[0:06] Okay, good morning and I'm going to call the order of the January 3rd, 2026, regular meeting of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners.

[0:14] And at this time, if you can stand, please stand for the pledge and for the invocation.

[0:40] Proverbs chapter 21, verse 21, says this,

[0:43] who ever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.

[0:52] When Solomon penned these words, he was intentional about including kindness alongside of righteousness when living an honorable life.

[1:02] I have an opportunity to join me in prayer.

[1:05] Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

[1:08] Thank you for the reminder each and every day through your word and through those who have lived before us.

[1:13] The important things which should drive us in our daily life, in pursuit of honor, and pursuit of righteousness.

[1:22] Let us not forget Solomon's words, the kindness should always accompany righteousness.

[1:29] It's in the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen.

[1:38] Okay, thank you, Sheriff. We don't have a public hearing today. Next, we'll be our public comment session.

[1:45] And if you would, please limit your comments to three minutes, and Amy will be a clock.

[1:54] Did you got that figure?

[2:00] That way we can keep up with your time.

[2:16] It's fine.

[2:16] Did Amy?

[2:23] That's okay.

[2:25] So the first person that I've got signed up to speak is Ted Carr.

[2:30] Welcome, Ted.

[2:32] Mr. Chair, Mr. Boyne, for measures when my wife and I, of course, first, first elected

[2:38] he would count it to move to, we selected acreage and the Battle of Community because

[2:44] of the beautiful expanse of farms, we had cornfields and peppers and tomato fields and

[2:52] cattle.

[2:52] That was all along, how way, 211-10, right, 276, and how late Logan wrote.

[3:02] So, we became active in the Battle of the Community Organization to help preserve those farms.

[3:08] By educating the farmers about the voluntary ag district, and enhanced voluntary ag district, and conservation easements,

[3:14] We bought about 500 acres in the community into the fold.

[3:21] Educating the entire vessel community about the value of the farm land,

[3:27] we were able to prevent water and sewer lines coming to battle.

[3:34] But in recent times, in today's times, when Levi and his team assess farm land,

[3:41] then there is a exempt defer tax, this placed on that farmland, and so then at the farmland

[3:52] is sold, that defer tax amount for the last three years goes into, I believe, the general

[4:00] fund.

[4:01] But I'm saying it's not necessary for that to go into the general fund, and you ask why?

[4:08] because our county manager, Mr. Morhead, has developed a balanced budget for the year and doesn't need that windfall of the deferred tax.

[4:22] So, I ask you, I ask you commissioners, to place the deferred tax into an account that account would be part of matching funds to leverage

[4:37] state dollars for the preservation of local farmland.

[4:43] So just think about it.

[4:45] The current farm and family, this has to retire, but the youngsters

[4:49] have gone off to the big city and they don't want to come back to the farm.

[4:54] The agriculture development and farmland

[5:00] Innovation Trust One, with the help of collected taxes from the deferred tax dollars, would purchase that

[5:07] form, perhaps turn it into a co-op, and it'll be run by the current farmers.

[5:17] The amount

[5:17] near article that Mr. Mandestacy wrote a few days ago, July 22, explained very, very well that

[5:25] trust fund. And she pointed out that the formula and preservation is not about preserving

[5:30] preventing growth, and I quote, it is about ensuring that growth is balanced and the future

[5:37] generations inherit a county that will still contain the working forms, open spaces and agriculture

[5:43] traditions that make Haywood County unique.

[5:48] I ask you again, commissioners, please put the deferred tax, not in the general fund, but in

[5:56] preservation fund. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, very much. Thank you, Ted.

[6:06] Okay, the next person

[6:08] signed up to speak is Mandy. Did you see? If I pronounced that wrong, Mandy, you just

[6:14] corrected me. Okay.

[6:19] Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Mandy Stasi and I'm here this morning

[6:23] to support the proposed Haywood Working Lands Fund. This proposal represents a practical,

[6:30] This could be responsible investment when a Hayley Hayley County's greatest assets are working farms.

[6:38] The fund would allow the county to reinvest its share of present-use value rollback tax,

[6:44] rather than allowing those dollars to simply be absorbed into the general budget,

[6:49] this resolution creates an opportunity to reinvest them into protecting other working lands for future generations.

[6:55] The greatest benefit of this fund is not necessarily the dollars that contains but the doors that opens.

[7:03] Many state and federal farmland preservation programs require local matching funds or give preference to communities

[7:10] that demonstrate local commitment. By establishing even a modest source of local funding,

[7:16] Hey, La County can become more competitive for grants from all kinds of conservation partners.

[7:23] In many cases, a relatively small local investment can leverage several times that amount

[7:29] in outside funding. A $25 to $50,000 annual investment in the county budget can present

[7:37] a potential leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside conservation over time.

[7:43] that return on investment is the type of fiscal stewardship I'm sure this

[7:47] forward would like to continue to invest the county's money in. More money

[7:52] coming into Haywood County, more farms preserved, and more opportunities for

[7:57] farm families who want to keep their land in agriculture. This fund can also help

[8:02] cover costs that grant programs often will not pay for such as appraisals, surveys,

[8:08] legal work, environmental assessments, and other expenses that otherwise can

[8:12] prevent worthy projects from moving forward.

[8:17] Most importantly, this proposal will help us preserve

[8:19] more forms and provide more competitive offers

[8:22] to landowners considering conservation easements.

[8:26] At the March 16th Commissioners meeting Commissioner Long,

[8:30] you said politicians can speak platitudes

[8:33] about farmland preservation, but in their heart,

[8:36] they don't really want it.

[8:37] This is all of your opportunity to show your constituents

[8:41] what is in your heart.

[8:43] Agriculture remains a cornerstone of Haywood County's economy, culture, and heritage.

[8:49] The decisions we make today will determine whether future generations in her working forms

[8:54] or continue to watch them disappear when parcel at a time.

[8:58] I respectfully ask this board to support Haywood's working lands fund and demonstrate Haywood

[9:03] County's commitment to preserving the lands that have helped to find our community for generations.

[9:08] Thank you for your time and consideration.

[9:12] Thank you, Mandy.

[9:16] Karen, next person to sign up to speak is ginger on.

[9:20] If I didn't pronounce that right, you're correct, Regent.

[9:24] Okay.

[9:26] Thanks for being here this morning.

[9:33] Good morning.

[9:34] My name is Ginger Hayme.

[9:37] I am on the Haywood County Planning Board.

[9:39] I was appointed by this board to represent the town of Wainsville, where I chair the planning board of the town.

[9:44] but today I'm here as a private citizen, I have some prepared remarks to read.

[9:50] I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about a practical way for Haywood County to protect one of its greatest assets.

[9:57] Our working farms.

[9:59] North Carolina.

[10:00] Online provides grants to help counties preserve farmland through voluntary agricultural conservation

[10:06] easements. But these grants usually require local matching funds. Without that match,

[10:13] Haywood County simply cannot compete. And those state dollars will be awarded to other counties

[10:19] that have positioned themselves to take advantage of that opportunity. I would encourage you

[10:26] to consider 100% of our county's farm rollback tax revenues

[10:30] as a permanent source to matching funds

[10:33] for farm land preservation grants.

[10:36] This is not just another local expense.

[10:40] Bringing tax state grant dollars into Haywood County

[10:44] expands our local economy without increasing local taxes.

[10:49] It's a strategy to leverage our local dollars.

[10:52] This is economic development because it brings new capital

[10:56] into Haywood County while protecting assets that continue to produce economic value year after year.

[11:03] I understand that some of you have expressed concern about the balance between protecting farmland

[11:09] and preserving future tax revenues gained from development.

[11:14] I respectfully suggest that these goals are not mutually exclusive.

[11:19] Even if every viable working farm and Haywood County were permanently protected,

[11:23] There would still be substantial acreage available for residential and commercial development, even with our mountainous topology.

[11:33] Farmland preservation does not stop growth.

[11:36] It's simply ensures that growth occurs without sacrificing the productive lands that can never be replaced.

[11:43] Finally, I recognize the very real pressures that you face each year and balancing the county budget.

[11:50] But that's precisely why I believe rollback taxes should be dedicated exclusively to farmland preservation.

[11:59] These revenues exist because productive farmland has been converted to another use.

[12:04] Dedicating 100% of these funds to protect informants that remain creates a clear and lasting commitment.

[12:13] It ensures that every acre lost helps preserve other working lands.

[12:18] provides a reliable local match to state grants and sends a strong message that Hayway County is

[12:24] serious about investing in its agricultural future.

[12:28] If these funds were redirected to unrelated purposes, we lose not only the opportunity

[12:33] to leverage state dollars, but also the chance to turn today's development into tomorrow's

[12:39] preservation.

[12:40] I hope you will consider establishing the rollback taxes as revenues in entirety and as

[12:47] dedicated source to matching funds so Haywood County can leverage state investment to protect

[12:51] the farms and define our community. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

[12:58] Thank you Ms. Hayme. Thank you for your service on the plan board.

[13:03] That can't be an easy job right now.

[13:07] Okay, next person, the speaker is Don Smart.

[13:10] Welcome, Don.

[13:16] Thank you, Commissioner Anisley and other board members.

[13:19] I'm John Smart, full-time farmer and President Haywood County Farm Bureau.

[13:24] I like to say we've this celebrate 250 years of our country.

[13:29] If we have another 250 years, we've got to do three things.

[13:33] We've got to preserve, secure our borders.

[13:36] We've got to preserve our farmland.

[13:38] And we've got to teach our young people about to value democracy and freedom.

[13:43] Farm Bureau in the 6500 members strongly support this resolution that you put forth today

[13:48] in the agenda.

[13:50] Since 1993, we've worked hard in this county and established in a farmland preservation

[13:54] ordinance to try to preserve some of the most beautiful farmland in the world here in

[14:00] Haywood County.

[14:00] We've got a beautiful county and we need to keep it.

[14:03] I can speak in.

[14:04] This resolution is going to go a long way to help provide matching funds so we can get funds

[14:10] from the state and elsewhere to help people in this county that want to keep reforms for

[14:16] the future. So we support you, we look forward for this happening, let us say we've come

[14:24] a long way and we've got a long way to go and this is a big step forward. Thank you, much.

[14:30] Thank you, don't appreciate all those good vegetables you grow to. Okay, our next person

[14:35] The speaker is Martha Mills, there you are,

[14:43] and I just want to say, Martha, that your daughter

[14:45] Sheila is doing a good job with a week's, a week's tension,

[14:52] yep, good morning, I am

[14:57] Martha Mills, and I serve as the chairperson for this.

[15:00] Ag advisory committee to the formal and preservation. First of all, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for coming forward and seeing the need for some match and funds. We have found ourselves in Hayway County competing with other counties in the state. Hayway County was probably the first on board with this formal and preservation. I served as an ag advisory several years ago.

[15:30] And now of the competition is much greater, we jumped on board at first and we were able to get several forms in and now we need some match of funds.

[15:44] I know that you all have been working on this and I want to say thank you.

[15:48] It's important not only to protect our land, but for future generations we've got FFA kits, we've got 4H kits.

[15:58] They need a way to be able to continue to farm.

[16:03] It's very important, not only just for the education part,

[16:10] but to protect our lands and protect our food system.

[16:15] And we just need to move forward with that.

[16:17] And I want to say thank you to each and every one of you.

[16:21] Thank you, Martha.

[16:21] I appreciate you. Okay, so that concludes our public comments.

[16:30] Okay, we'll move to constituent

[16:31] concerns. Just want to say just one thing from the Commission was the Raccoon Creek

[16:42] Back Park. We'll hold its grand opening this Saturday August 8th. Festivities will begin at

[16:48] in a.m. and go to 2 p.m. and this will be a family fun day with a bounce house. D.J. Corona

[16:55] House and Recreation Games. Please come out and enjoy everything this new park has to offer.

[17:00] So there'll be this Saturday from 10 to 2. If you had some families would like to come out

[17:05] from that. As far as, on the farmland paraservation, I was talking to Dom this morning, I feel like,

[17:12] I feel like maybe me and him both come kind of full circle.

[17:17] We used to always try to protect our land and everything from regulations and things like that.

[17:23] But unfortunately we have folks that's coming in our community now that are doing things that we don't like.

[17:34] I guess you could say.

[17:36] And unfortunately that's going to keep going and going.

[17:39] So I think this whole board probably supports this

[17:42] and the Wayne's going to give us a presentation here

[17:47] in just a second, but just let y'all know.

[17:51] Does anybody else who will say anything along those lines?

[17:55] I want to tell him, thank you for coming in.

[17:57] I talked to this about that, because I'm 100% behind that

[18:00] and I've pushed forward as long as since I've been involved,

[18:04] then I think I think it would really be a half to the farmers.

[18:08] We need farmers, but we need, we need to do everything we possible to do to help them

[18:14] because one of these days we'll understand why I believe that all this growth keeps coming

[18:18] and we start to get 100, but I appreciate it, but I come in and I'm behind you 100 percent.

[18:25] Anybody else coming?

[18:26] Yeah, just like I had on the walk, Mr. Rain, you said, if you can't tell, we're looking at me,

[18:30] I like to eat as well, so I'm behind all of our farmers 100 percent, anything that we can do

[18:37] to help our farmers, I'm all for it, even if it cost us a little money to match that,

[18:43] I'm all for it, because like I said, I like to eat, I even consider myself a little

[18:47] bit of the farmer.

[18:48] I've got some honey beans and some chickens, so I guess I can't be considered a farmer

[18:54] by having those things, because I like it honey and I like it, so, and I appreciate all

[18:59] the vegetables that all you have, the farmers grow, and I've even got some leaf from

[19:04] are long there, so I like beef as well. But anyway, anything that we can do to help support

[19:10] our farmers, I'm 100% behind it.

[19:18] Well, I would like to say thank you for everybody who came out

[19:20] and spoke to this matter. Those of you know me, that's where my heart is and I've been pushing

[19:28] for this for some time and it always helps to have somebody get behind a push a little bit and we've

[19:35] a lot of people come up with a spoon and speak and push toward these tax roll back.

[19:41] We've been talking about for some time and as far as farming and preservation goes, it's almost

[19:47] like somebody woke up at the last minute and said, wow, we better do something.

[19:54] I was in Raleigh, you're not long ago at a meeting and some of those... I can't...

[20:00] On urban sprawl counties, all of a sudden, they want to be champions for farmland preservation actually, probably, you know,

[20:10] counties just back down. I think they woke up. I hope we're waking up before it's too late.

[20:18] And I miss Amanda, I'll call you Amanda. That's very easy to pronounce.

[20:25] I couldn't really hear what you said, I'd say I'm a system here sometime that project well up here,

[20:31] but I think you said March 16th, I said something about some elected leaders, maybe

[20:35] speak platitudes toward farm land preservation, but they really don't really want to move

[20:41] the needle. You know, hopefully we can change that. And Commissioner,

[20:47] They're easily in a high, went to the District 17 meeting out in Jackson County here a few

[20:53] months ago.

[20:55] And for those of you who don't know this, I spoke to them about this several times.

[20:58] Our mountains have been discovered and are starting to become a retirement destination.

[21:03] And we have people coming here to retire, it's beautiful.

[21:07] And I was surprised, as we were in that meeting and I don't know about it, but

[21:12] But every county from here to Murphy, in District 17, on the shore as far as items that the

[21:23] commissioners are hearing back from their constituents and something we need to really move

[21:28] forward with this formal ant preservation. From Cherokee County all the way this way and I was

[21:33] surprised that it was kind of a unanimous voice that we heard. And so I think our legislators and

[21:41] here in that they appropriate some more funding and this budget cycle and I think Mr. Bill and

[21:49] Duane is going to speak to that. You're maybe in a few moments, but this is a big day. This is a

[21:54] kind of a big day. It's on our agenda and I think we all here are an agreement that we're going to

[21:59] push here to cross the finish line and you know so fair bias pushing for these. Thank you. Thank you

[22:12] I've been for a long time, so thank you.

[22:17] Good morning.

[22:18] I'm just going to comment on some of the things my fellow commissioners have said,

[22:21] this has been a long time coming.

[22:24] And really since the beginning of the time that I was on the board,

[22:26] one of the things I've said was important to me

[22:28] was maintaining the unique character of Haywood County.

[22:32] I was with Farm Bureau for a long time.

[22:34] My husband and family and I have a small farm and cloud.

[22:36] We had a new calf born on Saturday morning.

[22:38] And it's always a good thing to see understand how important it is, and I'm glad to get to

[22:44] be a part of this, I believe, as a board and as individuals we are, as I think we're

[22:50] all excited to see it pushed across the finish line and to confirm as individuals and

[22:57] as a board that we recognize the importance of maintaining the unique character of Haywood

[23:03] County, along with obviously, you know, we've got to have places for people to live, but

[23:08] we've got to protect the future of our farmlands.

[23:12] So I'm tickled to get to be a part of it, finally, and it's good to accomplish things and

[23:16] see the board come together in agreement on something.

[23:18] So I believe that we'll see that come to pass.

[23:22] Mr. Chairman, I might also wait at our neighboring County here, Henderson County.

[23:27] They're taking another step farther.

[23:28] They're going to have it on the ballot this fall to maybe appropriate some tax that will

[23:35] be dedicated for formal and preservation.

[23:37] If you know Henderson County, they're under a lot of pressure from development.

[23:42] Kenny widespread water brings the DH Hortons of the world and their formal and is evaporating

[23:49] because of that.

[23:50] So they are getting serious in the hands of the county and they're going to put it on the

[23:54] ballot and that the people decide where they want to raise taxes, property taxes, and

[23:58] any two-three cents. And so that's something that we can possibly consider here, you know,

[24:05] I believe in letting the people speak and we put it on the ballot and here are some real

[24:11] money toward farming and preservation. I know some of you folks who are spoke here, you might

[24:17] want to explore that and find out about what's going on in our neighboring county over here in

[24:23] Okay, I got some more comments, but I'll wait until the wine comes up here in just a second.

[24:28] Just a little bit.

[24:29] We got a couple of items before that.

[24:31] Does anybody have anything else for me?

[24:33] Just a constituent with concerns?

[24:35] Yeah, I had a kind of busy few weeks.

[24:39] I've got a word of the county manager's phone out about various constituent concerns.

[24:45] Judy, I think Judy's had several calls and tried to help with some folks that said

[24:51] concerns there. So I appreciate the staff. Take care of some of these issues. It's been

[24:56] route-forward. So thank you.

[25:00] And also, I said last time, please visit a produce stand because you've got local food being sold at these produce stands and most of the time there are the farmers in the ones that are selling it.

[25:12] So, we, I know with the other day we've grown some stuff in our garden and my wife fixed everything that we ate just come out of the garden and that didn't get any better than that.

[25:23] So, but I do want to just ask everybody to visit a produce stand if you can.

[25:27] Okay, so the next order of business will be administrative agency reports and presentations and we have an update on the river gauge and siren system project and a recovery and resiliency manager co-digress this year to speak to that.

[25:44] And this is a good time to talk about this because we're about to get into the heart of hurricane season when these things happen.

[25:55] Good morning, commissioners.

[25:58] I wanted to update you a little bit on our Siren and River gauge project that we initiated

[26:03] a couple years back.

[26:05] I want to use the presentation that is going to be used for public consumption later.

[26:11] Emergency services has built this Allison and Emergency Services Act.

[26:15] I have built this presentation and thought it was a good opportunity to educate

[26:19] y'all and the public using the presentation that's going forward.

[26:23] here. It contains all the information we need for the update.

[26:28] When we look back and we ask

[26:29] why Syrians needed to be added to the portfolio of how we alert people, it's because

[26:34] Syrians make a good audible impact to why or to the way that people understand that the

[26:42] emergencies unfolding around them. What does that mean? That means that a Syrians loud and it

[26:46] wakes you up sometimes. And that's what's important. But also, we were looking at ways that we

[26:51] can mitigate the number one cause of death during storms in Haywood County, which is flooding.

[26:56] We pulled data from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner from North Carolina and from

[27:01] North Carolina Emergency Management and found that that flooding contributed to the number

[27:05] one way people died during the storms here, back in O4 and then 2021 and 2024.

[27:12] And so looking at that data and looking at what's missing from the portfolio of alert

[27:17] and warning a siren made sense.

[27:20] And it improves also how we alert people in areas

[27:25] that have poor cellular reception.

[27:27] Those buffer areas around where the federal lands are

[27:31] in the communities that are poorly served

[27:34] by cellular alerting capabilities.

[27:36] So we looked at that siren system as a potential

[27:39] for how we would alert them.

[27:42] What we got out of the grant a few years ago

[27:44] from North Carolina Emergency Management

[27:46] was funding for 18 sirens. And we strategically placed those sirens in places that we wanted

[27:52] to make sure that people were alerted for whatever may happen related to flood. We placed

[28:00] ten of those in the Crusoe and 276 corridor. Three of those in the Lake Logan corridor in

[28:06] the 215 corridor. Center pigeon in 110 received one siren down towards Brookshire Drive or

[28:12] Brookside Drive. I'm sorry. Clyde received a siren there in the town, and then the

[28:18] Wainsville watershed. Once you get past the gravel pit there and now it's creek

[28:22] you'll lose cell phone reception, so we wanted to be able to warn some people above that,

[28:27] especially as the watershed comes down from above them. We also place two sirens at the smoky

[28:33] about a smoky mountain event center, and one at Camp Daniel, I'm sorry, one siren at Camp

[28:38] Camp Daniel Boone and one siren at the Smoking Mountain events center, reason being as those

[28:42] are special populations that may be impacted by severe weather that is just outside

[28:49] the norm of flooding.

[28:50] It was an opportunity for, especially, you know, we could have never predicted the

[28:56] travesty that happened in Texas, but us having Camp Daniel Boone, it being an Asceliore

[29:01] poor area.

[29:02] We wanted to go ahead and make sure that we were protecting that vulnerable population.

[29:05] and then smoking out an event center because it's close to the late

[29:09] journalistic a dam and it's also an area where visitors come and may not know

[29:13] how to react to the emergencies that unfold here in Haywood County. We thought

[29:18] that those were two great special populations to seek siren placement for.

[29:24] Looking at the map here and I'm sorry that and we're happy to show you an

[29:29] interactive map later if you need it but here are the placement of sirens

[29:32] across the area. As you can see, the 276 increase of corridor receive the balance of

[29:40] sirens. And this was a tropical storm-fed based grant that we got this off of, so it

[29:46] made sense to link it back to tropical storm-fed. But also looking at those other areas,

[29:51] you can see that we have a wide placement across this other portion of the county of sirens.

[30:00] How they work is pretty simple. One is, they can be remotely triggered or remotely activated based

[30:08] on rainfall and observed conditions. That means that if we see that river gauges are rising too quickly,

[30:14] or fire departments call in and say, we've got some water out in the road. We need you to

[30:19] go ahead and activate the siren. We can activate the entire system, or groupings of sirens within

[30:23] the system for certain areas of the county to alert people that that flooding is imminent

[30:29] or flooding is started. The other thing is that if that should fail, it has a manual

[30:34] backup where the fire department can go to the siren and activate it using a special capability

[30:40] that they have. So it was very important for us to have that redundancy built in. So we have

[30:45] we have both those options. What do they sound like? As good as I am at singing, I'd prefer

[30:53] not to make the sound, and this is a PDF version of the PowerPoint.

[30:57] This PowerPoint will be available at readyhatwood.com later this week, and you'll be able

[31:04] to click a link and actually hear the siren, but it's a high-low tone.

[31:08] It's a digital high-low tone.

[31:09] Some people are used to the old air-raid sirens.

[31:12] It does not sound like that.

[31:13] It sounds more of like a siren that you hear coming out of an ambulance or something

[31:18] like that, and it's meant for outdoor warning.

[31:21] And to permeate buildings that are close by,

[31:25] there's also a spoken message into it.

[31:28] Some people might not hear if they're a little bit further away from the

[31:30] siren, but if they are closer to it and able to hear,

[31:34] it says climb to higher ground.

[31:37] And then something that emergency services is using as a catchphrase,

[31:42] and I agree with 100% is high low time to go.

[31:45] And that way we can reinforce that if you hear the high low siren,

[31:49] you need to be moving towards higher ground immediately.

[31:54] How far they travel depends on where you're at.

[31:57] Safe estimate is a quarter of a mile in each direction, so a half mile radius from the actual siren.

[32:03] But that can change based upon valley conditions.

[32:06] I can also change upon leaf conditions, rain conditions.

[32:10] The company that we used pulled a modeling from a national engineering firm that does a acoustic modeling for things like this.

[32:18] And so we believe that based upon that acoustic modeling that we place the sirens in the best locations for where they're at.

[32:25] Does does the entirety of the cruiser corridor from, you know, around the hunger creek area down to two 76 have siren coverage?

[32:33] Not the entirety of it, but the reason being is some of it doesn't have housing.

[32:37] We're concerned about a learning people who are in houses or a clumps of houses or temporary housing like campers.

[32:42] So sometimes you'll see gaps in the map where that might be, and that's because it didn't make sense to have a siren for a field, although we're talking about farmland conservation, 100%, we didn't think that was necessary for every pasture.

[32:58] Again, those tones and the distance that sound will travel will change with rain, with wind,

[33:07] with leaf coverage and everything like that.

[33:10] So we are encouraging people to sign up for Haywood Alerts and go through ReadyHaywood.com

[33:17] and then watch National Weather Service and use this as one means of being alerted for storms

[33:23] during disasters.

[33:26] What should people do if they hear it?

[33:29] First thing, they should evacuate immediately and not hesitate.

[33:33] The activation of the siren isn't a warning of, hey, this might get bad.

[33:36] It is, hey, it is getting bad.

[33:38] You need to go.

[33:40] We also recommend emergency services recommending do not get in your car

[33:44] and you should take pets, people, phone if possible,

[33:48] and start climbing to higher ground immediately.

[33:51] We find that during storms nationwide, people get in their car,

[33:54] and they start driving, they come across water, and they think they can make it, and then they can.

[33:58] So we encourage people to get out of your house, climb to higher ground, immediately do it by foot,

[34:03] and take this as a real warning of, almost like a firefighter knocking at your door saying,

[34:08] you've got to get out now.

[34:12] Again, high load time to go, that means that flooding may already be happening,

[34:16] that means that way to get out of the community might be cut off. So the safest bed is to climb to higher ground,

[34:22] and we encourage people to do that on foot.

[34:25] And some people might ask if this is a drill.

[34:28] We will, the county will put out a lot of messaging before doing a drill, and it typically

[34:35] will try and choose good weather days, like a blue sky or something that's predicted to be

[34:39] blue sky day.

[34:40] People will receive text messages, signboards will be put out, so they'll be a ample opportunity

[34:44] where the public should know that this is a drill.

[34:48] Otherwise, if it's, you know, a very rainy day and it's going off and they have not received the text messages,

[34:54] I understand people may be concerned and they may want to call to confirm, but please climb to higher.

[35:00] Program before calling about your confirm or anything like that. We will do a test drill in the county

[35:09] at least once a year, just to confirm that the mechanics of it are working. But we do a silent drill

[35:15] every night at every siren. People can't hear that, but it tests the components of it. Because

[35:21] it's an all-electronic siren. There's no mechanical parts. We're 99% accuracy of the testing. We can say that

[35:29] work in an emergency. That's from the manufacturer.

[35:35] No siren near me, what should you do? Sign up for

[35:38] Haywood Alerts. Siren coverage can't cover everywhere, but we want to make sure that everyone's

[35:43] staying abreast of all the emergencies and all the things that are happening. Haywood County

[35:47] so we encourage them to sign up for Haywood Alerts. We also encourage them to have a wireless,

[35:54] I'm sorry, a weather radio that can activate during storms. And then of course have AMFM radio

[35:59] So one thing that we learned during the storm during Haleen is that AM radio was one of the best ways to communicate to people during the disaster.

[36:08] We were able to utilize our local radio station for that.

[36:11] So we encourage everyone to have a backup battery powered AM radio.

[36:15] Of course, always check on ready-heywood.com for the best ways to stay alert.

[36:20] They are changing.

[36:22] The way our society consumes information and gets information and reacts to that information such as a siren going off is changing.

[36:30] weekly daily at this point. So, ready Haywood is dot com is the sole source of or the best source and Haywood County for how to stay abreast of all the alert warning capabilities of the county.

[36:41] And also we encourage people to stay weather aware. The county, the state and the federal government have invested in 28 river gauges throughout the county.

[36:50] And 14 rain gauges throughout the county because we want to make sure that when we see flooding happening we can let people know it's focused as possible.

[36:57] or they can watch the conditions themselves.

[37:00] And they can do that by going to NC Feyman.

[37:02] You can Google NC Feyman and see those rain

[37:04] and river gauges in live time.

[37:07] But I don't want people to think that,

[37:09] oh, I'll just watch that during the storm,

[37:11] your internet may cut out.

[37:13] Or the capability of those rain and river gauges

[37:15] to transmit might be degraded during the storm.

[37:18] So those are great informational items,

[37:21] but we shouldn't rely on them again

[37:22] as the sole source of information

[37:24] or the sole source of making decisions.

[37:30] To note, commissioners, we added to those 28 and 14 that you see on the screen there with this grant.

[37:38] We added, we added a number of, or I'm sorry, a number of river and rain gauges from the grant that we received a couple years ago from in CEM.

[37:47] So we've increased that number, you know, exponentially, so to speak, to make sure that we have good coverage.

[37:52] The biggest reason being is that flooding starts in the headwaters, which are on federal lands,

[37:58] and we can't really put any kind of monitoring to buy some federal lands, especially in the wilderness area.

[38:03] It's against the federal law.

[38:05] You can't have anything that moves and technically these moves.

[38:08] So we have to place these gauges around the county in various areas to capture data as close to those federal lands as possible,

[38:15] to try and make sure that we're capturing when flood stages are reached.

[38:21] We want to encourage people to make a plan before the storm.

[38:26] Again, there's some resources on ready-heywood.com, but they should consider a couple of things.

[38:30] One is if they hear the siren going off or they get an alert saying that there's a flood emergency,

[38:35] they need to move uphill as quickly as possible.

[38:39] If they are in a known flood area, they should do it by foot.

[38:43] They should have an emergency kit ready.

[38:45] Practice the plan is a family on a blue sky day, what we call a good weather day.

[38:49] and plan now before the flood happens.

[38:53] Ultimately, we encourage people to know their hazards around them.

[38:56] There's a QR code on this presentation.

[38:59] Flooding is one of several emergencies that can happen

[39:01] and hey, what county and we're preparing for as many as we can.

[39:05] And then lastly, we want to encourage people to remember

[39:07] if they hear the high low from the siren, it's time to go.

[39:11] We're proud of the work that we've accomplished with the siren,

[39:14] but we don't want people to lean on that as the only mechanism

[39:17] for how they're alerted for flood emergency and we encourage them again to go to

[39:21] ReadyHaywood.com, sign up for Haywood Alerts and seek other opportunities

[39:27] AMF and radio whether radio, etc. to be informed about whenever and flood

[39:32] happens. Happy to take any questions or anything from the board.

[39:39] When you have a

[39:40] siren go off, you've got them counting why, they're not all going to go off the same

[39:44] because if it's flooded and crue so it may not be flooded and then

[39:48] wind's a great question.

[39:51] We have the capability to set all 18 off at one time or to set it up to set off

[39:56] just a crue so area or just the Lake Logan area.

[40:00] So, we have a lot of options available to us, so we don't have to set off a whole at one time.

[40:05] Okay. So, Cody, I've encountered some of these rain gauges just sticking up and random places on private property.

[40:13] This website, on your presentation.

[40:15] If I'm in North Carolina, you can go over there and access these rain gauges in our general

[40:24] area.

[40:25] Yeah, anytime.

[40:26] Yeah, right now if you find me in C.gov, you can go to it and then you can see across the state

[40:34] all the rain and river gauges that are plugged into that and then you can zoom into the north

[40:38] or to the Haywood County ones, and you can see them.

[40:40] You can also see a map, like a Google map, almost, and kind of see where they're placed.

[40:46] And then you can see where they're going up, and where they're going down what flood stage

[40:49] looks like, and everything.

[40:50] So it's a great tool for learning about flood risk in your community.

[40:56] And those Saturdays, today, capable of an automatic, what's the difference?

[41:03] and be an automatic and manual, I mean, will they sound in the alarm if the inputs from

[41:08] these rain gauges and river gauges will it automatically give a warning or do y'all have

[41:15] to manually activate that every time?

[41:17] Right now the best option for us is to manually activate them based upon what the fire department's

[41:23] reporting or what we are seeing on these rainy river gauges to apography of the water basin,

[41:30] like the floor of the river has changed since holding.

[41:34] There's more gravel, there's more rock, sediment,

[41:38] everything like that.

[41:40] And so it may take a little while for them

[41:42] to readjust some flooding stages.

[41:45] So we think it's important that we do that manually right now.

[41:51] The system is capable of that automatic activation,

[41:56] but for right now, while they're mapping,

[41:58] what we're doing, some studying and everything, we want to limit the activation to just manual,

[42:04] either at the, at the, at the siren using the special way of the fire department, can activate

[42:07] it, or emergency services, or activate it remotely with some kind of manual input.

[42:16] Go to your slide today. I appreciate your work on all of this. I know it's been a long-time

[42:20] come and I remember right after Tropical Storm Frey, and I was on a campground with Senator Corbin

[42:27] represent the players and this came up and and everyone thought what a great idea you know

[42:33] it would cause tropical storm for it would have happened at night. I think the death toll would

[42:39] have been a whole lot larger than it was. So having something like this available for our constituents

[42:46] to alarm them when floods come and I think a big deal. So again just want to say thank you for

[42:52] work on this and like I said, it's my long time coming so it's good to see that it's

[42:59] inflation rate of oil is chairman on the handsley said, you know, hurricane seasons

[43:04] upon us and I hope it don't happen but I'm afraid our strongs are getting worse as the

[43:12] Bible says and it's going to continue to do that so it's good to see this in place so

[43:16] thank you.

[43:17] Thank you.

[43:19] I'm thanking you.

[43:21] I'll take that.

[43:21] I'll need to roll a hard work.

[43:23] You know, if a cloud can't help it,

[43:27] over there, it might not work,

[43:28] if my deployed was there in a cloud,

[43:30] anything other than one, we're putting over.

[43:32] We've been in discussion with some of the towns about

[43:36] where they might want to place some

[43:38] and then funding opportunities,

[43:40] we need another grant or something like that.

[43:42] So we're working through some of those mechanics now

[43:46] to see if that is possible a path forward for more sirens added to the system.

[43:51] You know, based on what the towns need.

[43:55] Thank you.

[43:55] Yeah, no problem.

[43:57] I don't want to jump the gun, but I'm sitting here listening to what you were saying.

[44:02] And thinking about what will come up next with Dwayne on the front-line preservation.

[44:08] And I thought, you know, it's a good day in Howard County.

[44:11] It's good for us to see things that have been concerns of ours.

[44:14] I think to come to pass and feel like you know that we're moving we're moving it forward for the people that live here

[44:22] So thanks for what you're doing and I hope we never use them

[44:26] I hope they sound once a year only as a practice

[44:30] I don't I hope we never have to use it to protect you know life and lamb

[44:35] It's a very scary thing ever done to see the knees go on so thank you for what you're doing

[44:40] Thank you commissioner

[44:43] Thank you.

[44:44] Appreciate all your work.

[44:45] You work on the Biles, too, so we appreciate that.

[44:51] Okay, next we'll be hurricane, healing, mitigation, update, assistant county manager for resiliency

[44:58] See you in the cover again in Bradford.

[45:00] Good morning, commissioners. It seems strange to think that we're not that far out from the two year mark from gleam as it approaches.

[45:12] And we've seen that recovery takes time, takes years to go through. This is the year where we've seen the mitigation and acquisition of the homes for tropical storm for air.

[45:22] And through development services we have a number of groups that are working to help repair homes on a weekly basis as they come in.

[45:29] I remind the public that mitigation itself is a state-centric program once we submit those packages to the state for their approval with FEMA.

[45:40] So it does take time.

[45:41] And as part of that, once we formed the Recovery and Resilience the Office shortly after the disaster,

[45:48] Cody began speaking with all the citizens who wanted to participate in that mitigation program.

[45:53] So I would ask him since he has been the one that has had so much contact with these homeowners to come up and provide us an update of those numbers.

[46:04] Thank you.

[46:06] Today, right now, what we have in the pipeline is 87 homes for acquisition.

[46:12] That mirrors exactly what I said last at our last update.

[46:16] We haven't lost any in the pipeline and that's very good to hear.

[46:20] We have 11 in the elevation pipeline.

[46:24] When I say pipeline, I mean that the state and FEMA are working through the process of getting approval.

[46:29] We have 29 landslide applications in the pipeline.

[46:34] We have seven generator projects in the pipeline and then five infrastructure projects in the pipeline.

[46:43] Out of those acquisition projects, acquisition always come first to help people in the situation they're in.

[46:49] We have 25 that have been approved and we're working with the state to actively move towards

[46:56] the acquisition or purposes of those properties.

[47:01] Where we're at in the process is very early on.

[47:04] They're hiring a contractor sometime in the next couple of weeks that will manage that acquisition

[47:08] process for them because we're using the state kind of like our subcontractor and they're

[47:12] going to kind of sub it out themselves.

[47:14] And so that contractor, just like in Fred, will work with people to maneuver through the surveys,

[47:22] the title search, the legal stuff, and then ultimately the acquisition of their properties.

[47:27] Don't have a firm timeline on when this might happen.

[47:30] We're hoping in the near future, we'll have a kickoff meeting with those individuals in that selected contractor.

[47:35] But of course we're dealing with the states timeline.

[47:38] It's not the counties on this and we're working through that.

[47:40] The remainder of the 87 homes are spread across two different projects, and maybe a third coming online.

[47:50] We'll see probably approval for those in the near future.

[47:53] I'm very hopeful for approval based upon meeting I had with the state, but again it's the FEMA's decision.

[48:00] I don't want to give false hope or anything, but I'm very optimistic about approval for those just the state and FEMA's timeline.

[48:05] We do know that those projects for acquisition are at FEMA right now for review and then there's discussion back and forth with the state except for the last project submission packet, which is a state, it's a state thing that they're going through to fix a few things and then they're going to submit that later this week to FEMA for approval.

[48:36] Thank you, thank you, Cody.

[48:37] Any questions?

[48:39] Okay.

[48:40] Sorry.

[48:46] Okay.

[48:46] The next order of business is that he would work in lands fund, soil and water district.

[48:52] Director, Duane Vanhurt.

[48:54] And we got Bill Yarber.

[48:55] You want to come out Bill.

[49:01] Bill had a meeting about a year ago.

[49:04] I think his last September what we talked about about this.

[49:13] Good morning, commissioners.

[49:14] Yeah, I'm the Wayne Vanhut, the district director with the Haywood Solar Water Conservation District.

[49:21] And with me today is Mr. Bill Yarbrow, who is the chairman of Solar Water Conservation District.

[49:28] And I want to first thank everybody from the public that made the effort to come here today in support of farmland preservation.

[49:36] It speaks to how important this issue is to the community.

[49:39] and we're going to go sort of quickly through this and look forward to the commissioner's

[49:44] questions and feedback on this program. So I'm just going to make a couple of quick points

[49:51] you all have seen this. We have the concept summary up now for everyone to take a look at.

[49:58] I think one of the big points to them.

[50:00] A few big points to make here is that this is not creating a new county program or a new function.

[50:07] This is to support our existing farmland preservation program.

[50:14] And I think we all understand when we talk about rollback taxes, but just to make sure that the

[50:19] public is aware, bland that is in present use value is what we're talking about.

[50:26] And if the property comes out of present use value for any reason, there is a fee associated

[50:33] with that, a back taxes that is paid.

[50:38] And so those rollback taxes would be the funding that would be part of this program.

[50:46] And that varies obviously from year to year how much would be available in that part of money.

[50:55] And the way this is set up, it's up to the commissioners to decide each year kind of how much of that fund once you're aware of what is in it that you would like to appropriate.

[51:07] To this use of funding, and that brings us to the next section, which are the different things that we would use the funding for.

[51:15] And of course, as everyone has talked about, it can be used to match state federal grants.

[51:22] grants and I think that's important. We could also use it to match any private donations or to work

[51:29] with other nonprofits that may have some funding to put towards these easements. Some of the other

[51:35] things that are just associated with the cost of doing an easement are priceless surveys,

[51:41] legal, total work, closing costs, baseline documents, environmental assessments. These are all things

[51:47] go into an easement sometimes you do all of them sometimes you only do some of those depending

[51:52] on the project and this money could be used to fill in a gap if we if we had need funding

[51:59] to complete one or all of those tasks.

[52:05] It sets up the solar water district to be the easement

[52:09] holder of any associated project that's something that we are already doing and then we talk about

[52:17] some of the different funding partners that could be out there, the state ADFP program, USDA Farm

[52:26] Bill, and I think it's important to note, we have tried in the past partnering with some

[52:33] of the local nonprofits to go after federal funding, and it's kind of difficult to get those

[52:41] here just because of some of the stipulations on what they're looking for. But with each Farm

[52:46] new opportunities arise and in the current farm bill if it's passed they're going to separate

[52:52] out and do a special forestry funded program and change a little bit the regular agricultural

[53:00] program. So we're hopeful that that will open some avenues for us to apply for federal dollars

[53:06] in the future and having some funding for match always helps when you're doing these grant applications.

[53:14] Of course, any private foundations or conservation organizations, land known or donations.

[53:22] So the initial structure would be that the board recognizes the importance of the program,

[53:32] does not create a new program.

[53:35] You will consider an annual amount when you have finished an audit and know how much money

[53:41] is in that program.

[53:43] Does it establish any sort of floor or mandatory appropriation from year to year requires the district to be the easement holder and then of course we just I just mentioned all the different things that we can use the funding for so that is a quick summary of what is in the the concept we

[54:14] put together a draft resolution and obviously we're not going to be voting on this today but

[54:22] This really just the things that I just talked about puts it in a draft, resolution form for you to look at.

[54:30] So I won't go back through all of those.

[54:32] It just talks about each of the different parts of that and lays them out into the different sections here in a draft.

[54:40] Draft resolution, which we can certainly edit and brain back to you based on on your feedback, which is what we are here today to talk to you about.

[54:52] Okay, did you want to say anything, Bill?

[54:54] Yeah, good.

[54:55] If it suits you.

[54:57] Thank you for letting us be here today.

[55:00] One thing, it's the one that's talking to the mock group. Yeah, it would want to be perfectly clear for you is how much appreciation it is for the county commissioners.

[55:09] You don't realize it, but Haywood was one of the first with a voluntary ag district, and the commissioners had to approve that.

[55:15] It's one of the first with the enhanced voluntary agriculture commissioners had to approve that. You allowed the sole and water conservation district to do the things that took make these possible.

[55:27] where other groups would have to pay, you did this because you allowed us to do it.

[55:33] We do the maps, we work with the legal, we work with the survey, we work with the state or the Fed,

[55:39] or whoever's funding this.

[55:42] And we also do another part and it comes very expensive.

[55:45] It's the monitoring of it.

[55:46] So somebody has to do that to make sure it continues.

[55:50] You're funding through a soil and water and your ability to trust us to do it is what makes that work.

[55:56] So, we already have a program, we already know what we're doing, we'll need to state in a number of easements that we hold.

[56:04] So, I think you can have comfort in understanding that we can do this process.

[56:08] The thing that has been missing, obviously, is additional funding and we've been able to compete across the state.

[56:16] Commissioner Long mentioned that other urban areas are now involved in this, much as time too late.

[56:23] But because they are, we're having a hard time competing, because they can get additional funding from a lot of different sources, and then that kills us with try to compete.

[56:33] So what you're doing is very exceptional, and we appreciate it.

[56:36] For anything we can do to answer your questions, we're certainly here to do that for you. Thank you.

[56:44] I'm glad to say that, you know, when I first became aware really of the mechanics of how a

[56:50] foreign land preservation easement would work, I was personally surprised at the cost for

[56:57] the land owner. And so, you know, that could have been, or could be, a barrier to some land

[57:03] owners unable to proceed or apply for an easement because of the survey cost and attorney fees

[57:09] things for that nature. So I feel like this is a really good, I think this will be of great

[57:15] benefit to those landowners to offset the cost at least of getting started and has made

[57:23] them topic I guess very visible in the community and my hope is that we will see some private

[57:31] funds come in also to support the match. So I just thought that was interesting because that's very

[57:44] I just, you know, we name this working lands is what we're calling it's fun because what we want is for these areas not to just be abandoned.

[57:55] You know, we want them to continue to have cattle on them or crops or whatever that farms being used for.

[58:01] So when you all see that working lands fund, you'll know that that's what we're referring to as

[58:11] farmland preservation.

[58:16] I hope we can expand this as much as we can.

[58:19] I know developers will constantly be looking for potential property owners to sell to buy property,

[58:29] especially in areas where there is water and sewer, and we don't have a lot of water and

[58:35] sewer in the county, but still, you know, one day it could be there.

[58:39] So any property owner that maybe has an idea that they want to do this, you know, it'd be

[58:46] good if we can get as much as we can to, you know, to further this.

[58:51] And I've even talked about a, maybe even have an additional item on our tax, or tax rate that goes just too formally in preservation.

[59:05] You know, maybe a penny, two penny, three pennies. I know a penny is about a little over a million dollars a year.

[59:11] We've talked with Brian about a sales tax, we're exploring some of that, to me a sales tax would be good.

[59:21] I'm a property owner and I pay a lot of property taxes, but if we had sales tax, then some of the tourists coming here and other people would help pay for it.

[59:31] So we've, we're kicking that around and if we were to expand it to something like that,

[59:39] what would you guys think you would need then as far as staff,

[59:45] I guess you would need somebody to make sure if we get a lot of these that would enforce the

[59:52] the ordinance or not the ordinance but the conservation easement.

[59:56] I guess we would need somebody to make sure we're doing that because I know we have

[1:00:00] Currently, I know of one, and there's probably some more where there is time goes on. The property we're done realising or they sell it to somebody else and the sudden they think they can do what they want to and they don't realise it.

[1:00:15] And we want to make sure that we keep it like that because that's what they agreed to do.

[1:00:21] And that is hugely important that was I mentioned monitoring if we don't do that and our staff is already monitoring every single one of our easements every year.

[1:00:32] So that's the other thing that the commissioners did several years ago was allow us to be able to utilize your legal.

[1:00:40] So Frank Quain right now can do those if we have an issue because that could be an incredible thing.

[1:00:46] to a three generations down, and then all of a sudden, they built something we didn't do or

[1:00:50] job.

[1:00:51] As far as how much can we do with the staff, I'm confident with what we have now.

[1:00:57] We can continue to use that if it was a million dollars.

[1:01:01] We can turn that around.

[1:01:03] There's already a place in the state for a match up to $2 million, or they'll actually provide

[1:01:11] a $2 million for a one million dollar match.

[1:01:14] So yeah, and I think we can do the same with the other private foundations, it's that match, it's like anything else, and I've said this for years.

[1:01:24] If you can get, you can turn $10 with $1.

[1:01:29] If you get, but that dollar is the first, there's the hardest one you ever get because you've got to make sure everybody understands that you've got the capacity to be able to make it happen.

[1:01:38] I can assure you we have the capacity to make it happen because of the cooperation from

[1:01:44] so many people in so much time.

[1:01:46] But like the state money is when we get those, do they appropriate?

[1:01:50] We only get a portion of those, right?

[1:01:52] Or if we have something for them to match, they've got it.

[1:01:54] That's called agricultural opportunities on, there's only one or two in the state that have applied for that.

[1:02:01] But that's something that Henderson is looking at.

[1:02:03] If they can get some tax money, they're going to go into that.

[1:02:06] so that the state would match it.

[1:02:09] The advantage of that is, right now, if we had a million dollars, or if they were to

[1:02:14] appropriate a million dollars through the state, it's spread across the whole state.

[1:02:19] You had to compete with this money that you're talking about with Ag opportunity.

[1:02:24] We get to choose, and that's the farmland preservation group that's mentioned, that

[1:02:29] advisory is the one that come up and rank those.

[1:02:32] So we'd be more competitive with that than we need anything else.

[1:02:36] Okay, so that would be automatic.

[1:02:40] Be automatic if you get approved for it and that's then that money is safe and

[1:02:45] in a way secured for this particular county.

[1:02:49] Right.

[1:02:49] And see, I think we county's always led like you've talked about and I think we can lead in

[1:02:53] this.

[1:02:54] You know, we just got to identify where we can get that part of money because I would

[1:02:58] to get, you know, maybe upwards of 3 million a year or more, because then we can do some

[1:03:04] real, you know, a lot of easements in it. People are getting the value that they're supposed

[1:03:12] to be getting, because they don't get the whole value, I don't think.

[1:03:15] Oh, no, that's the thing. It's even with the state program, it's only 50%. We need to make

[1:03:21] just like Jennifer said, the farmer is putting a tremendous amount of his own capture.

[1:03:25] It's in his heart to do this, it's not something that you can do it if you're, if you were to go to a seal you a hoarder

[1:03:35] Economics class it wouldn't be right. You said you're going to give away half of what it's worth

[1:03:40] They're done it because it's the heart, but it's the next generation that says there's two phone numbers

[1:03:46] If a farmer falls down with a heart attack, it's always

[1:03:49] 911 and it's a real estate agent

[1:03:51] to say.

[1:03:53] Well, in that's their 401k, if you will.

[1:03:56] That's the farmer's 401k.

[1:03:58] And people've got to realize that, you know, that farmer created what you're looking at.

[1:04:03] Don't take his property rights away from him by restricted to the point where he can't do something with it.

[1:04:08] When in fact, we've got another opportunity to be able to get most of that back and give a little bit, but not the whole thing if you will.

[1:04:17] You know, and then the community benefits from those, you know, farmlands being there.

[1:04:23] Absolutely.

[1:04:24] And then, with a work in lands like you have it prepared here and through Haywood and so on and

[1:04:29] water, it has to be an agricultural practice that can't go in and do anything else.

[1:04:34] That's the right.

[1:04:35] So that's the main thing, it's not, it's not to turn it into a wilderness area or so.

[1:04:40] It has to be an agricultural practice.

[1:04:42] And that's what I want, you know, I think that's what everybody wants to see, you know, we want to be able to see that a lot of times I'll do surveys for new property owners, and they're

[1:04:51] They move in here and they end up buying a piece of property and they're like, I don't cat on it, I'm like

[1:04:56] It's not going to look like, it's not going to look like a golf course when you

[1:05:00] We take those cattle off in one year, two years, three years of rabbit taint get through there, you know, because it's just, it's just so grown up. So I think, you know, by making sure that it's used in agriculture, that'll keep that, that looked that we're looking for in the, and to keep the land working, if you will.

[1:05:19] I didn't mean to take all the time, but you might have anything else.

[1:05:25] I'd go ahead and tell them.

[1:05:27] Do I not, I'd like to ask, I know there's a few counties across the state doing this.

[1:05:33] Did y'all model this after someone else's document or just a regional,

[1:05:40] it was a regional.

[1:05:41] Yeah, a lot of work into that.

[1:05:45] Brian put a lot of work into it, we were involved as well, and so I think he did take,

[1:05:52] let me back, he definitely took a look around at some of the things that other counties

[1:05:57] had done.

[1:05:59] We didn't just build it from scratch.

[1:06:01] You should never do that because it don't reinvent the wheel if it's out there.

[1:06:05] So let me back up and say, yes, we did look at what other counties did, and then we built this

[1:06:09] But we wanted to make sure it fit, hey wood, yeah, yeah, I guess my next question, I'll go ahead

[1:06:17] What do aim was side stepping is amateur's bar of professional steel. We did look around and but then conversations with you, right?

[1:06:28] It's a pretty simple program. The the rollback figures will go into a separate account

[1:06:33] available to enhance the program from currently half, but we did look in other places

[1:06:39] around the state have similar programs.

[1:06:43] But if we want to go big, that's, you know,

[1:06:45] we need to do what I was just talking about.

[1:06:48] You know, it's either a tax rate or a sales tax.

[1:06:51] And I know Grants had some ideas about that.

[1:06:54] And we've also got to have some guardrails, right?

[1:06:57] You know, you and I were talking, you might just mention that.

[1:07:00] I had even thought of that.

[1:07:02] I think there's lots of different ways we could go outside.

[1:07:09] And this, if you look over the last five years, it's about 75,000-dollar average when you

[1:07:14] control for some of the bigger parcels, so that's a much smaller program than anything

[1:07:20] where we'd be pledging property tax or some sort of revenue tax, sales tax revenue, keep

[1:07:28] on sales tax, we already led all of the articles that the state allows us, so we would have to have

[1:07:33] special authority for additional sales tax, so that one will be tougher to navigate.

[1:07:43] And then as far as developing a program, I think we need to sit down and see what we're

[1:07:47] trying to accomplish to make sure that we don't incentivize the wrong behavior about that.

[1:07:54] So 75,000 dollar program based on current operations and helping, especially those that want

[1:08:01] donate their land is one thing but we'll need some time to develop something to make sure we're

[1:08:08] accomplishing at the policy level what the board wants to do.

[1:08:14] Okay.

[1:08:16] Could we do, I mean I think from what build this program about that the state has that you were

[1:08:23] just talking about where whatever we give, they'll match, twice, it's kind of like conservation

[1:08:29] capitalism might say. That's the way to look at it. If we can do that, it sounds like we need

[1:08:36] to kind of get on the bandwagon as soon as we can to start taking advantage of that, especially

[1:08:43] with the attitude of some people coming in here building a lot of houses. You know, I think we need

[1:08:50] to let people know that maybe we're working towards this and they've got another opportunity they can

[1:08:54] if you will.

[1:08:59] So, could we do maybe a work session in the future?

[1:09:04] Certainly.

[1:09:05] I know when this first, I mean, say this, when this first came up,

[1:09:09] we were in the middle of budget right in March.

[1:09:12] You know, we didn't have time to look into this, like we do now.

[1:09:16] I think if, please, the Board, we could start working on that

[1:09:20] and give an update for something in late fall,

[1:09:24] bring back to you, and then we could incorporate that into the upcoming budget.

[1:09:30] We're already in August, I'm already starting to talk about next year's budget.

[1:09:36] Given the resources we're talking about putting into it, it will take time to make sure we get it right.

[1:09:42] Yeah, exactly.

[1:09:44] So maybe I think the sooner we get down the road, the sooner we can start.

[1:09:49] You know, maybe collect in that match to get what we need to do the formula in preservation.

[1:09:56] And you know, you want to have more interest.

[1:09:57] I would thank because farmers will be getting...

[1:10:00] The value that they should always be getting. But if they do want to donate, I know there's been a son that just donated straight out. You know, they didn't have kids and they just, you know, they kept out their house and they just, you know, but not very few people can do that. Very few people can do that. So, not point out just as just as a note on this. This is starting to smell like a need for an actual ordinance.

[1:10:29] and the program be figure out what the program wants to look like, figure out how to

[1:10:38] be implemented and so forth.

[1:10:39] And then we'll craft an ordinance, a county ordinance for the process, and that will

[1:10:43] both describe sort of the funding source, the expenditure process, and perhaps if you

[1:10:54] start to get some competition inside the county for the funds, some kinds of determination

[1:11:02] process with that. So I think I'm looking at Amy because we just finished with the

[1:11:10] with recasting the entire Haywood County ordinance book. And we always do that. Yeah, of course,

[1:11:19] we're always doing that. But this time, we're going to be creating our own first from the

[1:11:27] ground up ordinance. I think that's what the thing wants to look like as into the process.

[1:11:32] Because you're both setting up a permanent program or at least a program for now and up

[1:11:37] which you're definitely dealing with funding and also multi-year obligations. So just a note

[1:11:45] process. One thing I would like to say about this is,

[1:11:54] you know, we've seen a lot of large

[1:11:55] trace land and they would count to be sold and or the transactions have occurred and there

[1:12:00] have been development on them. And my hope would be that with large funding for matching

[1:12:07] in assistance for the farmer, that it would reduce the villainizing a property owner who sells

[1:12:14] their property for development. What I mean by that is that what has been available for payment

[1:12:23] to the landowner currently through these easements has not matched really market dollar.

[1:12:30] And so I'm hope my hope it would be that this type of program, a local program would make

[1:12:40] more attractive to a landowner, to not to not sell it for development. I guess is what I want

[1:12:47] to make sure that people understand. We have certainly never want to villainize our property owners

[1:12:53] and I believe Brendan and I've said this many times. He says I'm a property rights guy and I believe

[1:12:59] that we should have a belief strongly in property rights, but we've got to make it a vehicle in

[1:13:06] it is sensible for somebody that owns

[1:13:11] agrelated property to move it this direction

[1:13:16] instead of selling it to the highest bidder for development.

[1:13:19] And so that's what I want people in the community to hear.

[1:13:23] And we do have a waiting list for these.

[1:13:27] The very people you're talking about.

[1:13:29] And the issue is there's not enough money.

[1:13:32] So they want to do it.

[1:13:34] Now, whether they have time to do it, it's another thing, but that's where this would

[1:13:38] come about.

[1:13:39] A good example of this year, because Haywood and Don and Mandi and a bunch went to

[1:13:45] Raleigh and some of us to support the state program.

[1:13:51] Well, the legislators put $47 million, that's the most it's ever been in it, and we were actually

[1:13:57] able to fund a large parcel that had been wanting to do this, the family had been wanting

[1:14:03] do it for four or five years and they're able to and got accepted. So your point is exactly

[1:14:08] right. There's people that want to do it, but this can't do it for nothing. That's right.

[1:14:14] That's not fair to their kids or to the generation or it's constantly money to keep

[1:14:19] that farm. This is a way for them to do it. So you're exactly right, but I think with additional

[1:14:23] funded anywhere ever we can get it. We can make it helpful.

[1:14:28] That's a good point, you got to maintain the farm too, it tells, you know, I don't know what you mean.

[1:14:34] That's huge, you know?

[1:14:36] For the most part, the ones that we have been successful on this for over 30 years, almost

[1:14:42] all of them, it was in their heart.

[1:14:44] But what money they got was to be able to put it right back on the farm and keep it there.

[1:14:48] So I mean, it's not something they're banking and going to Geneva for a vacation.

[1:14:54] Yeah, that's true, that's true. Yeah, you got to be able to do that.

[1:14:59] I guess back with...

[1:15:00] Question is, how soon can we go ahead and adopt this?

[1:15:04] We're going to adopt this at the next meeting. I think.

[1:15:08] I mean, I'm talking about a bigger program.

[1:15:10] Oh, I know. I know. I'm ready to move forward with a little baby staff here and take some

[1:15:16] strides later. But this route here is good. This is a good start.

[1:15:20] I'm sorry. That was the purpose of having the draft on there

[1:15:24] for feedback. If you're happy with the draft, we'll put it on the agenda

[1:15:28] for the 17th and in this version and I've looked it over and I think I'm going to

[1:15:34] want it for job and I mean you guys see a problem with this I didn't see it but

[1:15:41] well the rollback began due I won so if we vote on it next week with the rollback

[1:15:47] again would it be effective due I won this year that would be the intent that we could

[1:15:52] So once the audit's complete, get that in January, February, we'll know the exact dollar

[1:15:59] amount and the board can appropriate it then, yeah, that's what can, but it will become

[1:16:04] law when you become effective when you vote it on it.

[1:16:14] So we'll go vote on it, it's the next meeting.

[1:16:17] I don't have a plan, but one thing is that strong in this, you know, there's safety and

[1:16:24] to you to counselors and there's enough people involved with this that can sit at the table

[1:16:30] and make this run. It's way it's worthy. So in water, the commissioners, Martha's

[1:16:37] driven other people and there's enough players here to make this work.

[1:16:48] So I guess the main time you can be researching possible next staff as far as doing the big

[1:16:56] left, which is part of the tax sales tax, what we might, we'll start working on, so maybe we

[1:17:02] have something like an October November to report back on a plan for something to be included

[1:17:10] in the budget.

[1:17:12] Because this is a big left, so it's going to take, of course, everybody's, we're always in

[1:17:19] But I just see what's happening out there, you know, and we need to ring that in as much as, you know,

[1:17:27] since we can, and being able to have this organized and where we're headed, we'll definitely give

[1:17:35] property owners a chance to respond.

[1:17:39] And just the reports that will go out today, probably there'll be some feedback that we'll get.

[1:17:48] Mr. Chairman, just a quick thank you, you guys.

[1:17:51] I know Duane and Bill both spent countless hours on putting all this together and working

[1:17:57] on this and many trips and I just want to say thank you, you know, again this is something

[1:18:02] I feel like that's definitely needed and I support it on 100% so thank you guys.

[1:18:08] Thank you.

[1:18:09] Well I can say it's thank you, this is a, I'm an old man to be able to see this actually

[1:18:14] come to the past, it's just a huge thing.

[1:18:16] You've supported it all along, and now you've gone to one

[1:18:20] except out to a camp from bottom of my heart,

[1:18:23] thank you for what you're doing.

[1:18:25] You know, let me have Bill, I've admired you for years

[1:18:29] in these efforts, conservation efforts.

[1:18:32] And Bill's the kind of guy that just just driving

[1:18:34] down the road, and you saw him fall out of his truck,

[1:18:37] and jump on somebody, and just hand over fast,

[1:18:41] and fought in somebody in the ditch.

[1:18:45] Oh, something like, yes, he's come down to you.

[1:18:46] He wouldn't inquisitive.

[1:18:47] You'd just pull over and jump in and aren't helping.

[1:18:51] That's all.

[1:18:53] I appreciate how your efforts be on these items.

[1:18:57] And Mr. Smart and Farm Bureau and everybody else,

[1:19:02] it's a ten and board member here that's a chair

[1:19:06] of the planning board, everybody that's involved with this.

[1:19:10] You know, it's good to see.

[1:19:14] She's on the wings of the planet.

[1:19:15] Why is we're playing a role?

[1:19:17] Yeah.

[1:19:19] Okay, thank you guys.

[1:19:23] Okay, next will be the Hewitt recycling

[1:19:25] in solid waste every day.

[1:19:27] Solid waste director, Zandra, Harkendall,

[1:19:29] in the administrative assistant of recycling

[1:19:31] and solid waste, semi-toe recycling.

[1:19:34] Okay, welcome.

[1:19:47] Good morning.

[1:19:49] We are here to do our recycling update

[1:19:52] for Haywood County and also just a general overview of what's going on with recycling.

[1:20:00] We

[1:20:03] did go and find some articles from 1993-1994 when our facility was built under the guys that we would need recycling in the county.

[1:20:18] So, thirty two-ish years in the making we've done this, and our commitment has not wavered.

[1:20:29] We didn't actually have a recycling coordinator officially until, physically, your 2019 when I took over that position.

[1:20:36] So, we're really looking forward to that.

[1:20:39] And if you want to read the articles, we do have those available for you.

[1:20:44] And I had joked the last time I was here that we had just gotten our recycling numbers from the state and I had joked that I was reaching for number one.

[1:20:56] We were number six in physically or 24. We got our numbers last week and in all of that we with our outreach and everything that we have done.

[1:21:09] and I do want to shout out to Dwayne before he leaves or if he's already left. Conservation

[1:21:14] field days we do participate in that. So it's a great program for them. Those are the

[1:21:21] just the different outreach events that we have done in the past.

[1:21:30] So we got those numbers.

[1:21:33] And we hit number one in because clear 25 to my surprise was shooting for it wasn't quite ready for it, but thrilled that we got it.

[1:21:48] But number one isn't the end of it.

[1:21:52] We have a long way to go. We've really worked hard to get where we are.

[1:21:57] But it's going to take more of a community effort.

[1:22:00] Our residents have worked really hard.

[1:22:02] Our offices worked really hard to get there.

[1:22:05] But we're not giving up.

[1:22:06] We're going to try and maintain that.

[1:22:08] Things change.

[1:22:09] We've worked really to get out into the community

[1:22:13] to make sure that our message is seen.

[1:22:15] I did leave on your desk.

[1:22:17] Some of our outreach that we've been putting out

[1:22:20] are some magnets with our hooked logo.

[1:22:24] and also our recycle right.

[1:22:27] We've got some information on there as well.

[1:22:31] So those are different things

[1:22:32] that we're putting out in our community

[1:22:34] to make sure that we're seeing

[1:22:36] and that we are being consistent with our messaging

[1:22:38] for recycling.

[1:22:41] So going forward from that,

[1:22:44] we are going to talk about our operations in policy update.

[1:22:48] We have discussed this with our operators,

[1:22:51] our management company, CWS, and with our board, we've had a lot of going back and forth

[1:22:59] to make sure that we are doing what we need to be doing to make sure that our operations

[1:23:05] are moving in the right direction. So we're going to start with what's a Murf, a Murf is

[1:23:11] a materials recovery facility. That's where we take our recyclable materials and then we get

[1:23:17] ready to be processed into the next step. We receive all of the materials from our local households,

[1:23:24] our municipalities, and our businesses that bring in recycling material to that center,

[1:23:30] and then our management company transfers those to a larger facility to be processed.

[1:23:38] And what we're permitted for, we are permitted as a mixed waste processing, so that is all the recycling

[1:23:43] materials comes in mixed together. And then we get it ready to be sorted out from there.

[1:23:54] And what do we take? We take all sorts of household recycling, electronic scrap tires,

[1:24:01] batteries, fluorescent bulbs, any freeze, and our household hazardous waste by special event.

[1:24:08] We did have one of those this past Saturday. From 10 to 2, we had 62 residents come through

[1:24:15] And we're approximating that we took about 15,000 pounds of materials that had been on Saturday.

[1:24:24] So, not a bad turn-out for an event for us.

[1:24:29] And then, what?

[1:24:31] It's not showing.

[1:24:33] How do we fix that?

[1:24:35] So, why do we take it?

[1:24:36] We take it because there are landfill bands.

[1:24:42] And we want to be able to recover these materials.

[1:24:46] And the first and foremost for solid waste and recycling is protection of our county.

[1:24:51] It's an environmental issue.

[1:24:53] We want to make sure that we are preserving our lands.

[1:24:58] Hey, what county?

[1:25:00] A few of the future generation as well. And since 1992, when our permit was issued, we have had in place these processes to separate materials that should not go into the landfill, because we want to preserve that landfill as well.

[1:25:16] And what we're trying to do today is re-establish that we do have a policy and our operating procedures, and to make sure that the materials, whether it be waste or recycling, goes to the property.

[1:25:28] facility, we do have our IRF, which is our maturist recovery facility, our white O'Gland

[1:25:33] Phil, and 10 convenient centers for the public to use.

[1:25:40] And what we're doing is trying to control what goes into our IRF to make sure that we are

[1:25:48] getting the correct materials in that facility for our residents and to direct the non-recycle

[1:25:55] materials to the proper facility, which would be why to claim bill. We want to strengthen

[1:26:00] our recycling efforts, number one's there, but we can always do better. And we also want

[1:26:07] to make sure that we are not putting additional wear and tear on our facility. It is a 30

[1:26:12] plus year old facility, and we want to make sure that it lasts for a good long time.

[1:26:21] And in order

[1:26:22] do that, we need to have a proper use of that facility, and we want to keep our

[1:26:26] nerve sustainable and compliant, because it is our nerve, it's our residents'

[1:26:30] nerve, it's for them to be able to bring their materials in and get it to where it

[1:26:35] needs to go.

[1:26:37] We want to minimize future rating creases.

[1:26:40] We know that that's always going to be an issue.

[1:26:43] We are protecting our taxpayers.

[1:26:46] We want to extend the life of our facility, and to keep those materials that we are allowed

[1:26:50] take out of our landfill and with consistent use of this facility and making sure that commercial

[1:26:59] and holler collected waste is going to the appropriate facility, recycled, but materials

[1:27:04] are going to the appropriate facility that we will stay compliant with our state permits.

[1:27:12] And we are not creating a new requirement for this.

[1:27:15] We are just re-establishing what procedures that we have making sure that our public knows

[1:27:21] that these operating procedures and policies exist,

[1:27:26] so that we can move forward and make sure that we're doing everything correctly,

[1:27:32] and then we will educate them on to make sure that they are doing everything correctly.

[1:27:38] And then we do have some polar requirements listed at the bottom there.

[1:27:44] So we'll go, sorry, we'll go to what those requirements are.

[1:27:48] In our ordinance, we do have that they are registered with,

[1:27:54] hey, we would kind of recycling and solid waste.

[1:27:56] That is part of our ordinance that they're required to do that.

[1:28:01] We are directing ways to the appropriate facility,

[1:28:05] be it recycling for the mayor,

[1:28:08] trash, suddenly, and fill residents

[1:28:11] if they have bad waste and non-bad recyclables

[1:28:15] that they would go to the convenience centers,

[1:28:16] if they are not required to go into the other facility.

[1:28:21] We want to make sure that they are following facility-use requirements and that we are

[1:28:26] separating the recyclables, the recoverable materials, and the landfill ban materials

[1:28:31] and handling them properly.

[1:28:35] And for us to do that, we are working with our management company to direct these commercial and

[1:28:49] We are going to have an notification to the hollers that are going to reestablish the property

[1:28:56] or the policy and operating procedures.

[1:29:02] There will be an annual registration requirement.

[1:29:04] We've gotten away from that in the past.

[1:29:07] We are bringing that back online to make sure that we are staying compliant with everything that we need to be doing.

[1:29:13] and continue to accept those materials and make sure that the band materials are being handled properly.

[1:29:21] And doing that, we have an October 1 rollout for this policy to take effect.

[1:29:29] That gives us time between now and October 1 to bring those haulers in.

[1:29:38] Make sure that they know what they're doing, getting the payment system in place and making

[1:29:46] sure that we are all on the same page together.

[1:29:49] We are requiring that registration to go into effect on January 1, but we will have

[1:29:55] a workshop for all of the haulers on September 1st.

[1:30:00] At the Ag facility, so we're going to get everybody together, have that discussion, make sure that we are all consistent with our messaging on how things are going to be moving forward.

[1:30:17] And if you'll have any questions.

[1:30:19] So you know who your haulers are to contact pretty much.

[1:30:22] We have a pretty good list going, CWS has a list that they've got, and in every time we see one pop up, we're writing it down to make sure that we've got a way to get hold of them.

[1:30:36] Yeah, yeah.

[1:30:37] On one of your graphs, you said we were number one.

[1:30:40] We are.

[1:30:41] That's in the state.

[1:30:42] In the state out of a hundred counties, we are, for a physical year 25, so in physical year 24, we were number 6, we've been working really hard.

[1:30:55] I joked that we were, I was shooting for number 1, I wasn't expecting to go say that.

[1:31:00] Now we've got, now we've got to keep going.

[1:31:02] We're going to be a goat.

[1:31:03] That's what we're going to be.

[1:31:04] That's right.

[1:31:05] That's right.

[1:31:06] That's right.

[1:31:07] Easy.

[1:31:07] Now, you're seeing where we were at, and everybody knows me, and I was like a race.

[1:31:12] I'm very competitive, and second, it's not good enough, I like to lead to race.

[1:31:16] So, I think you've done an outstanding job in your whole staff, a group, and working on

[1:31:22] me as I'm sure Commissioner Long will agree with that.

[1:31:24] He sits on the solid waste committee with men.

[1:31:27] Y'all is outstanding work, has put us in that position, and it's very much appreciated.

[1:31:32] I know that.

[1:31:33] I don't come easy and a lot of hard work went into it, so thank you.

[1:31:39] I agreed, again, a big note taker and was just thinking about all of the positive things coming out of today, but you know, the work that you do really does project, protect the longevity of our landfiel and obviously the way our community looks and how we are able to handle trash and waste and I appreciate what you do.

[1:32:00] It's much bigger than people realize when they, absolutely.

[1:32:03] And congratulations on being a big one, yes.

[1:32:06] Just have to work harder now.

[1:32:08] You got a mind-tain that, and then I'll ask too,

[1:32:11] you know, I've said this many times before,

[1:32:13] what I've learned is a lot of our constituents

[1:32:15] might not ever use a MAS, might not have to use

[1:32:19] the shirts department, might not have to use a lot

[1:32:22] of other services, but every one of us have trash.

[1:32:26] And you have to get rid of it.

[1:32:28] And I'll say there's something I'm proud of, and I may be all following my mileage, but I think it's every five miles, is that right that we have a convenience center?

[1:32:38] They're within a row.

[1:32:40] Yes.

[1:32:41] Within a five mile radius, yes.

[1:32:43] You know, and that's something I don't think I don't know of any other county that has that.

[1:32:48] And we have that convenience.

[1:32:49] It's a true convenience to ever take your trash and get rid of it.

[1:32:53] And the reason we do this, we don't want to trash on a river buying, sort of spread out through our county.

[1:32:59] So that's something else that I'm proud of, as well.

[1:33:03] Mr. Long, I don't mind you don't, from a beginning.

[1:33:06] Oh no, I appreciate Zondron and Yals work in this area.

[1:33:13] And that's kind of one of my constituent concerns as you know, as a person was, and it takes everybody in the county.

[1:33:19] There's a lot of people who were very conservation minded

[1:33:22] and recycling is a top one or least.

[1:33:25] We're continuing to be trying to get better

[1:33:27] and that serves as a can.

[1:33:29] Recycling is tough sometimes, as you know.

[1:33:33] But we had a constituent that's very, very concerned

[1:33:36] about the style of foam and she wanted to let us know

[1:33:39] that down to the historic farmers market,

[1:33:42] there's an individual that collects packaging

[1:33:45] to our fellow.

[1:33:47] Certainly not, you know, anything with food.

[1:33:50] No.

[1:33:51] Yeah.

[1:33:51] Packaging from.

[1:33:53] I know.

[1:33:54] I know we're looking kind of maybe exploring, if we can provide that as a county, and we're always

[1:34:01] looking to improve.

[1:34:03] We did have discussions with our management company.

[1:34:07] We are in process of seeing if we can figure out where, when, how, we can establish

[1:34:14] Yes.

[1:34:15] Great.

[1:34:17] Thank you.

[1:34:18] Thank you.

[1:34:20] Now, the package in Styrofoam is that, is that like what your TV has around it and your

[1:34:26] rights is?

[1:34:27] Right.

[1:34:27] Anything that's the very rigid phone that's going to go around a TV.

[1:34:32] What about peanuts?

[1:34:33] I mean, you know that.

[1:34:36] Okay.

[1:34:37] She said he'll take them if they're bad.

[1:34:40] If historic form is marked as one.

[1:34:42] Yeah.

[1:34:43] He's set that up to do.

[1:34:45] He's got another one in October and September at night.

[1:34:50] No, November.

[1:34:51] One is in November.

[1:34:52] It's on us.

[1:34:53] Yeah.

[1:34:54] He comes there.

[1:34:55] He set up on his own to go set up at the farmer's market in Wayne.

[1:35:00] Through the end of the year he's doing every other month, after that is where we're stepping in to try and figure out how we can bring him in and make that.

[1:35:13] How do we know he's there? Is that on your website?

[1:35:15] We do put that on our social media.

[1:35:20] She's been working on making sure that we've got really good information out with all of the community, all the towns.

[1:35:28] we're trying to make sure that all the towns are included in our social media, and anything

[1:35:34] like that that comes up we're trying to make sure that we get it out there.

[1:35:38] Well, I'm glad he's doing that because Styrofoam is just, you know, you get it and you

[1:35:42] put it in the trash and it takes up so much room and stuff.

[1:35:45] So that's great.

[1:35:46] And the other thing, I did want to mention, I'm going way back, but you know, Stephen King

[1:35:52] really got our program going and he actually passed away in 2016 and he was at that

[1:35:58] they're working when that happened. He just had a metamorphosis now, that's correct.

[1:36:02] So I just want to give a shout out to him and for all his hard work and then I know David

[1:36:08] Francis has really worked hard after Stephen and David and I think worked in Recycling.

[1:36:15] He did.

[1:36:15] Then you've done you've done me in the group, and stuff. So we need to clone you so we can

[1:36:22] have, of course I think you've done a clone here.

[1:36:24] I think that's pretty good.

[1:36:27] Yeah, when I moved over to Solid Waste of Stephen in 2009, he was the one that really got that moving forward.

[1:36:37] Yeah, I was talking to him one time, and he asked him, I said, you recycle all your trash, and he said, yeah.

[1:36:44] I was like, every bit of it, yeah, and I was just, I never did get into that.

[1:36:49] I mean, you know, how you did all that, but I guess you can't really pay attention.

[1:36:54] Zero waste is very difficult.

[1:36:57] It's really hard, especially when you don't have an outlet for some things.

[1:37:02] And then you end up with like our concerns that is in and have a garage full that you really want to do with.

[1:37:10] And unfortunately until we, we can get that, we'll get it going.

[1:37:15] We'll get it going.

[1:37:16] When the misplalities they have, you know, recycled, I mean my recycled being is not as big as my trash being and a lot times my trash being it before but my recycled being, you know, we're stuffing it and everything.

[1:37:29] So the recycled bins are all 65 gallons. So that's a good size. Most trash bins are 95 gallons. We're trying to, we're trying to do better with that.

[1:37:40] Maybe one that's in the house you should be three to one your recycling should be three times more than your trash

[1:37:47] If you're it's getting the right material in there

[1:37:50] But if you really pay attention you can you can recycle a lot and then or stuff we don't want what you have on your website

[1:37:55] Absolutely you might just say those right quick while we've got everybody's a team our website

[1:38:00] You know the stuff you don't want in a landfill

[1:38:03] That we don't

[1:38:04] So in the recycle rather, the recycling.

[1:38:06] We recycle.

[1:38:08] So in our household, we do bottles,

[1:38:10] tubs, jugs, jars.

[1:38:11] So those are our plastics.

[1:38:13] And then we do our glass jars.

[1:38:14] And then our aluminum cans and steel cans.

[1:38:17] And then paper, cardboard.

[1:38:19] And then we have the plastics.

[1:38:24] Oh, our special recycling, our electronics.

[1:38:28] Used motor oil, used antifreeze, white goods,

[1:38:32] which are refrigerators, air conditioners,

[1:38:34] anything that has free on, scrap tire and a few other things that were listed on our list.

[1:38:41] What don't do you not want, like, if I'm in my trash bin, what do you not want, like?

[1:38:47] I didn't realize the ticker tapes or whatever you call them off of a, you know, a receipt you get.

[1:38:55] We don't want most receipts because it's a heat transfer paper and that chemical is not a good chemical to having a recycling.

[1:39:07] We had a crash dummy, yeah, crash dummy came through this weekend in our recycling, which was

[1:39:16] Yeah, absolutely, she's got a picture, it's great, she can show you all later.

[1:39:22] But a lot of them all come for a crash dummy, like one of those, yeah, it was, it was interesting.

[1:39:30] That was in the recycle.

[1:39:31] it was it was it was it was a blue back collection area yeah we can't

[1:39:36] recycling no fresh though nobody

[1:39:40] right but a lot of the misconception is if it's plastic we take it there's a

[1:39:46] lot of filmy plastic we don't take that we don't want in there a lot of the food

[1:39:50] containers the clam shells we don't take those because as soon as you hit those

[1:39:56] they're gonna crumble so that makes it really hard to do so a lot of people

[1:40:00] We want to put that in there because it is a number one plastic, but we're asking that those

[1:40:05] stay out because it's going to create a mess and our processor won't take it.

[1:40:13] And that's with our education, we're getting ready to ramp up August and September are

[1:40:18] probably our busiest months for recycling education, getting out in the community, getting

[1:40:23] into, we've got the fair coming up, we've got Labor Day Festival coming up.

[1:40:30] The big number fast, but the bike parking in.

[1:40:31] The bike park event will be there, pitch and river fest is coming up, and just some different

[1:40:38] presentations that we've been asked to do.

[1:40:41] So we're getting ready to die.

[1:40:42] Yeah, it's for being there for you.

[1:40:44] Getting really busy here.

[1:40:46] Okay.

[1:40:47] All right.

[1:40:48] Anybody having this thing in there?

[1:40:50] No.

[1:40:51] Okay.

[1:40:51] Well, thanks so much.

[1:40:52] Keep it up a good one.

[1:40:53] Keep us number one.

[1:40:55] We'll be number one.

[1:40:57] We made it there.

[1:40:58] Now we've got a state there.

[1:40:58] We've got a state there.

[1:40:59] We've got a state there.

[1:41:00] Yeah.

[1:41:01] That's right.

[1:41:02] Thank you.

[1:41:07] Okay.

[1:41:08] Under discussion or adjustment to the agenda,

[1:41:14] Frankie, you want to.

[1:41:15] So there was a couple of things in our packet that you were going to go ahead.

[1:41:21] Were you going to address those?

[1:41:23] She would just want me to admit to you.

[1:41:25] No.

[1:41:26] I found it out because I was just saying it and it's no problem really, I'm perfectly glad to admit.

[1:41:32] I just want to say this.

[1:41:34] I heard that you were the number one county attorney in the state.

[1:41:39] I heard you went in a war for that.

[1:41:41] So yeah, it was just like a participation ribbon in youth soccer.

[1:41:47] You were there, you were on the field, you didn't score any points, but you participated.

[1:41:52] And that's what I did is county attorney.

[1:41:53] So the other county attorneys recognizing the shortage of a sense of humor among the other county attorneys.

[1:42:03] I've received the county attorney of the board a couple of weeks ago.

[1:42:10] That's another number.

[1:42:11] That's a good number.

[1:42:11] One of the county attorneys.

[1:42:13] Okay.

[1:42:14] Go ahead.

[1:42:14] That's the good part.

[1:42:15] The bad part was that the resolutions that you're considering today about the economic development

[1:42:21] things. This is Willah Hill and Pizga Electric. You had your public hearing about it, the last meeting,

[1:42:27] resolution was presented. You had all these pretty documents on it. In the process of transferring

[1:42:35] economic development agreements from an older version to the current version, there was a number

[1:42:41] of typographical and other errors made by me. So I have fixed them. And so the text of what I'm going

[1:42:50] present for, that Hannah's going to present to you for, for those two resolutions is a corrected

[1:42:56] version from what you have in your board packet, okay? But they are, however, now correct.

[1:43:04] So before I let you sign something, I have got it fixed. Okay. Okay. So those will be on

[1:43:10] our website. People can see that. Yes. Absolutely. They're not really, and I don't regard

[1:43:16] them as material changes, but they are nipping and tucking some references, there's nipping

[1:43:22] and tucking some senses moved around. Don't ever give an English major or a formary

[1:43:27] in which an opportunity to proof-read your materials. So anyway, there you go.

[1:43:33] So it's always given you right something to wait a little while and go back and read it.

[1:43:38] Yes. And then we discovered who was this idiot who dressed in the first place and it

[1:43:43] it turns out it was me.

[1:43:45] I mean, I do an email.

[1:43:46] It's like, I don't even wait a while for us in that

[1:43:48] because I'm going to read through it.

[1:43:48] Sure enough, there's always stuff is like,

[1:43:51] oh no, I didn't see it.

[1:43:52] So what you're saying is Frank was number one.

[1:43:56] How are you?

[1:43:57] It was.

[1:44:01] It was really recognizing his historical efforts

[1:44:04] rather than actually card efforts.

[1:44:06] So you know, I will say that I saw Frank in action at a state

[1:44:10] in CACC meeting. They tried to hem him up in the corner, but they slid right out. I mean,

[1:44:16] he slid right out of that jam. He was in. And I guess maybe that's why they voted number one.

[1:44:22] They recognize, they acknowledge that kind of talent. It's not much, but it's what I've got.

[1:44:28] Well, when I'm making it in minutes, mistakes, that makes life a lot easier instead of trying to

[1:44:41] Thank you for the opportunity to acknowledge that.

[1:44:46] All right, so we will need a motion and a second to accept, replacing the published

[1:44:51] resolutions in the regular agenda, items three and four with the modified versions provided

[1:44:56] by the County Attorney Frank Queen.

[1:45:00] Okay. Can I have a motion? There's motion by Terry. Is there a second? Okay. All those in favour say aye. Aye. Any one person? Okay.

[1:45:13] Okay. So, we have three items on the consent agenda. Is anybody having any questions for those? I know Graham's here. He's got one on the consent. If you have any questions.

[1:45:28] Okay. Here in that, I'll entertain a motion. We approve the consent agenda as presented.

[1:45:31] to someone, sir, second.

[1:45:36] Did you discussion it all?

[1:45:38] I'll in favor say aye.

[1:45:40] Aye.

[1:45:40] Anyone opposed?

[1:45:41] Okay.

[1:45:42] Okay.

[1:45:43] Next we'll move to our regular agenda.

[1:45:44] We request approval of the Southwest North Carolina home.

[1:45:48] The Southwestern North Carolina home consortium,

[1:45:50] 2025 home recommended projects.

[1:45:52] And we have our Southwest Commission project.

[1:45:55] Manager of housing, the nation here.

[1:45:58] And thank you for waiting.

[1:45:59] It seems like, you know, we knew it.

[1:46:04] She's here.

[1:46:05] Yeah.

[1:46:05] That's right.

[1:46:07] No, it's not the nail.

[1:46:09] It's great to hear all the good stuff that's going on in Haywood County.

[1:46:12] And it always entertain and too.

[1:46:14] So you guys represent the seven counties.

[1:46:17] So just tell them all the things we're number one in over there.

[1:46:19] You know.

[1:46:22] He just never know what I have for you today, Kim.

[1:46:24] But thank y'all for having me.

[1:46:29] I am here to present a couple projects that this board will be able to decide if they would like to approve for the southwestern and see home consortium.

[1:46:40] Just as a brief introduction to the consortium, we are comprised of the seven most western counties in North Carolina and the towns within.

[1:46:47] We were formed in 2020 in order to bring home funds, which is some hub funds into the rural

[1:46:55] communities, providing grants to local governments, developers, nonprofits on a reimbursable

[1:47:02] basis for affordable housing and affordable housing activities.

[1:47:07] The Southwestern and Home Consortium Board did meet on July 1st to review the project

[1:47:12] applications that we received and we did receive three this year. This is for our 2025

[1:47:17] pot of money. Add of those three applications we do have two that we look to approve.

[1:47:26] The third application, it wasn't recommended just because they're not quite there yet, but it

[1:47:31] is a project that we may look at approving down the road. The two projects that we are looking for approval

[1:47:38] for the first one is to Solstice Partners.

[1:47:43] This would be in the amount of $477,000 that it would be for

[1:47:48] new construction of rental units for low to moderate income households.

[1:47:54] They're looking to construct 60 of those in Jackson County.

[1:47:57] This award would be contingent upon them getting their low income housing tax credit grant

[1:48:03] through the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.

[1:48:05] So, if they did not receive that, then these funds, of course, would not be committed to that project.

[1:48:13] The second award that we are looking to approve is to force where community action.

[1:48:18] They are a nonprofit that covers Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and Swain County.

[1:48:24] We are looking to award them $40,000.

[1:48:27] This would be for security and utility deposits in conjunction with their section eight programs,

[1:48:32] so help in folks have those upfront funds in order to get into that unit.

[1:48:38] We specifically were looking at this project.

[1:48:41] They're currently administering one very similar to this, so this would just supplement

[1:48:45] the funding that they already have received from us.

[1:48:47] But the key note there is that these funds would then be able to be used in Cherokee County

[1:48:52] as well.

[1:48:53] The current pot of money they have, Cherokee County is not eligible for due to the timing

[1:48:58] of when they joined the consortium that they would be eligible for this pot of money now.

[1:49:02] and also it helps supplement some stuff there.

[1:49:05] So with that, I'll take any questions you may have

[1:49:07] and look for a vote on that.

[1:49:12] I'm glad to see Cherokee County's now participating in this.

[1:49:15] So I'm not sure what their issue was,

[1:49:17] but I'm glad to see that they are actually getting a little bit.

[1:49:22] So, you might have any questions?

[1:49:24] No, just to comment, I'm glad that she's coming

[1:49:26] and about how entertaining our meetings are.

[1:49:28] for all the rat raisins, I'm sure she's got all the way out to the waist and back, she's probably

[1:49:34] experienced to be things that she didn't get to experience here and that's a good thing, I guess.

[1:49:44] All right.

[1:49:45] Anybody anything?

[1:49:47] Okay.

[1:49:48] Motion to approve Adam one of the regular agenda.

[1:49:50] Like a motion to approve Adam one of the regular agenda.

[1:49:53] Mr. Chair.

[1:49:53] All right, sir.

[1:49:55] Any minute discussion?

[1:49:56] All those the papers say aye?

[1:49:58] Aye.

[1:49:58] Okay.

[1:49:59] I see them.

[1:49:59] when it...

[1:50:00] You made it, you did it. I'll say, number one for this.

[1:50:04] Just tell me. No, number one, number one. I want to thank you. Thank you very much.

[1:50:10] Okay, the next item is to request approval of a settlement of collections 2025-26 tax collector, Greg West.

[1:50:18] Welcome, Greg.

[1:50:22] Good morning, commissioners. I trust everyone still and well.

[1:50:26] Mr. Chairman, I'm here to request approval of the setup of collections for 2,025 through

[1:50:33] 26.

[1:50:36] I, Gregory W. West, Tax Collector of Haywood County, swear the attached report is an

[1:50:43] accurate statement of taxes collected on behalf of Haywood County and on behalf of the 25

[1:50:49] fire districts, 10 road districts, one sanitation district, and the county landfill.

[1:50:59] This past year, 2526, our net levy was 51 million, 214,385 dollars.

[1:51:10] We collected $50,210,613 dollars for a collection rate of 98.04%.

[1:51:20] We had a remaining balance on collect. It was $1 million, 3,771 dollars. So, $98.04 percent was our collection

[1:51:32] rate for this past year. I'll be glad to answer any questions or.

[1:51:39] I'll just sound glad you're back in there, Greg, and I know you're working hard to keep that.

[1:51:45] Well, where it needs to be.

[1:51:46] I appreciate that, and to speak shout out to the staff, they worked really hard these last few months as well.

[1:51:53] And we're still collecting, I mean, in July, we've collected 125,000 of taxes that didn't count toward the 98%.

[1:52:05] So we're still out there collecting that.

[1:52:08] So next week, we'll see you.

[1:52:10] It's a good thing.

[1:52:15] Anybody got any questions for Greg?

[1:52:18] Okay.

[1:52:20] So we need a motion to approve Adam II.

[1:52:26] I mean, I'm sorry.

[1:52:27] Yeah.

[1:52:28] Adam II of the regular agenda.

[1:52:30] Make a motion to approve Adam II, Mr. Chairman.

[1:52:33] Okay.

[1:52:33] Just add them on the collections.

[1:52:35] That's for any.

[1:52:36] Second.

[1:52:37] Okay.

[1:52:38] Any discussion or anything?

[1:52:40] All those of you who say aye?

[1:52:44] Thank you.

[1:52:45] Thank you.

[1:52:45] Appreciate you.

[1:52:48] Okay.

[1:52:49] Item number three of the regular agenda is to request approval of a resolution authorizing

[1:52:53] economic development agreement with PISCA electric services to approve conveyance of

[1:52:58] a track of land, all for you know, farmer and community and economic development or director and a white.

[1:53:04] Welcome, Hannah.

[1:53:06] Thanks for having me.

[1:53:07] So yeah, this is just the resolution we had the public hearing last meeting.

[1:53:12] So this is the resolution to convey the real property to PISCA services.

[1:53:20] As we remember, the general statutes, lays out several findings.

[1:53:25] They have to meet, for instance, does the tax, the local tax revenue is greater than this as value.

[1:53:35] And then on the business side, they're improving the property,

[1:53:37] the providing the jobs, where the wages are of the county's average wage,

[1:53:46] and then next

[1:53:47] will be the economic development agreement with the business, and I will have all the

[1:53:52] callback and that agreement to make sure that the businesses are hitting those landmarks.

[1:53:59] Okay.

[1:54:00] Very good.

[1:54:01] So anybody any questions about that?

[1:54:04] No questions, but I have to speak in a county manager.

[1:54:09] I have to excuse me in the county attorney.

[1:54:12] I have something to accuse myself from this particular vote,

[1:54:15] just because it does that.

[1:54:17] Could I have a possible financial impact in my personal business?

[1:54:22] The company here that will be vote-known.

[1:54:25] I do business, they do business with me, and I have a fleet account.

[1:54:29] say that, so under it vise, so the attorney

[1:54:32] I probably need to recuse and I'll say I'll say I'll say.

[1:54:36] OK.

[1:54:37] OK, so can we have a motion there?

[1:54:39] Is there a motion?

[1:54:40] Make a motion there.

[1:54:41] Approved item three.

[1:54:44] Economic development agreement with PSG electrical services.

[1:54:47] OK, all right.

[1:54:49] So all those that they were saying, OK, that's it.

[1:54:53] Four row with Brandon recuse and himself or abstaining.

[1:54:58] so Adam number

[1:55:00] 4 is the request approval of resolution authorizing economic development agreement with Willow's

[1:55:05] heel soap company to approve the conveyance of a property of great oak drive.

[1:55:12] So that's the other one we had to be meeting about.

[1:55:15] It is and Willow Hill also meets all those threshold markers as well and Ben McDowell the

[1:55:22] owner Willow Hill is actually here with us today and that's that through this entertaining

[1:55:26] meeting.

[1:55:26] when it out. Thanks for staying appreciate it. He's like this is a boringist

[1:55:32] money.

[1:55:35] Okay, you can have a motion to approve that. So before we do that, just

[1:55:39] another question for the attorney I didn't ask him about this one, but B&B is a

[1:55:44] customer of mine as well. His business don't have a fleet account say the shit I

[1:55:49] I could use my sail from the last one.

[1:55:56] Ammonie's family, too.

[1:55:57] It was free from my shop, but doing business with you

[1:56:04] is not related to this expansion or sail from of County

[1:56:13] property to them for their economic development.

[1:56:15] Because it's too attenuated.

[1:56:17] It's too distant.

[1:56:19] The statute requires a direct financial impact,

[1:56:27] a direct substantial financial impact before you can

[1:56:32] recuse yourself. And in the situation here,

[1:56:36] it's too attenuated. It's too distant between actions taken

[1:56:40] by the county and the effect on that business.

[1:56:43] What you're really saying is if their business gets better,

[1:56:48] there may be their transactions with you will get better,

[1:56:50] but that's it's too distant.

[1:56:52] You're just one of them, but you're not a primary supplier to them.

[1:56:56] You don't have what you call a flea account with them, they're just another customer.

[1:57:03] That's not enough of a direct, substantial financial impact to allow you to refuse yourself.

[1:57:08] You'll have to vote on the matter.

[1:57:10] Thank you.

[1:57:11] Can I add something?

[1:57:13] I was not present at the last meeting, I was away on vacation, and I was talking to the chairman

[1:57:18] earlier.

[1:57:19] It's the first time I've ever missed a meeting for something personal like that, but we were out of town, but I did go back and watch the meeting.

[1:57:27] And I was cheering from behind the screen to see small local businesses be able to expand in our community.

[1:57:35] that we are many of us on a small business and I'm sure for all of us on a regular basis we're

[1:57:43] a community of small businesses and it is it was very exciting for me to see these two projects

[1:57:49] move forward. So I hate that I wasn't here to say that the first time you guys were present in

[1:57:55] the courtroom but I'm very excited for this. Make the best way we're all excited and we're still

[1:58:05] It's a good meeting, you know, to convene and see economic development and local businesses

[1:58:09] expand and today we're moving one step further toward this tax rollback for the conservation

[1:58:16] for formal and preservation and it's just another good meeting and seeing some goals,

[1:58:23] finally achieved and that's great.

[1:58:29] Would you like to make the motion, since you weren't here last time?

[1:58:31] Absolutely. I make the motion that we let me make sure it request approval of the resolution authorizing

[1:58:37] economic development agreement will help will a heel soap company. I make that motion.

[1:58:42] Okay. I'm four. Here's our second. Okay. All those in favor say aye.

[1:58:48] Aye. Okay. That's who that is. Thank you. Thank you. Hannah for all you're doing.

[1:58:55] Okay. The next order of business will be appointments in the first is to request approval of a

[1:59:00] the appointment of Jean Daley to a three-year term on the library board of trustees?

[1:59:09] Yes, Jean does a, she's fabulous contributor to the board and I'm glad to see that she's

[1:59:15] going to come back for another term.

[1:59:17] You want to make a motion?

[1:59:18] Yeah, I'll make that motion.

[1:59:20] We're going to point her for another three years to the library board of trustees.

[1:59:24] All right.

[1:59:24] I'll second.

[1:59:25] All in favor say, ah, ah, that's unanimous. Okay. Number two is to request approval of appointment

[1:59:32] of Levi-colon as assistant tax collector. Taxer? Taxer? Taxer, sorry.

[1:59:42] Got collections on my mind. You might take it. Yeah. Okay, so can I have a motion for item two?

[1:59:48] I would like to make that motion to approve item two and also recognize Levi's being here today

[1:59:55] his parents and I guess, are you kidding?

[2:00:00] We're going forward to speak. Labour? No, he's not. Oh, he's warning. Yeah, then what we've got to give you all his families here. So he acted like he did.

[2:00:09] I think I could take away his headshaker, mayor. We need to approve this.

[2:00:13] So I might get much because there's sex. Thank you. Okay, all in favour of say aye.

[2:00:18] Now it's official. Okay. Now you can do your thing there, Sherry. Sherry is going to do the assistant tax assessors with a office.

[2:00:27] And congratulations, Levi.

[2:00:30] I'm sorry.

[2:00:30] I can't do it.

[2:00:34] Maybe right here, Levi.

[2:00:35] So thank you.

[2:00:36] Levi, would you like to introduce your family?

[2:00:42] This is my wife, Rebecca.

[2:00:45] And my daughter, Levi, right back here, Olivia.

[2:00:48] And then my parents, Greg and Jean.

[2:00:52] I like that bow in your hair.

[2:00:55] Was that flower?

[2:00:56] Yeah.

[2:00:57] Yeah.

[2:00:57] And my plane club back here.

[2:01:02] But I'll say before you start that as well, I've known Levi for quite some time.

[2:01:07] He's probably about this big when I first become the know Levi.

[2:01:12] His dad Greg and Gene served as a pastor at East Ford when I was on the, they can board up fire.

[2:01:20] So I've known this family real well to see him grow up into the young man that he is today is exciting and honored to be here today.

[2:01:27] So congratulations on what you're getting ready to accomplish here.

[2:01:31] Thank you.

[2:01:50] Uh-huh.

[2:01:51] Uh-huh.

[2:01:53] Uh-huh.

[2:01:53] Do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution laws

[2:01:58] of the United States and the Constitution laws of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith

[2:02:05] and that will favorably distort the duties of my office as assistant, tax, assessor of

[2:02:11] would county and that I will not allow my actions as assistant tax assessor to be influenced

[2:02:18] by personal or political friendships or obligations so help me God.

[2:02:37] Very good.

[2:02:40] Okay, that concludes the business before the board is about to have anything else I'd like

[2:02:44] to add.

[2:02:46] I would like to recognize all our county department heads that we're here again today, it's

[2:02:50] refreshing to see these folks come out and I'm not picking on the library but the

[2:02:57] libraries are very well represented here regularly and I appreciate my

[2:03:00] foster being here again so appreciate everybody.

[2:03:08] So motion to adjourn.

[2:03:10] I'll make it motion.

[2:03:12] Okay.

[2:03:12] All in favor say aye.

[2:03:14] Okay.

Board of Commissioners Regular Morning Meeting

Agenda

Transcript