[0:00] You said you might. You said, "Yeah." I
was like, "Yeah, you might."
[0:03] » Okay.
>> You could prove it's subject to
[0:10] » the board receiving.
[0:14] » However youall want to do it.
[0:22] » All right.
>> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm
[0:26] Emily Truman, serve as the 2026 chair of
the Gates County Board of Commissioners.
[0:30] I'm joined tonight by my vice chair
Nathan Barryman, uh, Commissioner
[0:34] Jonathan Kretic, Commissioner Brian
Roundtree, Commissioner Dave Foresight,
[0:37] County Manager Scott Sour, County
Attorney Thomas Wood, and clerk to the
[0:41] board Renee Draper, Commissioner
Barryman is going to provide the
[0:45] invocation and lead the pledge this
evening.
[0:52] » Dear Lord, thank you for bringing us all
here tonight to conduct our county's
[0:55] business. Please settle down with us.
Give us the patience and the wisdom that
[0:59] we see fit so that we able to um
conduct business as you seek.
[1:06] » In your reign we pray. Amen.
>> Amen.
[1:08] » Amen.
>> I pledge algiance to the flag of the
[1:13] United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation
[1:19] under God, indivisible with liberty and
justice for all.
[1:30] All right. Thank you, sir. Um, and
moving forward, are there any amendments
[1:35] to the agenda? And if not, we'll
entertain a motion to approve the agenda
[1:38] as presented.
>> So move.
[1:41] » Is there a second?
>> All right. Close session.
[1:46] » Second.
>> Close session.
[1:48] » So
So
[1:51] then all in Yeah. Okay.
>> Yeah. So, sorry about that. Before we
[1:56] moved a little too fast there, I would
like to uh amend the minutes to have a
[2:00] close session at the
>> agenda. Excuse me. The amend the agenda
[2:05] to have a close session at the end of
the meeting.
[2:07] » So, we had a motion on the floor. So, he
would have to amend his motion if we
[2:10] were to do that.
>> Yes. I amen. My motion
[2:12] » to close. Okay. All right. So, motion
and a second on that. All in favor?
[2:20] Close session. Okay. There we go. That
is unanimous. All right. So, now do we
[2:26] have a motion to So, that was to add the
um close session to the agenda.
[2:32] Need a motion to approve the agenda as
amended.
[2:37] » Madam Chair, I move that we uh approve
the agenda as amended.
[2:43] » Okay, we have
>> second that.
[2:45] » All right. And all in favor? Okay, that
is all five.
[2:49] » Thank you all. All right. and then we
will move down to the consent agenda.
[2:53] Are there any amendments or
clarifications for the items listed on
[2:56] the consent agenda?
[3:00] » And if not, if we can get a motion to
approve the consent agenda as presented.
[3:04] » So, I'll move to approve them.
>> Okay. So, we have move for approval. Do
[3:08] we have a second?
>> Second.
[3:10] » All right. All in favor for the approval
of the consent agenda.
[3:14] » Minutes.
>> Okay.
[3:15] » Consent agenda and minutes or no. Okay.
>> That is on the consent agenda. Yeah, the
[3:19] minutes are okay. Um, all right.
Perfect. So, that is unanimous. The next
[3:24] thing we have on the agenda is for
Sheriff Campbell. Um, if he has an
[3:27] update this evening for us,
[3:36] [clears throat]
[3:39] folks, I'll be real quick. Just a just a
couple things. One thing on the law
[3:42] enforcement side, we are continuing to
see and catch people driving at
[3:46] extremely high rates of speed in the
county. Had one last night at 110, one
[3:50] night before at 114 mph. Uh I've got
multiple deputies with radars and we are
[3:56] catching them and we are stopping them.
But uh it's it's everywhere in the
[3:59] county and I don't there is no stopping
to people are just driving like maniacs.
[4:04] And uh other two things, we got two
events coming up. Both very very special
[4:10] events in October on National Night Out
October 6. We've got the night and gale
[4:15] that's going to fly in and we also going
to have the Batmobile there. So it
[4:19] should be a really good event. The other
event we've never participated in, I'm
[4:23] looking forward to it. It's called
Battle of the Badges. There's a flag
[4:27] football game. Uh we'll paired up with
[snorts] Kerry Tuck and Camden counties
[4:33] to make a team. Uh Pas Tank, uh
Pquimmans and Choan will be the other
[4:39] team. So I'm looking forward to that.
That that'll be September 26th at the
[4:43] Pquimman's High School football stadium.
So anyway, that's all I got. Thank you.
[4:49] » Thank you.
>> And I will be playing. So we might have
[4:53] a notice of potential quorum that day
over at the for women's county high
[4:58] school. [laughter]
Okay. All right. So u moving to public
[5:02] comments. Miss Ray, do we have anyone
signed up to speak tonight?
[5:10] » No. Okay. Moving along. Um
we have two special presentations
[5:16] tonight. The first we have Miss
Elizabeth Mitchell with the Boys and
[5:19] Girls Club. We can invite you to the
podium. Thank you.
[5:28] Good evening. I have some information
for you all about.
[5:34] » You going to do it?
[5:40] » Um, thank you all so much for the
opportunity to speak with you tonight.
[5:44] My name is Elizabeth Mitchell and I'm
the executive director of Boys and Girls
[5:48] Clubs of the Albam Marl. Um, we serve
two clubs in Edenton and Elizabeth City
[5:55] and are soon to open a new another club
in Perquins County in January of 27. So,
[6:01] I'm here to introduce to you guys a
little bit about our organization and
[6:05] tell you what we do for the young people
we serve. Um, I know you may have heard
[6:09] about us in name, but you may not
understand the impact uh that we have on
[6:13] the young people we serve. Uh we are a
nonprofit organization that serves
[6:18] school-aged children between the ages of
six and 18 during critical out of school
[6:22] time hours. Um our clubs in Edon and
Elizabeth City are open about 4 hours
[6:28] every day after school and more
importantly we offer an 8-week summer
[6:33] camp that operates Monday through
Thursday 8 to 5:30. Um, our mission is
[6:39] to inspire and enable all young people,
especially those who need us the most,
[6:43] to reach their full potential as
responsible, productive, caring
[6:47] citizens. And that is exactly what we
aim to do. And every one of our
[6:51] activities is geared toward every day
after school. Our programs are focused
[6:56] on four key areas: academic success,
character and leadership development,
[7:01] healthy lifestyles, and workforce
readiness. So, when the kids arrive at
[7:05] the club after school, um they go into
what we call power hour, which is our
[7:10] homework help and tutoring program.
We've got a very robust uh tutoring
[7:15] program at our club in Edon that's
manned by volunteers and run by our
[7:19] education director. We collect report
cards for all of our uh club members. We
[7:24] analyze them and those kids who are
falling the furthest behind are paired
[7:29] with a one-on-one tutor in our tutoring
room. Um and then our education director
[7:34] goes and visits the schools to uh work
side by side in the classroom with
[7:40] another set of students who are falling
even further behind than that. So we're
[7:44] really intentional about who we target
in terms of our academic success
[7:49] programs. After power hour, we serve
dinner. Um this is a part of a federally
[7:54] funded feeding program that we offer at
both of our clubs. Um, and there's more
[7:59] data in the um, handout that you gave
regarding how many meals we served and
[8:03] all of that. Um, we serve dinner, as I
said, and an evening snack during our
[8:08] afterchool program and during the
summer, we serve breakfast, lunch, and
[8:12] snack. Um, after dinner, everybody
rotates through a variety of different
[8:17] activities from STEM activities,
um, like unstructured play out on the
[8:23] playground. Uh we offer football,
soccer, uh I think I said STEM programs,
[8:30] healthy lifestyles activities. We have a
social worker at each one of our clubs
[8:34] who is there to kind of provide what one
of them refers to as real time therapy.
[8:39] So um and she can catch the kids as as
they get off the school bus and help
[8:44] them with little things that every child
encounters. And the beauty of being from
[8:49] a small town is we are aware of the big
things that children experience both in
[8:53] the home um and at school. And she's
there to catch that and and have a more
[8:59] intentional approach to those kids who
need that extra support. Um
[9:05] we charge for our club in Edon just $25
an a year to attend our um afterchool
[9:14] program. At our club in Elizabeth City,
we've recently had to increase our cost
[9:18] over there. And so the cost is $25 a
month. But having said that, we don't
[9:23] turn anybody away. Again, another beauty
of a small town. You're, you know, who
[9:27] needs the extra support and are able to
provide all of that. Um, so basically
[9:32] the Boys and Girls Club is all about
just leveling the playing field for
[9:35] kids. We believe that every child
deserves a chance to be a success. No
[9:40] matter who their parents are, no matter
what their parents do, no matter the
[9:43] community or um home environment that
they experience. We believe that every
[9:48] child deserves a fair shot to reach
their full potential and should never be
[9:52] limited again by the things that they
experience at home that are beyond their
[9:57] control. Um so I'm excited about the
possibility of bringing a Boys and Girls
[10:03] Club to the Gates County community. I
know Emily has been to our club in Edon
[10:07] and and toured maybe about a year or so
ago. So, I would love to give all of you
[10:12] a tour around of either of our
facilities. I think that's the best way
[10:16] to see the programs that we do in action
and see the young kids involved and
[10:20] engaged um and the important support
that we provide not only for them but
[10:25] for working parents uh in the
communities that we serve.
[10:29] » Yeah. Perfect. I'm going to open up for
comments and questions from the board.
[10:34] Um I will say it was a great tour and I
know when I was there she mentioned that
[10:37] we did have some Gates County students
that were taking part in the campuses in
[10:40] Elizabeth City and Eden. So
>> yeah, every year we have um kids come
[10:44] from Gates County and Perquimman's which
kind of prompted our growth into women.
[10:48] So
>> yeah,
[10:50] » uh we're currently evaluating uh uses of
space and everything for our Buckland
[10:54] school. So I know that's been discussed
as far as a Boys and Girls Club there
[10:57] and and could we fit it into the
footprint and all that kind of good
[11:01] stuff. So, as we go down that path and
and uh
[11:06] put everybody's names in a hat that
would like to have uh space there.
[11:10] » Mhm.
>> Um I'm kind of looking forward to that
[11:13] discussion and what will be the needs
and your requirements uh as we get to
[11:16] that point. So,
>> yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah. Boys
[11:19] and girls clubs can operate in any kind
of environment, schools, independent
[11:23] facilities, all all of the above. Yeah.
>> And I'm most definitely the advocate of
[11:27] the boys and girls club. Uh one time I
in my young age I worked at the Boys and
[11:33] Girls Club and you're exactly right the
four aspects especially education and
[11:40] work preparedness you know that's very
vital to our youth today
[11:45] » because our youth today need structure
in order to get off to a level playing
[11:48] field get off to a great start and of
course we want our students healthy and
[11:53] the social aspect is phenomenal and I
applaud you the Boys and Girls Club for
[11:58] everything that you do and hopefully uh
we'll have a Boys and Girls Club here in
[12:03] Gates County. It'd be very vital to the
uh promotion of our young students and
[12:09] put them in the position to be valuable
and vital citizens. And if I may, um, to
[12:14] just because I know that it's going to
be on the forefront as as we go through
[12:17] all of the things, could you talk about
the funding of the program, how that
[12:21] works as far as the funding and what the
county responsibility would be, as far
[12:24] as what, um, private donor
responsibility is, and then you
[12:27] mentioned the monthly or yearly um,
annual fees for the different families.
[12:32] » Right. Right. So um I think maybe
contrary to popular belief, Boys and
[12:36] Girls Club, we do not receive any
funding from Boys and Girls Clubs of
[12:39] America. We receive supports in a
variety of other ways, programming,
[12:43] training, um, all of that. But we pay a
fee to Boys and Girls Clubs of America
[12:48] to operate our clubs. So, all of the
funding that we receive comes from the
[12:53] communities that we serve or private
family foundations. We've had a lot of
[12:58] luck with uh, foundations that really
like to serve uh, Eastern North
[13:02] Carolina. Uh, we get very little federal
funding. The only piece of that is the
[13:09] feeding program that I mentioned. Um,
and we do get some funding from the
[13:13] state that all boys and girls clubs
across the state get. Um, and we're
[13:17] getting that again for the first time
this year since 2004. So, we were left
[13:23] out of the state budgets for all that
time. And that, you know, left a lot of
[13:27] clubs in a bind. Um, but the majority
does come from the communities that we
[13:31] serve.
[13:35] How many do you have at Eden and how
many do you have at Elizabeth City?
[13:39] » Um, it's pretty much 5050. In Elizabeth
City, we serve, we've kind of had to
[13:44] decrease actually the number that we
serve because it was a little much, but
[13:47] we we serve 100 kids a day. I was there.
I think there was 103 um today in um in
[13:54] Elizabeth City and about 110 or 111 in
Edon. And that's lower than it would be
[14:02] as the year progresses when school first
starts. People are still trying to
[14:05] figure out bus routes and um and
applications for kids are still coming
[14:10] in.
>> So in Edon versus Elizabeth, what kind
[14:12] of facilities do you work out of those?
>> So our facility in Edon operates out of
[14:17] um a former um school building DF
Walker. um it was a high school and so
[14:24] we renovated that space and moved in
there in 2020 and we're in a lease
[14:29] arrangement with Choan County where we
make an annual lease payment. They we
[14:34] raised a bunch of money and
they needed to fund the facil help us
[14:40] fund the renovations. So we put that
into a small foundation that we have and
[14:45] that's used to make those annual lease
payments to Choan County. um at our
[14:50] Elizabeth City Club. We own that club um
free and clear. We moved into that
[14:54] building in 2022
um after kind of have having moved from
[15:00] a lot of different spaces, but love our
current space. It's got an outdoor
[15:03] basketball court, lots of outdoor space,
indoor space. It's great.
[15:06] » So, Emily alluded to the funding part
and you said something about $25 per
[15:11] year for Edon, 25 per month. Is that a
fee that's paid by the individual or is
[15:17] that the fee that the local community
pays or that's
[15:20] » that's a fee that's paid by parents?
That's essentially our membership fee.
[15:23] » So, how much is paid by local community
for each of those two facilities then?
[15:27] » So, oh gosh, it kind of varies. Um I
know, oh, I'd have to think real quick.
[15:32] Um so, there are different budgets for
different communities. Um so, the Edon
[15:38] Club is kind of better funded from the
community, if you will. Uh I would say
[15:45] at least 65% of the funding that we
receive comes from the local community.
[15:51] Um for our perquman's club that we're
starting off um kind of from the ground
[15:55] up, we're starting off with a small
budget uh of about 165 to 200,000
[16:01] depending on kind of utilities and some
things that we're still trying to work
[16:04] through um with the county over there.
So that gives you an idea.
[16:08] » 165,000 for Elizabeth City. Did you say
the 200?
[16:11] » That's for our um perquomen's club.
>> Perquim's club.
[16:15] » And I mentioned that just because it
would be a similar kind of startup
[16:19] situation.
>> You gave me a percentage, but is there a
[16:21] dollar number attached to the 65% I 65%
of what when you were saying for Eden?
[16:26] » I I don't know right off the top of my
head. I'm sorry.
[16:29] » Okay. [clears throat]
>> Okay.
[16:34] All right.
[16:38] So, do we have any other comments or
questions then? No. Um, yeah, if any of
[16:43] that information is available to go
forth, I will recommend that if you
[16:47] reach out to Miss Mitchell, she will
coordinate a a tour. Um, I did enjoy my
[16:51] tour. It was very nice to be there. It
was there when the kids were there, so
[16:54] got to see it um active. It was during
the summer last year, so I know it was
[16:57] during a summer camp. It came through.
So, um, a little over a year ago,
[17:02] » but yeah. Well, thank you.
>> I do have an additional question. What
[17:05] what is the uh basic layout of facility?
>> I guess the uh operational layout for a
[17:12] boys and girls club.
>> Um you mean in terms of the like?
[17:17] » Yeah. So in um in Edon, our DF Walker is
>> it's a school so it's set up kind of
[17:23] like a school like there are two long
halls. Um during our renovations we did
[17:27] kind of open up spaces by adding windows
and things like that. Mhm.
[17:30] » Um so one hall um we use for our
elementary school kids, other hall is
[17:36] for teens. Um and we have the rooms kind
of broken up into like our power hour
[17:41] room, our STEM room, an activities room,
an art room. Um and a similar we have a
[17:46] big game room for our middle school
kids. And then the the layout of our
[17:51] Elizabeth City Club is much different.
um you kind of walk in and there's a big
[17:56] open space with very little classrooms
for the kids to kind of break out in. So
[18:00] you have to be more kind of strategic
about that.
[18:04] » Hope that answers your question.
>> Yes. So you don't have any specific
[18:09] requirements basically the needs of of
the specific community?
[18:13] » Not really. I mean Boys and Girls Club
just all all around operate in just such
[18:17] a wide variety of facilities. So we can,
you know, meet the needs of the
[18:23] community wherever we're allowed to
operate.
[18:27] » Thank you.
>> Yes,
[18:28] » sounds great. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much.
[18:34] » All right.
The next item on the agenda um
[18:39] [clears throat] is our second
presentation from board uh school board
[18:43] member Danny Hail. Uh he's given an
update on the consolidation and
[18:46] leadership. Um,
[18:57] and
>> yay. And we also have board member
[19:02] [laughter]
Ryan and leg and superintendent Dr.
[19:05] Jordan. [clears throat]
[laughter]
[19:08] » I was just reading what I had down.
>> Hey, I walked [laughter] in the door and
[19:12] got this information. So, I am to say
thank you for having us here. We
[19:17] appreciate it very much and thank you
for everyone who's going to be
[19:20] listening. Uh what we're going to try to
do tonight is talk about our leadership
[19:25] changes, our strategic plan that we have
in place, the consolidation progress and
[19:31] spending and future planning that we as
a board have. Um I think we're all real
[19:37] excited with our
with our new uh superintendent here. She
[19:42] was approved as acting superintendent
July 21st through 31st and she is now
[19:48] going to be our interim superintendent
until December 31st. Now, this is a part
[19:55] I hate, but just I'm going to say it
real quickly. So, listen carefully.
[20:00] You're going to do it. Oh, well, if
she's going to do it, I'm going to pass
[20:02] it on. I'm going to say once again, did
I miss anything? No, not if she's going
[20:07] to do it. All right, I'm good to go.
Thank you very much for having us here
[20:11] tonight. [laughter] We appreciate it.
>> This is Dr. Shante Jordan. [laughter]
[20:17] » I felt like no better person to
introduce me or present me than me. So,
[20:21] I had it prepared for you. So, thank
you, Miss Ryan, and thank you to the
[20:24] board and thank you for all for allowing
us this opportunity tonight um or this
[20:29] evening. I do have a few words, but I'm
also sharing because I know people um
[20:33] listen in live and for those who I have
not had the opportunity to meet, just
[20:36] want to introduce myself to the
community um as well. Um chairman,
[20:41] members of the board of commissioners,
thank you for the opportunity to be here
[20:44] this evening. Um as everyone in here,
I'm sure knows, I am Dr. Jordan, um
[20:48] interum superintendent of Gates County
Schools. I'm especially proud to serve
[20:51] in this role because Gates County is
home. I'm a graduate of Gates County
[20:55] High School and much of my professional
career has been right here in Gates
[20:59] County. Um my educational background
includes a bachelor's degree in special
[21:03] education and master's degree in special
education from East Carolina. Go
[21:06] Pirates. Um master of school
administration and most recently uh my
[21:11] doctorate in educational leadership from
East Carolina University. Um throughout
[21:16] my career, I've had the opportunity to
serve in several areas of public
[21:19] education, um including special
education, school and district
[21:22] administration, human resources, student
services, personnel management, and
[21:27] district operations. Um most recently, I
served as a human resource director for
[21:32] um Gates County Schools before the
appointment of interim superintendent.
[21:37] These experiences given me the
opportunity to see our school system
[21:39] from many different perspectives, but
have also reinforced one important
[21:43] belief. Strong schools and strong
communities depend on strong
[21:48] partnerships. Um, as interim
superintendent, I look forward to
[21:51] working collaboratively with our board
of education, board of commissioners,
[21:55] county leadership, and um, our families
and employees of our community partners.
[22:00] While our respective boards have
different responsibilities,
[22:04] we share community. We share the
community, serve the same families, and
[22:08] ultimately want the same thing, a
strong, successful future for Gates
[22:13] County and our students in Gates County
Schools. So again, I appreciate the
[22:16] opportunity to introduce myself this
evening and I look forward to
[22:20] strengthening the partnership between
Gates County Schools and Gates County
[22:23] government as we work together on behalf
of the community um for our students.
[22:27] So, thank you.
>> Thank you.
[22:28] » Thank you. Thank you.
>> All right. So, leading right into what
[22:33] do I do? What's my job? So our strategic
goal, our strategic plan or our roadmap
[22:39] for the year and how we're going to lead
our students and our stu um schools to
[22:42] success. These are our priorities for
this year and this is a requirement at
[22:46] the beginning of every school year that
the district and our schools develop
[22:49] priorities in which they will um follow
to operate for the school year. So just
[22:54] a few of ours um one our strategic
priority is develop and retain ex
[22:58] exceptional employees. We want to
recruit and hire and retain the best of
[23:03] the best um for our students here in
Gates County Schools. We do have a um
[23:06] couple vacancies now, but we are working
diligently to fill those roles with the
[23:10] right people um moving forward. Next is
to increase um student achievement. Um
[23:15] our last year's testing data has not
been released yet, but that will be
[23:19] released soon and I'll be providing an
update to our board at a board meeting.
[23:22] But Gates County Schools, we're moving
in the right direction. Um we're moving
[23:25] in the right directions. our students
are performing well, but this year our
[23:28] goal is to see that trajectory increase
and we want to be even better than we
[23:32] are now. Um, another is to adhere to
strict fiscal steward um stewardship and
[23:37] operational operational efficiency. We
got to do a better job of planning how,
[23:43] when, and what we're going to use our
resources on and how they're going to
[23:46] support our students and our schools um
for the achievement that we just talked
[23:50] about in our party. Number two,
strengthen family and community
[23:54] partnership. That's another big area for
me is to um um bridge that gap that we
[24:00] have with just the workings of with our
families and our community with the
[24:04] operations of the school. So a goal for
me is to bridge that gap and bring our
[24:08] communities into the school so we can
all work on the same common goal and
[24:11] that's to support our students um
support principles and teachers and
[24:14] staff, promote transparency and
collaboration um through social media.
[24:19] I've been trying to do a lot of that um
in our schoolboard meetings having
[24:22] presentations just making sure that
everybody's aware and have the
[24:25] understanding and we're communicating
what's happening in Gates County schools
[24:29] whether it's just procedural things
procedural changes celebrations or just
[24:33] need to know information. We want that
information to be provided by the right
[24:36] people so that we're getting the right
information out to our parents and
[24:39] families. Um and last strengthen
district culture. Um, that's a major
[24:45] priority for me is just strengthening
the culture in Gates County Schools. And
[24:48] that comes from supporting our students,
celebrating our staff, and just bringing
[24:52] our community in, and letting everybody
know and be aware of the great things
[24:55] that we're doing so we can all celebrate
each other together. So, they are just a
[24:58] few of our priorities this year. I've
got a board behind me that I know will
[25:01] keep me in line and make sure that we
are meeting these objectives, but these
[25:05] are the goals that um we have to make
Gates County Schools even better than
[25:09] we've been before. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[25:14] » [clears throat]
>> All right. So now we're where we need to
[25:16] be, right? Consolidation update. Anybody
remember the word consolidation? Seems
[25:19] like that was 100 years ago, right? But
we're still in the midst of
[25:22] consolidation for those that have sort
of forgot about it. So did a little
[25:26] presentation here just, you know, again,
just a little refreshing history.
[25:29] [clears throat] You know, started off
last winter u when we noticed the
[25:33] general fund balance was the auditori
general fund balance was getting pretty
[25:36] low. We went into sort of a
reorganization transformation that led
[25:41] to a decision in March uh to close one
of our elementary schools. Uh then we
[25:47] had to do a lot of work uh you know in
April and May and trying to get all that
[25:52] figured out. And uh this summer we've
been really busy. If you've ever had to
[25:56] move a school uh just think about
putting about 30 households together and
[25:59] try to move it all at one time. So a lot
of moving pieces. Uh again, um we are in
[26:05] our first week of school and we do have
our two elementary schools going right
[26:10] now. Trying to get the bugs out of it,
but it's been successful so far. Uh so
[26:14] again, uh understand that we're in this
process and we're still be in this
[26:18] process for a while. So next slide,
please. Let's get to where we're talking
[26:23] about. So, if you refresh your memory,
we had asked in our original budget
[26:27] request for $325,600
to help us do the consolidation process.
[26:33] This was the ask from the school board
to the county and you graciously uh
[26:37] accepted that. This is sort of our
expenditures and what we've spent on so
[26:42] far. I sort of grouped a few things
together. So, let's talk about
[26:44] additional staff, which is sort of
grouped together. That had a combination
[26:48] of things in it. One of the things we
had in there was the ability to pay some
[26:51] of our teachers during the summertime to
actually come and pack up their
[26:55] classrooms or unpack their classrooms if
they were changing schools. Sort of
[26:59] unfair to ask a teacher to come in in
the middle of the summer when they're
[27:03] normally off to unpack all the things
they sort of packed up. So, we gave some
[27:07] teachers some ability to actually pay
for that. We're paying on a fairly set
[27:10] salary. We also got to hire three, you
know, high school students during the
[27:15] summertime. They worked about six weeks
for us, I think, actually that did all
[27:19] the leg work. They're the ones that did
all the boxing and they're the ones that
[27:22] moved all the pallets and all that kind
of stuff. So, uh, that was an additional
[27:26] staff. We had to pack up a library. I
mean, you walked in library, every book
[27:32] in there had a bar sticker on it that
said that book belonged to Buffin. So,
[27:35] we had to bring our media specialists in
in the summertime to rearrange and go
[27:39] into the computer and divvy all our
elementary books up to the two remaining
[27:44] elementary schools. So when we say
additional staff, that is the kind of
[27:48] effort that we had to put into it with
some of our people during the
[27:50] summertime. Um moving trucks and boxes,
we had to, as you know, rent a moving
[27:56] truck. And it worked out tremendously
well. It had a lift gate on it. So when
[28:01] we teachers piloted everything up, we
could move it out, lift it right up,
[28:05] push it right in the moving truck, take
it to new classroom, put it right in the
[28:08] center of the classroom. If we didn't do
that, we would have had been using
[28:12] trucks and trailers and all kinds of
things. So that that definitely helped
[28:15] with the moving truck coming in. Uh the
parking lot, that's where we're at right
[28:20] now, as you probably see. Uh so you see
some expenditures up there, freezer and
[28:24] a dishwasher. So we get through each one
of them. Uh we had budgeted 32,000, we
[28:27] end up spending about 28 and that should
be done now. So that's so I mean a grand
[28:32] total on that expenditure. Moving trucks
and boxes, we budgeted 36. We spent
[28:36] about 81. And again, the main reason for
that was the renting of that truck for
[28:41] 30 days was quite a bit more than we
thought it was going to be. But that
[28:46] part is also done. Uh we're at the
parking lot. So right now, you saw we
[28:50] budgeted for 150. We're estimating at
105. We have not finished the parking
[28:54] lot, but we have done the work. We
haven't been built by the contractor
[28:58] yet. So we're feel pretty safe that
that's going to come in about 105 uh in
[29:03] our number there. So we're going to be a
little bit under budget on that. Uh the
[29:06] freezer, this is an extra freezer for
Gatesville. So this is not doing any
[29:11] work to it. This is actually placing
another freezer, an outside freezer. Uh
[29:15] we're still getting quotes for that. We
did get one quote in. We still feel
[29:19] pretty good about the 50,000, but
because of expenditure, you have to get
[29:22] more than one quote. So we're still
working on that little piece right
[29:24] there. The dishwasher has been bought
for Gainesville and installed. So that
[29:29] is a final cost for that, too. So we
only have two really expenditures up
[29:32] there. So that leaves us 52,000. So we
budget 3256. We spent about 273478
[29:39] leaves us about 52,000. Now working with
the county commissioners and just let
[29:43] you know um we talked about taking that
52,000 and doing the rock for the
[29:48] service driveway. The maintenance
department actually met with the
[29:51] contractor today and that is going to be
done I think before your gyms uh in
[29:56] September. So they are on track for
that. That is a $10,000 expense. um
[30:01] we'll take care of that doing the
contracting off for you on that. The
[30:05] second one is the one that's a little
bit more tricky and it's the freezer
[30:08] overhaul. So there's a freezer at
Buffman. It's been in existence for a
[30:12] long time. But when it would break down
when we were there, when the school's in
[30:16] session, it breaks down. They
immediately noticed it broke down. You
[30:19] know, it's an old 30 year old freezer.
Um when you put gym stuff in there and
[30:25] it's broke, nobody been it for a week or
two weeks. So our recommendation to you
[30:30] was to actually leave the four walls up
but put new outside controls and inside
[30:36] controls in it. So we have an estimate
for that now. Uh it's going to take some
[30:41] work. So the four walls will stay there.
We're basically just as Nathan was
[30:45] saying, we're ripping all the guts out,
putting all new guts in. That'll give
[30:48] you a dependable freezer there. Also
give you a warranty that you can use so
[30:53] if something goes wrong or something
goes out. And we're also, you know,
[30:56] looking at maybe putting Wi-Fi or
something in there that would notify
[30:59] somebody at the temperature below. So,
with all that said, we're at 52,000
[31:04] uh and our expenses left over. We can
spend 50 on behalf of the county
[31:09] commissioners leaving us with a balance
about 2,000. So, we're This is one of
[31:12] those that sort of worked out, right?
We're sort of dead on. It seems like
[31:14] it's a miracle math, but that is actual
expenditures. Um, as I promised the
[31:19] county manager back a couple months ago,
we will have the receipts and it some
[31:23] point in September, we'll bring the
receipts over and you can have them for
[31:26] your file. Next slide.
So, seems like that's the it, right?
[31:32] Everybody's consolidation. The money's
done. We're done. Not quite. So, we have
[31:35] some remaining short-term efforts that
are really the first one is our student
[31:40] estimates. If you remember, I mean,
everybody goes back to memory. DPI
[31:44] estimated we were going to lose 50
students this upcoming year. We were
[31:47] going to be at 1320.
We did all our budget planning,
[31:52] everything. Our teacher set up at 1320
as of today.
[31:58] » 1380
>> 1380.
[32:01] » Now that is actually I think six more
than we had last year.
[32:04] » So for a financial guy, I'm jumping up
and down going this is terrific news,
[32:08] right? Because ADM is how state sends
the money to you. But as a facility
[32:14] logistics person, this worries me
greatly. Right? Because we have got a
[32:19] lot more students than we anticipated.
Now, they're spread across four schools.
[32:23] We understand that. But again, this is a
good problem to have right now. So,
[32:28] logistically, we're trying to work this
out. This is going to take us a few
[32:32] months to get worked out to get all the
staff in place and all the teachers in
[32:35] place. Just think about it. Just
lunchrooms and how many lunch people you
[32:39] can through it, you know, go through at
a time. So, it's going to take us a
[32:42] couple while to work that out. One of
the obstacles we have and we talked
[32:47] about this in the joint session and I
think that sometimes the public sort of
[32:51] doesn't understand this this rule. DPI
does put requirements on you of how many
[32:56] students you can have per teacher. Okay,
it's a recommendation but it's a very
[33:01] strong recommendation and it's also for
the benefit of children. A good example
[33:05] is you can only have 16 first graders
per teacher. And if you'll notice we
[33:11] originally had our consolidation plan.
was to put three teachers at Gatesville
[33:15] in first grade. We now have four because
the number of students took us over that
[33:20] requirement. What we're happy with,
whether you're TS Coop or you're at
[33:23] Gatesville, your teacher to student
ratio is about the same. That's what
[33:27] we're trying to do. We're not trying to
overload one teacher to have 20 or 25
[33:32] students and another another school only
have 10 or 12. So, we're trying to keep
[33:36] that balance. So, we're going to be have
to do this for several years. If you
[33:41] sort of think about it, is that student
population moves up and down. All your
[33:44] first graders this year will get
promoted to second grade next year. So
[33:49] you may have four first grade teachers
this year at Gatesville. Next year you
[33:52] may have to have four second grade
teachers because you may have to follow
[33:55] along with that class. So that really
concerns us. One of the things that
[33:59] happened in the consolidation process is
a lot of parents came to the board
[34:03] asking for their child to be moved to a
specific school and we completely
[34:07] understand that because Willin Road and
those kind of places Gatesville sort of
[34:12] closer than TS Cooper.
Unfortunately, we almost had to turn
[34:16] down every family to come to us even
it's it's it's tough but we couldn't
[34:22] keep putting students in Gatesville
because we were overloaded the teacher
[34:25] ratio. So, which is forcing some people
that live in the Drum Hill, Wilton Road
[34:31] to drive the TS Cooper. We think it's
going to be fine after everybody gets
[34:34] sort of used to it. But that just let
you know it wasn't because we were just
[34:38] trying to keep school numbers down. It's
because you have to keep the teacher
[34:41] ratio in place because if you violate
that, there's some things that come
[34:46] [clears throat] along with that. Um,
short-term dependency on long-term subs.
[34:50] How do we get there? Well, go back to
your timeline. March, we decide to close
[34:55] the school. April and May, we had lots
of meetings trying to figure out how to
[34:59] work that out. Teacher notifications in
June. Then we had an appeal process we
[35:05] had to go through. So it was almost
first of July before we got our ratios
[35:09] in the teachers, right? Well, when
you're competing for resources like
[35:12] teachers and you start advertising in
July, you're not going to get a lot of
[35:16] applicants. They've already been chosen.
We're very fortunate. When I say
[35:20] long-term subs, what I want to say about
that is we have a lot of outstanding
[35:24] retired teachers in this county. And
almost every one of our long-term subs
[35:28] is a retired teacher that taught right
here in Gates County that has come back
[35:33] and said, "I will fill that position for
a while. These jobs are still open. We
[35:38] still have them advertised. We're hoping
to get out and possibly get some
[35:41] December graduates
>> and bring them into our school system,
[35:44] but we just picked the wrong time of the
year to go after a bunch of teachers,
[35:48] you know. So, we're working on that, but
we feel comfortable with that. Again,
[35:52] the financial position, you mostly heard
the new budget passed and part of that
[35:57] budget was a pretty good raise for
beginning teachers. One thing we don't
[36:01] know yet is what's the impact on the
local budget for that because again,
[36:05] there is an impact to your local budget
because there's health insurance costs,
[36:09] retirement costs that we chip into that.
So, we're trying to figure that out,
[36:12] too. The next bullet's sort of
important. We have very limited growth
[36:18] right now in our elementary schools. We
do not have an available classroom in
[36:21] Gatesville. We are 100% in every single
classroom in Gatesville right now. So,
[36:28] we are very limited. I think his Cooper
is almost one.
[36:32] So, we're we're working through that.
We've got some plans we're we're working
[36:36] for. We can talk about that later on
with you. Um but, you know, we that is
[36:41] that is something that's troubling us
right now. How we get through that.
[36:44] Again, the growth number is great. I've
told you from a financial guy, I love
[36:48] it. Logistical guy, not so much. Okay.
One of the good things about the ride
[36:53] home that everybody talks about is being
built in the Willington area. Those are
[36:57] TS Cooper. They remember that line comes
through. So, we're going to be okay
[37:01] through the first phase of the growth
phase.
[37:04] The last one is the parent pickup line.
Now, that is uh that's that's a
[37:09] challenge. I don't know if anybody's
ever participated in that. I got to
[37:13] participate in the last few days. Um,
parents get there at 2:30 to pick up
[37:18] their kids at 3:10 and I was at
Gatesville last couple days and we're
[37:22] talking about a couple hundred cars are
coming to pick up their kids. So, we're
[37:27] still working that out. I know we're
making some adjustments to Gatesville. I
[37:30] know we're still making some adjustments
to KS Cooper. So, don't don't write that
[37:34] off as final yet on the parking lot
plan. Don't write that off as final yet
[37:38] because we're still trying to get to
that end result there. So,
[37:52] She didn't know. [laughter]
>> Thank you for the glasses. Good evening.
[37:58] Um so some of the future planning
opportunities um for the ways that we
[38:03] would like to examine the benefits of
utilizing the available space at
[38:06] Buckland for district purposes. Uh it
would be an excellent site for permanent
[38:12] meetings for the board of education. Um
currently our technology director every
[38:19] single time we have a meeting he has to
bring everything in. He has to set up
[38:22] the microphones. He has to bring his
whole team. He's um get it set up for
[38:26] live streaming. So it would be ideal if
we could have just a meeting place where
[38:31] we could come in and have a seat and it
would be a lot less work on the team. Uh
[38:35] it could be a permanent training site
for all of staff. Right now when we have
[38:40] a meeting and we go to a school, we have
to go to the principal, you know, which
[38:44] room do you have available or we're
going to have to kick somebody out of
[38:47] their classroom. Um so it especially
during the school year as a challenge of
[38:51] where we would meet. We could also use
some of that space just as a permanent
[38:57] place for district meetings when um
professional development days or people
[39:02] coming in and train it for different
trainings. we could have a set place and
[39:06] not have to worry about who we're going
to put out so that we can have a central
[39:09] uh meeting place and also it would be an
ideal place to relocate the central
[39:15] office. Right now we have some central
office staff who doesn't have room at
[39:21] the central office. So they may be at um
the high school at one of the elementary
[39:26] schools. So,
we've just kind of talked about having a
[39:32] place where everybody under the district
um office umbrella could have a meeting
[39:38] place in or an office in one spot.
[39:44] [clears throat]
[39:47] All right. So, if you haven't already
imagined and didn't already know, our
[39:50] future looks bright in Gates County
Schools. But I should have began with
[39:54] this and I did not. Um, forgive me. But
as you see, we travel as a pack. When
[39:58] you see one, you usually see at least
three or four of us. Um, Mr. Bum could
[40:02] not be here tonight. He's a little under
the weather. And Miss Riddick had a
[40:05] family engagement. So, otherwise, they
would have been here. So, I want to say
[40:08] that on their behalf because they
definitely would have been here to
[40:10] support us. Um, overall, our schools and
our county are connected. When our
[40:14] students succeed, our families are
stronger and our community is stronger
[40:17] and Gates County is stronger. Uh we look
forward to working alongside um the
[40:22] board and we're not separate entities
but as partners with a shared
[40:25] responsibility for the future of Grace
County Schools. Again, we appreciate you
[40:29] hearing us tonight and considering our
presentation and look forward to more
[40:33] collaboration and conversation in the
future.
[40:37] » And this will be our new logo. It has to
be voted on and board approved, but
[40:41] we're looking at this as being our new
logo. As we change our vision and change
[40:44] our focus and rebrand for Gates County
Schools, we're looking at this as
[40:48] possibly being our new logo. We had
teachers that vote on it doing
[40:51] convocation. So, when those results are
in, hey, they make the rules. We'll see.
[40:55] We'll see what they think. So,
>> all right.
[40:57] » All right.
>> Thank you. Um ADM. Yay.
[40:59] » Yes.
>> That's really exciting.
[41:01] » Very.
>> Um the communication has been
[41:04] phenomenal. I will say there for a few
days. If my phone rang, it was
[41:09] absolutely Gates County Public Schools.
>> [laughter]
[41:11] » um which was great cuz communication was
amazing. Um but just a we'll dive in
[41:16] more. This was a presentation style, but
we do have a joint meeting in September
[41:19] that we'll look at planning. Um so I
look forward to to going more into that
[41:23] just talking about different things in
the interim for all things I'm going to
[41:27] offer again. Now we do have this meeting
space that is available that is set up.
[41:30] You all are always welcome to use it um
in the interim of any kind of long-term
[41:34] planning. Um but also we have been
incredibly grateful for the
[41:38] collaborations. Um, I know here at the
county level they have been phenomenal.
[41:42] We've gone to Raleigh. We've been around
Gates County and they are continuing to
[41:45] meet with people in Raleigh. Um, I know
that there was a meeting yesterday y'all
[41:49] had with with with DPI and Raleigh. So,
thank you so much for all of the work
[41:53] that you all are putting in and the
continued collaboration and efforts.
[41:56] Yes. I was just going to say worth
mentioning at our work session just
[41:59] prior to this we talked to the A&E firm
that's going to go about doing a
[42:03] facility planning for us and we
specifically discussed with them that
[42:06] it's going to be a joint engagement with
the schools as well as the county for
[42:10] » looking at all the buildings and
long-term plans and facilities including
[42:13] Buckland and everything else.
>> So they yeah they'll be doing an
[42:16] assessment of all county county owned
facilities is the next step with them.
[42:19] So we plan on bringing you all into that
with us. It's going to be very important
[42:23] this these list of items that uh you
went through that that's brought up to
[42:27] them as far as short-term things for
Buffin, but we're we're looking at long
[42:31] term and what we need to do long term.
Um and and so having that feedback and
[42:37] collaboration with this whole system
would be phenomenal to be able to do
[42:40] that. We're trying to put that 20-year
plan kind of together.
[42:43] » Yeah.
>> I have a question concern consolidation.
[42:46] I know you said that uh of course you
got to look into it but what options
[42:52] um are you considering because there
have been uptick as you said ADM's great
[42:58] that's great great for the financial
part but as far as
[43:03] when we have even more students where
are these students going to go in the
[43:07] short term
in the short term we do have some
[43:12] classrooms that we might can reclaim at
Gatesville that could expand. We do have
[43:18] a little bit of margin that we can spend
a little bit, but again, like you
[43:22] saying, in a short-term plan, the growth
is an unknown number. Again, nobody
[43:27] expected us to get to 1380 this year.
So, we're going to have to keep a very
[43:32] very close eye on that. I think one of
the important things [clears throat] and
[43:35] I I'll go ahead and say it. Nobody else
probably wants to say this. This is why
[43:38] we need to maintain that Buckland
infrastructure as much as we can because
[43:43] if we get expanded beyond our capability
at our two elementary schools, we can
[43:48] always make some small quick adjustment
that could utilize maybe that facility
[43:54] for something like a kindergarten or
first grade to try to get us through the
[43:59] gap until we get to our long-term plan,
which we're still under the premise and
[44:03] we're still trying to work toward that
perhaps a new school down the road.
[44:07] » Right. cuz I reason why I asked this
question because I know economically in
[44:11] this region it's going to be a shift
especially what's going on in Herford
[44:15] County with contractors coming in also
with new employees coming in um the
[44:21] industry over in Herford County. So
housing is going to be an issue.
[44:24] Surrounding counties are going to uh
have a lot of people looking for
[44:30] housing, you know, not only in Herp
County, but Gates County, Bertie, and
[44:33] adjacent counties. And I know there may
be an uptick. There may be an uptick in
[44:37] our school system. And I, you know, just
asked that question for that reason.
[44:41] » And I think, you know, again, we we we
talked about this a lot back in March.
[44:45] the the decision to close Buckman was a
financial decision, not a growth
[44:49] decision, not a students or teachers. It
was simply a financial decision. I mean,
[44:56] we didn't have a choice as a school
board. There was a declining ADM at the
[45:00] time. We've lost 400 students over the
last seven or eight years. Now, when
[45:04] that trend stops, and you're exactly
correct, and maybe maybe we hit the
[45:09] bottom. I mean, not I hope so. And if
we've hit the bottom and we start
[45:12] growing and we open up Herford and we
get this sludge, we have to be very
[45:16] agile. We have to be agile from a school
board. We have to be agile from a um you
[45:21] know, a program and be ready to accept
that. Uh I think we still have students
[45:25] signed up today,
>> you know, so good problem to have.
[45:29] » Yes.
>> You know, from a physical stand, it's a
[45:32] good problem to have, but logistically
it could be a nightmare. [snorts] So
[45:34] we're we're we are tracking that every
single day.
[45:37] We ought to consider we ought to
consider at some point talking to our
[45:40] planning and zoning folks about it
because it's common place for the bigger
[45:44] municipalities when a development comes
in. They're add x amount of houses.
[45:47] They're required to go and have an
analysis done on who the market these
[45:50] houses are sized for, who's going to buy
them, and they'll likely impact the
[45:54] number of students that are likely to
come in with a school system. That's a
[45:56] routine requirement for almost every
city and county north of the state line
[46:01] for them to submit those. I see those
fairly regular where they come and say,
[46:04] "We're building 450 houses. we're gonna
add 72 students K through 12 or
[46:08] something and they usually have an
analysis. The planning group has a
[46:11] consultant on board that'll review them
and we've had them kick back and said,
[46:15] "No, you're underestimating it or you've
overestimated it or whatever." So, we
[46:18] ought to consider doing that if we're
really likely to see big growth.
[46:23] » One of the things that this board is
committed to right now is not to go over
[46:26] that student teacher
>> Yeah.
[46:28] » uh ratio. I think that's very important.
I think a lot of people gloss over that.
[46:32] You know, you can certainly fix problems
by just saying and you got 25 students
[46:36] now, you got 30 students there. But as
you saw, Dr. Jordan said earlier, who
[46:40] pays for that? And so students pay for
that. So we're we're going to be very
[46:44] strict as we be honest with ourselves
and say we're not willing to bend on
[46:49] that rule. If you're saying 16 or 17
students per first grade teacher, we're
[46:54] going to keep trying to stay in that
range because again, it gets hurt is a
[46:58] student. That's why Dr. Jordan strategic
plan is students first. that we have to
[47:03] think in a student way, not an easy
solve button where we can just put more
[47:07] desk in there if that makes sense.
>> It does. Thank you.
[47:12] » Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[47:16] » All right.
So, we are moving along to the citizen
[47:20] advisory board recommendations. Um, we
have two tonight. The first is Thank
[47:26] you, my light. Um the first is the
Merchants Commerce Center committee
[47:32] recommendation um on site preparations.
If we can invite Miss Reva Green Holly
[47:36] to come to the podium to present that
recommendation on behalf of that
[47:40] committee.
[47:45] » Good evening commissioners.
>> Good evening.
[47:48] » Um I come before you as the chair of the
Merchants Commerce Center committee and
[47:54] I'd like to introduce our committee.
They chose to stay in place and say
[47:59] they'd stand there. But we have Paul
Ascu, our vice chair. [clears throat]
[48:03] Leslie Spinoglio, secretary,
Cecil Baggley,
[48:10] Larry Brothers,
Ray Brothers, sorry. And we have Lisa
[48:16] Cherry, our advisor.
And we have Nathan Bearman, our
[48:20] exofficio member. And we had our first
meeting July 22nd. And I'd like to say
[48:26] our committee has jailed and we are
about getting some work done. So um the
[48:32] first thing was we had we held our
meeting. We talked about why are we
[48:37] here? What are we supposed to be doing?
And um we decided to pick a strategy to
[48:44] bring before you all and see how you all
feel about it and vote for us to move
[48:49] forward. So I would like to start with
uh my committee representative that's
[48:56] going to present Paul Ascue.
He and uh Cecil have done a lot of
[49:02] background work on the presentation
they're getting ready to make to you and
[49:07] I'm going to turn it over to him.
[49:16] Good evening and and thank you for
allowing us to uh first participate or
[49:22] be appointed to this board and we all
thank you for that and and we we hope
[49:27] we're going to uh provide a good service
for the for the county. So, I'd like to
[49:34] be uh I think concept plan B is up there
and so um that's what we are focusing
[49:42] on. It's a it's a tremendously
it's a great concept
[49:48] and and we're really excited about it
and and we realize that not everything
[49:54] is going to get done at one time and
we're not asking asking for that of
[49:59] course but uh that's you know Cecil and
myself and I want to tell you we flipped
[50:07] the coin and I lost so that's why I'm up
here so next time you [laughter] but
[50:12] anyway Hey. Uh,
>> yeah. Oh, I'm not accustomed to using
[50:19] something like this, I tell you. But
[laughter]
[50:25] on August 10th, and I we we've been
watching the weather forecast very well.
[50:29] And and the the weather man said it was
going to be 85 degrees. Well, he was
[50:34] wrong. It was 95. And so Susan myself
decided he has a open Jeep. We decided
[50:41] we gonna we're gonna take this Jeep
drive and and we did. We started right
[50:47] here on Sony Lane and and we to weed as
much as this as we could. We we didn't
[50:54] do a we didn't do a hike.
[50:58] » Yeah.
[51:02] » [laughter]
>> I can't keep the steel and tell you I'm
[51:04] probably
[51:08] [laughter]
[51:10] from here and went all the way back to
the two farms back there and we drove
[51:17] back through here.
But basically what we want to talk about
[51:21] right now is just this section right
here for this small section right here
[51:28] is 11
some problem.
[51:32] » Well, so so actually actually it goes
all the way to the ponds.
[51:38] » You're right.
>> It is kind of you see a break right
[51:41] there and and that's that was uh we
measured that the other night at the
[51:45] meeting and it and it is 11.7 acres is
is what that turns out to be. And so um
[51:53] and this is what our focus is on and
this is what our recommendation is going
[51:57] to be on. Uh and so uh we we're going to
call it phase one. So I don't know how
[52:05] many phases we going to end up having,
but we we're going to start with one, of
[52:09] course. And so this is this is our this
is our board. And this is what we
[52:14] discussed was the clearing uh the
stumping, taking all the stumps out,
[52:22] leveling whatever we need to do and
preparing that 11.7 acres for uh we hope
[52:30] maybe some businesses coming in or or
whatever. But but we got to start and
[52:36] this this is what we recommend our start
is going to be it's right along the
[52:41] highway. begins as you come up the hill
anybody everybody is familiar with 158.
[52:47] You can't see the pond actually any
longer because it's grown up. But but we
[52:53] did ride through as much of that
property that part of the property as we
[52:58] could and and uh I'm as a farmer
I'm in the irrigation so I have a I have
[53:07] equipment to do this so I'm very
familiar with land clearing. But the
[53:11] first thing I'm going to tell you is
it's not a cheap thing to do. I mean, it
[53:14] cost a lot to do and and so, uh, that
that's going to be something you you
[53:20] guys are going to have to decide on on
our approach with that. But, uh, but
[53:25] once it is done and we we would possibly
get it seated down and have it looking
[53:30] where, you know, we could host community
events or whatever on that on that
[53:36] parcel. uh but it's going to have to be
maintained
[53:41] and so we realized that's going to be a
cost to the canon uh to to maintain that
[53:47] property. So, uh, Cecil did talk to Tom
Morgan about the timber disonment, if
[53:55] you want to call it timber. I don't call
it timber. I call it is not not a lot on
[54:00] 11.7 acres is is in my vision and I
think Caesar will agree and we discussed
[54:07] it with the board. It's not anything
that we're going to log that's going to
[54:11] be excited about going in there and
logging anything and getting and
[54:14] generating any money out of that
portion.
[54:17] You want to speak on what John Morgan
had to say or just
[54:23] » if if I was see if you could use the
mic. Yeah.
[54:28] » You got him up there one way or another.
Right. [laughter]
[54:32] » Didn't need the coin. You got it.
>> I had a two hit a coin. [laughter]
[54:37] Um, yes, I did talk to Tom Morgan about
this and and basically uh it's a matter
[54:43] of bringing some equipment in there and
and uh pulling those trees up, taking an
[54:49] excavator, putting them in a pile, and
he said they could be burnt right on
[54:52] site. Of course, we would have to get a
permit to do so, but uh during the the
[54:57] right time of year, uh they could be
burnt right there. Uh [clears throat] he
[55:04] also mentioned that drainage pond that
has been grown up and it's not doing
[55:08] what it's designed to do that that needs
to have some maintenance uh done to it
[55:12] also. Um, [clears throat] and one thing
that I'm going to bring up regardless
[55:18] and and there's not a name of that road,
but there [clears throat] is a road that
[55:23] comes there's a there's a dirt path that
comes off of 158 to the left of the
[55:30] credit union that goes straight back
to about where the nursing home is.
[55:40] And the path ends in a large ditch.
So, we spotted some four-wheel tracks
[55:46] back there, too. And and my concern
about this big ditch and this path
[55:51] winding up in a big ditch is we do have
a liability there. Something needs to be
[55:56] done there. Uh either a barricade, a
couple loads of sand, or anything. But
[56:03] had it been
grown up more than it was and we had
[56:08] been cruising along a little faster than
we were were, we could have very easily
[56:12] wind up in the bottom of that ditch. And
and it would it's a large ditch. It's
[56:16] it's a deep ditch. It's a wide ditch.
[56:21] So what we what we are asking is uh you
know like I said we we envision we
[56:29] vision this 11.7 acres to be be cleared
dumped stabilized and sewn with grass.
[56:38] Uh we we could as I mentioned we could
have some events begin there. Fall
[56:42] festival was mentioned you know have
something going where the county can
[56:47] see. Yes, we we got, you know, we've got
something moving forward. We're not
[56:52] dependent on the school systems property
or whatever to host these events. And
[56:57] and so [clears throat]
um I what what we're asking is is
[57:02] permission for us to secure bids on
clearing that land. Um I don't I know
[57:09] what it cost me to do it and it's it's
not it's not a cheap thing. I mean,
[57:13] equipment equipment. Y'all all know
equipment is expensive and it takes it
[57:16] takes a lot to do it, but there are
people out there that are that could do
[57:20] it and and and we feel like with what
we've seen and uh it's not a lot out
[57:26] there and and it shouldn't take, you
know, a great deal of expense and and
[57:32] I'm not going to throw a figure out
there because I don't know what someone
[57:36] would charge, but um but we want
permission to secure, you know, some
[57:42] bids to get to get this ball rolling.
And so, uh, and and also, you know, with
[57:48] that, uh, if we do get a bid, we'll, you
know, whatever how many beers we get, is
[57:56] not a lot of people in that business.
Not like it, not like it used to be.
[58:00] But, uh, once we get a bid, we'll bring
that to you and present it to you and
[58:05] see what you say, you know. But I want
to tell you any bid we get it will have
[58:10] a it will have a time stamp on it
because costs change all the time. Make
[58:14] well aware of that.
>> And so uh you know we we just we just
[58:19] would have to I mean we're excited about
moving forward. Uh uh we have we have
[58:26] you know I uh uh as far as a timeline we
we're asking for the you know for you
[58:34] you commissioners to develop a vi a
vibrant merchants meal pond committee
[58:40] marketing plan. And so and with that uh
you know begin begin marketing that
[58:46] property uh right right away. you know,
hope hopefully we can can, you know, if
[58:53] the business knows that this is this is
in the beginning or they would they
[58:58] would be maybe perhaps excited about
coming to the county and so we ask we're
[59:03] asking for they for that. Um
anything anything else that anybody on
[59:10] the board
>> can thank
[59:13] u I just again thank you thank you for
your time. I'll I'll be glad or any of
[59:18] us be glad to answer any questions that
you may have or
[59:21] » Yes, sir.
>> Thank you. Yeah. Go ahead.
[59:23] » Excuse me. Yes. Uh I want to say I love
this concept and as you mentioned,
[59:28] marketability [clears throat]
is so important as we recruit industry
[59:34] or whoever
commercial to come here. Curbside appeal
[59:40] is vital. And also we want to be
productive of what we have ownership of.
[59:46] I see this as a great investment. I
would love to hear the bids because
[59:49] that's a big win factor also.
>> But it's good. It's a good investment.
[59:55] It's a good investment. We can get a
return on it. We can help the community.
[59:59] We can have as you mentioned festivals,
things like that that would generate
[1:00:03] revenue. So, I love the concept. I love
the marketability of it. I love the
[1:00:08] curbside appeal. and I want to thank the
committee um for everything you have
[1:00:13] done to get this off the ground.
>> Um I got to I got to make a point of
[1:00:18] order. Do you still own property there,
Mr. Roundree?
[1:00:23] » He he's allowed to make a comment.
>> I'm just asking a question. I just want
[1:00:26] to make sure for clarity. I mean, if you
don't, it's not a problem. I'm just want
[1:00:29] to the discussion previously was is that
you own some property in there and I
[1:00:33] just want to ask the appropriateness if
we're going to have this discussion
[1:00:37] advocating for something that
>> I do not own any property on the
[1:00:41] commerce part.
>> Yes.
[1:00:43] » Okay. On the commerce part. Okay.
>> All right.
[1:00:46] » Do not
>> Okay.
[1:00:48] » Well, first of all, I would like to say
thank thank everyone who serves on the
[1:00:52] committee. Uh you're right. It did on
the very first meeting it did jail right
[1:00:55] on up and it's nice to have good
conversations. One of the things that uh
[1:01:00] I was tasked with when I was uh um asked
to to generate this is um we wanted to
[1:01:08] take this space and and it's a lot of uh
of um community concern about purchasing
[1:01:16] the the the
land originally.
[1:01:20] One of the things I believe that this
board has said before in the past and I
[1:01:23] agree with that you know that's already
happened that's already been bought. the
[1:01:26] county owns it, what are we going to do
with it? And and so if we want to be
[1:01:32] able to generate any type of revenue off
of it through um you bring in any type
[1:01:36] of business or anything like that to it,
you got to be able to invest a little
[1:01:40] bit of money into it to be able to uh
make it not look like a cut down because
[1:01:44] right now when you ride by there, that's
what you see. You see a cut down, you
[1:01:47] don't see any type of commerce park or
anything like that. and and so when um
[1:01:52] to be able to market that is what you
need to do is be able to clear some
[1:01:55] areas up, rub it, make it look like it's
ready for a building to be built on it.
[1:02:00] » Um but at the same time, it's going to
take a while to be able to uh bring any
[1:02:05] type of commerce there. You got to get
people interested and all that kind of
[1:02:08] good stuff. So, what could we do with
the space in the meantime? And I think
[1:02:11] it was some good ideas that was thrown
out there. you know, we're getting ready
[1:02:14] to have uh fall festival here coming up
in a in a few weeks and looking forward
[1:02:19] to seeing everybody out there at the
ballpark for that. But this will be a
[1:02:22] great spot to do that. you know, we
could bring back uh something like a
[1:02:26] swamp fest like we've done in the past
and bring the community together to be
[1:02:30] able to have those type of things and
and so this would be a great area that
[1:02:34] we can prepare for to do that and then
see where it goes from there because
[1:02:38] those type of activities brings
businesses to the county so they can see
[1:02:43] what type of commerce that they can have
here. So, um, [laughter] I I'm going to
[1:02:48] go ahead and and unless you want to go a
little bit further and talk about it,
[1:02:51] » I I just think I'm really excited to see
from I mean, especially from meeting one
[1:02:55] to have a concept presented is really
exciting and to be able to move forward.
[1:02:59] I think that
>> yeah, any type of movement to show
[1:03:02] progress is going to be important. But
yeah, go ahead and do what you were
[1:03:05] doing. Thank you.
>> So, I'd like to go ahead and make a
[1:03:07] motion that we uh allow the Commerce
Committee to to move forward with
[1:03:11] obtaining bids and bringing those bids
back to the commissioners for review and
[1:03:15] and decision.
>> I'll second that motion.
[1:03:19] » All right. If there's any further
discussion.
[1:03:21] » Yeah, I got some discussion. So, we've
spent $600 some thousand on this piece
[1:03:25] of property and we spent another $50,000
on this property and we continue to
[1:03:30] spend money on this property. What I'm
hearing is, yeah, we want to clear some
[1:03:33] land and I appreciate what these folks
have done. Mr. Ascu Cecil, Miss Green, I
[1:03:37] mean babysitter Leslie. Um, the point
being is Miss Benolio, I appreciate
[1:03:44] y'all's effort. I I really do, Mr.
Brothers. I appreciate your effort. But
[1:03:47] for me, we're talking about going out
and clearing some land. We just were
[1:03:50] talking earlier about trying to
inventory what stuff we have, what we're
[1:03:53] going to do with it. And I I hear that
they're saying, "Hey, they want us to
[1:03:56] tell them what we would like to do with
this, a plan." I think we need to do the
[1:03:59] plan first. Again, I'm about planning,
figuring out what we want to do. And
[1:04:03] then if we want to clear that land
because we think long term that's going
[1:04:07] to be an area for parking or part of a
bigger facility, I think that would be a
[1:04:11] good thing. I think it might be a very
good thing. But I don't hear people
[1:04:15] saying, "Oh, if only that land was
cleared, you could market it and sell it
[1:04:18] for $50,000 an acre." It seems like
we're again, this is almost like we're
[1:04:23] spending more money after more money
after more money for a site that have we
[1:04:28] sold any land in there? Have we done any
marketing before now? Will clearing the
[1:04:32] trees make it more marketable? Maybe.
So, but I just feel like I have to be
[1:04:36] the voice to speak up and say, I have
concerns about us just deciding to go to
[1:04:40] do that. And maybe getting bids is okay.
I'm a little um averse to having
[1:04:47] contractors give bids if I'm not
absolutely sure I want to go have them
[1:04:50] do that. And if y'all are absolutely
sure you're going to have them clear it
[1:04:53] no matter what, then we should go
forward with it. I think at this point
[1:04:57] we don't even have a cost to consider if
we're going to be be moving forward. A
[1:05:00] bid is a a jumping off point.
Everything's going to be going to have a
[1:05:04] timetable to it. Nothing's happening
tomorrow. It's going to take time to
[1:05:07] gather bids. It's going to take time to
make a decision. Hopefully, we'll be
[1:05:10] further along in a planning process with
more information at that point. I don't
[1:05:13] think two things like collecting bids
and us going through an assessment
[1:05:16] simultaneously is a bad thing. It makes
us further along instead of kicking that
[1:05:20] can down the road further and further.
we're actually making progress by doing
[1:05:23] two things
>> cohesively.
[1:05:25] » Um is my personal opinion
>> and I'm in agreement with that. You
[1:05:30] know, we take our time. We're getting
the bids going through the process and
[1:05:35] in the end in the end this is an
investment for Gates County
[1:05:41] and we need to start the process instead
of delaying the land and you know it's
[1:05:47] something that need to be done. We have
the property. So, let let's
[1:05:49] [clears throat] utilize the property.
>> All right.
[1:05:52] » I like
>> So, we're going to call for a vote on
[1:05:54] that motion.
>> Very good mission statement. Could she
[1:05:57] read that?
>> We I think we
[1:06:00] » do. We have to vote with the discussion.
Yeah. I think we have to vote. We have a
[1:06:04] motion on the floor. We've had our
discussion. So, we have to call to vote
[1:06:06] and then welcome to hear that. All
right. So, all in favor?
[1:06:11] All opposed? Okay. And that will pass.
>> Okay. And because we weren't given a
[1:06:18] mission, we came up with this mission
statement. The mission of the Gates
[1:06:22] County Merchant Commerce Park Committee
is to provide informed communitydriven
[1:06:27] recommendations to Gates County
Commissioners for the future development
[1:06:31] of Merchant Commerce Park, advancing
sustainable economic growth, fostering
[1:06:37] business and employment opportunities,
and enhancing the quality of life for
[1:06:42] current and future residents of Gates
County.
[1:06:45] » Love that. Thank you.
>> I appreciate you all. Thank you. Thank
[1:06:49] you. Right,
moving on to the next citizen advisory
[1:06:54] board recommendation. Um, we have the
planning board recommendation for the
[1:06:57] data center zoning amendment. We will
have Miss Lisa Cherry join us to present
[1:07:04] the recommendation. Um, and I just want
to thank you on the forefront for the
[1:07:08] event you hosted last week while several
of us were out of town at conference. I
[1:07:12] think it is a phenomenal thing that
commissioners were not there and that
[1:07:14] you got to have true citizen input
without us being present. Um, so thank
[1:07:18] you for what you do. [laughter]
>> Thank you for what you do.
[1:07:22] » Oh, thank you. You You do you get your
turn. [laughter] I understand. You do.
[1:07:27] It's coming. It's definitely coming. So,
yes. So, data centers, we had the
[1:07:34] community engagement last week, just
like you said. So, this is the
[1:07:38] presentation that was just missing the
first slide of welcoming the public. So,
[1:07:43] I'm just going to go through it pretty
um I'll try to be brief because I'm sure
[1:07:48] you're aware of it and the public's
aware of it. We just want you to know
[1:07:52] that the Gates County Planning Board has
been researching and discussing data
[1:07:55] centers since September 25. So, this
presentation will summarize all the
[1:08:00] information, the moratorium, the
timeline, discussion, and the ordinance
[1:08:04] amendment itself.
So again the timeline December 17th you
[1:08:10] adopted the moratorum in July January
through July 2026 we continued the
[1:08:16] research workshops draft ordinance and
then of course August of last week we
[1:08:21] did the community engagement to show the
planning board recommendation. It's a
[1:08:24] draft recommendation at this point.
So, of course, we just went ahead wanted
[1:08:31] to let them see the moratorum and what's
highlighted there is just the uh plan of
[1:08:37] action and the schedule that we're in as
of right now and that we've met that and
[1:08:42] continuing to meet that. So the
recommendation itself has an authority,
[1:08:48] a purpose, a definition of data center
findings of fact, countywide
[1:08:53] prohibition, uh the permit denial and
the UDO use table that's in our
[1:08:57] ordinance currently. And we met with
county attorney Wood. Thank you. And he
[1:09:03] reviewed that as well. So we appreciate
that. We sat down and were able to go
[1:09:07] over that. So you know I think really
the best thing to go through because you
[1:09:11] will again we will have a public hearing
you will approve you know add to it deny
[1:09:17] what whatever you need to do. So I think
the best way to go through it is you
[1:09:22] know again we have the definition we
have the purpose and we have all that.
[1:09:26] So I think the best way to show it
pictures are worth a thousand words. So
[1:09:30] this is the use table and all of the
verbiage just backs this up. It shows
[1:09:37] our
zoning districts which you know we have
[1:09:41] R1, RH, C1, I1, A1, O and I RMF and also
those are residential,
[1:09:49] residential, manufactured homes,
commercial, industrial, agricultural,
[1:09:53] office and institutional and the
multifamily residential and the planning
[1:09:59] board is recommended to prohibit in
those districts and the data center
[1:10:04] which I know it's hard to see for you
guys, but that is what's highlighted and
[1:10:08] that there's that's prohibited. And then
we have the ordinance note that would go
[1:10:12] along with it that um like I had said
earlier that has a permit denial
[1:10:18] and and I'll be more than happy to read
the two pages if you'd like me to out
[1:10:21] loud, but it's it's up for everyone to
see and it's also on the website um if
[1:10:27] anyone would like to read it in its
entirety because we will read it fully
[1:10:30] on the night of adoption once it comes
for public hearing if you would like.
[1:10:34] But again, we had the engagement last
week. It was a great turnout. We had
[1:10:39] over 60 people attend. We had 45 surveys
filled out and to ask the question if
[1:10:46] people, you know, supported that, any,
you know, feedback they'd like to give.
[1:10:51] And we've compiled all that that you'll
be getting. And if you'd like to see
[1:10:55] that and anyone else in the public as
well. and it was seemed to be positive
[1:11:02] um for the uh ordinance draft amendment
itself. Um so with that being said, we
[1:11:09] have our next steps. It's to recommend
the adoption of the proposed data center
[1:11:14] ordinance amendment after all the
research as I've said. So now we'll move
[1:11:19] into a phase of formal adoption will be
after required public notice. public
[1:11:24] hearing by the Gates County Board of
Commissioners at a future scheduled
[1:11:28] publicly held meeting by the Board of
County Commissioners before December
[1:11:33] 17th, unless you decide to extend it if
you do not agree with it. So, that's
[1:11:39] basically in a nutshell what we've done.
Um, and if you have any questions or
[1:11:43] comments, I'd be more than happy to
answer them.
[1:11:46] » Madam Chair, could we ask Lisa to please
read that statement in red? I don't know
[1:11:51] about the function. [clears throat]
I had a hard time.
[1:11:54] » I can go back
>> with the [laughter] friend.
[1:11:56] » I understand. Yeah. The the note that
will go along with the use table. We
[1:12:00] have these notes that um in our addition
to and it's the ordinance note and
[1:12:05] specific standards. Um it's data centers
as defined herein including
[1:12:09] cryptocurrency mining facilities and
similar highintensity computing
[1:12:13] operation are prohibited in all zoning
districts within Gates County. This
[1:12:17] prohibition applies regardless of the
principal use, accessory use, or
[1:12:22] occupancy classification of any building
or structure in which the activity
[1:12:26] occurs.
>> So, thank you. Yes, sir. Absolutely.
[1:12:30] » Thank you.
>> Yes. So, if if there's any questions
[1:12:32] again, I'll be more than happy to answer
them.
[1:12:35] » Have any comments or questions for Miss
Cherry?
[1:12:37] » No.
>> Yep. Okay.
[1:12:39] » Yes.
>> Uh for reference, is this comparable to
[1:12:42] any other loca localities or counties
around us?
[1:12:46] Clay County has done it. Most of the
other counties right now are we have a
[1:12:49] few that are in a moratorum status, one
and twoyear status. Then there's others
[1:12:54] that have um I believe some restrictions
um or maybe on size.
[1:13:01] » But the language you think is pretty
similar to what I
[1:13:03] » believe um Clay County is very similar.
Yes. Yes.
[1:13:07] » Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. And just
again, that's going to be accessible
[1:13:10] online for for viewing for or is
accessible.
[1:13:14] » The presentation is is there. Yes,
ma'am.
[1:13:17] » It is.
>> That might be something that's worth
[1:13:19] pushing out on social media.
>> Thank you.
[1:13:23] » Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[1:13:24] » All right. Moving along to old business.
Uh we have the Buckland Elementary
[1:13:28] School facility planning. Uh, manager
sour, if you could update us on
[1:13:31] discussions from the special called
meeting and from our time with our
[1:13:34] legislative um, representatives today
and then we can open the floor for
[1:13:39] conversation.
Boy, that's a lot to cover. We spent two
[1:13:44] hours with our with our lobbyist and
with representatives from Senator Ted
[1:13:50] Bud's office and and Tom Tillis's
office. We uh number one said a big
[1:13:55] thank you uh to the North Carolina
General Assembly. In the last two
[1:14:00] sessions, Gates County was the recipient
of 11.6 million of uh funding for some
[1:14:08] very important projects. Some of those
are capital projects. Some of those were
[1:14:13] direct impact for the school system with
the Naval Academy program, the science
[1:14:18] uh equipment to expand uh those labs. I
think the sheriff's office received
[1:14:24] about 300,000 of that, but most of the
money is going for infrastructure, both
[1:14:28] water and sewer. Um,
couple of things that we uh discussed
[1:14:34] moving forward. There's an upcoming
legislative goal session. The general
[1:14:39] assembly will be u reconvening the long
section session in January. Our
[1:14:46] association of North Carolina County
Commissioners will have a goal uh
[1:14:50] committee effort to solidify goals as an
organization across our hundred uh
[1:14:57] county members. And I think we may even
have one or two of those um to come up
[1:15:03] later this evening. Uh but we uh said a
big thank you to those uh individuals
[1:15:09] and also um hopefully had them leave
understanding that the the board has a a
[1:15:16] strong vision uh a focus on the project
execution and completion and and we we
[1:15:25] are moving forward. I'll have a few
details under my u report on the on the
[1:15:30] Buckland planning. Um I I believe our
direction is that the gyms
[1:15:37] uh food pantry is in the process of
moving with a few improvements
[1:15:45] u in the cafeteria and kitchen so that
they can handle uh their distribution
[1:15:52] with a little bit more elbow room.
hopefully a a lot better uh freezer and
[1:15:57] and refrigeration uh system and and on a
level ground surface where there won't
[1:16:05] be so much lifting and and they can
hopefully roll uh packages out to the uh
[1:16:11] clients when they when they visit. Um,
and it really has been a a partnership
[1:16:17] with the school system as we talked as
was mentioned earlier about some of the
[1:16:22] elements that need to be uh addressed
and and and again it's a it's really a
[1:16:28] credit to the Jim's organization and the
the board of commissioners. I think this
[1:16:32] is about a 20 year partnership, maybe
longer.
[1:16:39] » Wow. Oh,
>> I'll say that's 40 since my husband was
[1:16:43] born that year. [laughter]
>> That's that's phenomenal. And I think
[1:16:47] the commissioners are excited to be a
part of that and and a partner u in
[1:16:53] that.
Um, we had a uh an opportunity to meet
[1:17:00] with the design firm that the board
selected following
[1:17:05] um a rigorous
review of proposals that were in
[1:17:10] response to the county's request for
qualifications in North Carolina to f to
[1:17:14] hire either an architectural firm or an
engineering firm. uh you don't just
[1:17:20] simply go to the yellow pages and and
find a a engineering firm nearby. We
[1:17:26] must advertise a stated u scope of work
intent and that was done earlier this
[1:17:34] year uh for the purpose of uh moving
forward with a new community center and
[1:17:40] senior uh center project. Um uh
initially the target location has been
[1:17:48] the Merchants Commerce Center and and
that may well be where we end up, but
[1:17:52] that's the the the path that we've been
on. Um the county has secured a million
[1:18:00] dollars in its first piece of the
funding for the capital project. Uh but
[1:18:05] that million dollars as it's available
through the US Department of
[1:18:09] Agriculture, their rural development
division, uh indicates that under their
[1:18:14] rules,
their money is the last money we spend.
[1:18:19] And we've got a rough estimate of maybe
$12 million uh for what that uh project
[1:18:26] might entail. U it would likely be much
more than just a building with four
[1:18:32] walls. there's been uh quite a bit of
spirited conversation about the
[1:18:38] amenities that we might have in the
outdoor area around this. So, the the
[1:18:43] the the scope and the expansive
programming and the construction costs
[1:18:49] we believe are going to be significant
and it may take years to generate the
[1:18:55] money between where we are today and
spending that last $12 million. So, we
[1:19:00] want to look at other potential
uh options within the county. U I think
[1:19:08] I even heard the phrase looking at
lowhanging fruit. Uh and and that very
[1:19:13] well could be u potentially at the
Buckland uh elementary school campus.
[1:19:19] But in order to test that hypothesis and
and and look at all of our options, the
[1:19:26] board had a conversation this afternoon
with the architect about revising our
[1:19:31] scope of work
from
[1:19:36] uh a contract to design a building for
construction that we may not be able to
[1:19:41] afford to build for several years. U
hopefully not a decade, but certainly
[1:19:46] several years. and put that effort
toward an evaluation of our existing uh
[1:19:52] facilities, a needs assessment for
future uh programming, and utilizing the
[1:19:59] uh other grant that the county secured
several years ago u for what started out
[1:20:06] as as uh renovations on the old
community center, the facility next to
[1:20:12] the high school. Um which over a period
of uh two different engineering studies
[1:20:18] was determined that between the four
additions that they had, the additional
[1:20:23] roof structures that were installed and
a building envelope is the word they use
[1:20:30] that uh leaks like a civ when it when it
rains. There is no moisture barrier and
[1:20:37] and the water literally comes inside.
And if you've ever visited the gym or
[1:20:42] the hallways at the community center,
you've seen that. So, uh that money has
[1:20:47] been
available to us, has been uh approved
[1:20:52] for a design project. We are going to
now seek to revise that u agreement with
[1:20:59] our funding agency. It's the It's the
state's construction infrastructure fund
[1:21:04] to put that toward our uh facility
assessment and and planning. And as I
[1:21:10] understood the board's conversation this
afternoon and as was spoken with the uh
[1:21:15] board of education, uh this effort will
include school facilities
[1:21:21] u and and with a a a long reach. I don't
know if we'll go 40 years, but I bet you
[1:21:27] we'll go 20 or 30 years in our in our
projections. And I would think the term
[1:21:34] facilities will be a uh a wide
definition uh with many components that
[1:21:42] could include u expanded athletic
fields. It it it could be any number of
[1:21:48] things. Uh we we've had suggestions for
uh down the road a a swimming pool, an
[1:21:57] athletic track. Um just a a lot of
potential things. Yeah, the board um
[1:22:06] this afternoon during a four o'clock
work session um has asked that we
[1:22:12] prepare
a recommendation for their consideration
[1:22:16] uh this evening so that we maintain some
momentum
[1:22:21] u sharpen our focus and and really try
to take advantage of an opportunity we
[1:22:27] have one with the growing partnership
with the board of education to the
[1:22:34] opportunity to potentially use a portion
of of the Buckland campus, but possibly
[1:22:40] find u an opportunity we hadn't yet
envisioned for the Merchants Commerce
[1:22:46] Center property. I mean that we we've
got I don't know maybe a half dozen
[1:22:50] different uh concept plans that the
board has engaged over the years and
[1:22:58] I think it's safe to say all of those
are are plans that have a um a fluidity
[1:23:06] to them. I mean there's nothing to say
we we can't erase this component and
[1:23:10] move it over here or uh
there's some exciting discussion going
[1:23:15] on. So, um, I
I could go on for another hour on this,
[1:23:21] but it it really has been a a
an exciting path for the last few weeks,
[1:23:29] and I'm I'm hopeful that we can push
this forward. And I think the
[1:23:33] architectural firm of Skinner, Farlo,
and Kerwin is very excited and committed
[1:23:39] and experienced in working on projects
of this nature and in securing
[1:23:43] additional funding. As I recall, one of
the key elements of their selection was
[1:23:48] they have a whole team geared toward
grant writing, grant administration, and
[1:23:54] and and especially even USDA rural
development.
[1:23:59] » All right. Well, uh, thank you very much
for the update and giving everybody
[1:24:02] [clears throat] in the attendance and
the county update of where we stand with
[1:24:05] that. Um, you know, all of this kind of
stems from what we're trying to do in
[1:24:10] the future. In order to have something
in the future, you got to have a plan to
[1:24:13] get there.
So, uh, in in light of, you know, Madam
[1:24:16] Chair, in light of today's discussion
with the architect,
[1:24:20] um,
regarding the community center and the
[1:24:24] senior center project for, uh, Gates
County, uh, and the county manager has
[1:24:28] been instructed to prepare the
following, um, midpoint motion for the
[1:24:34] board's consideration.
Number one, approval of the revised
[1:24:40] scope of work deferring
identify the design for construction of
[1:24:46] a new community center and senior
center. an agreement to undertake a
[1:24:53] countywide facility evaluation of
existing county facilities, office
[1:24:58] spaces, needs, analysis, opportunities
for consolidation, and forecasting the
[1:25:06] future program space needs for all
county agencies, including the senior
[1:25:13] activities and community center and the
school system.
[1:25:18] subject to concurrence with the school
board of education.
[1:25:25] Number two,
approval for the county manager, excuse
[1:25:30] me, approval for the county management
to seek approval for the funding agency
[1:25:36] state construction infrastructure fund
to utilize the available and existing
[1:25:42] grant funds in the amount of $495,000
to support this revised scope and work
[1:25:49] as outlined above.
Number three,
[1:25:54] directions for our county manager to
seek USDA rural development support and
[1:26:02] approval from for its
commitment to utilize the funds
[1:26:09] previously approved in the amount of $1
million
[1:26:14] for construction and or renovation of a
facility to provide expanded community
[1:26:21] center and senior center programs and
services.
[1:26:24] Number four,
approval to invite and and join the
[1:26:32] Gates County Board of Education
to evaluate the plan for the future
[1:26:38] school facilities for the next 30 years.
Madam Chair, I'll offer a motion to
[1:26:45] approve the above items.
>> We have a motion. Do we have a second?
[1:26:51] second.
>> All right. Um and just open for
[1:26:53] discussion. Um I think you know we had
covered a lot of this during the work
[1:26:57] session earlier. Um my only my only
concern was just the moving too early on
[1:27:03] reassigning that million from the USDA
rural funds just in the chance that they
[1:27:08] won't be open to moving it more than
once if we go and suggest something else
[1:27:12] again. So if that is I think in lie of
what we find from the assessment was
[1:27:17] that correct? Like the item three would
be
[1:27:22] » Yeah. The way
>> in lie of the first two coming to
[1:27:24] fruition.
>> Yeah. So the way it's worded, we could
[1:27:26] use it in either or.
>> Okay.
[1:27:29] » Okay.
>> Yeah. Um
[1:27:33] I agree with a lot of this and I believe
you said it earlier.
[1:27:38] Um,
we're one of 100 that does not have a
[1:27:44] senior son
and we need one. The seniors in this
[1:27:49] county has been paying taxes for a long
time. Mo most of them have and they
[1:27:55] deserve
a well organized place to go
[1:28:00] exercise
and do whatever they want to do.
[1:28:06] And
I don't want them to have
[1:28:13] a huge building that we just turn into a
senior center.
[1:28:17] If we have to rehabilitate something and
we
[1:28:22] turn it into a senior center and that's
all we can do, that's all we can do.
[1:28:27] We set out to have a new community
center because the one that we're having
[1:28:32] is it's not falling apart.
Technically the bricks are still in
[1:28:37] place
but it's in very poor condition and we
[1:28:43] had started moving forward if I can
remember correctly because all the
[1:28:47] insulation in between the two walls or
or wet with rain and it sag down.
[1:28:54] There's no insulation value left. We
looked at putting the new roof on it. I
[1:28:59] forgot how much that was going to cost.
We had we had made a decision to move
[1:29:03] forward with a new community center.
$12 million. That's a whole lot of
[1:29:10] money. Four years ago, the water system,
we spent a million and a half on it and
[1:29:16] and the water the water system was back
in the in the black. You know, it it's
[1:29:21] turnaround. We had to invest some money
in it. Uh, as far as community center,
[1:29:26] uh, having it on one side of the county
a little bit further than the other
[1:29:30] side, uh, I feel like needs to be stayed
in in the center of the county where
[1:29:37] it's accessible to all people. No one
has to drive down much further than the
[1:29:42] other. Um, we've got the board of
elections in the center county. Now, we
[1:29:48] got high school in the center county.
would eventually hope to build a a uh a
[1:29:54] new high school right there, consolidate
the schools even more, maybe one day.
[1:29:58] That's it's been taught. Uh I feel like
this community center needs to stay in
[1:30:02] the community. Um so $12 million.
We've applied for $4 million worth of
[1:30:10] grants many times and we didn't get
them. I I don't think we need to
[1:30:17] forget about the community center being
where we originally talked about it. I
[1:30:20] think we just need to go after grants
order and find the money. Our our
[1:30:23] citizens pay all these taxes and run
this county year after year.
[1:30:32] They don't deserve something repurposed.
They deserve something that's brand new.
[1:30:36] If we got to go after funding and find
$12 million, it's out there. You just
[1:30:42] got to look in the right bucket. I just
don't think we've looked hard enough
[1:30:46] yet.
So, I'm not for repurposing something
[1:30:51] for our seniors. Now, if that's what we
have to do in the meantime until we can
[1:30:55] find the correct money for it, then so
be it. But I don't want to repurpose
[1:31:01] something
and that's what they end up with.
[1:31:05] I want something new.
I want something nice. The citizens in
[1:31:10] Gates County deserve anything just as
nice as any other county that's around
[1:31:14] us.
Some of this I do agree with engaging
[1:31:20] the board of education uh in it because
school facilities and and parks I know
[1:31:26] we we do have to share because we are a
small county but we deserve just as good
[1:31:32] as all the other surrounding counties
and we can do it. We just got to put our
[1:31:36] minds to it. We got to look in the right
buckets of money. That's all I had.
[1:31:43] » Are there any other comment? I just want
to like just kind of looking at it
[1:31:46] though. I mean, a lot of this is just to
revise the scope of work, not
[1:31:50] necessarily to move the community center
or senior center. It's to evaluate the
[1:31:53] buildings that we currently have to
evaluate the opportunities that we have.
[1:31:57] And so this is not something a motion to
>> relocate the the focus.
[1:32:02] » I get that. And I and I do agree with
>> every build needs to be looked at. I
[1:32:08] 100% I do. It needs to be done. We need
to know what our assets are and what we
[1:32:12] need to work on.
>> So, do we have any other discussion on
[1:32:15] the motion at hand? If not, we will call
for a vote. All in favor of the motion
[1:32:20] as presented.
That is unanimous. Okay.
[1:32:25] Thank you all.
All right. We are moving along now. Um
[1:32:31] new business. We just have a few things
here. One was the budget amendment. If
[1:32:36] Mr. Sour could address this item for the
public and the board.
[1:32:41] » Uh yes, commissioners. You will find
>> Well, I was going to say Yeah.
[1:32:45] » budget or you doing the
>> Well, I was going to say we actually had
[1:32:50] is discussed that earlier. Is that the
one different budget amendment? Yep.
[1:32:54] » Yep.
>> Thanks.
[1:32:56] » Okay. You you'll find F272.
This is the
[1:33:03] um budget budget amendment prepared by
Mr. Robertson to carry forward the grant
[1:33:11] program funds uh that had been u
underutilized or not utilized u
[1:33:19] since the last fiscal year. Um
and and primarily the the biggest one is
[1:33:26] the stream cleanup and the soil and
water conservation. The other is the
[1:33:29] digital literacy teleaalth grant and
you'll see all of the expenditures
[1:33:34] identified there. We've also got the uh
4H camp, United Way,
[1:33:39] um some DSS miscellaneous, the veterans
office and the America 250. The uh total
[1:33:47] is 134,134
[1:33:51] F272.
>> All right.
[1:33:55] Can we get a motion to approve if there
are no questions?
[1:34:00] » I got a question. Okay. I I just if you
would give us a little explanation. The
[1:34:03] grant one seemed pretty straightforward,
but like I know that 4H What is that
[1:34:07] 1,600? Didn't we approve a $5,000 one
like last month or something? Is this
[1:34:12] additional to that? What is that
exactly?
[1:34:14] » As the summer moves on, we we've had
different program fees come in and in
[1:34:20] order to spend them, we have to budget
them.
[1:34:22] » So that's fees coming in. Is what you're
saying? That's typically what those are.
[1:34:25] Yeah.
>> Same. What the DSS the same thing.
[1:34:27] » Mhm.
>> 5,000.
[1:34:30] » And then I see the grant then America
250 North Carolina 4259.
[1:34:35] » Yeah. That was originally a $10,000
grant. Okay.
[1:34:39] » And and we just haven't finished that
yet.
[1:34:41] » Okay. All right. Just want to make sure.
Thank you.
[1:34:43] » All right. Get a motion to approve.
>> So move.
[1:34:47] » All right. A second.
>> Second.
[1:34:49] » All in favor?
That is unanimous. Thank you all.
[1:34:55] » All right. Uh, next item is clerk to the
board a report and update. So, clerk
[1:35:00] Draper has the floor.
[1:35:04] Thank you, Madam Chair and
commissioners. Um, I would like to start
[1:35:08] off with the open vacancies before we
move into the applications that were
[1:35:13] submitted and are in your packet for
review. Um, open vacancies. I have one
[1:35:19] for Trillium Health Resources Northern
Regional Board. We have six vacancies
[1:35:24] for the nursing home advisory committee,
one for the planning board, four for uh
[1:35:32] recreational advisory board, one vacancy
for the library board, three vacancies
[1:35:38] for the opioid prevention and
intervention committee, and one which is
[1:35:45] we have two, excuse me, uh for senior
Tar Hill Legislature Committee.
[1:35:52] one would be a member and the other
would be a alternate. Um that is a new
[1:35:59] one that I was not aware of and I'm
getting more information on that but we
[1:36:03] actually had a candidate um submitted
application. So turning over to the
[1:36:10] applications that were presented um to
you all for consideration. Y'all have
[1:36:15] several applicants this month. Um we
have Sarah Montig. I hope I'm saying her
[1:36:22] name correctly. She submitted interest
in um three separate boards. The nursing
[1:36:29] home advisory committee, library board,
and the planning board. I have Miss
[1:36:33] Tiffany Long who has applied for the
library board. Mary Chester was
[1:36:41] applied for the planning board. And then
uh Debbie Savage who has applied for the
[1:36:47] senior Tar Hill legislature committee.
Um I do have a couple recommendations
[1:36:54] from one from
Miss Lisa Cherry. She has recommended um
[1:37:00] Miss Montiki
>> Mon
[1:37:03] » Monkey and then uh the branch manager
for the library, Miss um Kelsey Coburn
[1:37:10] has recommended Miss Tiffany Long. So
you have these item
[1:37:16] for consideration this evening.
All right. And can you just remind us as
[1:37:20] far as serving on boards, is there a
limit on how many a citizen can be on?
[1:37:24] Are there any kind of parameters there?
>> Um, I believe, don't quote me on this,
[1:37:29] but I want to say I don't think there's
any anything in the rules procedures of
[1:37:35] how many they can serve on.
>> Okay.
[1:37:40] » All right. So, we've had these as an
opportunity to look over. Do we have any
[1:37:43] questions, comments, or any motions to
move forward with any of the um
[1:37:48] applicants?
>> So, and as a reminder, um one opening
[1:37:54] for planning board and one for the
library board.
[1:37:57] » Okay.
[1:38:07] All right.
[1:38:13] And you said on the nursing home
advisory committee we have currently no
[1:38:18] we have six vacancies.
>> But I mean no members.
[1:38:21] » No members.
>> I just wanted to point that out. We have
[1:38:23] six members at We have no members at
all.
[1:38:26] » That one does require some training that
comes from additional Yeah. outside
[1:38:33] source. Okay.
>> Are the applicants aware of the training
[1:38:35] requirement?
>> I'm not sure.
[1:38:44] All right. Have any comments,
discussion?
[1:38:48] Motions forward.
>> Well, we have one person who's only
[1:38:52] applying for the planning board. So, if
there's only one spot, I would tend to
[1:38:57] want to lean to give them that one to
share the wealth. There's four
[1:38:59] applicants here. If we give the planning
board to the other person, then we over
[1:39:04] with three applicants overall.
>> I agree. So I guess my recommendation
[1:39:10] would be Miss Wasco for the planning
board. Same for Miss Savage for Tar Hill
[1:39:15] Legislature. Then Miss Long and Miss
Montiku both for the library board.
[1:39:20] » There's only one position for library
board.
[1:39:23] » There's only one
>> one. There's six.
[1:39:25] » No, [clears throat]
that's the nursing home advisory
[1:39:28] committee has six openings.
>> And Miss Long for library. And then that
[1:39:31] gives Miss Monty Q the nursing home
advisory. that would use all four
[1:39:38] since we have four applicants that are
interested in participating. That'd be a
[1:39:42] way to get all four of them on the
board.
[1:39:44] » Is that your motion?
>> That's my motion. I'm sorry.
[1:39:47] » Second that motion. Okay.
>> All right. Open for discussion.
[1:39:50] Any comments or discussion on that? And
if not, we'll call for a vote. Um
[1:39:56] and that would be for all four to have
the first listed board. Yes.
[1:40:00] » For them is the easiest way to I think
say that.
[1:40:03] » All right. All in favor of the motion as
presented.
[1:40:07] Okay. Is unanimous.
All right. Thank y'all. And I have a
[1:40:13] couple updates. Next month. Um the A250
lecture series will continue. Wanda
[1:40:20] Lacier from the Museum of the Aramar
will be presenting a discussion of
[1:40:25] woodworking in northeastern North
Carolina. The lecture is scheduled for
[1:40:29] Thursday, September 19th here in the
historic courthouse. And as part of this
[1:40:36] series, this lecture is an opportunity
to highlight regional history and
[1:40:41] craftsmanship [clears throat]
as part of the broader American 250
[1:40:45] commemoration. Um, in your packet you
will find the
[1:40:52] suggested
[1:40:56] 2027 board of commissioners meeting
schedule and 2027 holiday schedule. Um,
[1:41:03] this is just a suggestion for those. I
did highlight two of the dates on the
[1:41:08] meeting um, schedule. The April one I
will be out of town for professional
[1:41:14] development. I know y'all can handle it
without me, but wanted to [laughter]
[1:41:17] make note of that. And then in addition,
typically the
[1:41:23] » third week
of of August is when the NCACC
[1:41:29] conference is, but I think there's
unofficial discussion that it might not
[1:41:33] be
>> conversation this past week. I was
[1:41:35] hearing August 5th through 7th earlier
in August. I know there's been an outcry
[1:41:39] for it to be earlier because of the
start of school, right? Um so um from my
[1:41:43] understanding it will be at the first
week of August.
[1:41:45] » Okay. So this is um these schedules and
are being presented for board discussion
[1:41:50] and action or it can be tabled to next
month as a first reading.
[1:41:54] » Yeah. Any comments, questions or motions
for the holiday and meeting schedule for
[1:41:59] 2027.
I know we discussed doing it earlier
[1:42:02] just so the staff can plan accordingly.
All right. So we have a motion or
[1:42:08] » we got to do it. This is the first
rerun. So we
[1:42:10] » this is the first three. Yes.
[clears throat] Don't have to adopt it.
[1:42:13] You don't have to.
>> Or can we?
[1:42:15] » You can. You can adopt it now. I just
have it ready.
[1:42:20] » Make a motion to approve as presented.
[clears throat] Second.
[1:42:25] » All right. There's no discussion. All in
favor? Show of hands.
[1:42:30] All right. Um,
two other announcements. County office
[1:42:36] closure. We will be clo all county
offices will be closed Monday, September
[1:42:40] 7th in observance of Labor Day. And then
I received communication of a diabetes
[1:42:47] fair announcement. Um it's a health
announcement. The Edon Lions Club and
[1:42:53] ECU Health Choan Hospital will host a
diabetes fair on September 26th from
[1:42:58] 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This will be at
the Edon United Methodist Church Family
[1:43:05] Life Center located at 2:25 Virginia
Road in Edon. This is a free event, but
[1:43:11] registration will be required as there's
going to be a lunch provided. And I have
[1:43:16] anformational flyer that I will post to
Facebook and the county website and
[1:43:21] distribute in all the county buildings
by next week.
[1:43:24] » I've got four copies of the big ones.
>> The big ones. Yes. Yes. Mr. S brought me
[1:43:28] a handful.
>> Um and then the last thing I have um
[1:43:34] this is also in your packet. We've
received an offer on surplus real
[1:43:39] property. Um the board has been provided
in your packet with this offer from Mr.
[1:43:46] Twifford Twilford Tweford
>> Twifford sorry um along with the backup
[1:43:52] documentation provided by um our tax
administrator and this is being
[1:43:58] presented to you all for review.
If you'll notice behind the offer um is
[1:44:04] the information provided
by Taylor um Miss Pal, excuse me, um
[1:44:10] that notes the total amount of funding
or the total amount of cost that we have
[1:44:16] associated with this parcel. And I also
do want to say I have received a phone
[1:44:21] call and email I haven't been able to
follow follow up with with some other
[1:44:25] people inquiring about our our surplus
our real property surplus. So, um I'll
[1:44:30] get back to y'all if if y'all are here,
but um this is what we have on the table
[1:44:35] tonight. Okay.
>> I'm looking at the tax card as long as
[1:44:39] I'm going through my correctly here.
>> Mhm.
[1:44:42] » The tax card has the the land value at
31,000.
[1:44:46] » Just Yes,
>> just the land value.
[1:44:48] » Um and I should have provided a Google
map and I apologize I did not. It's
[1:44:55] actually different. Um it's a lot of
grown up. It's a lot of growth on this
[1:44:59] property. Not
>> versus what is on the GIS map currently.
[1:45:03] I did look it up. It's a lot of
overgrowth and vegetation.
[1:45:07] [clears throat]
>> Yeah. So, with the land being $31,000 of
[1:45:11] value as far as a tax assessed value,
>> not including any structures or nothing
[1:45:14] like that cuz I understand I mean I saw
the note as far as don't go in the
[1:45:17] house.
>> Yes. But uh um and with the county
[1:45:22] outstanding uh money owed being 155500,
>> he he needs to at least come back with
[1:45:29] what the county has owed in taxes.
>> Okay. Okay. Do y'all want to counter
[1:45:35] offer that and then we can do the upset
bid progress? 15 just under uh just over
[1:45:40] 15. 1553142
[1:45:44] » taxes and attorney fees.
>> Uh should be right behind the offer.
[1:45:48] » This one right here.
>> Um right uh right here. Right behind the
[1:45:53] offer.
>> Sorry.
[1:45:57] » Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
>> And so land value at 31. The amount owed
[1:46:01] to county as is with attorney fees and
taxes is just at half of that. And the
[1:46:05] offer came in was at 5,000. So at 5,8
>> make a motion to counter offer
[1:46:10] $15,53142.
[1:46:14] » I second that motion.
>> Any further discussion on that?
[1:46:18] If not, we'll call for a vote. All in
favor?
[1:46:24] » That's all I have.
>> All right. Thank you.
[1:46:27] » Thank you all.
>> Okay.
[1:46:33] All right. And now we have the county
manager report and update.
[1:46:39] » I'll b be brief and it's show and tell
as soon as I get the computer up and
[1:46:44] tell
>> and I'm not going to try the green
[1:46:46] thing.
>> Is [laughter] this a picture of a
[1:46:48] jugging?
[1:46:52] » Just as reference, this is for the uh
well 2A
[1:46:57] emergency replacement for the well that
failed in January. It's about 400 Brad,
[1:47:05] is it 410 or 420 feet deep? 410 ft deep.
There are five screens. You'll see them.
[1:47:13] They're uh kind of dark in color. Those
five screens, I think, total 65 ft of
[1:47:20] screen material for for drawing uh
water. Uh we continue to work through
[1:47:25] the development of those screens. Uh if
you'll jump to the next one, please.
[1:47:32] U
on the left was the
[1:47:37] u
hydro geologist analysis of how we
[1:47:42] identified where to place the screens
and the
[1:47:47] crane operator. I think that's when the
test well was being installed. Is that
[1:47:53] » the case?
>> The case was being installed.
[1:47:56] Then the next item,
[1:48:05] Brad, help me out on this.
That's what they use for the
[1:48:11] » Sure.
>> Yeah. Can you explain a little bit?
[1:48:24] I'm going have to look this way cuz
that's what I I can see.
[1:48:28] Basically what it is is is it's two um
disc at the top and the bottom and they
[1:48:35] they they work it up and down on those
screens and in between th those two disc
[1:48:40] they inject water
>> or some type of uh chemical mostly
[1:48:45] chlorine and they inject it in and out
of the screen and pulls water or pushes
[1:48:50] water through the screen and then sucks
it back out with that plunging and it's
[1:48:53] supposed to develop the screen and work
the screen and clear it up. And that's
[1:48:58] the work that's been completed. And this
next phase is the jetting that we
[1:49:02] described during the
>> Yes. This is basically cleaning the
[1:49:04] screens from all the well mud and
everything,
[1:49:06] » right? That's correct. From the driven
mud, sediment and all that kind of
[1:49:10] stuff.
[1:49:13] » The next screen was one of the shots
you've seen in the past. This was from
[1:49:17] Dr. Sproul. It shows the the available
aquifers. Our wells [snorts] all
[1:49:22] presently
uh draw water from the upper Capefir
[1:49:26] aquifer. In our next round of test
wells, we're going to put a an 800 foot
[1:49:33] uh well into the lower Capefare aquifer
and run a comparison of the uh upper and
[1:49:40] the lower and we are proposing that.
Next slide please. uh for the U Buckland
[1:49:49] school property. And we will start with
two test wells and bring back uh results
[1:49:56] and recommendations as to where uh on
that site or possibly another site we
[1:50:02] may recommend uh the final production.
Well, uh, we've got real
[1:50:10] high enthusiasm for the potential from
the lower Capefare based on Dr. Sproul's
[1:50:18] analysis.
Item next uh
[1:50:22] is reflective of the board's capital
projects. If you've been driving around
[1:50:28] town, you've seen orange cones, you've
seen yellow trucks,
[1:50:32] uh, pipe laying in the road, and, uh, we
most recently have started the
[1:50:38] directional boring, Carter Creek, uh,
Bennett Creek, and a number of
[1:50:43] intersections,
uh, throughout the county. If we flip to
[1:50:47] the next slide, please. This is at the
lot county owned property adjacent to
[1:50:54] DSS where we've allowed TA11 to
set up their layown yard.
[1:51:04] And just another view, they have assured
us and promised that they will put the
[1:51:09] property back the way they found it, but
they did have to put in a temporary
[1:51:14] access driveway uh to to get in there.
This next slide I took this afternoon
[1:51:21] [snorts] after I left our legislative
uh gathering. And Brad, talk to us about
[1:51:28] these 24in pipes versus the others.
>> Well, what that is, that's the 24in
[1:51:33] casing that's going under
[clears throat] Highway 158 that they're
[1:51:36] going to run the 12 in water line
through. uh DOT requires uh to be at
[1:51:41] least 30 inches below the asphalt and um
and it has to be inductive iron casing.
[1:51:49] So you hit the
>> That's just to give you an idea of the
[1:51:53] augers
that they used. And I think in a
[1:51:56] previous month I showed you the augers
for the well. That augur was
[1:52:01] » 36 in.
>> 36 in. That's 24. It was It was 36. And
[1:52:06] then one last slide of a couple of folks
I saw in Durham at the state conference.
[1:52:12] And and we'll end with everybody
smiling. [laughter]
[1:52:17] That's all I have.
>> Thank you, sir.
[1:52:21] Okay. So, moving along to commissioner
updates. I'm going to I can't remember
[1:52:26] where I started last month, but I think
it was down there. So, I'm going to
[1:52:29] start down here. [snorts]
>> Okay. Um report since uh last month.
[1:52:33] Almoral commission. It's hard to
remember because we always have it the
[1:52:36] next night after this meeting. So,
trying to remember notes. I I actually
[1:52:39] wrote them down my phone to try and
capture. Just two things worth noting.
[1:52:43] Um, I talk over and over again about the
housing assistance programs they've got
[1:52:47] and the update as of last month, the
weather weatherization assistance
[1:52:50] program, which is good for the whole
Alamo district. They have $2.9 million
[1:52:55] available funds for a three-year program
for a weatherization that still can be
[1:52:59] applied for. And then the essential
single family rehab program, that's the
[1:53:03] one that's specific right now for Gates
County and Terrell County. They still
[1:53:07] have $346,000
available. We're starting the second
[1:53:11] year. We've had three people from Gates
County that have used it and I think
[1:53:15] only two in Terrell. So, there's lots of
money still available for folks that
[1:53:19] need that. Again, you have to show a
need, a financial need or whatever, but
[1:53:24] um it's a big pot of money still sitting
there available for folks.
[1:53:29] Now, um I did want to bring up I think
it's great we talked about the whole
[1:53:33] planning actions. I've been a big
advocate. Everybody knows that. Run my
[1:53:35] mouth. Won't shut up about it. I
appreciate and I appreciate the school
[1:53:38] that we really do want to do the
facilities planning and get things
[1:53:41] right. I think people see me a lot as an
opposition to everything. It's not so
[1:53:45] much that I like to make a conscious
decision going forward with things and I
[1:53:50] think that's a great first step. Applaud
the board here. Hopefully the school
[1:53:54] board as well will embrace it. We'll do
a great thing going forward. Um
[1:53:58] accountability is what it's for for me.
And I do want to say recently and this
[1:54:02] is changing subject slightly. Some
people follow social media and other
[1:54:06] things have seen some complaints about
the rescue squad and people are very
[1:54:11] appreciative of having the rescue squad
the first time you're in need and they
[1:54:14] show up all your concerns about them
fall away. But at the same time, I do
[1:54:19] want to say that we mentioned back in
this budget development cycle that we
[1:54:24] wanted to see an audit. And I just want
to reiterate that because we're coming
[1:54:28] we're now well past the budget year and
we're going to be approaching the next
[1:54:32] budget year. And if people come in in
May and say, "Well, we didn't know about
[1:54:36] it. We don't have time to do an audit.
Let's just let it go another year." I'm
[1:54:39] going to be drastically disappointed.
And so, I'd like to encourage us as a
[1:54:44] board to reiterate that we expect a
audit when we're giving hundreds and
[1:54:49] hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
dollars for something not taking away at
[1:54:52] all the good job they do. And like I
said, if I had a health issue right now,
[1:54:56] I'd be the guy that would be having no
complaints about them showing up. But at
[1:55:00] the same time as a steward of public
funds I think we need to account for how
[1:55:04] our money is being spent in a public
reconciled audit's important for me. And
[1:55:09] then the last thing again we talked
about in the work session again that
[1:55:12] whole big long facility planning effort.
I think it's again worth noting other
[1:55:16] big thing I've harped on is the
necessity and having a conscious
[1:55:21] decision about the pipeline pump station
from the Buckland school without us
[1:55:25] having a clear idea of the use of that
building. And so I just want to note
[1:55:28] that I think it's good that we talked
about it some today and hopefully we'll
[1:55:31] make some conscious decisions just not
let momentum carry us forward. Thank
[1:55:35] you,
>> Commissioner Roundry.
[1:55:39] » Yes. Uh I truly enjoyed North Carolina
Association of County Commissioners
[1:55:43] conference that was held in Durham. It
was very informative. It was a great
[1:55:48] networking opportunity
and I was blessed to be selected as
[1:55:55] regional director for the NCABCO
organization.
[1:56:03] Also earlier at the Social Security
Institute, I was selected as regional
[1:56:09] director at large for the North Carolina
Association of County Boards of Social
[1:56:16] Services. So I look forward to serving
in those two capacity.
[1:56:20] Also I want to congratulate Miss Leila
Eglson. She is a freshman at UNC
[1:56:27] Charlotte. She's majoring in communi
management management communication
[1:56:31] systems and she received a scholarship
during the conference. Also with sad
[1:56:37] hearts uh I mourn and we mourn the death
of a Gates County legend Reverend Claude
[1:56:44] ODM. He he also was a former
commissioner in Herford County. A great
[1:56:49] statesman, a great reverend at New Mill
Swamp Baptist Church. He left a legacy
[1:56:56] of e excellence and he was a great
individual who made impact not only in
[1:57:02] Gates County but and not only the region
throughout the state. So with sad hearts
[1:57:09] his he will be uh finalized Friday.
Also
[1:57:16] there was a great um 250 uh America
celebration here. Everyone should have
[1:57:22] been here. Um we recognize
former Secretary of State, the late
[1:57:30] Thad U, the longest serving Secretary of
State in the state of North Carolina. He
[1:57:35] was an awesome man. and his family was
here. They told great stories,
[1:57:40] told about his impact in the community
throughout the state. He was a powerful
[1:57:45] man and he made Gates County proud. He
made Gates County proud because he was
[1:57:50] one of us and he served our state well.
Recognized for his red bow tie and also
[1:57:58] his hat. He was a strong man with wisdom
and excellence. And I'm proud that Gates
[1:58:04] County at one point in time had a
secretary of state. Also, October the
[1:58:10] 1st, this is my Trillium. October the
1st, Trillium will be launching a uh
[1:58:17] claim system, a unified claim system.
And what that is, all claims is going to
[1:58:23] go directly through Trillium. And
Trillium would be the payer for those
[1:58:29] who are in that particular tail plan. So
that's going to take place October the
[1:58:34] 1st.
So that concludes my uh updates. So glad
[1:58:40] to see everyone out and engaged and hope
everyone have a blessed night.
[1:58:45] » All right. Thank you, sir.
>> All right. I don't really have any
[1:58:50] committee updates. I've uh got some
medical stuff going on that I don't get
[1:58:54] out as much as I was. Uh I did have a
constituent uh talk to me um yesterday,
[1:59:00] day before, I can't remember which one
it was, but uh they were at our
[1:59:05] wonderful library that we have. Um they
had problems getting on the internet and
[1:59:12] uh come to find out they don't have
fiber optic internet
[1:59:17] at uh at our library. So Mr. S if uh if
I can put this on one of your to-do
[1:59:23] lists being that we have fiber optic
internet can uh we look and see what it
[1:59:27] would take to get it to our library.
Um
[1:59:33] I'm not sure if it's a regional thing
they they use all one vendor or whatever
[1:59:38] but I think we might be able to even if
we have to pay for for our citizens you
[1:59:42] know uh
>> I think they they deserve but everybody
[1:59:47] goes to the library to learn. Some
people go to the library to get on the
[1:59:50] internet because they don't have
internet and I think we should be able
[1:59:53] to provide them with the best internet
and we got it. We got it. So that's all
[1:59:59] I have.
>> All right. Thank you.
[2:00:01] » All right. Well, uh I sit on the Almar
Regional Transit Authority and we had
[2:00:07] some really good discussions this past
uh month and um a lot of was geared
[2:00:13] around
trying to get more funding out of the
[2:00:17] North Carolina DOT uh to the Alamar
area. You they talked about a lot of
[2:00:23] things they wanted to do over uh in in
the the Deer County area, but uh Gates
[2:00:28] County is on that list, too. and uh
they're continuing with uh working to
[2:00:34] get additional funding to um modernize
158, widen it as it kind of comes down
[2:00:39] through the the the county as well as uh
continuing the fourlane of 13 up to the
[2:00:45] Virginia state line. Um
there's also uh that design has been
[2:00:52] done and the funding is available
uh for a roundabout at 158 and Acorn
[2:00:59] Hill Road. So that's something that's uh
>> could could be coming in the future. So
[2:01:03] that's something that North Carolina DOT
is looking. So just kind of informing
[2:01:06] everybody that something just different
for Gates [clears throat] County. So
[2:01:10] » I don't know if I exactly agree with
them, but hey,
[2:01:14] you try to drive a combine around that
thing. [laughter]
[2:01:20] » Yeah. um
had a had a good time uh this past week
[2:01:25] at the NA in NCACC.
Uh yes, I got up and spoke and I had
[2:01:31] that was a tongue twister for me. I had
to slow down every time I got up and
[2:01:33] talked about that. [laughter]
>> So, uh ju just to hear uh the issues
[2:01:40] going on in the other 99 counties in
this great state and um they are very
[2:01:47] similar. Some of them have more has a
bigger price tag than what ours do, but
[2:01:51] they're very very similar. And to be
able to bat ideas off of one another, uh
[2:01:58] how are they handling their issues, how
we're handling them? Um they were
[2:02:03] shocked to hear how great of a uh
relationship that we have with our board
[2:02:08] of education. And I said, "Well, when
you got good folks on the board of
[2:02:11] education, then you got good
relationships. That's how it works." So,
[2:02:14] um I I also want to uh uh thank Dr.
Jordan for and and let her know that we
[2:02:20] appreciate her taking on that role as
interim superintendent. Um we look
[2:02:25] forward to your success. Uh we know that
your success will bring the school
[2:02:30] system success. So, um we're looking
forward to it.
[2:02:34] » So, that's all I have.
>> All right. Well, thank you. Um so, just
[2:02:39] to highlight, yeah, the NCAACC
conference was phenomenal. um as it
[2:02:43] always is. Lots of great information,
lots of great connections. Um I had
[2:02:47] mentioned last month that I was running
for the second vice chair. I had the um
[2:02:51] vice chair of our board do one of my
nomination speeches. I did not win,
[2:02:55] which I think is an okay thing. Um I was
I was the underdog going in. I knew
[2:02:59] that. We're new to we're new to showing
up in Raleigh. We're new to showing up
[2:03:03] at the NCAACC events. Um it's just been
the past few years. My opponent's been
[2:03:07] there over 12. He's a mentor in the
association. So, I'm incredibly excited
[2:03:10] to be under his leadership for the next
few years. Um, and continue to serve as
[2:03:15] the district 1 director for the NCAACCC
as well, uh, which is the northeast most
[2:03:19] 10 counties here, um, in North Carolina,
what we jokingly call the forgotten
[2:03:24] northeast. So, we're getting a little
louder so they remember us over here. um
[2:03:30] also in the past month have traveled um
to DPI as we mentioned earlier with
[2:03:35] board of education and our
superintendent and it was I think a
[2:03:40] fruitful meeting. Um it came out with
relationships build and more
[2:03:44] conversations going forward and I cannot
wait to see what um it does for Gates
[2:03:48] County. I think it's going to be really
good. Um the EMS board is meeting
[2:03:53] tomorrow and I just going to put that
out there. We haven't had a meeting
[2:03:55] since the budget was passed, so it
hasn't been neglected. We're just having
[2:03:59] our first EMS board meeting tomorrow
night in this fiscal year. Um [laughter]
[2:04:04] just so I'll have that update in report
next month. Um and then lastly, I have
[2:04:10] here um I have two legislative goals.
North uh the North Carolina Association
[2:04:15] of County Commissioners, which is the
NCAACCC, um has a legislative goals
[2:04:19] process every two years um when the
general assembly goes into a long
[2:04:22] session. And so counties are able to
propose um goals for NCACCC to pick up
[2:04:29] to lobby and to advocate for on behalf
of 100 counties. And so I've had just
[2:04:34] based on conversations with um staff and
with our board various issues we've had
[2:04:39] with funding and then with a citizen
that had come and asked for us to back
[2:04:43] something. I've drafted two um proposed
legislative goals that you should have
[2:04:47] received tonight. Um, but I will read
those and just see if we are open to
[2:04:52] adopting these and if so, I need to have
them submitted tomorrow. Um, the first
[2:04:56] is a proposed legislative goal uh to
reform North Carolina's county tier
[2:05:01] system. And just for a little background
before I read what the proposed goal is,
[2:05:05] um, the tier system is how we what we
use to apply for a lot of our grants. We
[2:05:09] are a tier 2 county. You want to be a
tier one as far as a lowincome area. um
[2:05:15] somehow or another, Pit County and and
various counties across the state are
[2:05:19] tier one and we are a tier 2 county um
which loses a lot of grant opportunities
[2:05:24] for us. A lot of funding that we could
get at state level we are not capable of
[2:05:27] getting because of this tier system. So
we're trying to advocate for reform of
[2:05:30] the tier system for counties like us.
And this proposal um says support
[2:05:35] comprehensive reform of North Carolina's
county development tier system to ensure
[2:05:39] that economic distress is measured
accurately and that counties are not
[2:05:42] unfairly excluded from critical grants,
incentives, and other funding
[2:05:46] opportunities. The current system
requires counties to be divided into a
[2:05:50] fixed allocation of 40 tier 1 counties,
40 tier 2 counties, and 20 tier three
[2:05:55] counties. This structure forces counties
to compete against one another for a
[2:05:59] limited number of designations, even
when multiple counties face similar
[2:06:02] levels of economic distress.
As a result, a county's designation may
[2:06:07] reflect its ranking relative to other
counties rather than its actual needs,
[2:06:11] resources, and ability to fund essential
services. Legislation should replace the
[2:06:16] fixed 40420 allocation with objective
needs based thresholds that allow any
[2:06:20] county meeting the established criteria
to receive the appropriate designation.
[2:06:25] modernize the formula to account for
poverty, poverty, household income,
[2:06:29] population loss, unemployment, taxbased
capacity, infrastructure needs, access
[2:06:32] to health care, educational attainment,
and the cost of providing essential
[2:06:36] services. Recognize the unique
challenges of rural low population and
[2:06:40] geographically isolated counties.
Prevent counties from abruptly losing
[2:06:44] funding eligibility because of small
annual changes in rankings or data. and
[2:06:49] establish a reasonable or a transition
or hold harmless period when a county
[2:06:53] moves to a higher tier and regularly
review the formula and its effect on
[2:06:58] county's eligibility for state grants
matching requirements and economic
[2:07:01] development programs. So that is the
first um proposed legislative goal. And
[2:07:06] then the second um
general assembly for years has been
[2:07:12] trying to take power away from the
county and put it at state level for um
[2:07:17] property and land use and now property
taxes and all the things. You'll be
[2:07:21] hearing from us a lot more on this as we
get closer to election times. But this
[2:07:26] specific uh goal was brought to me by a
citizen um and asked that we put up and
[2:07:31] it's restoring local control of fox
hunting pres preserves. Uh it states
[2:07:36] support legislation clarifying that
controlled fox hunting preserves
[2:07:39] commonly known as fox pins are
recreational or commercial hunting
[2:07:43] facilities rather than bonafide
agricultural operations. amend North
[2:07:47] Carolina law to ensure these facilities
are subject to county zoning, land use,
[2:07:52] permitting, and reasonable operational
reg regulations. The legislation should
[2:07:56] restore decision-making authority to
county governments, allowing locally
[2:08:00] elected officials to consider location,
neighboring property uses, noise,
[2:08:04] traffic, public safety, animal welfare,
environmental impacts, operating hours,
[2:08:08] and other community concerns. Counties
should have the authority to approve,
[2:08:12] condition, regulate, or deny these
facilities according to local needs and
[2:08:15] circumstances. The North Carolina
Wildlife Resources Commission may
[2:08:19] continue establishing minimum statewide
standards related to wildlife
[2:08:22] conservation, animal health, and
licensing, but those standards should
[2:08:26] not override a county's authority over
land use and local operational impacts.
[2:08:30] Um, so these are the two proposed
legislative goals. Um, we could take
[2:08:34] them individually or together if, but I
would like to make a motion that we move
[2:08:38] these along in the legislative goal
process for the NCAACCC.
[2:08:43] Take a second.
>> We have a second. Do we have any
[2:08:46] comments or discussion?
>> Yeah. The only thing the the way the
[2:08:49] formula currently works the you can hear
accounting for poverty household income.
[2:08:54] » That's what killed us.
>> Separated.
[2:08:56] » Okay.
>> What I was going to say was is the
[2:08:59] current thing that killed this county
changed our tier was the household
[2:09:03] income and poverty. I would say I think
you should push that household property,
[2:09:08] household income to the last because the
order tends to give emphasis and I think
[2:09:13] you should push up taxbased capacity
because that's really where we lack
[2:09:16] compared to other counties similar tier.
>> Yep. Yep.
[2:09:21] » Okay. All right. So, I'm going to make
an amendment to my motion. I'm going to
[2:09:24] make a motion to we're going to separate
these out. um
[2:09:30] approved their reform North Carolina's
county tier system with the amendment of
[2:09:34] switching tax base and capacity and
household income um forward and we'll
[2:09:38] take the other one as a [snorts] second.
All right, so that's my amended motion.
[2:09:42] » And we have a second for that. So all in
favor of the amended motion.
[2:09:46] All right, that is unanimous. And then
bringing forth the um restoring local
[2:09:51] control of fox hunting preserves. Um I
mean I think land use in general, but
[2:09:55] this is specific. So, um, it was a
specific request, so I'll open that.
[2:10:00] Again, I make a motion for this one.
>> Yeah. Yeah, I'll I'll second that. It
[2:10:04] was something that, uh, one of the local
citizens has come pretty big advocate
[2:10:08] for that. So, we'll see.
>> Repeatedly. Yeah. We've had lots of
[2:10:11] comments about this. Only question I'd
ask is not to argue for against this,
[2:10:15] but what other counties nearby are doing
this? Have you talked to any of the
[2:10:18] other neighboring counties with this?
We're making sure
[2:10:21] » this was brought to me and I was told
and and I have had the person that came
[2:10:24] to me say that they would do the leg
work for it. They just need our approval
[2:10:27] and support as a county that they are
not asking for anything other than us
[2:10:31] trying to push it through that they are
willing to call and
[2:10:34] » county conversations you know years ago
but the the difference is that yeah
[2:10:39] because of the new state law and how
it's working.
[2:10:41] » Yeah understand I guess what I'm getting
at is there anybody besides us
[2:10:44] » I do know there are other counties that
would like to see this change. Well, see
[2:10:48] the whole thing about this is you can
affect people's businesses.
[2:10:52] » You can you're telling them that if you
buy this 200 and some acres of land, you
[2:10:58] can't do with it what you want to do
with you. You see what I'm saying?
[2:11:01] » So, this this is a real touchy. That's
why I asked them to be separated because
[2:11:06] » yeah,
>> I I'm not against it doing homework on
[2:11:10] it, but I would need more information on
what we're really asking for before I
[2:11:14] would vote to change something.
>> Yeah. So, like as of right now, I
[2:11:19] believe and and I'm going to look it's
zoned as agriculture role through the
[2:11:23] state
>> bonafide farm and agriculture.
[2:11:27] » Yeah. Yeah. So, we're just asking to
separate it out of
[2:11:30] » separate it and give county more control
over the approval of them. So this is
[2:11:33] just requesting the authority return to
the county approve that that one would
[2:11:36] [clears throat] then become ours to
determine
[2:11:38] » 100% it's just requesting authority to
come back to the county authority
[2:11:42] » I understand it but yeah I think
[2:11:50] that's
[2:12:01] » work
And again and I can say too when we
[2:12:05] submit these the way the legislative
goals process works it goes to the NCC
[2:12:09] staff they consolidate similar and like
request and bring them down. They go
[2:12:13] before the steering committees and they
approve so many. If they make that then
[2:12:17] they go in November before the 100
counties to approve the legislative
[2:12:21] goals. And after November the NCACCC
will be given directives to advocate for
[2:12:25] the goals that are approved in the
November legislative goals conference.
[2:12:28] So it's not just saying it's going to go
to them and they're going to do it. It's
[2:12:30] going to go through this process of
being weaned down and this process of
[2:12:34] vetting um and being fine-tuned to fit
most counties.
[2:12:38] » And these are just the two that our
county is
[2:12:40] » right. Just submitting, but it will be
refined before it goes forth to anything
[2:12:44] else
>> on their level.
[2:12:46] » Yeah.
>> Okay. So, we have a first and second.
[2:12:50] So, all in favor?
All right. Thank you all.
[2:12:56] And [sighs]
my last comment was and they had left.
[2:13:00] I'm guessing because of time and having
school, but I was really excited to see
[2:13:03] a family with young kids in the audience
tonight. I had a text the other day
[2:13:06] asking what time the meeting was that
they were wanting to get their family
[2:13:09] involved in politics and just following
local politics and community
[2:13:13] involvement. So, they're not here, but I
think it was phenomenal that they they
[2:13:17] were and that the kids got to see some
of the process. So,
[2:13:21] now
um do we have any end comments?
[2:13:26] [laughter]
[2:13:30] No. Okay. So, we have come to the end of
our business meeting. We do have a close
[2:13:34] session that was added to the agenda.
Um, so if we could get a motion to go
[2:13:38] into close session pursuant 143-318116
[2:13:43] for personnel.
>> Just I'll make that. I just want to make
[2:13:46] one comment. I may have insulted Mrs.
Spanolia. She was my kid's babysitter
[2:13:50] when she was younger. And when I said
that earlier, I apologize. She's not
[2:13:53] here now. I'm going apologize to her
later by saying my babysitter. The
[2:13:57] woman's brilliant. She's a professional
and I said that lightigh-heartedly. It
[2:14:01] may have offended her and I just want to
tell the public that was not my intent
[2:14:04] at all and I will apologize. So with
that, I'll move to go into close
[2:14:07] session.
>> All right. All in favor? Okay. We'll be
[2:14:12] in close session.
>> I remember phone stay out here. Yeah, I
[2:14:18] saw she gave me a look. I was like, "Oh
man, I'm in trouble." [laughter]
[2:14:22] She's sharp. She's a shark.
[2:30:51] Come on. Mhm.
[2:30:59] » Quite expeditious. It would be nice.
[2:31:24] Madam chair, I make a motion to come out
of close session.
[2:31:27] » Do we have a second?
>> Is there a second?
[2:31:29] » All in favor? All right, we are back in
open session.
[2:31:34] » Motion to adjourn.
>> That is perfect. Can we have a second?
[2:31:38] Second.
>> All in favor?
[2:31:40] We are a turn.
>> All right.
[2:31:46] » Way to make it happen, guys.