[0:00] 4:00 p.m. you please stand for the invocation led by commissioner Burton

[0:04] followed by The Pledge by Mr gr commissioner

[0:09] Grose bow let us pray Our God and heavenly father as We Gather here

[0:15] tonight we ask you to watch over each and every person here want you to watch

[0:19] over this board tonight give us wisdom and guidance as we carry on the mission

[0:24] of the business of the people of Pender County we also

[0:30] pray tonight that you keep watch over this

[0:35] country we're going through some tumultuous and trying times Lord we ask

[0:40] that you guide our thoughts and as we go forward from this

[0:46] place be with each and every one in your mighty name Jesus name amen

[0:55] amened I pled alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[1:02] Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and

[1:09] justice for all thank you if we have any veterans if you would please remain

[1:13] standing to be

[1:17] recognized thank you

[1:24] all board members we have the uh agenda you've had a chance to review it there

[1:29] is a couple of amendments to the agenda uh yes and at this time I'd like

[1:35] to move to adopt the agenda or at this time I'd like to move to remove items

[1:42] 6.1 and 6.2 uh to be removed to next uh

[1:48] agenda I have a motion to remove 6.1 and 6.2 is there a second second have a

[1:55] second all those in favor raise your right

[1:57] hand having passed I'd like to approve the agenda with the exception of 6.1 and

[2:03] 6.2 there a motion is there a second second all in favor raise your right

[2:08] hand thank you board members 5.1 public hearing regarding I

[2:14] guess I need to gel into public hearing public hearing regarding law enforcement

[2:18] center bond insurance Miss

[2:27] blue good evening um I'm Meg blue Pender County finance director I just wanted to

[2:33] introduce the public hearing for the law enforcement center Bond

[2:37] issuance um it was noticed in the paper and has been noticed um I don't know if

[2:43] we have the sign up sheet anywhere okay great I will get out of the way then

[2:48] okay the uh first individual that we have is Sheriff Alan Cutler from the

[2:52] Pender County Sheriff's Office

[3:07] good afternoon Mr chairman board members thank you for having me I just wanted to

[3:15] to get up and speak on this just for just for a minute I won't take long I

[3:19] wanted to thank everyone who's worked so hard on this project so far uh getting

[3:23] us to do this point uh the current conditions of our facility now is is

[3:29] really making it hard to maintain state inspection requirements uh we're

[3:34] constantly having to perform maintenance on the buildings uh it puts a strain on

[3:39] County maintenance and uh we do apologize for that Mr Troy and all of

[3:44] you but uh we do have certain requirements that we have to meet uh

[3:49] this funding will allow us to provide for the needs and the growth of the

[3:53] County uh it will ensure the safety of of our Detention officers and the

[3:58] inmates

[4:03] um I appreciate you allowing me to come and speak I also wanted to

[4:08] uh give give recognition and thanks to uh current representative Smith who is

[4:14] the former Sheriff this project started many years ago or at least discussion

[4:18] about it in some preliminaries uh he's worked very hard on that and through

[4:23] through legislative action actually had the land donated that this building is

[4:27] proposed to go on so wanted to give him recognition and thanks for that but I

[4:32] thank you for your consideration and I thank you for hearing me

[4:35] today thank you sir thank you the next speaker is Ed Scott from 65n Road

[4:45] [Music]

[4:50] Ro my name is Ed Scott I live in Swan Plantation in Rocky Point I have just

[4:54] two simple questions uh number one I'm just going to increase my real estate

[4:58] taxes and number two there are at least seven

[5:03] police departments within Pender County they being in Atkinson bergall Surf City

[5:11] um St Helen topsul and you might consider Wallace

[5:17] county line runs through it Wallace is more in the Willington standard

[5:21] metropolitan area than the other side so it might be counted is there any thought

[5:26] being given to making the new law enfor forcement Center a a central point for

[5:34] the operations of the police forces throughout the county just those two

[5:41] questions first off will it increase my real estate

[5:46] taxes thank you sir we don't respond to questions we'll have we'll take notes

[5:51] someone will contact you I can't answer that's wonder that question at

[5:56] this time but I don't think so I think we're in good

[6:01] she you don't respond to questions no sir

[6:05] not but we can tell you

[6:15] fantastic that is all that signed up for the public

[6:21] hearing we are now out of the public hearing for the

[6:26] bond back to the agenda

[6:33] 6.3 North Carolina ACC youth Summit presentation

[6:46] Spencer okay good afternoon I just want to introduce Alex Grover he is a a

[6:51] lifetime 4H member he will be attending the North Carolina Association of County

[6:56] Commissioners annual conference this year so he would like to um do his uh

[7:01] requirement of speaking to the County Commissioners and we also need a picture

[7:05] at the end

[7:08] so good

[7:12] afternoon good afternoon okay there we go my name is Alex Grover as Mr JY just

[7:17] said I'm here to talk about my 4 experience experiences I've been in 4

[7:24] for nearly 11 years now I have done a great number of things

[7:28] through 4 that I I probably wouldn't have done anywhere

[7:31] else it all started when I was about 6 years old and I had went to Summer fund

[7:36] days it's like stem activities and field trips I've also attended summer camp at

[7:43] two to three 4 summer camps I want to attend the third one in a few weeks to

[7:49] be for a with oh shoot I'm going to be a leader in training in

[7:54] L I think I've lost skills to pass on this is why I wanted to be an L in the

[7:58] first place more recently I'm a part of pendrick

[8:01] County for team Council in team Council we have the opportunity to meet new

[8:06] people and schedule our service projects that we do sometimes our most recent one

[8:12] was with the little library that we built just over there by the extension

[8:18] building and every year for team have the opportunity to go to for congress at

[8:23] Congress we have we learn how that our state is run and last a couple years ago

[8:29] had to opportunity to beat representative Carson Smith where we

[8:31] discussed local issues and I look forward to attending

[8:36] youth Voice next month and learning more about our local government thank you for

[8:40] letting me represent Pender County well done thank

[8:44] [Applause] you so we some of us will see you there

[8:51] yeah some of us will see you there come up and take your picture

[8:59] yeah of we'll stand behind you best we can oh we can come

[9:06] around we can go around there whichever easy go around there Mr M this is a

[9:12] start of an illustrious career we need to do it right that's right

[9:30] it's

[9:48] hard congratulations

[9:53] [Applause] [Music]

[10:16] we are now public comment yes sir chairman we have uh four individuals

[10:21] signed up for public comment tonight the first is Clarence E and there is not an

[10:27] address listed so as a speaker comes forward I have

[10:31] this public comment uh message I need to read speakers will be acknowledged by

[10:35] the board of commiss board chair person in the order in which the names appear

[10:39] on the sheet speaker shall address the board from the podium and begin comments

[10:43] by stating name and address speakers shall be courteous and respectful in

[10:48] their remarks and shall refrain from personal attacks and the use of

[10:51] profanity and discussion of personnel or other matters deemed

[10:56] confidential by law and you have 3 minutes

[11:00] thank you yes sir my name is Clarence leelan Eaton give a name friends call me

[11:06] Captain Clark past 40 plus years thank y' all for taking your time

[11:12] to listen to my little problem I have I brought a couple of friends with me if

[11:17] you'd raise your hands to little show of support right there to people that

[11:21] Believe in Us my wife and I it's my wife over there in the red we've been married

[11:25] for 19th of this month will be um 52 years you started forgot didn't you

[11:34] almost missed

[11:37] up and uh we moved up here from Florida I was raised right here in Pender County

[11:43] started school over here burgo miss Taylor was my first grade teacher cute

[11:47] little thing she had a little ruler she'd Spanky with but anyhow uh we moved

[11:54] up here we got a piece of property back on our family family land to Ramsey land

[11:59] out on Highway 53 o Ramsey property I'm a little

[12:05] nervous and I'm reading and uh we got a citation for um that darn it Citation

[12:14] for U because we live in a camper they call

[12:19] it a camper I call it home we live in an RV we brought it up from Florida with us

[12:23] put it on our property out there we've been living there for 4 years we had no

[12:28] problem with none of our neighbors would get along with all of our people uh I

[12:33] think a lot of all of our neighbors that came in and supported us today and uh

[12:38] they're neighbors we get along we do things for one another and they cannot

[12:42] believe this law has been on the books since

[12:46] 1988 that no one can live in an RV in Pender County since

[12:52] 19 no 2016 that first flood come through first big flood in the century come

[12:58] through that should have been took off the books give people their freedom

[13:02] their life back 2018 come by God painted some ugly on this country people had to

[13:08] live wherever they could live some of them was lucky enough to have an RV to

[13:11] live in some wasn't they had to live in motels and

[13:15] whatever but uh that law needs to be looked at really hard it might have been

[13:20] good back in 1988 I don't know about that but today we live in an RV I got a

[13:27] citation for for living in it I didn't know I was breaking the law and now I'm

[13:32] a criminal I'm a criminal I'm 79 years old 78 years old my wife will be she's

[13:39] old [Music]

[13:41] too and uh I don't I just don't have a lot more

[13:46] to to say have I passed my time yet you got a few seconds okay um I wish y'all

[13:53] would give it a a lot of thought about helping us I've spoke to a couple of

[13:57] people and they've um all I get I get a lot of I I understand

[14:02] I understand I understand well they don't really understand we're old and we

[14:08] look our tent days are over with now we've had some tent days and enjoyed

[14:12] them but I will not enjoy them now and I was told I could live in a tent on my

[14:17] property but I couldn't live in my they call it RV in my home air conditioned

[14:22] all my medicines are in there all of our medicines it has to be kept at a certain

[14:27] temperature but I could live in a 10 out there in the yard don't make a lot of

[14:32] sense to me and in closing I'd like to thank y'all for listening to me I'd like

[14:37] to thank my friends and neighbors for coming and supporting

[14:40] me all right thank you sir good friends good friends

[14:46] and have have y'all rather me would y'all feel more comfortable I'm sorry go

[14:51] ahead did they get do his address on there yes it's actually it's

[14:56] 805 if if I got just a second what brought this about was to save $72

[15:04] a year $72 don't sound like nothing used to not be nothing to me but it is now so

[15:09] I asked the mail carrier what would it take for me to put a mail get a mailbox

[15:13] get my address my out there where we live at just put a mailbox up there put

[15:18] your address on you get your mail well I got a a thing in the mail my address is

[15:24] not recognized 805 old Ramsey Road is not a recognized address address well

[15:29] it's been I've recognized address for 20 years give or take a day or

[15:35] to this m go anyway that's the address we used and I didn't understand I went

[15:43] there to help them under get help me understand why I needed to go to the

[15:48] Pender County Board planning department to get my address it's not a

[15:53] recognized address they couldn't they didn't explain it to me they said

[15:57] something about the emergency thing okay okay well unfortunately I had to call

[16:01] the 911 for my wife she had no trouble they had no trouble finding our place

[16:06] the emergency people no trouble finding 805 old Ramsey

[16:11] Road later on I have understood that that's

[16:15] changed changed up here because of the uh emergency systems that's

[16:22] out and I think I'm still going to need a 911 uh

[16:27] emergency thing for some kind of address for where we live at out there and uh so

[16:34] my ignorance not stupidity but ignorance of the way things are done now with that

[16:39] system I didn't understand it and I apologize to the world for

[16:42] it that's all I got thank you sir to say I went to this house the other day and I

[16:48] observe what's going on so I really um hope something we can help these guys

[16:53] out with I mean get to the point they can't afford a house um they have a your

[16:59] time it's put in it's working and so we's see what we can do thank you we

[17:05] have a beautiful home thank

[17:10] you you're blessed with good friends too yes yes yes thank you good friend all

[17:18] right the next speaker is Wanda Eaton at 805 old

[17:23] Ram okay right all right the next speaker then is Rob Gillian at 149 East

[17:31] Bailey

[17:51] Lane look like another picture

[18:00] is there one more she she's a sister

[18:05] oh we got the family here uh I would like to say thank you um

[18:13] to for allowing us to speak today first off I would like to say thanks for the

[18:18] partnership with Pender County Parks and Rec uh the job that Zach and his team

[18:23] does for us at kuanana Park has helped us flourish and grow as a league uh when

[18:28] I started help running this league in 2019 we were about 68 girls we have

[18:33] grown it up to 167 girls this year um this is the first time ever in the topso

[18:40] girls softball um history that we are aware of that this is the first time

[18:45] we've been able to make it to the World Series uh we're very proud of these

[18:49] girls for the [Applause]

[18:55] effort we're very proud for the effort that theyve put in all the hard work I

[19:00] have been coaching majority of these girls since

[19:03] 2019 uh just to see where they've grown and where they've come from um not even

[19:08] including that but just the character that they have uh not only did we get

[19:12] invited to the World Series they also won the state sportsmanship award which

[19:17] is one of the highest Awards you can get in Dixie Softball for the entire state

[19:20] for our entire age group as well [Applause]

[19:29] I will also say with that we did have two other age groups win the

[19:32] sportsmanship award um in U and 10U during the districts that's something

[19:37] that we're very proud of and that we push that we want to be a representation

[19:42] of what this community is um and we really thank you for listening to us

[19:46] today and all the um Partnerships that we've had with Pender County Parks and R

[19:52] you know the only thing that I ask is if you have any resources or any help that

[19:56] you can provide for these girls as we go down to East waa Louisiana which is

[20:02] Monroe Louisiana um we would greatly appreciate it um you know not only did

[20:07] we just spend 5 days in Belmont North Carolina now we have to travel down to

[20:11] East waa and spend another about week down there so any anything that you

[20:17] could help and provide and um just be a partner with us we greatly appreciate it

[20:22] and we look to continue to grow our league and flourish at ku's Park thank

[20:29] y'all thank [Applause]

[20:33] you so I do have one quick question or one quick comment or couple quick

[20:37] comments I see coach Jay's back here coach Jay was at Harrington was there

[20:42] when I was the the leader of that organization way back when my daughter

[20:46] is getting married now it's been that long ago um so it's come a long way it's

[20:50] great to see the girls we went to the first state at that time as a 8U team um

[20:55] no 10U team with my daughter and that's amazing to see that going to the World

[21:00] Series congratulations which which one are you doing yall doing xplay or y'all

[21:04] doing traditional traditional tradition traditional cool deal that's good to see

[21:09] can we get a a picture um congratulations ladies that's

[21:15] awesome very proud of

[21:21] stand stand back here behind you I saw a couple other little girls back there

[21:27] with the uniforms on they sisters

[21:31] oh they get to go have fun

[21:46] and congratulations again good luck good

[21:55] luck Mr manager do you have their contact coach's contact

[22:04] information he's got your number just just real quick on the the follow along

[22:09] with that bergall um Dixie Youth also has a team that's going to participate

[22:13] in the World Series in Leiana and they were supposed to be here tonight but

[22:17] their coach had um a heat heat exhaustion I think they said so they're

[22:22] not they're not making it tonight to be recognized but so burgal Dixie Youth has

[22:26] a team going and topsel Dixie Youth has team well that's pretty impressive for

[22:29] the county is that there's one more speaker

[22:34] chairman it is Shane fley 265 Riverview

[22:43] Drive hello uh I've been invited here by Clark who I've known for the past two

[22:49] years I'm a PA resident and I bought property on a Riverview Drive and when

[22:56] he brought up the the topic of RV I've actually gone through that too I I

[23:02] purchased land with a with a gift house that was flooded so I've been working on

[23:08] that the past two years and uh originally uh I wanted to get an RV and

[23:14] put it on the property and I was told you're not allowed to have power you're

[23:20] not allowed to have an RV pretty much the same thing so I just wanted to uh

[23:24] come show my support for Clark and also I would like to move down here and you

[23:30] know that become my residence but uh getting a service Pole or getting

[23:34] electric or getting anything done has been I would say tremendously difficult

[23:40] from Pennsylvania coming down here just to Pender County I've looked in Oslo

[23:45] I've looked you know other states um but again I'd like to show my support for

[23:51] Clark and if you if you could re-evaluate that whole RV thing for

[23:57] someone like me that lives lives out of state and works out of state and wants

[24:00] to move down here uh I do have nice property 4 Acres I'm working on the

[24:04] house I was told I could clean uh which I have been and got the house but I I

[24:11] don't have power I don't have water uh so if you could look into that I think

[24:17] it needs to be it's time for it to be re-evaluated and I understand the whole

[24:22] uh with Florence with the the flooding and seeing the whole County underwater

[24:28] with is just incredible to me I live in wsar so I'm actually in a flood zone so

[24:35] I go from one flood zone to to the next and I've I've never been flooded yet but

[24:41] for from an outof State perspective I would like the opportunity to bring an

[24:46] RV and place it on the property uh not and not trash it up you know the

[24:52] property but just have a work site thank you for your time thank you thank you

[24:58] that concludes public comment moving along to consent agenda

[25:04] board members youve had a chance to review the consent agenda is there a

[25:07] motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve have a motion is there

[25:11] a second second all those in favor raise your right

[25:14] hand thank you sir thank you Captain Clark

[25:38] just give a second to clear the room then we'll start

[25:46] back 9.1 approval of resolution requesting assistance to declare a

[25:51] disaster declaration for the farmers impacted by the

[25:54] 2024 drought like

[26:03] good afternoon Commissioners I'm Mark sites I'm the county Cooperative

[26:06] Extension director um the resolution before you is mainly to recognize the

[26:14] fact that this has been one of the worst drought years that we've seen in eastern

[26:20] North Carolina um I've lived here 20 years and

[26:26] and we've had other Dr but I think the the main problem with this one is it

[26:31] started earlier than it normally would hit us our corn crop is um Statewide our

[26:39] state extension corn specialist is estimating we might see a state average

[26:44] yield of 60 bushs to the acre which is probably 120 bushel below what our

[26:51] potential what our average was last year um the cost of production just to

[26:59] break even for most Farmers is somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 160 buels

[27:04] to the acre the um the damage from the drought

[27:09] in our corn crop is severe um the rain that we got last week

[27:15] will help our soybeans it'll help with a a little bit

[27:20] with our pasture um and our hay crops later this

[27:24] summer and fall if we keep getting rain um

[27:28] but you know we got rain Thursday and Friday last week or Wednesday Thursday

[27:33] Friday and now we we're in our second day of almost 100° heat that is supposed

[27:39] to be on top of us and all that water that we just got is just

[27:44] disappearing um there are fields that I've been in that even with the rain

[27:51] um you almost can't get a shovel in the ground the subsoils are so dry it's like

[27:57] concrete and so this declaration basically is a

[28:03] request to the governor to try to speed up the process of getting a disaster

[28:08] declared um other counties are have asked me for a copy of this resolution

[28:15] to for their Commissioners to um go forward with the same kind of

[28:21] Declaration I don't know personally all the details of of the financial side of

[28:28] what a death disaster declaration will um provide in terms of relief for

[28:35] Farmers but as you all know the federal government does not work quickly and so

[28:42] if we can get the process started now versus September October

[28:48] November um then at least we're two or three months ahead of the game and I

[28:53] have a question if you have crop insurance does that cover

[28:56] drought crop insurance will cover a portion of the losses and again I don't

[29:03] know the real details of of how you know what a disaster declaration will provide

[29:11] in terms of relief funding for farms in addition to the crop insurance

[29:18] I I I don't know all those details but um if there's any assistance that could

[29:24] be made or given to Farmers in North Carolina um in addition to crop

[29:31] insurance then that process just needs to get started and that's pretty much

[29:36] what this declaration is asking for so I listen to the Southern Farm

[29:42] Network every morning I think it is when I go on my way to work and there's so

[29:46] start to gain momentum Statewide and not in South Carolina

[29:50] also try to have these resolutions and declarations made to try to start

[29:55] getting some relief ahead of time as you said they were saying on there you know

[29:58] this is early this is early to be calling for it it's usually after a

[30:02] storm or at the end of the crop season when when things turn out so bad but

[30:07] they can predict that the the crops start will be there now because there's

[30:10] no rain well and and as if you look at the rainfall pattern from last week the

[30:17] this burga Corridor bergar to Wallace got a pretty good amount of rain we got

[30:22] four four to seven or maybe 8 inches of rain the coastal side of the county got

[30:28] less than an inch the Atkinson side of the county got less than an inch so you

[30:34] know we're not out of this drought yet and and when we have 100 plus degree

[30:38] heat indexes you know I I've been telling people you equate it to you and

[30:44] I having to live outdoors in a tent 24 hours a day in these kind of

[30:49] temperatures our crops are out there 24 hours a day they're stressed they're

[30:54] really struggling to try to stay alive they're not putting the energy in that

[30:59] they normally would do to produce seed and to produce kernels um and the hay

[31:05] crop has been dormant I've talked to some people that make hay they haven't

[31:10] even gotten a second cutting of hay off this year they got an A first cutting in

[31:15] May and the grass just went dormant just it's not growing so there's people that

[31:21] are feeding cattle hay to right now normally we wouldn't be feeding hay

[31:27] until December January February yeah I'm supplementing my hes through the summer

[31:32] which I've never had to do before so I have a question is there any reason that

[31:36] you have specified soybean and corn farms in the county would we be limiting

[31:43] our request for assistance for the soy beans and corn crop or their truck crops

[31:49] and and other types of produce uh and farm production that could be involved

[31:55] in and would we not be better SU to just to pull out soybeans and corn yeah

[32:01] that's that's probably correct we should probably broaden that request because

[32:05] our blueberry Growers have been having to

[32:09] irrigate which basically sets the plant up for next year's crop without water

[32:16] they're those plants are not setting buds they're not setting flower leaf

[32:19] tissue they're just not thriving so yeah there's other crops that will be

[32:25] affected by this as well

[32:30] I guess when I when I wrote this corn and soybeans was just stuck in my

[32:34] head on your mind right now um so with that I would like to make a motion that

[32:41] we approve uh this resolution requesting a declaration for disaster for Farmers

[32:49] impacted by drought in 2024 growing season um with the caveat that we would

[32:56] exclude uh specific it of soybeans and corn and related to all all crops that

[33:03] are impacted in this growing season second have a motion a second all

[33:09] those in favor raise your right hand thank you thank you for bringing

[33:14] that that's thank

[33:21] you 89.2 accept North Carolina emergency management capacity building competitive

[33:27] Grant Mr Batson good afternoon chairman and

[33:31] fellow board members pter County Emergency manager requesting the board

[33:34] to accept the grant the cbcg grant budget amendment and PO for Company

[33:39] Wrench in early 2024 pend County Emergency Management staff applied for

[33:42] the North Carolina emergency management capability building

[33:46] competitive grant program the full grant for the FY 24e was funding with $11.92

[33:53] five million with a cap of 200,000 Per County to be for this grant program the

[33:58] counties must have a population of 230,000 or fewer based on the 2021

[34:04] certified County population estimates from the state the grant for Pender

[34:08] County Emergency Management was 1ou or

[34:24] $127,600 lbs and other palletized items perer County was one of 19 counties

[34:29] awarded the CBC 2024 grants the equipment is on site and ready for

[34:34] pickup and will be ready to be used prior to the peak of Hurricane Season

[34:39] the only cost to the county is the tags for the trailer which we will cover in

[34:43] the current budget so we're requesting for this cbcg grant to be accepted the

[34:48] budget amendment and a PO to Company Wrench out of Smithville North Carolina

[34:52] so we got to pay for the tag we got to pay for the tags on the trailer but the

[34:56] trailer in the fort wol will be ours and we can use it as needed to help all

[35:00] County entities and other agencies what's the difference between a forklift

[35:04] and a skitter a skitter is a to my knowledge it's the use for land clearing

[35:10] or a skid steer is the little track machine like they use in a parking lot

[35:15] but this is the 4x4 all terrain that we use in a parking

[35:18] lot we can use in a building and some of the problems we've had currently is the

[35:22] EM Port LIF is only used on concrete or asphalt and the rocks will tend to get

[35:27] stuck in this will be used to move our palletized equipment during storms or

[35:31] unload and load tractor trailers when it's not in use can other departments

[35:35] use it other County entities can use it and I've worked I've talked to Troy and

[35:38] the guys at facility to partner with them and work together to use it for

[35:42] other County needs during non- disaster times as well as other counties across

[35:46] the state since it was state funded outstanding outstanding work Mr

[35:53] Batson especially on finding a grant that's no strings attached Grant that's

[35:57] great that's usual Mr M you had something I I'm Mak a

[36:02] motion I made a motion to approve it motions there and a second all in favor

[36:06] raise your right hand thank you Tommy thank

[36:12] you n.3 approval the HUD requested Housing Opportunity through

[36:17] modernization Act of 2016 admin plan wow

[36:25] L good evening Commissioners my name name is suava I'm the Pender County

[36:29] Housing director and today I'm requesting approval of our new admin

[36:35] plan which is the Housing Opportunity through modernization act um we did not

[36:41] put one in front of you because it's 365 pages long we do have we have so there's

[36:47] one at the County's manager if um office if you want to go ahead and review it

[36:51] and we will also have one in our department

[36:55] also and ours has not been updated since

[37:00] 2016 is there any question board members Lexi had sent out a notice last week

[37:04] that she had it available motion approved a motion to

[37:09] approve is there a second a second all those a favor raise

[37:13] your right hand thank you thank

[37:18] you approval of updated Pender County procurement policy effective July 15

[37:24] 2024

[37:30] good afternoon again um this is the County's

[37:35] procurement policy which applies to all County departments including um

[37:41] utilities and it basically governs how we are permitted to procure anything

[37:48] funded with federal state or local funds um there are differences in the

[37:53] requirements based on where the original money comes from

[37:57] um I will say that if there's even a dollar of federal or state funding that

[38:03] all their rules apply to every dollar that's part of the project or the

[38:06] contract um there's not a lot of substantial change to this policy it's

[38:12] it's very much like our previous policy it puts some things in writing that

[38:18] maybe we just were doing as a best practice um the the biggest change is it

[38:24] does give a little more authority to the county manager to approve things that

[38:31] the board has already approved so it will eliminate some of the we just did

[38:37] this in budget now we got to do this all over again we just approved this

[38:40] contract last year let's get it approved again um he would have the authority to

[38:45] approve those on behalf of the board as long as they are inconsistent with what

[38:50] the board originally approved um and terminate contracts as

[38:56] well um trying to think of the other major things that it does um it

[39:01] streamlines some of the um threshold the different thresholds as

[39:08] to be more consistent with federal and state previously our policy was a lot

[39:13] more restrictive than federal or state um this gets it a little closer to being

[39:18] consistent with those um and then it also talks about

[39:23] change orders and how those will um be processed which we already do change

[39:28] orders it just puts the process kind of on

[39:32] paper um I believe I emailed this out a couple of weeks ago uh if you have any

[39:38] questions I'm happy to answer them um but we're we're pretty excited about it

[39:44] um we've worked really hard on it and um we would appreciate you approving it is

[39:48] there any questions Miss blue emailed this week or two ago it was all the

[39:52] changes were in pretty green highlights they were very easy to see um is there

[39:58] any questions or comments if not is there a motion motion to approve I have

[40:02] a motion to approve is there a second second have a motion to Second all those

[40:06] in favor raise your right hand thank you very much anything to

[40:11] streamline the process thank you Miss BL yes and she's going to stay right there

[40:16] for a while I am approval on the law enforcement center project

[40:21] authorization yes so 9.5 is uh 9.5 and 9.6 go together um and I will not take

[40:31] full credit for this um Mr Bob Jessup with uh Sanford holshouser is in the

[40:35] audience and he is happy to answer any of the legal technical questions that

[40:40] you may have um basically 9.5 approves a resolution supporting the application to

[40:46] the local government commission for the financing agreement for the law

[40:50] enforcement center um we have we're in the process

[40:55] of working with the LGC to get that on their next agenda and

[41:00] 9.6 obviously you probably approve them separately but 9.6 basically approves

[41:05] the documents um they're in draft form here but um it approves the documents

[41:10] and the um terms of the

[41:15] financing is there any can I address the questions that came up a little earlier

[41:19] in the public hearing you thought the tax the tax issue or the um I can

[41:25] attempt at both of them but I'll go the tax one first because I know they answer

[41:28] to that one um the repayment of The Debt Service for

[41:36] this financing has already been included in our current tax rate so there will be

[41:43] no tax rate increase based on the approval of this

[41:49] financing we know we interest right we going to be able to get we're working on

[41:54] that um right now time that's right we're working on locking that and we'll

[41:58] have I I should have the answer to you by the next

[42:01] meeting um I just don't want to speak out of turn and not I just want to say U

[42:06] I know it's a really need this building and all my concern is protected our our

[42:12] credit rating for the county doua I know we said we were we were covered on that

[42:16] but uh down the road I know we just keep adding stuff to it so

[42:21] um anyway I know right now this is all I'm be with this that's about

[42:27] overloading it down everything else down like overloading a credit

[42:31] card I understand um as far as the regionalization of using the law

[42:38] enforcement center for the entire County purposes it will

[42:42] house the entire County's uh 911 system um dispatch and that that will

[42:50] communicate with every agency law

[42:54] police EMS fire um all the above um and it will have

[43:02] some Regional applications and agencies

[43:07] associated with it but as far as like housing the Surf City fire or um excuse

[43:13] me police department that's not really logistically going to work um but but we

[43:19] are we have an the Sheriff's Office can correct me if I'm wrong but there are

[43:24] some thoughts about as as Consolidated as we can get being

[43:30] efficient with what we're doing for sure and hopefully some other counties will

[43:34] like we doing now we pay other anel Lo some other counties to keep some of

[43:39] mar um inm and so they could we could make money off that I guess you know

[43:43] people coming in to pay we do have some of our inmates out of County yes you're

[43:48] correct um and that would alleviate some of that as well you're you're correct M

[43:54] do you have any question or or any idea of like the last couple of

[43:59] years how much we've spent as a County Housing inmates

[44:04] outside of the cam I do um I would say probably about

[44:11] four or five years ago it was in the realm of $750,000 a year talking about

[44:15] after Co after Co start before Co before Co it was okay after Co um Co

[44:22] drastically reduced that um because they weren't taking they weren't allowing it

[44:28] um and as far as the numbers they can they can they may speak to that better

[44:32] than I can but um as far as the dollars it's been between

[44:39] 150,000 to 100,000 a year thank you as are Ballpark don't

[44:47] hold me to exact numbers but last time I checked well hopefully with a new jail

[44:53] and a new law enforcement center we can turn the tide and start housing some

[44:57] federal inmates and some other County inmates and start making a little

[45:00] revenue for our County I I believe that um the sheriff's office has shared with

[45:05] the um folks the last time we had this conversation that that would be a

[45:09] possibility to be part of that federal inmate housing be

[45:16] great any other questions or comments on either 9.5 or

[45:25] 9.6 if not is there motion to approve 9.5 I make a motion to approve 9.5 have

[45:31] a motion is there a second

[45:37] second motion to Second all those in favor raise your right

[45:42] hand just point of clarification if I may um we are doing an inst installment

[45:50] financing in addition to some bonding can you briefly very briefly go over the

[45:56] financing on this project sure um it is limited obligation bonds which will be

[46:04] backed in collateral by the law enforcement center itself um so a

[46:10] general obligation Bond would be backed by

[46:14] the taxing power of the county um but this will be backed by the actual law

[46:20] enforcement center itself um we are it it will sell Bonds in the Capital

[46:27] markets it will be 20 years um we're still working on the interest rate but

[46:34] um you know those are those fluctuate until you lock them in um um Mr chair to

[46:42] to commissioner McCoy's point with regards um Bond could we have a word

[46:49] from our a bond representative as to that issue and how we're standing on a

[46:55] bond rating with the County if if he's prepared to do so would like

[47:03] to Mr Jess want to do that Mr Mr Jessup oh and um sorry we also have Ben Wilson

[47:11] with Davenport here with us um so we have the legal and the financial folks

[47:17] um with us today and if you want to take it you're Happ I'm happy to throw that

[47:24] one to you thank you would you mind repeating the question it was a little

[47:28] bit hard to hear back there the the bond process and how uh what our bond what

[47:34] our County Bond rating is yes and how this project will affect uh if any our

[47:40] bond rating right so as far as the bond rating goes we had conversations with

[47:46] the rating agencies about actually two weeks ago today um they are working

[47:51] through their analysis and we should get results from them within the next week

[47:54] or so um we don't expect your bond ratings to change and really this Bond

[48:00] issuance the debt that is issued by the county is only a small piece of the

[48:05] entire puzzle that they put together to determine what your rating is and they

[48:10] understand that as an expanding County you're going to have Capital needs and

[48:15] they recognize that you all have been planning for this for the past several

[48:20] years um so the issuance of this these new bonds is not a concern really from

[48:26] the credit pers perspective um and we we expect that those ratings will at least

[48:31] be at the level that they are currently what is our rating is a double A so you

[48:36] start the highest is Triple A and then there's and and that rating will give us

[48:43] favorable uh terms yes ma'am that's the highest possible rating is AAA and you

[48:48] are just below that in the double A Range if account have a AAA I think you

[48:52] know yeah what he said it's very it's very difficult to get a AAA r good yeah

[48:57] and they again they take into account a lot of different things economics the

[49:02] debt you all have your finances everything so so there's a lot that goes

[49:05] into that okay great thank you thank you yes and one of the one of the larger

[49:12] things which is go speaks to your concern commissioner McCoy that they

[49:15] consider in that rating is one thing that we can't change which is our

[49:19] location next to the coast um it it's it inherently is just a risk that we have

[49:26] to um contend with but we do plan

[49:29] accordingly and they appreciate that so thank you for your concern

[49:34] because that's and thank

[49:37] you sure moving to 9.6 is there any

[49:43] questions 9.6 is not is there a motion to

[49:47] approve make a motion to approve is there a

[49:51] second I'll second all those in favor raise your right hand

[50:00] 9.7 approval of contract and purchase order to Daniels and Daniels for

[50:04] construction of the law enforcement center

[50:08] project so um Mosley Architects is our architect that we awarded our um design

[50:14] contract to some time ago um they have been working on putting

[50:21] this bid out for the construction portion of this project this is a design

[50:26] bid build um this project the the bid tab is

[50:30] included and Daniels and Daniels is um the the pro or

[50:37] recommended vendor um based on their proposal um and so our request is that

[50:45] you would approve the contract to be awarded to Daniels and Daniels um the

[50:50] purchase order to go along with

[50:55] it we have a motion I mean do I have a motion to approve 9.8

[50:59] motion to approve is there a second second all those in favor raise your

[51:04] right hand that was 9.7 sorry

[51:08] Lex I need to do that again I'm up with speed

[51:14] we all right sorry about that motion to approve

[51:18] 9.7 is there a second second all those in favor raise

[51:23] your now we're at 9.8 approval of budget amendment to the entire law enforcement

[51:28] center project yes so this budget amendment

[51:33] although it looks complicated is um simply to budget for the entire project

[51:41] design and construction and repay the county back

[51:46] the portions that were upfront during the design base of this project so

[51:54] that's why you see the transfer back to the general fund

[52:00] and it's based on all of the information previously approved so what we've

[52:06] already spent can be capitalized back into the debt on the project that is

[52:10] correct okay is there a motion to approve 9.8

[52:15] motion approved is there a second I'll second I in favor raise your

[52:21] right hand so we're finally getting a new jail

[52:25] all right that's it for me after several years

[52:32] [Applause] try 9.9 approval purchase order for

[52:37] one-year hardware and software support from Dale good afternoon Commissioners

[52:42] marel Miranda director of Pender County it uh here requesting uh the approval of

[52:48] a purchase order to Dell Inc for

[52:52] $17319 uh this is year maintenance and support for our uh for our core

[53:00] virtualization infrastructure and we need to continue that uh support to core

[53:07] virtualization infastructure correct what does that mean that means that all

[53:11] of our internal supported systems such as our financial system our Erp system

[53:16] GIS uh our tax system uh our Enterprise permitting and Licensing system all of

[53:23] these run internally on our virtualization infrastructure

[53:28] okay so munus works on top of correct the Dale virtualization okay I got

[53:37] you this is being brought to you today because it is over 30,000 and it is uh

[53:43] it is with a new vendor this is going direct with the manufacturer Dell as

[53:46] opposed to a third party value added

[53:51] reseller say that again cut out the they cut out the midd

[53:56] man oh okay gotta okay good all right I like that last year how how how much

[54:00] savings does this afford US uh I wouldn't put this in terms of savings

[54:06] because uh typically this would be rolled into the lease um however

[54:12] uh the lease was currently rerolled uh without Support Services did we shop for

[54:18] any savings on this is this something that we

[54:22] could uh going direct to Dell is the lowest is a lowest first support the

[54:26] only other real option is third party value added reseller which in the past

[54:30] has been typically much higher okaycome Mr Miranda is the um de support police

[54:37] tment are in the United States uh yes sir they are okay thank you I got a

[54:43] question how come I have last several days every two days I have to boot my

[54:46] computer C computer why is that if it's been offline for an

[54:51] extended amount of time uh you probably had several critical patches that need

[54:55] to apply uh so the second that it comes online it's out of compliance and is

[54:59] trying to catch up we are going to be working on that reboot reboot Time

[55:04] schedule though very

[55:07] soon I have a motion to approve 9.9 I a motion to approve second I have

[55:13] a motion in a second all those in favor raise your right hand thank you very

[55:17] much thank you approval of a budget amendment and

[55:22] purchase order for replacement generator for the sheriff and 911 facilities and

[55:26] there's a stranger coming to the podium we to see you quite frequently

[55:32] glad to see you it's be yes sir by the visit every once in a

[55:36] while motion to approve that's way that's the way we

[55:40] like um good evening chairman and fellow Commissioners uh we bring to you tonight

[55:45] for the replacement of the LC standby generator the generator at the Sheriff's

[55:49] Office and now1 facility has exceeded its aspected lifespan has and has become

[55:54] increasingly unreliable frequent malfunctions and the

[55:57] rising cost of repairs have prompted us to explore numerous replacement options

[56:02] the sheriff's office has looked at the sheriff's ass Sheriff's Association

[56:07] Statewide Co-op purchase program for the generator and we've reached out to a

[56:13] local vendor to do the installation the generator is

[56:17] $65,625 and the local installation is $26,670 that would come from the general

[56:25] fund if there's no questions we ask for it to be

[56:29] approved how old is the generator the current generator is over 15 years old

[56:34] and how much has been spent in the last year on repairs if roughly around 3500

[56:45] but the issue is the Standalone fuel tank that goes with this generator is

[56:50] like your old old drum we're really needing to get it upgraded where we have

[56:55] a you bigger add bigger slab and the generator on top of the fuel cell that's

[57:01] one of the main issues that is causing some of the problems with the generator

[57:04] is that we've had it cleaned and we've had it

[57:09] um the fuel we've had it cleaned as well and it's new but it's the old oil style

[57:15] old oil style drum that's on the ground and it's been there

[57:18] for I mean it to me it was there before I don't know I I've been here 5 years

[57:22] but the the fuel cell seems to be like it was there before the generator was

[57:26] honestly but I don't know who could ask that question who would answer that

[57:29] question well how expensive would it be to replace that

[57:35] component that we didn't explore that because it was already having issues

[57:38] with the generator through the system with the sludge that went through it and

[57:42] we we with the age of it and this generator is our 911 backup center

[57:48] protectant for the when LC has moved out there our 911 Center will stay there as

[57:54] a backup center during problem times and we really didn't want to piece it we

[57:59] wanted to go

[58:02] full scale I guess you'd say is it possible that we could get a less

[58:06] expensive backup for those hypercritical

[58:11] functions um because we've just approved a great expenditure for facility for law

[58:19] enforcement yes this is the cheapest uh option is going through the Sheriff's

[58:24] Association to purchase the generator and and have a local vendor do the

[58:27] installation the other bids were over

[58:33] $100,000 would that generator be able to be repurposed to the new law enforcement

[58:39] center the current generator is possible that it could be repurposed

[58:46] um but it would take a I'm talking about the new one the well the 911 backup

[58:52] center will be in the current LC so we need a appropriate generator to fully

[58:59] power the facility so the 911 backup center that's correct yes so we'll have

[59:04] two 911 centers we'll have a primary site and a backup site we currently have

[59:08] that now with the backup being at the EOC and is a state

[59:13] mandated General statute that we have that is this going to be a budget

[59:20] allocation for law enforcement are y'all splitting this with EMS and Fire

[59:26] for budgetary purpos budgetary purposes this was originally set in for

[59:36] facilities that is correct back to the general fund that

[59:40] correct I'm sorry I said that again money not used we were notable to

[59:44] execute last fiscal year so the money that was unused rolled over into the

[59:49] general fund so we're oh oh so this was a budget item from last year okay I got

[59:55] you that it was budgeted yes okay but not was it budgeted for this past budget

[1:00:02] that we've just approved No Ma'am why not we

[1:00:08] were the best way to describe this we've reached out to several vendors and

[1:00:13] waited for them to respond and they're they have not responded in a timely

[1:00:18] fashion so it's caused us to reach out to other vendors who still did not get

[1:00:22] back with us so that's why we're having to peace meal

[1:00:26] purchasing the generator but but you didn't plug in this item into your

[1:00:31] budget I can't [Music]

[1:00:33] remember this was not a carry or we did not you didn't carry it out all

[1:00:39] right last year's money how much went back

[1:00:43] in what I think we budgeted 80 I'm sorry I think it was 80 around

[1:00:49] 88,000 that was budgeted for it so the money's there the money's there yes sir

[1:00:54] fund for that and he's got to have a new that's

[1:01:02] correct so generator 65,8 75 and installation expense of

[1:01:10] 26,00 640 that's correct yes

[1:01:23] ma'am any other questions if not is there a motion for

[1:01:34] 9.10 I make a motion to approve second I have a motion to Second all those in

[1:01:38] favor raise your right hand thank you thank you thank you thank

[1:01:44] you see if we can use that in the new

[1:01:49] facility put wheels on it uh discussion there is I think the

[1:01:54] manager has a discussion item that we aren't going to discuss yes sir chairman

[1:01:58] George um just wanted to give the board an update the North Carolina Association

[1:02:03] of County Commissioners will be hosting their District 4 caucus on July 22nd at

[1:02:08] 9:00 A.M on Zoom um District 4 comprises new han County Pender County Columbus

[1:02:14] County and Brunswick County um we will participate in this caucus the caucus

[1:02:19] will address the selection of District director for the 2024 2026 term the

[1:02:25] current District director is Mike Forte of Brunswick County um each County on

[1:02:31] the call will receive one vote for the county um it is up to the counties to

[1:02:35] determine whether to follow a specific rotational schedule currently that is

[1:02:40] not the case um just to give you um go ahead the uh just the last thing the

[1:02:46] roles and duties for the district director are as follows uh once a year

[1:02:52] um we will be required to host a district director meeting County um

[1:02:57] distribute a quarterly newsletter to County Commissioners in their districts

[1:03:02] and last uh present recognitions to the boards in the different

[1:03:07] districts so Pender County hasn't held that the seat since 2016 yeah so in 2016

[1:03:14] Mike Forte uh we had were doing it on a at a

[1:03:19] rotation it was um Pender new Handover Brunswick

[1:03:24] Bladen um dup and in dupin and uh when when we came up there was nobody in

[1:03:35] Pender that wanted to sit on that board no I'm sorry Mike Forte was uh selected

[1:03:41] for Brunswick in 2016 and 2020 there was no one in dupin because it was their

[1:03:47] turn in rotation um so uh Mike had support to do

[1:03:54] another term um is dupan dup's not I mean Columbus right Columbus Columbus

[1:04:01] yeah so um I'm sorry I misspoke good but I would strongly suggest that we Pender

[1:04:12] get back in the rotation and have a representative

[1:04:17] um to to be involved in the district so I asked Mr manager to research and he

[1:04:25] has um like 20 2016 it's a two-year term

[1:04:31] whoever gets it is two years two or it's two every two years hasn't had it since

[1:04:36] 2018 when George Brown was the last one count that's correct that's right

[1:04:41] um and then Mike Forte had supposed and then 20 they didn't do it or something

[1:04:49] there was a something was weird but Rob zapple has sent out fers he's from the

[1:04:55] count looking for Support also so we need to decide if we if it's something

[1:04:59] we want to try to get in the rotation now it should be our turn I think the

[1:05:04] way looking at the past schedule but several years it didn't actually go

[1:05:08] through the actual one two three it went one two 4 and five you know it bounced

[1:05:13] around so it's up to the board what we want to do here so let me just suggest

[1:05:18] this since we will have a new relatively new board Rob zapple I've worked with

[1:05:25] him on Lower cap fear I've worked with him on other projects I found that he's

[1:05:31] capable and able um if we would kick support to Rob

[1:05:37] sapple and then maybe have a Pender County representative ready to step in

[1:05:43] after new handovers two years is what I would suggest is he and I haven't looked

[1:05:49] to see if he was if he was up for reelection also I think you see see that

[1:05:56] was my concern about the only the only one that would be on you know be

[1:06:00] eligible on this board and not have to worry about rotating off would be Mr

[1:06:04] Groves he's he's the only one that's guaranteed to be here um in

[1:06:10] December um but I had the same thought you know if it if he's going to rotate

[1:06:16] off I'd hate to cause another Gap try to say we're going to we're going to split

[1:06:21] the split it up where whoever got to come off they don't get reappointed in

[1:06:26] December I would just assume it stay at our board at our turn right and one of

[1:06:30] the five of us take it and and and I would do it but of course I'm going off

[1:06:34] the board in December so um I would strongly suggest that we not allow this

[1:06:42] to fall into a situation where Brunswick continues right uh to to provide that

[1:06:50] representation so so what I would like to do is at the conference at the call

[1:06:56] is look at the list look at who puts their name forward and see who is going

[1:07:00] to be actually be there you know that's nobody's guaranteed to see nobody's

[1:07:05] guaranteed the next day the next minute I don't want to put someone in

[1:07:09] there and and the term does that make sense to yall

[1:07:13] yes so somebody who wants to really do with Mr manager is he has agreed he is

[1:07:18] going to be on that conference it's open to all of us um I think it's also open

[1:07:23] to Lexi I think you're you have invite to it I think too

[1:07:29] um so is that agreeable with everybody we'll see who actually put your name

[1:07:35] in and work to get in rotation I will I will not be on the call unless you

[1:07:40] specifically want me to be if you two were going to be on it but I'm thinking

[1:07:45] that that would be the way to go okay I will be on the call shair I have all

[1:07:50] intentions of being but I have to make sure I'm where I can be and the if you

[1:07:56] can't let me know and I will be and the intent is you want the rotational

[1:08:00] schedule to return yes yeah I'd rather yeah get back in the in the flow

[1:08:07] somehow I have no issues with nominating Mr Gro I

[1:08:11] mean he wants

[1:08:16] it that's up to him if he's willing to to do that he's the only one of the five

[1:08:22] of us that will be do yeah okay so we'll

[1:08:32] nominate thank you sir and then I know this isn't on the

[1:08:37] discussion item but we do need to um be thinking about a delegate for the the

[1:08:43] state conference um will all need to be voted on at the August 5th meeting um so

[1:08:49] if you're going to the state conference we'll need to pick a delegate

[1:08:54] at that is I can do yeah I would like to be considered

[1:09:01] unless someone else wants to so we put that if we can put that on the agenda

[1:09:07] for the

[1:09:13] auge is that it Mr manager on that yes sir appointments reappointment to The

[1:09:19] Advisory Board of Health yes so Frank Perez has applied for your appointment

[1:09:24] to The Advisory Board of Health for the public member position he has currently

[1:09:28] served one term that position expired at the end of June uh he has a good record

[1:09:33] attendant or good attendance record uh for the board and he is recommended for

[1:09:39] reappointment um should you vote reappointment his new term will be July

[1:09:43] 1st 2024 and it will go through June 30th

[1:09:47] 2027 I have served with Mr Perez and I have found him to be an excellent board

[1:09:53] member and brings a lot to the table so I would strongly recommend it yeah you

[1:09:58] to I've known Mr pre over 30 years and worked right alongside him in law

[1:10:03] enforcement and he's in the audience tonight he's a good

[1:10:09] man okay motion to approve motion to approve

[1:10:14] second I have a motion to Second all those in favor raise your right

[1:10:19] hand um congratulations Mr Perez

[1:10:29] appointment of Surf City [Laughter]

[1:10:42] PL pointment to the Surf City planning board um so the Surf City planning board

[1:10:47] uh signed a passed and signed a resolution on June 4th

[1:10:51] 2024 uh finding Mr Gregory k Caine qualified for the appointment and

[1:10:57] approving his application upon the appointment uh from you to be their

[1:11:02] extra territorial jurisdiction member on their planning

[1:11:06] board uh in the agenda packet I have attached the resolution along with his

[1:11:12] application as

[1:11:18] well there's any questions or concerns about well um about this appointment

[1:11:27] to the Surf City planning board if not is there a motion to accept the

[1:11:31] appointment motion to accept Motion in a second all in favor

[1:11:36] raise your right

[1:11:39] hand County Commissioner appointment to the tourism Development Authority that

[1:11:45] one's pretty much what you just said um following the departure of EX

[1:11:49] commissioner Wendy Fletcher Hardy the board now has a vacancy um

[1:11:55] we need to fill

[1:11:59] that is there anyone that would like to be on that

[1:12:05] board I do have everybody's boards if you wanted to look at that just to see

[1:12:11] what everybody's already got on their plate do youall want to look at the

[1:12:20] boards I do not have a board you like that he does not have any boards

[1:12:24] currently great okay they have a new is there is there a motion to approve

[1:12:30] commissioner Burton to the county commissioner

[1:12:33] second motion I have a motion in a second all those in favor raise your

[1:12:36] right hand congratulations congratulations

[1:12:40] they meet 15 times a [Laughter]

[1:12:46] month I'm just kidding said y'all meet 15 times

[1:12:52] ath so there's nothing list under any of the water districts so I'm assuming we

[1:12:58] don't have any business pen County Board of Health has

[1:13:02] nothing listed nor the Social Services Board items from the county

[1:13:07] attorney well is he on there Trey yes do you have any

[1:13:14] it I just uh request for closed session uh item three attorney client item four

[1:13:23] Economic Development item five potential acquisition of real property and item

[1:13:29] six

[1:13:32] Personnel thank you sir County manager no sir I do not have any updates

[1:13:37] assistant County Manager I do not no thank you sir commissioner newon um yes

[1:13:42] a couple of things I had some conversations uh earlier this week uh Mr

[1:13:47] manager that I'm going to need some staff time and and uh assistance with um

[1:13:55] other agencies with regards dredging of the Northeast cap field River we've got

[1:14:01] some dangerous as I understand it situations out there locally where the

[1:14:08] buildup and the silt has gotten to the point where we've got you know really

[1:14:14] big logs and debris clogging up the river which make it a danger for um

[1:14:20] boating and motorist um boating and boat traffic

[1:14:25] so um you I think Daniel had some

[1:14:31] conversations about this as well as uh Jason so perhaps yes ma'am be happy have

[1:14:39] a meeting just let me ask some sometimes that work through schedule and can get a

[1:14:42] staff meeting set up thank you um also um we have a board opening uh at Novant

[1:14:51] uh nant hospital here in burgal um I am on that board as a citizen and

[1:15:01] uh we have a uh opening for a chair um a board of commissioner uh representative

[1:15:09] on that board um but uh and that was vacated by Wendy but

[1:15:17] Randy also is employed by so maybe that's some conversation that we might

[1:15:23] need to have um but just wanted to remind us that we've got that board

[1:15:27] vacancy um and we need to fill that and we need to fill it we can't wait to the

[1:15:31] new board uh not I would PR I would prefer not um so but that's a

[1:15:38] conversation um also I have been advised um that there is going to be a

[1:15:46] public meeting heads up public input meeting uh at Pender

[1:15:52] Auditorium uh conducted by Pender County utilities on our

[1:15:57] 421 Corridor water issue Monday July 29th from 6: to 7:30

[1:16:06] p.m. um and there will be some some uh information exchange and it's very

[1:16:12] important that concerned citizens attend this meeting um we'll have updates on

[1:16:19] the Highway 421 waterline extension and have an opportunity for public comments

[1:16:26] and questions uh so thank you director colog for setting that up uh and that's

[1:16:33] all I have thank you thank you commissioner mcco I'm good

[1:16:38] commissioner Burton um just a t a couple of things for the record um earlier when

[1:16:45] Mr Eaton came up and spoke in reference to um his living arrangements um I I

[1:16:53] spent a considerable amount of time on on the phone with him the other day

[1:16:56] because when um when I'm called I answer the phone and I uh my heart goes out to

[1:17:02] him and his family and I think moving forward it'd be a good time to Let's uh

[1:17:09] unlock the cabinet where common sense is and let's talk about some development in

[1:17:14] the in the new Udo about um having a case by case basis

[1:17:19] moving forward where some of these folks won't have any problems um and second

[1:17:25] thing is um myself and I think chairman George has had some

[1:17:32] uh heightened discussions with um some folks on the Eastern side of the county

[1:17:38] in reference to the water and I'm hoping that we're

[1:17:43] on top of that as as our as our water folks are oh you talking about the

[1:17:48] Carolina water no we're talking about our system I'm talking about Brown water

[1:17:52] in our system and we just we just voted to raise their rate and I understand

[1:17:57] that because it's been 10 years and it was needed I understand that but when

[1:18:01] you raise somebody's rate and then they got brown water in their toilet it it

[1:18:06] ain't good line out I'm I'm not sure this one

[1:18:12] particular has been going on since the neighborhood Inception of the

[1:18:15] neighborhood since wind water was put in so it's not a new thing so it's not

[1:18:19] Carolina size so but I do think they're working on that and I think they're

[1:18:23] addressing some of those citizens I just wanted to get that on the record for the

[1:18:26] folks that are going to be watching on TV thank you so much that's it that's

[1:18:29] good for me Mr gr uh just want to Echo what Mr Burton said about Mr Eaton I Al

[1:18:36] I went out to his

[1:18:39] home the man wants to die in his camper right there he just wants to die he's

[1:18:44] got a place he wants to be buried right there and I think we should give him the

[1:18:50] opportunity to die in that camper if that's what he's asking and the second

[1:18:55] thing is the maples corner light uh caution light and the speed limit I'm

[1:19:02] not going to leave M corner alone until we get a stop light all there so and I

[1:19:08] know um Daniel has been working on that um and several others um but what they

[1:19:15] did this week is not the answer writing tickets on 421 is not the answer the

[1:19:21] answer is to um put up a stop light and um and will that stop everything

[1:19:28] from happening no but we had two recently and

[1:19:33] um I just want the Daniel and the rest of you to stay on the do until we get a

[1:19:41] light and that's all I had and I'll be brief so this past week

[1:19:47] uh me commissioner Burton he was there we attended the groundbreaking for the

[1:19:51] American Legion um building in Hamstead that was exciting they they're finally

[1:19:56] getting a home after all these years so that was exciting to be there and

[1:19:59] witness that it's actually on a piece of property that when I ran around on and

[1:20:05] actually have a dog buried there I lived on that piece of property that is going

[1:20:08] on so was pretty neat to be there is on Peanut Road it is between Peanut Road

[1:20:12] and two10 it's on that little pie shaped parel we we redistricted it for Mr Gro

[1:20:20] brought up an important issue about the um traffic situation at how we 421 in

[1:20:25] Maus Corner um the county has done an excellent job of uh communicating

[1:20:30] through social media and other means of the uh request from the dot for input on

[1:20:35] projects there's a link that um our communications director sent out a

[1:20:39] couple of times if you can go to that link um that project is on there and

[1:20:45] they those projects are scored by comments um that's how they get funded

[1:20:50] is the one of the one of the many reason ways it gets funded gets moved up and

[1:20:55] scored is through public comments and public need um so I encourage everyone

[1:21:01] that has there's several projects in Pender County there's nowhere near as

[1:21:05] many projects in Pender County as there are surrounding counties but all the

[1:21:08] projects in Pender County are important so I encourage people to go to that

[1:21:13] website and that link that Brandy you still still up right

[1:21:19] yeah still so I encourage people to go to

[1:21:23] that website do the comment um and let's try to get some of our

[1:21:27] projects scored we're competing against new han County Columbus County and the

[1:21:33] other ones in division

[1:21:36] three and finally the website I don't know if youve anyone you've had a chance

[1:21:41] to visit the website is a refreshing um new addition to the county it is very

[1:21:46] easily to navigate and um I appreciate the hard work that was done to get that

[1:21:52] where it is now I can't wait to check that out I quit

[1:21:57] going you can go right to the home pagee right on the front page you ain't

[1:22:02] got to look for it good deal thank the the gis improvements are

[1:22:07] really nice too so there's no other do we have a

[1:22:12] motion to go into close sessions for yeah I'd like to make a motion to go

[1:22:16] into close sessions for item three attorney client privilege item four

[1:22:20] Economic Development item five acquisition of real property and item

[1:22:26] six Personnel is there a second second all those in favor raise your right hand

[1:22:32] we're now in close session we'll be back in session at 7 p.m for the public

[1:22:37] hearing thank y'all for

[1:22:53] coming

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[3:07:52] who is the second um M okay sorry who's the first Mr B beautiful thank

[3:07:59] you we are now in public hearing special use permits zoning map amendments and

[3:08:04] resolutions 2.

[3:08:08] 21.1 Mr Brantley yes sir the the first case on the

[3:08:13] agenda um this evening staff is requesting we continue this case uh

[3:08:19] there there was a a minor issue with the public notice motion to

[3:08:25] continue there a second second all those in favor raise

[3:08:29] your right hand thank you very good the second case on the agenda uh and I was

[3:08:35] just speaking with Mr Thurman about this um this is for a revision to a special

[3:08:40] use permit for the industrial park that's known as the Commerce Park um

[3:08:44] there was a question about uh would this have any impact on uh the 65% threshold

[3:08:53] in the Property Owners Association and it was a little bit unclear so we're

[3:08:57] going to request to continue this as well to be sure that we're squared away

[3:09:01] on that motion to continue I have a motion is there a second second second

[3:09:05] if if the board doesn't mind I would just like to to introduce a couple of

[3:09:09] folks who came for this case um this is Phillip McCardell uh with Philip leing

[3:09:16] um and SP Spinx uh who's helping on this

[3:09:21] project as well and and um the the county may recall that the 15 Acres that

[3:09:26] was originally part of the Commerce Park was sold to Philips Leon and toe so um

[3:09:32] both of these folks have been great to work with and and uh I just wanted to

[3:09:35] acknowledge them that they've showed up this

[3:09:39] evening very good thank you both thank you for coming before we move on um so I

[3:09:44] have that Vice chair Newton made the motion

[3:09:47] commissioner Burton seconded I did not know how everybody else voted though we

[3:09:52] didn't all those in favor of continuing till next month raise your right hand

[3:09:55] beautiful thank you sorry I forgive you so it's Phillip's Towing is that the

[3:10:03] big toe the big the big trucks the big tow trucks I believe

[3:10:08] so perhap is that the big tow

[3:10:16] trucks yes she

[3:10:19] do and yeah I was just speaking with them and it sounds like they they've got

[3:10:23] an exciting project and and offer a lot of support to the county they've been a

[3:10:27] great partner to the county in a lot of projects that I wasn't aware of until

[3:10:31] just five minutes ago so just wanted to acknowledge

[3:10:41] that maybe we'll save that for for later yes sir yes sir so I'm clicking this one

[3:10:49] record time here 21.3 resoning request request to reone

[3:10:55] one partial total in approximately 0.41 Acres from PD de plan development zoning

[3:11:02] District to RP residential performance zoning District yes sir thank you this

[3:11:06] is the last case on the agenda it's a general use rezoning the County Planning

[3:11:12] Department is the applicant and CMH homes Inc doing business is Clayton

[3:11:17] Homes is the owner of the property the the property is about 410 of an acre and

[3:11:22] as you said Mr chairman it's currently zoned PD and the request is to rezone it

[3:11:27] to RP or residential performance the vicinity map is is in

[3:11:32] place here just to give you an idea of where the property is it's about a

[3:11:36] quarter mile southeast of the intersection of Sloop Point Loop Road in

[3:11:41] Co Drive in Hampstead as you can see on the zoning

[3:11:45] map the purple is the PD dis District it's currently zoned PD as is a majority

[3:11:50] of the property to the North and then further west whereas a lot of the

[3:11:54] property South immediately West and further east is zoned RP or residential

[3:12:00] performance this aerial is at least a couple years old and it shows that the

[3:12:04] property itself is undeveloped I have a couple photos of the property now um

[3:12:09] that show that it's been cleared and there's been a mobile home placed on the

[3:12:11] site but but you can see a lot of the property around it is developed as

[3:12:16] single family residential um or undeveloped at this

[3:12:23] time so these are some photos of the site taken a few weeks ago so to orient

[3:12:28] you the photo on the left is standing on coal Drive facing the property and then

[3:12:33] the photo on the right is standing in the driveway facing towards Co

[3:12:39] drive and then the photo on the left here is uh standing on sloot Point Loop

[3:12:43] Road looking down coold Drive the photo on the right is basically standing on

[3:12:49] cold Drive looking back up towards Sloop Point Loop Road at the subject property

[3:12:53] so just to give you some perspective of the site may I ask a

[3:12:58] question yes

[3:13:02] ma'am you said the intent of the residential performance district is to

[3:13:06] allow for a variety of residential uses densities and limited commercial

[3:13:12] activities as well as Agri tourism why would we want to do a

[3:13:19] resoning and not do a special use uh

[3:13:24] there's and the reason that I asked the question is because limited commercial

[3:13:31] activities and Agri tourism AGR tourism doesn't seem consistent with commercial

[3:13:39] normal commercial activities they could you know have an animal farm out there

[3:13:44] why would why wouldn't we want some kind kind of control which a special use

[3:13:50] would give us Agri tourism would actually be Exempted in zoning District

[3:13:55] if there's the Bonafide Farm designation so um the the likelihood of this

[3:14:01] property due to its size qualifying for a Bonafide Farm designation which would

[3:14:06] allow Agri tourism is very minimal yeah that was alarming I it says as well as

[3:14:13] AGR tourism so we don't uh why as a matter of of of of common

[3:14:23] practice why wouldn't we use a special use that we could control and limit

[3:14:29] usage on rather than do a resoning it is my question and might in in general uh

[3:14:37] that that might be a better route forward

[3:14:40] um uh to to be specific about this exact situation a permit was issued that

[3:14:46] permitted a mobile home on this property um and mobile homes are not permitted in

[3:14:51] the PD District so we're trying to correct a mistake that was made oh I see

[3:14:57] I go you yes ma'am all right um I will note that the majority of commercial

[3:15:02] uses in the RP District do require a special use permit so if someone was

[3:15:07] going to come back maybe not for Agri tourism per se but for some other

[3:15:11] commercial use it would likely require a special use permit so why is that

[3:15:15] trailer already there if it's the the a permit was issued and it

[3:15:22] wasn't caught until and that was our mistake that was

[3:15:26] a planning department mistake that's right yes ma'am see my opinion this is

[3:15:32] my opinion and I don't want to know how things work that whole

[3:15:36] street has this type of house on it why it ever got rone from RP or ra or

[3:15:45] whatever it was before to plan toot element I don't know the rest of it in

[3:15:49] my opinion on that same on cold drive that's still PD should all be RP way the

[3:15:55] the next person that wants to put on the next lot the side of it don't have to go

[3:15:58] through this whole and that's it's like when they

[3:16:02] rezone and when they made zoning districts they just

[3:16:05] went and wherever the paint bomb landed is where it was I mean I'll give you an

[3:16:11] example right across the road from that is a is a farm

[3:16:15] field right right it was farmed up until last year it's Z RP not ra RP right down

[3:16:24] the road as a continuation of that same farm that was farmed up until last year

[3:16:28] it's General business still a farm still a field still about still have forces in

[3:16:32] it still own by the same people still owned by the same people so when we did

[3:16:36] the zoning Maps we kind of just closed our eyes and do the bombs so these

[3:16:41] rezonings are generally an effort to to correct those types of

[3:16:47] issues right but we're doing it one piece at a time you know you've seen

[3:16:51] this property it's going to be that kind you know this is what that original

[3:16:55] subdivision was built for was manufactured homes right and now these

[3:17:00] people are having to go through technically they the next guy

[3:17:04] can't even get a permit he's going to have to go through all this nonsense

[3:17:08] before he can even and that's something that we've actually KN when that a track

[3:17:11] is is done in error we should fix it before wouldn't it be easy to go ahead

[3:17:17] and do a blanket fix if we know that's what this community is lending itself to

[3:17:24] while why wouldn't work there's um sometimes it's difficult to get a hold

[3:17:28] of multiple property owners uh and in this case we were trying to be as

[3:17:33] expeditious as possible for this this homeowner yes ma'am

[3:17:38] yeah that's it but that's something that we have talked about uh Clayton Holmes

[3:17:44] is interested in doing more work on this road so trying to avoid a situation like

[3:17:48] this they be the petitioner that were doing this for if they

[3:17:53] own the properties they have an interesting structure on the way they

[3:17:59] and and I may be misstating that I I've been talking to them a lot and I think

[3:18:03] they're listening this evening so I'm their ears are certainly ringing but a

[3:18:07] lot of times the way they or at least in this case the way they structure the

[3:18:11] deal is an individual bought the property and then uh basically

[3:18:17] contracted with Clayton Holmes to put that property or to put a mobile home on

[3:18:22] that property uh so Clayton holes has some sort of ownership stake in that

[3:18:26] property and then we'll basically sell it back to the owner I could be botching

[3:18:31] that um but that was sort of my rough grasp of how the ownership structure

[3:18:36] works and again if there's another parcel that's similarly situated as the

[3:18:41] one we're here today for then the manufacturer if there doing this for

[3:18:48] consumers if they're selling them the lot so they'll have something to put a

[3:18:52] lean against shouldn't they be conveying a properly um designated

[3:19:01] parcel yes ma'am and that's something that we've talked about um is is looking

[3:19:07] at some some of these other properties along this road and potentially rezoning

[3:19:10] them um well I think it would certainly be easier rather than one by one tying

[3:19:17] up our staff and our time to make that that change so I'm I'm on your side and

[3:19:24] I'm on your side so um it just doesn't it seems to me that they ought to go on

[3:19:31] the offense with this yes ma'am absolutely small Lots each about a half

[3:19:37] acre that's a big little less than that that's like three times the size of

[3:19:42] a regular lot Hamad thank you for your speech that's

[3:19:45] not an exaggeration sir if you could get DEQ and and U Raleigh

[3:19:51] at the state level to speed up on some stuff we'd be gladly appreci I'm sorry I

[3:19:55] didn't mean to interrupt no problem no problem interrup yeah and I'm sorry I

[3:19:59] didn't mean to run that rabbit I just didn't understand what we would doing

[3:20:02] here I know and I I my radar was going off I anticipated that might be the case

[3:20:09] I should have given you some some fair warning that's all right um I can go

[3:20:13] through the remainder of the slides but you've basically gotten the

[3:20:20] point the planning board did recommend approval

[3:20:25] unanimously and then there's a consistency statement on the screen if

[3:20:29] the board would like to use that when making a

[3:20:34] motion we've heard the presentation from staff they are the applicant so there is

[3:20:39] no public comment or signups on there's no public com is there any questions if

[3:20:45] not is there a motion who yours motion for approval it is in my district but I

[3:20:51] can't make a motion I'll second it have a motion he need to I guess read it for

[3:20:56] the record whether um page to approve that the motion to

[3:21:01] approve uh make a finding that uh the proposed resoning is consistent with

[3:21:08] Pender 2.0 comprehensive land use plan set approval is reasonable and in the

[3:21:13] public interest and furthers the goals of the Pender 2.0 comprehensive land use

[3:21:17] plan because it is consistent with the following policies and goal as noted in

[3:21:23] the staff report you got all that Lexi policy 5.1 V policy 5.1 W and goal

[3:21:32] 5.8 and that is my motion there a motion is there a second so I have a motion and

[3:21:37] a second all in favor raise your right hand thank you yes sir thank you and

[3:21:42] that that's it for uh land use hearings this evening thank you Daniel and thank

[3:21:47] you for earlier today for taking that meeting and helping get that matter

[3:21:52] resolved yes ma'am no problem thank you motion to adjourn there's a motion

[3:21:57] to adjourn happy birthday

Board of County Commissioners - 15 Jul 2024

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