County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

ask for the pledge of allegiance. So, let's all stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America. Please come forward. Seeing no movement, we'll close public comment section. Move on down. Section A, presentation of the board. Mary Recctor, GIS director.

Good afternoon.

Um, kind of give you a year in review of the GIS department. Um, I know you've heard the register deeds talk about how busy last year was. just kind of give you a breakdown of just what I have done in my office. Um, we pro or I processed 815 transfers last year, 127 of splits, 80 combinations. I signed 113 new addresses in Alageney County. Um, we done 80 road signs. Um, in amongst all this, I did a changeover in our mapping program that was finished completed out in December. Um, also been working with the Rebal company that's doing the Alagany Rebal, um, in working on getting them an online map that they're using for rebal um, kind of on the other side of it. Um, I also kind of helped Daniel with dispatch um, stuff. So, behind the scenes on that, um, I've processed 147 CAD and information requests for 2025 season.

You've been busy. Yeah, it's amazing what goes on up in GIS. So it's a she does a lot of work up there. We appreciate it. Any questions for her? No, just a comment. It's amazing what she does about herself. She is. It is. I think at GIS is a good website. I mean, I enjoy looking at and I try to keep it up to date, but with the changeover, it's been I've been delayed a little bit. Um but um I at least try to get it up once a month, if not every two months. So, we appreciate everything you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir.

Um, I just want to uh point out that Mary being TR crossrained in the area, you know, along with Daniel helps ext expand what this county can do and we have multiple department heads that have become cross-trained to help each other out when there's a little bit of extra work and we appreciate you doing that. Sure. Certainly do. Thank you. Okay, next up, April Ram, CFO director Monday. It is it is.

So, just prior to the meeting, I passed out your monthly finance report. Um, year-to- date revenue 21,26,25281. That represents 89% of our approved general fund budget. Year-to- date expenditures, 21,196,56462, exactly 89% of the expenditures. We're running really close on our budget currently. Bank balance as of today in the checking account 6,363,4596. and the public savings account 7,130,6664 town of Sparta grant savings account 13,22,9644 and our transfer facility investments of the $1.5 million that the board allocated toward that project, we have gained $30,678.80 80s in interest and with the general fund investment of the $5 million we have gained $102,224.99. So I draw attention to our net financials for the year. We are just barely ahead at $9,688.19. Like we talked about at the last board meeting, the the biggest revenue we have coming in right now is sales tax. So we're to that point in the budget. Most of our adalorum taxes has come in and we're we're basically paying bills on sales tax and vehicle tax. So the local option sales tax for the fiscal year July through March 1,149,225.72

as compared to last year we're ahead $71,89366 for the quarter option July through March. this current year 319,287.31 and we're ahead $19,37080 as compared to last year. And then your second page is just a print out of everything from each department just in the general fund. everything that has been uh what the original budget was, if there's been any amendments, extended to date, a percentage used, and what is left in that budget.

Any questions, comments? Looks real good. I have one question. Go ahead. Um in the public assistance line item um looks like there's a balance of one of that money.

If it's if it's not you if it's already been requested and not used, it'll go back into our general fund budget. But a lot of that is just budgeted as a pass through. you know, DSS, it depends on how many folks with with needs come in to apply for for assistance. So, that's almost like a placeholder. It's it's kind of like JCPC funds. You get ready to hear about JCPC funds. We receive an allocation from the state. We hold that allocation and it goes back out. But if it's not used or not requested, it if we never received it, it's just a placeholder in our budget. Does that make sense? Okay.

All right. You're welcome. Any other questions? We good? All right. We appreciate you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, Mr. David Spicer, senior project operations manager.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, so a few things. um our admin building um Dawn and Rihanna has been waxing in some of the offices now that they've got the hallways done. So, we're taking care of those. Spruce things up a little bit. Uh at the courthouse, I reported last time that we'd had a motor out on the chiller. The chiller's been fixed. Uh the uh controls are in need of being uh reprogrammed. So, we have uh Stanley Heating and Air working on that for us. Uh, so at the transfer facility, the new loader, the 938 had an injector problem. So we've had to have some injectors put in it. They got that completed I think about 4:00 on Friday. So they're able to use that machine now. Of course, the 924 is back down. So it's got a sensor problem. Uh, so they're supposed to come fix it uh probably this week. So uh have both our loaders back up and going. uh TRC um we've got them uh a third phase of our contract with them underway. Um that includes the RFP process and the construction. So um hopefully we'll move along with that probably in a short time and get that taken care of. Lock lane construction started today over at the transfer facility. uh they are fixing the earthquake damage on the existing tiff and floor. So that tiff and floor is probably going to be down about three days according to them. That's how long it should take. Uh it may take longer, could take less. So um we're looking for that to be a three-day process. We utilizing the temporary tipping floor and dumpsters to take care of uh folks's needs uh when they come into the transfer facility. Um, we had one load

of coingle which was 4.21 tons. Uh, cardboard was two loads at 9.58 tons. We had two loads of scrap metal at 8.390 tons which yielded the county $1,550.50. So for animal control, we've we had um one well check, two dogs andor cats picked up. We've had six running at large. Uh we've had two bites that we've had to quarantine the animals. Uh trapped dogs andor cats was four with a total of 58 hours, 17 calls, and 445 miles traveled. So that's that's my report. I'll answer any questions that you might have.

Any questions? Dave would appreciate the job, Barry, brother. You do do a good job. Thank you.

Next up, Mr. Steve Mason TDA quarterly report. So I believe you guys have a copy of the report um given to you just to go over the highlights of that report um from the TDA uh revenues for the third quarter u was 32,129 uh dollar.33 uh which continues to trend slightly uh under comparison last last year's third quarter uh of $39,32.31. uh that trending has kind of been pretty consistent, but but it's not been uh but it's also been affected by a the when the auditors did a transfer of funds back into uh 2025 from July of $24,66. uh in doing that it kind of offset some of those numbers. But a truer picture of looking at that really if that n those funds had not been transferred would be closer to about $5,000 uh for uh the year so far through the third quarter. So just kind of wanted to share that with you just a little bit. Um the next paragraph down on that first page uh way signage project uh continues to progress um uh contractual agreement. We've signed the agreement with right light um the vendor choice um there that also established a 180day process for installation of signage. Now that will be affected by uh we we write light uh destination by design the designing company and development company and uh uh the TDA which was myself identified the locations with DOT uh currently by uh inspecting all the sites. those sites are have been reinspected and are in the process right now of DOT qualifying

those sites once RightLlight gets those sites uh which there are currently 13 sites within the town limits um and they confirm all the information then then right'll be able to go into fabrication and actually production. So I I would say we're probably looking at sometime in the next few months of having those signs put up. Um there's quite there's uh I think what we got out of the the equation is a good uh uh visual for the town and being able to um help navigate and also identify certain sites, our parks, uh all our amenities like the fairgrounds and those type of things throughout the the town limits. Uh so that uh w with that said, we've also um uh I think uh April will be talking to you in just a few minutes about uh some additional funds for that project. Uh in addition, we've also discussed with the town in relationship to Krauss Park of uh a grant of $25,000 uh to assist with the skate park that's being designed and built within the Krauss Park. uh that fundraising project was with President Blue Ridge and they will be continuing to raise funds uh for additional phases but hopefully be able to this fall be able to initiate the first phase of that project. So uh that was uh probably the most recent one of the most recent things that we've done uh in a large scale uh project. The uh then all the the exhibits A, B, C and D are all supporting documents. Uh that first exhibit A uh is just a breakdown of uh the numbers. Revenue uh as of 331 was $152,000. Uh expenditures were $124,000. And then if you go down to our obligated

expenses, which are shown in our box, those are still obligated expenses that we still have of $66,376 that will be paid out uh throughout the rest of this uh year. And then uh also you've got your total available with long range plan funds of $140,000. Uh exhibit B is just our support with the uh expenditures. It's just a uh that's an analysis from one 126 through 3126 of the third quarter of expenditures during that time period. And then uh exhibit C will be your revenue streams for the numbers for the current year and prior year of the ones we just shared 39 and 32. And then your next revenue piece is actually your for the three quarters combined which is $181,000 for last year and 152 this year. And then D is a monthby-month allocation of funds uh tax funds that have come in. Um 331 through 331 of 25 and 331 of 26.

Any questions, comment? Yeah, I got a question. Um, so there'll be 13 sites on these signs and of course they're all within the city limits, correct? Is there any participation of the town of Sparta in this far as they are going to be? We've got uh their uh position is we've actually already requested the funds. Uh it's $30,000. It would be good to see those signs. Yeah. So, our first initial funds are actually um

$50,000 from the TDA, $40,000 from the county, 30,000 from the town, and then initial an additional $50,000 we have built into our budget in 2026 27. So, you think we will see some signs this year? That's what you're looking at. This year, we had 12 signs that were approved. one was on hold, but they did some modifications on the DOT signs, which actually is 13 sign. All right, that's all. Thank you, Steve.

Well, over the last few years you've been doing this. How do you compare what's coming in from the taxes to what's happening right now? Are we up down? Well, we've we've seen it escalate during during COVID time period and then we've seen a leveling and then we've seen actually a little bit of decline, but the decline has not been significant. It's just been enough to be noticeable, but not not extremely. Do you think in the last two or three years it might be creeping up a little or? Um, I I think I think we were we we hit a real hard pitch when when we came kind of just kind of pre-COVID into COVID and I think there was a lot of people that were out really looking for places to go that were more rural environments and I think they've gotten used to doing some of that and I think some of that has stuck but I think at the same time we're also seeing a little bit of decline in that but a but a leveling off

on our bed and breakfast that we have in the county. Have they stayed about the same numbers or some have we added any new ones or lost added any but the the interesting part about the Airbnbs and BBOS's we we don't we don't have a direct number on count of how many we have in the county. Um that's a private environment and but they those funds are collected and sent into the county. So, we do receive the funds, but we're not always in in tune unless they give us information about supporting them. As far as advertising, we don't we don't know who all those are.

How how does the county know that all of the bed and breakfast are paying the occupancy tax to us? That's a good question. We don't we don't there's no no way to check really. But it's been beneficial for those entities to be able to utilize for advertising and and promotion so that when they do that that puts them more spotlight to be able the necessity for them to be in a format that pays. But we don't have anybody that tracks that though, do we? That's it. Anybody else? Anybody?

Steve, we appreciate you, buddy. Good job. Moving on down, general business. Miss Kale up from JCPC chairperson.

Good afternoon. I'm here today behalf of the Juveninal Crime Prevention Council of Alag County. And uh this year our budget is same as last year, 69,774. And we're asking for a county match of uh 28%. And uh so this pretty standard. Our program has not changed a great deal. Um, we're seeing a lot of progress in our program. We're having less juveniles in trouble now than we have in the past. So, we're very pleased with the programs we're doing right now. So, that's basically and then I'm will be asking to approve a new appointment and reappoints on our uh board. So, that's it in a nutshell.

Okay. Anybody have any questions, comments? I just I just say I've had the privilege to go watch the teen court one. I had the privilege to go watch a teen court some years back and and that is a good that is a good program. Yeah. Done. Yeah, it is. And for our new appointment, we're asking you to approve Jonathan Jordan who is an attorney. And uh for reappoints, Lee Ricker, assistant district attorney, and Randy Murphy, our parks and recreation director. Okay,

we appreciate that. We will uh take that up next meeting. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Davis Spicer again, senior projects and operations manager.

Thank you, Mr. chairman and board. U certainly we sent out an RFP for the heat and air project at the auditorium. I only received one bid on Friday. Um so my recommendation to the board is that we send this back out to see if we can get some more interest. I've had I had five contractors that that uh we thought was going to put in bids, but only one did. So, I I would like to have a little more time to um try to get more bids in.

Yeah, I agree. I think that'd be the right thing to do. And we'll do we need a motion to do that or this is just for information. We need to go ahead and make a motion so he can be in the process. Well, we originally had planned on um bringing the proposal to you that was recommended and you vote on it, but since we have nothing to vote on. Okay. I I'd just like permission to send the RFP back out. It's fine with me. Yeah, it's good. It's fine with me. We need a motion. We're good. Consensus may be good. Okay. Consens Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. Okay, moving on down consent agenda. Rita Miller, North Carolina tax appraiser assessor. Good afternoon. Hey, good evening. Consent agenda. I'll be glad to answer any questions that you may have. Make a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented. Motion to second. Any further questions? If not all in favor. Thank you, Rita. Thank you.

General business Rita certified tax assessor. All right. So, at the last meeting brought to you the resolution um opposing house bill um 1089. And you had time to look at that. that you want to move forward with adopting this resolution. I have it in your packet last week. Of course, there are many bills floating around at this time. Um, as far as property tax goes, this is the seems to be the most popular one at this moment. And what exactly is that 1089?

So, it's putting a a cap or a levy on what you can charge for taxes. We already have that. It's a $1.50 50 cents. Combined taxes can't be more than a$1.50. What What's the state? They're not telling us that. They're just This is just a bill saying we want to put a cap already, but we don't have any specifics as to what that's going to be or how it's going to work. So, you're saying the county can't charge more than a $1.50 on a 100 tax, county tax, and town. That can't be more than a$1.50 for 100. That's the current legis current statute.

That's our statute. That's the state statute for all counties. It can't be more than $1.50 for property tax. So we The county don't have one like that. No, the county can't do that. It's all by statute. Make a motion to accept. I second it. Got a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Not all in favor? Close. Four to one. One oppose. And as I learn more, I'll speak.

Okay. Thank you. Last week, I didn't last week I met with uh Representative Picket and Senator Heis and they indicated that they don't even know exactly how this going to take shape. So, I think a resolution is a good idea right now. Let them know how we feel about it. Okay. Because there's several plans on the table and enough has been said.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Item number two, April CFO. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Um, and I'm going to see both of them in two weeks to talk about this and other issues, right? Have legislative days in in Raleigh. Okay. Okay. April,

so you have a copy of the new auditor contract and this is for the review. It's a little delayed. We usually have this toy about February or March, but the state decided to do a more extensive peer review of a state level. So, they just got this. It is going up 8%. But I'll I'll explain that we still do have the hospital project that we taken care of, the wastewater treatment plant that we're granting hospital. So I I think that's a reasonable amount to be

Mr. Chairman. Yes sir. Question to her. So they've did this for how many years? This one. This will be the fifth one. Fifth. And you don't this has been great. They've been really good. So you you this is your recommendation that we stick with these guys. This is my recommendation especially with everything that county has done.

They're aware of all the projects. You know, we're finishing up the skiff funding for the courthouse. We're, you know, we're figuring what to do with that last little bit of that funding. We're closing out the other skiff fund for the capital projects. Um we've just received um the res. We have received part of that money and we've already received some more the transfer facility. This group of folks will know. Good. I unless there's an objection. I'll make a motion that we approve um the proposed audit contract. Got a motion. Timmy, a second from Bobby. Any further discussion,

Mr. chairman. Yes, sir. Um, I've had the pleasure of working with this company for the five years that I was in Grayson County, too. So, this is a they've they delivered for us and and they really get to know your individual organization. So, I I highly endorse continuing to work with them. I certainly do, too. I don't like changing companies midstream of everything that's going on, you know. That's right. That's right. So, I got a motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Five. Thank you.

Okay, you're up again there.

This is the 40,000 that is actually allocated in the current fiscal year budget, the county general fund budget. And what we need to do is do a budget amendment and amend the TDA budget and do a transfer to that budget. So this was presented to the TDA last Thursday. I mean they have approved it. They know what's going on with the funds. So this is the governing board. So the budget amendment has to be approved item transfer to transfer the money. Open the floor for a motion. Got a motion here. So second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor? Five of them.

One more time. Okay. Next one. Transfer facility insurance. We did receive a check from repair. Open floor for a motion. Make a motion to approve. Motion and second. Any discussion? Not all in favor? 5. Okay. Keep keep going there. April $2,200 for closure fees for the third year to continue education and traffic. Make a motion to approve.

Any discussion? All in favor? 5. All righty. One more time. Funds capital funds that we received. It was a $200,000 grant and we have expended all of those funds. So, we just need to zero that that out. Open the floor for a motion. Second. Motion and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Bravo.

And the last one I have is for dispatch um covering some part-time and overtime salary and some supplies. Um we'll be moving $24,500 to cover some shortages. Okay. Need a motion to approve. I make a motion to to approve the line item transfer for dispatch at all time. Motion second. Any further discussion? All in favor? 50. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on down. County manager's comments. Mr. Bill Shepley.

Yes. Thank Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We just have a couple things. Um, first, we've been intensely uh involved in the budget process. Um it's been April and Rita and in with the larger departments uh Bill Osborne and Timmy Evans on uh trying to make sure that we have a balanced budget. We've had many many meetings. It's been a little more intense this year than normal because we had a pretty large ask compared to what we have. We had to cut like 4.6 million out of the budget. Uh, and that took about maybe four or five um turns at it to get it to the to where it is now. We we're going to be presenting you with the balanced budget for your review. Um, so we're there. We made it there. And I wanted to thank um, April and Rita and Bill and and Timmy for all that you've done to help up to this point. So, we'll be having a budget session here as soon as we can get it scheduled. we need to do it pretty quickly. Um, so you'll be getting messages about seeing if you're open for a two-hour session sometime this week or next week, if you can possibly do it, and we'll see if we can get the budget passed, move forward with that. Um the other thing is you know remember Memorial Day is coming up and you know please remember all the the brave men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice for the for this country. Um and we do we we have a an event at the Veterans Park. You want to talk about that

when it gets to you want to do that now or I've got that under my

Okay. Okay. Got it. Um that's really really important. You know, we we've got to remember that and and uh those people didn't get to share with the the long lives that the rest of us enjoy and the protection and safety that you know living in the United States brings to us. That was hard fought and u just please remember and thank our veterans too on that day. Also, uh there'll be a lot more happening in the budget world, so be prepared and put your seat belt on and and we'll be ready to to move forward there. That's all I have.

All right. Thank you. Now, commissioner comments. Uh Garrison, I guess we crank it up with you. I don't have to say I'll reiterate that I hope you will have a chance to attend service. Okay. Thank you, Bonnie.

Okay. Uh like Mr. Shipley was saying this Monday at 11:00 at the Veterans Park, we'll have our standard memorial service. Uh working with David Spicer and his crew. Uh the parking lot will be closed off early that morning. The bathrooms will be opened up and uh we'll have if if there's any overflow parking, we've always been able to park on the True Line Trust area and walk through to the Veterans Park. Uh this year we've added or in the process of adding uh an additional sidewalk on the left hand side and we're hoping that'll all be done and cleaned up in time uh for Monday's ceremony. If for some reason we get some much needed rain, we will move to the VFW building and the VFW makes that call and they should decide by 9:30 or 10:00 that morning. So, watch your social media and uh any other any other people that might uh let you know what's going on. Um, Fiberfest is coming uh the 5th and 6th of June. That's a Friday and Saturday. It's always a big event. I encourage people to come out and enjoy the fairgrounds and all those events that go along. Uh, that's all I've got for right now.

Okay. Thank you, Bob. Mr. Greg, I ain't got much. I just we all need to get on our knees and pray for some rain. It's it's terrible dry. River's pedal for everything. That's about all I got. Okay. Thank you, Greg. Timmy. Uh yes. Yeah. Reminds me of something I used to be was taught or told when I was growing up. Maybe we're not paying the preacher enough. Exactly.

Um so yeah, I want to go back to the TDA occupancy tax. And this is something I don't I think we may fill this in another year or so, but the t the occupancy tax the uh VRBO and Airbnb. Uh in my industry, I've seen people they come and they do VBOs, Airbnbs. Next thing you know, they're buying a piece of land, buying a piece of property. So that they stop doing the VBOS's and they bomb something, which I do think in the next year or so, you're going to start seeing that and u especially with the revalve and then you will actually be able to see um from Rita's office like the new permitting, the new additions, the new houses that's been done. Um that's going to that's you're going to see some increases uh decent increases with that which is a good thing. Um other thing is Memorial Day. Um thinking about that um I don't know that we we think about in in a way that I was thinking that everybody sitting in this room that has that's has ancestors been in the US forever. We have each one of us has lost somebody. There's somebody. It might not be within the last 20 years or whatever. But whether it was Revolutionary War, whether it was the Civil War, whether it was uh World War I, World War II, um you know, Korea, Vietnam, all the wars to this day, some of us have lost someone. And um I know that we're very grateful for that. But I do think that um it is something that is an

important day to remember those folks that give the ultimate sac sacrifice to that we can do what we do in freedom. So um just wanted everybody to remember that and I I feel like everybody will anyway but it just needs to be said that but thanks. That's it.

Okay. Thank you Timmy. I feel the same here about Memorial Day. It's a day to honor and and just think where we would be probably if we didn't have the service men we've got and the sacrifices they've made all through through time and and uh so let's all support Memorial Day and go out to the events and take part in them and fiberfest coming up like Bobby mentioned there and and we had a very successful truck pull last weekend that turned out real good weather was nice had a big crowd And that's about all I got. So anyway, we have a request for a close session general statute 143-318.11 and want to add personnel to that and want to add Tiffany bar need a motion to go into close session. Second

motion second. All in favor? 5.

Where is Tiffany? Well, I don't know. She's