this time we will take our break for signing up for public comment if there are
any.
And we'll take a five or ten minute break and resume back shortly for that part of our meeting.
Good afternoon.
I'm glad you let's give me time to talk to you.
I came here to talk to Donna.
Subject is near and dear to my heart.
I came here today to talk about the failure of the town of Burgall to protect its citizens.
I'm talking about the for the. Just
destruction of a rural
agriculture community. Stony
Ryan. And a hundred fifty year
legacy of my family. It's named
on that road.
Lay all this at
the feet of the planning
department. Granted burglars
has its own unified development
ordinance but when it's
definition of real agriculture
so blatantly favors
developments I must speak up.
Burglars definition of real
agriculture goes against
that's based in North Carolina and Pender County's definition of rural agriculture.
To continue to allow this definition to stand threatens all agricultural properties within
Bergall Zoning District.
Well-divided is just the start of a total destruction of the quaint town we all love.
You're inviting all predatory developers that have the money to buy land and hire
lawyers and destroy our web like.
today. Another Leland Hamstead
tomorrow. Is this really what
we want. Also developed this
size where I had a voting block
that could change the politics
of our community. This will
overcrowd our schools rose and
public utilities. And this is
being done by zoning to a
community that can't even
vote for the legislative
representatives. This may be
the last maybe too late
the state. But not too late to
revise the idea to protect from
future development. For you as
commissioners. Realize how this
planning department has failed
the citizens and you as
commissioners. To force you to
vote. A development. That some
of you opposed but because of
the federal lawsuit. Forced to
approve. Thank you. All right,
Mr. Johnny Westbrook.
My name is
John Westbrook. I was born here 82 years ago. And I love this
town. And that's why I'm here.
I you can come home. Because I
did 26 years ago. What I'm going to say today may upset
some people and they do I'm sorry for it. But I wanted to
come and congratulate you for working out that subdivision which was so highly charged against.
I was against the original. 500 was just too much. But when they came back at half the
size I felt that was the right thing to do. I was not allowed to testify because I didn't
have any bearing evidently. You let me speak for 10 minutes as to why I shouldn't. But
But I'm glad you did eventually. You got out of that, increased stormwater management.
But the most important thing to me is our tax base.
On a business in downtown it is dependent upon people coming in those doors.
And if they don't, if we don't grow with the town, the town will deteriorate.
One of the other things that will come is the size of the lodge will be larger.
The houses will be a little bit more expensive.
That might not be good for everybody.
But it will be a higher quality.
I know a lot of people were against the developer.
We can't control who the developer is.
But they built a quality, okay house.
House. But our tax base is very important. And interesting, we talked about taxes before
this started. The last time it was done, my taxes went up 300 percent for my house and
my store. I peeled. They came back and said, Mr. Westbrook, you're right. They reduced
used it to 200 percent instead of 300 percent. And I owned probably the largest single building
in the town. And as I was telling them what my taxes are going to be, but if you want me
to continue to be here, you need to keep our tax basis down. And by having more people
come in, the quality of life will be retained. Actually, what will happen is our tax rate
We'll go down, but the amount of tax we pay in comparison, I think, may actually help
us out by approving it. It's coming, whether you're ready or not, and I thank you for considering
the quality of our life, our tax base, and being able to say no when it's the right
thing to say. So again, thank you for being here. I really appreciate what you've done.
I conclude
those who have signed up for our public forum and comment this afternoon at
this time we will go into our public hearing without being said we will open our public
hearing at this time and we'll have Ron from planning step forward.
This is for a rezoning request, a consideration of a proposed rezoning request for about
three point seven acres of land from an archway residential district with b2 along
highway it's a highway business district located on the western side of
North Carolina Highway 53 east so it's on the western side of North Carolina Highway 53 east and there's its pin number there all right so thank
you madam mayor members of the board this is a request to resume approximately
3.7 acres of land along NC Highway 53 from R20 residential district to a B2
highway business district. Request applies to undeveloped parcels is owned by
Mount Cavalry leadership development and represented by Mr. Henry Nader who is
president of the audience. This is an aerial of the site as you can see on your
screen. The site is currently zoned R20 with the conservation preservation
overlay and you can see on the screen the proposed rezoning would
change only the base zoning from B2. The CPO belay will remain in place continuing to restrict
development and flood plain environmentally sensitive areas. The B2 district is intended for
highway oriented commercial uses and is already established along the corridor. The property
is adjacent to the existing B2 commercial land including nearby large-scale Walmart.
Making this request is consistent with the surrounding zoning land use patterns although
the parcel is slightly under the four acre minimum. It is part of the larger
contiguous B2 area, which I mentioned before, which meets the intent of the
ordinance. As you can see on the screen, there is a flood plain as well as
floodway located on the western portion of the project. Any development within
the floodway will have to go through regulations that work by the Bergall
flood prevention ordinance. A development in the floodway itself will
require a no rise certification from a licensed engineer. This is an aerial
looking aerial in the middle and then looking east and west on each side. This
is a straight rezoning with no specific use proposed at this time. Any future
development would be subject to UDO standards, technical review committee,
NCDOT access requirements, as well as flood regulations.
Proposed the properties
The categories in this land use category are intended to accommodate intense commercial
development in areas where such growth is desirable, particularly a long major.
Railway corridors, commercial corridors, etc.
The category supports broad range of commercial and mixed uses, including large-scale retail
auto-oriented businesses, hotels, shopping centers, etc.
Developments in this expected are expected to follow enhanced design standards that
promote connectivity, screen and landscaping, parking areas and improved
building appearance and protect the environmentally sensitive areas. As a
result, staff recommends approval to propose resigning. The proposed V2
district is consistent with the town of Burgalls future land use map and aligns
closely with the goals and policies outlined in the Burgall 2030
comprehensive land use plan. In fact, the current proposal demonstrates a
stronger alignment with the adopted vision objectives of the plan. It does
any potential areas of concern or deviation. The rezoning request is
reasonable and in the public interest because the proposal emphasizes
commercial growth with higher intensity commercial uses along major
transportation corridors like NC Highway 53. Focusing on development in
areas with existing infrastructure reduces public cost and supports
substantial growth while attracting appropriate business
strengthens local economy and livability.
That does conclude my presentation.
The applicant is here answering questions.
I'm also available for any questions you may have.
Are you Henry?
Henry, is there anything that you would like to say?
It was for John.
Good, thank you all very much for having me.
I appreciate it.
My name is Henry Nadeau, I'm the creative commercial properties for full service commercial real estate brokerage located here in Pender County where I was born and raised.
We are here today on behalf of our clients, the Mount Cavalry Leadership Development Corporation, which is a local nonprofit working to provide career exploration opportunities,
trade skills and college prep studies for at-risk youth primarily in Western
Pender County and we are here to request your support of our you know attempt to
rezone these two parcels to general business with 200 feet of frontage on
highway 53 these lots are located on the highest traffic corridor in the
town of Bergdorf. We're one door down from the largest retail operation in
Western Pender County within 2,000 feet of over a dozen national brand retailers
and quick-serve restaurants. The Bergdorf comprehensive future land use map
designates these lots and surrounding parcels as a commercial growth zone
where intensive commercial growth is desirable. The current R20 zoning is out
of step with the evolving character of the Highway 53 corridor and the
comprehensive land use plans vision for the future of the town of Bergdorf. We
request these two lots be zoned to B2 to match the adjacent parcels to the
and across the street. I think it makes sense for everybody.
My question is to you, Mr. Henry,
is that your company will be reselling to develop that
with some commercial property, so do you have some commercial
candidates in mind that's looking at that property? The reason why
you can't ask that?
The property's been listed for sale. It's okay. You don't have to answer that.
Yeah, I was going to say that we do have an under contract currently.
You do?
Yes, we do.
But I can't disclose who.
Let's end the conversation.
That is irrelevant to today's decision.
Okay.
Any questions in regards to the rezoning?
We're at Henry River, Ron.
All right.
Well, if there is none, are we ready to move, to close this out, move to the,
okay.
All right, so we will close our public hearing.
So the request is to rezone this, as stated,
from a R20 to a B2.
Do we have a motion to support the resolution?
I'll make a motion.
All in favor?
Any opposed?
OK.
And do we have a motion to approve the ordinance?
So it was a P2.
All in favor?
Okay,
with that being said, that close that finishes out our public forum and our public
hearing and we'll go back to our departmental updates.
Thank you Henry for being here this evening.
Hold on a moment.
I mean I don't just know where he went to and you can't just leave like that brown are you
going to check okay
you may receive Jane
Alex with Parks and Recreation Cody Cody's out
at the director's conference this week so I'm just filling in a few updates from him
programs wise we had our daddy daughter and mother son dances past weekend
those are both sold out we're actually looking at increasing capacity in some
way in the future we don't have any more programs for the rest of February but
we're ramping up in March with all Arbor Day Mayers Gala all that kind of
stuff just a reminder that the blueberry festivals pancake breakfast is this
month February 21st at the fire department takeout will also be at
fire department so there's not two locations just if y'all are marking your
calendars for your families.
It's okay I can hear you but I'm not sure if I can.
Any questions about programs? Okay we are working on a mural project this was
originally brought up by the beautification committee we just
thought we would go ahead and put a mural in a park so we have one planned
for Hankins Park more details to come a design will be presented to you
guys at the next meeting. So David and Cody have been working on that. West Side Trail
update. This is from Cody and there is a lot. So if you have any questions, you'll probably
have to ask him. All encroachments have been signed with residents and finalized DOT has
also improved the encroachment request for Penderley and Bridgers, which was a big one
that we were waiting on, so that is done. Sidewalk work should be completed this
week with contractors. Terry Spell Mechanical has been scheduled for the installation of
the rapid flashing beacons. I think there's three or four locations for those. Crosswalk
quotes have been approved and placed on the schedule for installation. Cody's working
with landscaping to finish up cleaning and installing dirt and grass seed. And staff
will be working to finish painting and installing signs along the trail. We have gotten some
new maps and doing our stencils on the trail just to keep everyone informed where the trail is going
and then the concerned resident on Hay Street with the landscaping that got removed that has all
been worked out those items will be going back in in May so we've located them all it's just
not the right time for them yet. Any questions? Does she know about that? She does know. Okay great
I do have a question, I guess I'm really close to this thing on time, am I being good, let
me look up, James, this might be a question because it's in line with Cody, on Hays Street
the markings are the beacons, what are we going to do there for safety, it's just
a follow up, you weren't part of that last time, so I just want to make sure it's
on the record that we keep following up on the safety
crossing over there at Hayes Street.
They did a good job by communicating what you all
did a great job by communicating with those two
family, those two residents to get that resolved.
Now my concern is it's just the safety because of cars
parked too close up crossways with the kids going
through you know, you want to give the kids
opportunity to see the cars and you want the cars
who's driving by have the opportunity to see the kids
crossing so James is aware of speaking I just wanted to follow up on that correct
and Cody has gotten quotes from the striping folks that are going to be
doing all the crosswalks so that'll be done with with striping to delineate the
crosswalk area as well as some safety zones on either side of the cross
great. But I mean straight we just needed to. Address or. In the future. Yes.
Any more
questions for. Thank you for the update. All right planning department.
We've been working
on way finding project for quite a while. Right.
And now we're in the process where we are doing encroachment agreements with NCDOT, which
has proved to have been rather challenging, but Ms. Brie is working her way through that
quite diligently. We're still working on a UDO rewrite we took this month off from planning
board at kind of conflicts with the chamber meeting on the 20th, I believe, as well as
it's going to give us a little bit more time to focus on the UD or rewrite.
Normal miscellaneous planning activities, which if you ever want to come over, we can
show you any of the 300 random things that we do weekly.
I'm happy to sit down with anybody.
We've also had discussions with some future incoming developments or developments waiting
on certain infrastructural components.
Those are constantly going.
We've met a few times about civic permitting extension.
I think it's an extension to some of the existing software that we have in the town, which will be a good advancement for the town,
as well as looking at some permitting tech training opportunities and the rezoning that we just had.
Several things going on, but if you all need anything or have any questions, feel free to give me a call.
So can you go over the UDO rewrite, or so we're doing the UDO rewrite?
So it's a whole new UDO, it's based around the skeleton of another town's UDO.
So what would, we would normally have to get a consultant to do and pay them anywhere
between $50,000 to $150,000.
We were able to do this in-house and over the course of the last 18 months probably,
maybe a little last year or so.
but just retrofitting that for the town,
specifying it into the town needs,
taking things like the use table
which has a, it's tremendously detailed
and making that more generalized
which is more customer friendly.
Yeah, some things like that.
So ours was rather large and we were,
yeah, it's shrinking it,
but making it more user friendly.
Condensing it down,
making the UDO rather user friendly too.
The current UDO is not user friendly.
Almost everyone calls me and complains about it
because there's a lot of general statute jargon
that's been copied in there
and it's very difficult to use or understand.
It doesn't give you a lot of guidance.
So, this should give you guidance.
It's not gonna, it's not here to prevent development
but it's here to create a smarter opportunity
for development for property owners.
That's correct.
But we can't possibly,
we're working out when it's done, when we'll be able to adopt it. Correct. Correct. That
is hung up in some legislation. So when residents and folks you know. And I think what the hope
is is by the time I take it through planning board to get them to approve it and then
take it to you all we're hoping that that legislature will kind of be worth that situation
So just kind of wanted him to explain where that sits and how that affects us when residents
and developers reference our UDO and question maybe how things are done.
Any questions for Ron?
you just pointed out right there, and what Ron just pointed out, the gentleman, one of
the gentlemen who spoke at the public comment about the UDO, our hands are tied, as Ron
just pointed out, we cannot down zone because of that law that was passed at the end of
2024.
So, you know, even if we wanted to down zone in that area, we wouldn't have had the
ability to do it.
I think that's the public often times forgets that it's not your fault that you can't do those things general assemblies tied your hands because well developers donate a lot of money to political campaigns.
And I wish that we could have done this for that citizen to have heard but hopefully it will hear that but I'm glad you said that and I did I asked that to make sure that we can clear up and be transparent.
And I'm sorry, I missed that comment, I stepped out for personal reasons.
It's okay, it's not that we didn't respond but just saying that you didn't get to go before public comment time.
So again, we just want us to be transparent and make sure that we understood it.
Sure, and anybody who has questions public or anyone, they're always welcome to reach out and I think a misconception through the public is that we control development.
And that's not not necessarily true. We guide development into a smart development pattern
We do not take away from people's property rights
You know one thing
Because I'm a really not a big Facebook person and that's how I was speaking to the mayor
Signed up what town of Bergall community of Bergall. I have like five different ones. I look at and those things
to make your minds go crazy because some of the individuals that comment, I wish I would
sit, I wish they would sit right here to look at some of the things and what you just explained
would be nice to be put in a format maybe on the town of Berger or whatever so they can
read that too.
Sure.
You know my shoulders are big enough, they can shoot out all they want but I did get
educated more so on how this works to buy right and all that and that was the
ignorance of my part, but throwing spaghetti on the wall to see if it'll work, you know,
some things benefited. Well, it may and may not have benefited. But to educate the residents
on the comment you just made, I kind of wish that could get posted because they can look
at that also. And State won't, we are, our hands are tied. Good statement, we can
only guide. We really can't do much else because of the laws that we have to be governed by.
But maybe something like that can go on, because that's all I'm hearing now. And you know,
I don't have, when the gentleman, I'm just itching when to tell him, you know, say something,
but I know as learning to be up here, shut your darn mouth, just don't say anything,
but posting something to make people feel better about or maybe hopefully
different about how this board has to react to governing things or sit here to
get educated you know every day is educational not come up here and sit down
and read but maybe they need to be educated just as much so and we as the
five or six members up here won't take as much heat.
This is a question I'm going to ask.
We still rise with House Bill 765, 765,
and also Senate Bill 205, but those still
have a little bit of a voice there.
That's what we're referring to, yes.
Yeah.
Ron, is it possible that you can do a little article
in our time newsletter?
Sure.
Stating something like that, just a few paragraphs.
just to give some more clarity so we wouldn't take so much heat up here.
Education is always good.
Education, educating them.
And I'm sure all of us, when we ran, we knew we were going to take heat on something sooner or later.
But if we can help educate individuals, it would help us do our job a little bit easier, too, I think.
With that, is it possible just to have a session set up here
and invite the public to come in and educate them on this.
Well, we spoke about that.
I'm saying this about this, just a follow-up.
Yeah, I agree.
We spoke about that, and so we were
going to have an open town hall that
would have department heads like Ron and folks sitting up
here to answer those questions.
And I believe it's time, because we haven't held it yet,
and it's heavy wood.
And the thing is, some of the same people
that would do all of that speaking or typing.
You never see them in here.
So, you know, it's like a spinning wheel.
So we sit here and maybe we have seven people
that's very concerned, but the ones who are spewing
and they like to read and write, maybe they have opportunity
to read an article that you put out.
So, anyway, that's my two cents.
I'll just have that somewhere.
We'll work on that right next time, okay.
Thank you very much.
Good
evening, Mayor, members of the board.
My name is James Ralph, Chief of Police.
In the month of January, I had Sergeant Padgett and Sergeant Kennedy.
We sent them to a couple of classes.
One was at Salemburg dealing with weathering the storm.
it's basically a to keep officers from getting burnout to talk about the
stresses of the job that we see every day taking care of our own you know we go
to we go to bad calls we see things that most people don't have to see
thankfully but it's a way for mental health for law enforcement and other
first responders to be able to recognize the things that we do deal
with a fact is we're all human beings at the end of the day and so it was a good
class they they went to we're looking at bringing the instructor that taught that
class she's close by she's in Anzlo County we're looking at bringing her
here to do a class with all of our staff open it up to some other local
agencies just to try to share that message but in addition to that they
went to background investigations trying to get both of them through a
course that way as we try to work to fill some of the positions that you know
right now we've got one open position with the police department so somebody's
got to run those backgrounds and be able to get those people hired whenever we
whenever we get quality applicants back the first or the toward the end of
January whenever we had the ice storm that weekend Saturday Sunday we had
some staff that worked. I think by the time it was all said and done sixteen or
seventeen days straight. It's not just the police department there was
representatives from many of the many of the town offices. I know public works
had people here. That that weekend and then the following week dealing with the
snowstorm. Firehead extra personnel on staff we had extra personnel on staff
and just want to kind of take a minute to recognize the other
department heads that are in the room. That we all work together
is first time we've had any kind of event since I've been the
police chief and being in a EOC working with those folks, it
couldn't have gone any better. Truthfully. Thankfully, we
didn't have any major incidents. But just from our side of the
house to everybody else. Thank you for the job that was
done. We endured a lot of long nights and long days, but
everybody got along our town I think excelled especially when it came to the
streets getting opened back up some of the snow removal our guys are rocking it
so thankful to be a part of that one thing I do want to share with the
community as a as a whole February the 23rd the Pender County Sheriff's
Office is hosting a canine it's called a urban tracking class so it's
for something in a setting. Um. You don't have any information in your in
your packets. I got this information a little bit later, but I'm going to get
some information to the town clerk to try to get out on the electronic sign as
well as in our newsletter. Um there's close to 50 canine teams coming in to
the county for that training. It'll be lasting from the 23rd to the 25th.
They'll be utilizing all portions of Pender County, but they're going to
kind of a hub here in Bergall. They'll be doing some of the. We don't just do
apprehension type work with canals. We also do a lot of lost persons. People with
cognitive impairments. Children that may get lost. So they're going to be doing
some of those type scenarios here in the downtown area. So you might end up
see enough. There's been increased patrol presence a lot more. They have they
have. And we're just trying to be a good steward. We've partnered with them. They
will be having a dinner at the depot one of the nights, but wanted to try to get
that word out to the citizens and the business owners that way that they
It doesn't draw any extra alarm from anyone.
So,
with that, any questions?
Thank you all for the job that you did do during this.
Good job.
I couldn't even, I had to date out of my house.
I do have to say, I did enjoy the response that you gave me
whenever we checked with you.
He told us that he had plenty of snow available at his house
if anybody needs something.
Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Public services, Chris.
Good evening, Madam
Mayor, members of the board, Chris Medlin, Public Services Director. For the month of
January, we repaired three water leaks, replaced two sewer taps that were given as issues
down at the main installed two water taps upgraded the side entrance to PD and
the front entrance to inspections today we started hanging up the hometown
hero banner some probably got half of them a little over half completed the
water main project on Fremont streets coming along well they've installed
a little over a thousand feet
And with the weather we had no longer and they've been at it, that's pretty good production.
Courthouse Avenue, the sidewalk there should resume. I talked to the contractor today. He
was hoping to be here today, but he didn't make it, so, but he should be back tomorrow.
And they were hoping to get it done by the end of this week at one side, but Ben, he
wasn't able to at the end today. I'll probably be the first next week.
I'll stand by
for any questions. You and I have already spoke prior to this. And I also, I spoke to Dustin
because there's pictures that were sent to me by a citizen and it is pertaining to an
area on West Bridges and North McCulloch Street.
The area looks like it was washed
out a little bit and I'm going to let you explain, you know, and that's the pictures.
You can actually see where it's just washed all out and we can look at it later on.
But explain what's going on and what we need to do to move forward on this.
Yes, sir.
Has this picture been sent to James?
No, I just learned how to.
This was sent to me today and I reviewed it just as I was coming in.
and dust and just inform me how I can send the presentations
and then move it forward, unless you wanna do it now.
That's fine, I just said that you'll send that.
Yeah, and I'll send them.
I'll try to get in as early as I can
so we can flash up on the board.
It's the second time I had an issue
and I, you know, technology, I'm not right there yet.
I need to have a dust in at my house.
Yes, sir.
So one of you has a picture of at that intersection
during the trail work. We had a citizen talk about his ditch wasn't draining. So
we investigated and there was actually a sewer line that was just about dead
center of the pipe crossing the road. So if any dirt got blown into it or
whatever, the ditch would not drain. So what we did was we built an
what they call an interference box. The sewer still runs through the box
But you could storm drain just inside so it's got a bigger area to get around the sewer line
So that was installed and that's we have a couple of other areas where we're going to get the contractor to come back and dress up
And that is one of them
because it's it's being washed out currently so
Chris they're going to build that area back up so that
We eliminate the wash out.
Yes, sir. We can get the dirt put back and get him to put some matting down like they did along the trail.
Stabilize it.
Yeah, unfortunately when you disrupt those areas it takes a while to...
Yes, ma'am.
So is that something you do in house or is that something we contract out?
That one, since the contractor was there, we had him do it there.
Oh, yeah.
It was part of the sidewalk trails.
Okay.
Which is why.
Yeah, and that the water main project you said on Fremont that is that station
fenced area, fenced area I think they're positioned there. Yes I understand they
have to be out of the week prior to the blueberry fence and they can come back
the week following. That's fine I know just we were all curious what it was at
And the last thing we spoke about the line is still located up here on Walker Street.
Yes, sir.
We report on it.
We said that was an AT&T line.
Is that right?
I believe that one is just right.
Yeah, we need to contact Joey on that.
Yes.
And it's just like the spectrum line there on Northwood.
I spoke to those individuals.
It's a deadline that's going right to the house.
You said the ambulance took it out before.
But that has been going on since September, October, and a spectrum.
I did give them a call and I think it went all the way to India or something.
I mean, you sit there forever to try to get.
Yes, sir.
We do call and report on them, but after that it's.
We'll use a contact.
We have to try to see if we can get that line picked up because it's been there
over too long.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Okay,
so that finishes out our departmental updates items from the manager.
So just a few updates. Again, town staff did absolutely excellent during the storm that we had.
I greatly appreciate all the work that they put in and the hours that they put in.
Like Chief Raul said, everything went as good as can be expected, especially with the amount of snow that we've had that we haven't seen in many, many years.
but Cruz did absolutely excellent, had a lot of phone calls and emails and messages, Facebook
commenting on how well Berghaal was situated with the cleanup efforts.
Speed limit reduction, I talked with NTDOT last meeting, the board approved to recommend
and speed limit reductions on West Bridger Street extension
and West Bridger Street.
So I've contacted and talked with Alan Hancock
about those proposals.
He's got to run those of the chain
to see how to do traffic studies
and see exactly whether it warrants
the speed limit reduction or not,
but it's in their court now.
The three-way and four-way stop sign intersections, and their consent agenda that ordinance was
officially approved, so public works will be working on removing those and doing some education
on the stop signs that will be removed at those four-way and three-way intersections.
We have been heavily working on the budget.
This is our extremely busy time when it comes to budget.
Our budget retreat is March 2nd and 3rd.
With the board, the first date is with all department heads
and some staff, as well as the commissioners.
And then the second day is just with the finance staff,
myself and the commissioners.
And then if we need to bring anybody out 10, we can at that point.
But we will go through the prioritization.
This is kicking off the budget process.
So this is really looking at the big picture and looking at the kind of where we stand
and then setting goals and objectives for the budget itself.
And then over the next couple of months, we will be working on the individual line item budget
that will be brought back to the board during work sessions to go over it more in detail
and approve those capital items and determine how to fund those items and all those requests.
So it is kind of a tedious long process, but it's pretty much the same year after year.
This year we do have the rebound going on, so that's going to throw a little bit
of uncertainty into things, but we'll work through those as they come about.
Non-profit funding applications are due by March 1st, so that was a process that we started
several years ago where non-profits had to apply to the town by March 1st of every year
in order to be considered for funding for the future budget year.
So, just a reminder that if you are no of any nonprofits or anybody that has normally requested funding, they need to get those in by March 1st.
Chris talked on the downtown and Courthouse Avenue project.
Mass Tech was doing boring, and they'll be doing some more boring tomorrow under the courthouse grounds
and tying in those pedestals there that will be removed from overhead and going to underground.
They also are going to be replacing the pole at the corner of Right Street and Wilmington Street,
right there beside Johnny Westbrook's store, so they'll be replacing that pole.
And then once they get that done, then they will be able to start removing the power lines
from down right street and down courthouse avenue.
So it's getting close to having those to be able to be removed.
Once the poles get removed, then we can go back and do the final sidewalk work.
But we don't want to do the sidewalk work with poles still there and then have to
patch where the poles work.
So we'll do that all in conjunction with that project.
to interrupt you a minute. So everything that's tagged with the orange is being removed. Correct?
It should be, yeah. Yes. So it's being removed.
How would that affect the stop light there in 2027 whenever it's coming?
It will not. They've worked in conjunction with that project.
And actually, if you look at the intersection here where they moved the poles back on
right street they moved them back north that was all for that but still they
gotta have somewhere near Johnny's building I think they're gonna go on the
courthouse side and they're gonna go on the Adams tire side okay so it'll be
across from each other and they'll be the black masked arms stop lights same
there as well as at Wilmington and Walker, they will be replaced with massed arms instead
of the power lines.
So getting in the short rows of that project, there's still quite
a bit that has to be done, especially with if there's any other utility companies that
are on those poles. Duke can get theirs off the poles, but then they have notified the
other utility companies, but trying to push them
to get their stock of polls can take some more time
in fighting, but we, Duke's done their part
in notifying them that they have to get off of their polls.
They do belong to Duke, so they ultimately
have control over them.
Water and sewer master plan, I've got a meeting
that'll be happening next week to go over the details.
Myself and Chris will be meeting with
W. K. Dixon on, sorry, McKim and Creed on that one, McKim and Creed on the water and
sewer master plan and see where they stand with all the surveying and the
beginning of the modeling side of things and then the water and or the
storm water master plan they've gotten the final surveys in everything's
wrapping up and they should have that final product here in the next couple
weeks we expect. So then that's when we can turn that that system that y'all have seen
the GIS system, we'll be able to turn that online and be able to look at the detailed data there.
I think that's all I've got at this point.
All right, any questions for James or any of those projects currently?
All right, Tarny, do you have anything for open?
not for open, but very, very short one for most.
Okay, all right, man, right along.
Item for the mayor and the board.
So item A, we talked about it,
maybe a resolution amending the suggested rules
of procedure for the town,
but we also spoke if we weren't comfortable with that,
we could bring that back in March for review.
What is the purpose of the board?
Were there any other recommendations?
Did we get time to review it?
Well, I did, and I pay attention to, I think, just the parasol board of those words.
So can we get those corrections to Kristen?
She then maybe identify those in red and bring it back to the March meeting for approval?
Yeah, I'm telling you that's sufficient.
I actually had them all highlighted already several weeks ago here,
and this is the new copy that I was making changes,
but what I'll do is I'll just highlight them more so
just give it to you.
You can type them up, work and review it.
I mean, just because I really know it may not be everything,
so give them a chance to.
Yeah, I'll compile what's suggested to be changed
and then we can bring it back,
make sure it's up to par and then we can adopt them.
All right, item D, we've got consideration of appointing two members to the Parks and
Rec Advisory Board.
At one point, we had some conversation about this about, I think, last meeting or so.
They met last night, I believe, or this week for their, this month's Parks and Rec
Advisory Board meeting.
I think they meet every three months or every couple of months, correct?
And so we were advertising these positions for a little while, but we've had three
applications that came in you have copies of those they're also dated upon
how they were received so
being those three applications I think two currently
are within city limits and one is in our ETJ which our do our rules do allow
ETJ we weren't fully I guess aware of that but it does allow the code of
Oh, actually the zip code 28425, that is a rule that many of us are fully aware of, but the zip code, not just the E.T.J. does allow for 28425.
So, that being said,
I mean, I appreciate the three applications.
She's in the ETJ, but the rule was allowing...
She says she's outside the ETJ. I'm sorry, you're right, ETJ, but she lives in...
Too fast.
So we do have two openings three applicants obviously we would be open to if Kristen I
guess if you can look at the regulations on adding a board member just having an eighth
board member we think they're all good applicants it will give us a little more flexibility
with we there's always nights that advisory board members can't come so we think they
would all be an asset so if that's if you guys want to a point three we are open
into that.
If this one doesn't only vote a lot.
They do not.
No, there's not really any financial decisions.
A lot of it's just like, please show your support for X project, and then they do.
Or ideas.
Ideas, yeah.
Yeah, things.
They give us a lot of feedback.
Things they like to see in the department.
Yeah.
So you're not working with a quorum or anything like that, so they just.
Yeah, not typically.
I mean, we do try to have a quorum.
It would up that quorum number to five instead of four.
but we do still think it would allow a little more flexibility for the current
members. How many current members do you have? We have it's currently a seven
member board we only have five sitting right now.
Yes yeah we just had two
resignations within the past month.
Or for years. Yeah.
What would we would just make that change up here if we wanted to make it an eight member board? Yeah I would just need to make a motion to amend the rules for that committee to allow that number of members.
first. First make that motion first and then we can just bring that back.
Okay, so we've
got a motion to make it an eight member. Okay, all in favor of that. Okay, that being said,
we've got three members. Miss Mary Kate linear. She's here with us in the audience.
I'm sorry about that, I mean I think they're great applicants as well so do we have a motion
to approve all three applicants?
Second.
All right, all in favor?
All right.
In it post.
All right.
We'll just make them all three aware and make them aware of the next meeting date.
All right.
Thank you for joining us and being a part of our Parks and Rec Board.
It's hyping your application, so we agree.
Yes.
The reading.
Okay, organized.
We appreciate that.
Oh, right.
Great.
We'll get back to Mike.
There you go.
Yeah, they won't have that problem.
All right.
Item C, consideration of appointing another member to the beautification committee.
So we had to open that up to add another committee member on that, a resident, because
a lot of staff and all select officials are on that board as well and so we wanted to
add that. So we've only had one application and this member is very,
he participates in
many things in town. We work with him quite often on various projects, but he does live
of, um, in the 28425 but well outside the ETJ. And I don't know that we have, um, the
Parks and Rec advisory board is allowing 28425. Right. So beautifications rules to state
town limits or ETJ. Yes. So do we, we want to keep the beautification committee within?
Yeah. Beautification membership is required for you to be a resident within the city
limits or E.J. Yeah. That's what I thought. So if we want to make it consistent for area of, you know,
do we want, right, do we want to keep it within city limits or are we okay with extending that to
28425? That's the long way out, but he is very active.
But I'm wondering if people want to be
interesting here because it's hard to feel positions already I don't think it's
good and this is a gentleman which we have gentlemen on this board but I think
it's great that guys can make pretty decisions to you know I like flowers we
need somebody to get in women straight so are we opposed to leaving this
application open any longer or we need to make this decision now that's I guess
There's a, I would recommend that we approve this application, but I know as we couldn't
recently have a meeting because we didn't have enough members able to attend last Friday.
This is another board that we could extend possibly.
Currently we only have two residents on the board, we're adding a third, we have,
We have someone that's very interested and that could make for
All right, so do we have a motion to allow for resident members on our beautification committee?
Okay, are we going to change that?
We're also including to change to the 28425 area code.
Okay, who made that motion? I'm sorry.
I did.
All in one motion all in favor all in one motion for that to correct the make sure
description right before going to a four member four member resident member and the
way to a fortified right all in favor I opposed okay all right that being said do
We have a motion to approve the applicant.
It's almost a move, second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Item D, any other items?
I don't think I have anything other than, again,
thank you to our town staff for staying up late,
getting up early, spending the night here,
the weekend here, and making sure
that all the things in town work well
when the residents were taken care of,
as well as town staff.
So we thank you and applaud you for that.
I appreciate your commitment to being here.
All
right.
Mr. Pierceau, do you have any items that need to...
No, I spoke enough.
Okay.
All right.
Commissioner George?
No.
Yes.
I talked to Sarah Fulton after our meeting yesterday and she called me back this morning.
The county is in contract negotiations with the Verizon people to get on their
tower over here off of Wimbledon Street and they've had to go back and wait on
Verizon they got to sturdy up some things on that tower to get that antenna
installed but it is it's moving forward it's just in a little stall right now
so they get the engineering to sturdy that thing up a little bit more for that
So it is in the making.
Do we think that that one is going to be held?
Oh yeah, that's going to.
Okay.
That close to downtown area that's going to help cover.
Heck yeah.
I just want to make sure.
But she, I talked to her yesterday after noon and then she called me back this morning
and said that they're still working to get it done.
Okay, great.
So for public comment or for public knowledge, we know we need some better cell phone
service and we were getting time to address that so hang tight we're working working on
that with the county it's been in their court a little bit just going to be on their property
all right thank you for that anything else just
want to thank you for your work that you've done
doing the storm I thank you for your commitment and I'm truly grateful that you're an employee of the borough
Thank you.
All right.
Mr. Duffy?
Commissioner Duffy?
I'm just going to ditto.
We appreciate you guys.
I
don't think I have anything else that we haven't discussed already.
So that being said, do we have a motion to go into closed session?
Motion to go into closed session.
All right.
All in favor?
All right.
Any opposed?
All right.
Good evening.
Have a good evening, everyone.
Can I compete?
Staff, be careful.
and we'll take a few.
We need to take a vote before we dismiss or adjourn for the
evening to clarify or wrap up the Chamber of Commerce funding. I think the board
was in agreement to fund the chamber of twenty thousand dollars throughout
July 1st and we would reconsider their ask in the new budget for the 26 27
budget year. So with that being said, we need to take a vote. I need to because I am a member of the
Chamber. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Do we have a motion to recuse? All in favor? Can you
post? All right. With that being said, Commissioner McDuffie has recused herself with that. Do we
have a motion to support that request. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, so
we'll move us forward with supporting the chamber and with that too that
finishes out our meeting and do we have a motion to adjourn? All in favor? All right.
Thank you, and we will, we have a lot of upcoming events,
so we will see each other a lot over the next couple of weeks.