Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our May 18th, 2026 commissioners meeting. Thank you for all those that are in attendance in this evening and those folks watching us live on television. Our invocation tonight will be led by myself and our pledge of allegiance will be led by Commissioner Patrick Starns. If you'll please stand. Our heavenly father, we thank you for this day, your blessings, your goodness, your grace, your love, and your mercy. We're thankful for our nation, our state, and our county. We're thankful for the men and women that serve here in the county, that protect us, that serve in the law enforcement, fire and rescue, and ambulance and emergency services, and all the other employees in Caldwell County. They play such a vital role to the success of our county. Lord, I ask a special blessing on them and their families. Now, Father, as we meet tonight, I ask that you give us wisdom and guidance for the business of your county. For we ask all these things in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen. Salute. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Commissioner Starns. Looking at this evening's agenda, are there any amendments for the board or the manager? None. Is there a motion? So, what's the pleasure of the board? Mr. Chair, well, Mr. Vice Chair, I'll make a motion that we approve the agenda um as presented.

Thank you, Commissioner Potter. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I.

I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes. First on our agenda will be a presentation by Keith Heindman, Communities and Schools. Mr. Heindman and guests. All right. Good evening, Vice Chair Mike Lero, Commissioners Jeff Branch, Donnie Potter, and Patrick Starns, and also County Manager, Mr. Fox. Thank you uh for this opportunity to talk about communities and schools of Cwell County. All right. So, as you can see, we just want to give you our impact report. And I have wonderful news here tonight. Um, for the second uh year in a row, last year was the first year ever out of 36 years, we have a 100% graduation rate this year. Um, as you can see there, we have 46 high school seniors, and you can see where they're going. So, 21 of them are continuing there at CCC and TI. I'm not going to read to y'all, but uh you see other community college programs that are up there. And it's not that CCC and TI wouldn't love to have them, but some of those other areas are closer to where relatives live and other programs that are going on. You'll notice that we have six students going to a 4-year university, one in the military, 14 directly into the workforce. One's going to the uh seminar school, and the one

that's going to UTI there in Morsville. They've already completed everything at CCC TI for automotive, and he's getting enhancement certifications, and we'll be helping him out as well, too. Something that this doesn't say is one of our four-year university students got the coffee scholarship and be going to NC State in their engineering program. So, we're first uh generation college student there. So, we're really excited about that.

You can see our numbers on the right hand side there for the school sites that we have and you can look at the percents that are listed there. That's the total percent of the school's population that is involved directly into our program. So for Gainwell Middle School, 15.5, Granite Falls Middle School, we're serving about 10 to 11% of those students directly. And that's what the percentages are on the outside. Our uh memorandum of agreement states that we will serve at least 10% of the school's population. In some cases, you're seeing there way above uh 10%. And then altogether, we're at about 11% for the entire district. But just at those seven school sites, so I want to I want to clarify just at those seven school sites. So, our three traditional high school settings, which are High Brighton High School, South Calwell High School, and West Cwell High School. And then our four middle school sites that we have, which are Gamewell, Granite Falls, Hudson, and William Lenor. But if you took all those students and put them together, we're serving approximately 11% daily come in contact with our program. And then another 4,397 students this year received what's called whole school services. And you'll hear some stuff from uh Mr. Peebles and Mrs. Friselle who serve as social workers for our district. One thing I would like to talk about is the uh uh wonderful contribution that Google does make to this community. I'd like to highlight that. So, they were able to provide us with $100,000 this year. And if you break that down into breaking down the digital divide, the financial hurdles, and then this big one right here, emergency barriers. So, they've

been able to assist with the transportation failures and housing instability that derail career training. So, if any of our families, they they need some assistance with rent, utility, power bills, we were spending about $6,000 a year off our normal operating budget. But with this, we're close to $32,000 this year that has gone directly to the citizens of Caldwell County uh to assist and help out. I'm going to break it down a little bit more so you can see these three areas and maybe the public can be aware as well, too. So, workforce supplies, $30,000 were provided for tools, gear, attire, and certification fees for our students. We've also brought in numerous amounts of students from Cwell County schools that weren't in our program that we signed up for our program through the CTE part. You'll also see the digital access. So, we've been able to put out a 100 devices into homes. We also have hotspots that are in those houses. So, some of our folks that didn't have internet now have internet because of Google.

Um, and then the emergency support that you see there with the 20 plus our 10 matches for the 30,000. I'm going to turn it over and somebody's going to talk to you right now about our whole school services. So, we're going to hear from Mr. Peebles and he serves at William Lenor Middle School, Gable Middle School, West Cwell High School, and Highright High School. Yes. It's going to be hard for me, but I'm not going to say anything right now.

Oh, that's fine. Uh, right now I just want to highlight uh one of the service uh community opportunities that we do and that's at William Manor right now where we're doing a serial drive and today uh just found out the numbers that our students collected over 500 boxes of cereal that we're going to donate to fellow and they're going to come by and pick that up and that cereal is going to our families here here in the county to help our food insufficiencies. So, we're giving back to the community by just doing this food drive. And we've done that now for the last, I think, was it three or four years, and that's been very successful. Another community outreach project that we do is working with um our animal shelter. We're big county. We have a lot of animals, and I'd like to uh give a big shout out to Mr. Richard Gillian. He has helped us and and partnered with us to teach our kids about pet responsibility and being responsible pet owners and making sure your pets are vaccinated, making sure they are kept up and well taken care of. And also, we've had about 300 325 seventh graders that have gone through this program that have uh gone on to uh get a better understanding of what it takes to take care of their pets and make sure they're safe and and taking well taken care of. We also partner with Thrive uh community the senior center and Miss uh April Austin where we teach our kids a little bit about empathy because a lot of our students are being raised by older adults and some of them really don't understand that grandma doesn't always feel like going out three times in the evening or or doesn't understand the digital stuff and can't always navigate what they navigate. So what what they do is they bring in some specialized glasses like see the young lady and we try to get our kids to to read so they understand that grandma grandpa may not be able to read a label or see the things that they see so the kids understand hey I need to help out a little more and give a little more back. So uh those are things that we do as

certain uh community service projects. I know I could not say anything. That's what I mean by the whole school though because even though our kids may not be the ones bringing in the cereal, they're putting the posters up in there in the school. They're collecting all of it and some of them do bring, you know, but but the majority of it is brought by some other other students, but they're in charge of those whole school programs that we do. DJ Brown at Granite Falls Middle School this year did a whole school drive for the animal shelter

um and collected massive amount of uh dog food supplies, cat food, and and uh we're able to give back to the community. So, at the end of each one of our units, we always have a culminating whole school activity that occurs. Do you want to introduce me?

And this is Charman Friselle and she is at South Cwell High School. She also works at Hudson Middle School and she also works at Granite Falls Middle School as a social worker. So, I get to talk about the great stuff. Eddie got to talk about the fun stuff. I get to talk about the great stuff. Workforce development. As he said, Google gave us $30,000 to put toward career and enhancement. We talk about the three E all the time. Employment, enlistment, or enrolling. And so, we say that so much. I know the high school kids get sick of us telling them that, but I'm like, "What's your plan?" Because it doesn't just start in high school. We talk about at middle school because when they get out, we want them to have a solid plan and to know what they're doing. And so we do targeted pathways and navigate the classes for them so that way they're going ahead and enrolling in the community college and high school if they need to be. The best thing we can do is get them in enrolled or get them involved in CNA classes at South if they want to do CNA classes. So then when they go Dr. Mark Porch is phenomenal to work with. We do the slides up here show about how we take each section and wherever the students interests are and they get to observe whether it's nuclear medicine or construction or welding or HVAC. And I know how much an expense is for building and doing stuff. So we want plumbers there. We want HVAC people there. We want our children, our students to be getting a trade or doing something if they're not enlisted or enrolled. And so that's the good part of it that we get to. But what's wonderful, the money that we use or that we had from Google, we could buy CNA clothes for our students, shoes, I don't know what kind of monitors, whatever they need, we could provide. If it's a barber shop and somebody wants to go to plush cuts and do that, Keith like whatever they need, we're buying their tools. So that money provides tools and accessories that students wouldn't necessarily be able to fi provide from

their families. We can do that kind of stuff. And we're so excited to have that partnership with the community college so our students can see what's out there and what their interests are.

And with the school system with Dr. Cooper with the CTE program, uh we've afforded to our students are in those classrooms. So they need those materials. So Google's provided us over $20,000 for us to be able to be in a partnership with the school system for enhancement of supplies for those classrooms because it's expensive. So, a wonderful partnership between the community college, between the school system, and between communities and schools. Those are all of our different curriculum areas that we hit with our students. Um, and each one of those also has uh a meaningful experience for the kids to be able to do whole school activities. And now we're going to talk, Mr. Peeles, if you would. Something that we're really really big on. We've been working on this for a couple years now. Go ahead.

Yes, we have. We've been working on real skills. Uh we used to call them soft skills, but now they're real skills because these are skills that are vital to our students uh coming up going to high school and also going into the workforce and going into college. And those skills are critical thinking, being able to be adaptable, being flexible, and being able to problem solve and active listening. And these all all these skills we kind of carry these over. We we do a slick way of doing it, kind of having fun with them. We do these, we have some games that we play. I call them brain games. And they will twist you up. Take one nail and balance 13 other nails on top of it. Now, in order to do that, you're going to have to listen. You're going to have to you're going to have to problem solve. And you're going to have to also participate and figure out some things. And these things all culminate together in helping our students to have those critical thinking skills to think past a problem and to listen and learn and and get some help when they need it. So these are the kind of skills that we are teaching our kids uh in the seventh, eighth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in our middle schools so that when they get to high school, they have these skills and they're ready to go out and hopefully when they leave high school, they're employable, ready to go and we have a package for the employer ready to ready to hire.

So not only do we work on soft skills or real skills, which we call them, we work on character building. And so our students, I wrote this down, have received 142 recognitions this year. And so the Brill Family Foundation, St. James Episcopal, and Lenor Service League give us money so that we can give our students recognition and they get a $10 Walmart card. And so each month, it's wonderful. When I have the black certificate in my hand, the cover, they're like, "Who's getting it? Who's been honest this month? Who has integrity?" And so I know they're after the $10 gift card, but they also are eager to be able to exhibit those character traits to their students and the rest of the school. When they get honored to, they either have a picture with their mentor or the principles or who an adult there that's important in their lives. And we post post those on Facebook. So that way we've had like 51,000 hits. I don't know. A ton. A ton.

Everyone loves the book of FA. I mean, they do. They do. And so our students like that as well. So they get that recognition and they're proud of themselves and they want to make sure and continue to do that.

Comments in there, isn't it? So we really want to be able to highlight positive things that students are doing. Um and then and then our most important resource. We have we had this year we had 105 mentors that come into the school system every single week, once a week, and they mentor those students in grades six through eight. What do they do? A lot of times they do those real skill activities with and you don't see cell phones out, but you see conversations happening and you see students making connections with adults that care and it's just a fabulous opportunity. Burnhart provided 46 of those mentors this year uh for us and they're a strong supporter of our program and they they have been wi with us since the beginning. So how can you get involved? I don't know. So 30 minutes a week in a middle school, 60 minutes at a high school. Um, so maybe one of these days maybe some county employees might want to be a mentor at a at a school and spend some time with kids. It does make a difference. And we just we just feel like it's important to come and report out to y'all and let you know what our outcomes are. We just finished with a very successful fundraising event this past Friday next year. is going to occur on Friday, May 21st of 2027. Got the band yesterday already nailed down. So we have 363 days to plan for that. But we had close to 400 community members there supporting our organization. It was absolutely fabulous. So we we thank you for the opportunity to come and talk. Do y'all have any questions or anything?

Well, I just appreciate everything that you and your team do, Mr. Peebles and uh Miss Prisel. Thank you so much. And so many more folks that you've already mentioned, Burnernhard. I mean, I I remember communities and schools for many, many years. And uh it's always been very very vital to our school system for to provide young men and women that extra little oomph that they need when they don't get it at home. And then there's so many community partners that you have. And so I'm just excited that the tradition continues and you had a great fundraising and getting ready for the next time. So, um, we're thankful, uh, for what you what you do. Any other commissioners have a have a word?

I just want to tell you guys, thank you. And, um, you know, you guys have, uh, I've been on this board 12 years, a little over 12 years, and over the last couple years, y'all have taken communities and schools to a different level. And that's awesome. I mean, you guys are impacting a lot of lives, a lot of children, a lot of families. I don't think people understand, you know, they all look at the education side of it, right? But I don't think that they understand the things that y'all do outside of that just to take care of the family to make sure that that student can excel. So, I appreciate all you guys do and uh keep up the great work.

We thank you. We have a lot of great community partners. Smoky Mountain Furniture is with us. I think we only purchased one bedroom soon. that and the rest of them are free. So, and they're Caitlyn and I could name hundreds of others that are just really helping us out immensely. Um, and and we live in a great county. We live in a great place and we're going to keep on helping out the folks that need a little help right now. So, and most importantly that those kids when they graduate, they have what? A plan in place. Yes. And it doesn't involve a gaming system down in a basement. Okay. They need to be working. Yeah, we stress that quite a bit. So, awesome. Thank you all for the opportunity to share.

Thanks for your time. All right. Thank you.

I'm going to pause just a moment. I failed to mention that I usually don't sit in this seat. Uh, Chairman Randy Church does, and I've only chaired two. This is my second uh time chairing a meeting because he's always here. But him and his family took some vacation time. And we definitely say kudos to the church family doing that because uh if a lot of you don't know this this does take a lot of work and a lot of time and you have to schedule your family time. So we're glad that Randy and his family scheduled some time for themselves. And so hopefully I I told him I hope I don't mess too many things up but he sends his regrets that he couldn't be here tonight. Our next presentation uh is Hope for Caldwell, Miss Brie Flanigan and uh Hope for Caldwell Coalition is made up of representatives of various community and we've got a room full of folks here that are here supporting Hope for Caldwell. So, Miss Flanigan, hopefully you'll share a little bit about the little bit of background and whatever else you want to share with us this evening.

Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity um to present tonight. Um I'm Ruth Flanigan. I'm one of the public health educators at the Caldwell County Health Department. Uh, one of the projects that we lead to educate the public and improve the well-being of our community is the Hope for Caldwell Coalition. This initiative was formed in 2023 with local partners and organizations with the goal to prevent substance misuse. U, sorry, Eric, real quick. Um, we're going to start with the video if that's okay. Uh, so if you could just pull up the poster later. Sorry about that. Thank you. Um, so through this coalition, we host an annual fentanyl awareness challenge for high schoolers. This is an opportunity for teens to develop creative ways to educate their peers on the risks of fentanyl use. The 2025 to 2026 school year is the second year we have offered this challenge with funding provided by Vaia Health and Burnhart Furniture. With their support, we were able to give the winning students a generous monetary prize and further develop their projects to implement into the community. This year, we had two participants and winners who I would like to recognize tonight. In first place, we have Gavin Keys, a sophomore at High Brighton High School. Gavin developed a video to be distributed across multiple social media and other online platforms to be accessible, engaging, and reach the largest audience possible. We'll go ahead and watch his video now. Between 2023 and 2024, almost 500 Kawa County citizens were referred to Cabbell County Restart for substance use disorder. Although fentanyl can come prescribed by a medical provider, many times when fentanyl is being used, it comes from unregulated, contaminated sources. In these cases, you will never know what you were truly taking. Today,

street fentanyl is commonly pressed into fake pills called pressed pills that are made to look exactly like prescription medications you would get from a pharmacy. These may look like many medications that you think are safe, but just one pill can kill. Fentanyl dealers are now also targeting a younger audience by pressing pills into different shapes and characters that are appealing to our youth. If someone offers you a pill, do not take it. If you see someone overdosing, call 911 immediately. You are not invisible. One pill can kill and let's not lose another person at Cabbell County. If you are struggling, do not hesitate to reach out to the many resources we have in Cobell County, including Cabbell County Port, RHA, and RHA Mobile Crisis. These are just a few fantastic organizations that Cabbell County has. If you're interested in finding out about the other helpful resources, please reach out to your Cabell County Health Department. I think you did a great job on that, Gavin. Thank you. And then in second place, we have Lana Tankai, a freshman out Caldwell High School. Lana developed a poster to be distributed in local schools and online with the intent of being engaging and informative. We're going to print several copies of this to distribute to the community. Uh we also worked with the students to tie their projects together um so they can complement each other and we've included the QR code to Gavin's video in Lana's poster uh to increase reach, awareness, and education. I would like to commend these students on all the hard work and dedication they poured into these projects and highlight the wisdom and maturity it takes for two high schoolers to take on a project of this nature. This is not a light-hearted or fun topic. I think I speak for the whole um hope for Calva coalition when I say we are so proud of the both of you and so thankful that you are already doing your part to

make the world a better place. You've both done an amazing job and I know you will continue to go on to do great things. Gavin and Lana, if you don't mind standing, I'd like us all to have an opportunity to give you an applause. Thank you guys so much and congratulations. I'd also like to recognize all of the coalition members, some of whom are here tonight, um, for all of their dedication, participation, and the guidance that they offered through all stages of this challenge. I'd like to thank their parents and family members for supporting their children throughout this process and showing up to meetings and events when asked. Also a huge shout out to Eric Stafford for helping with video editing and technological support. And another thank you to our donors Via Health and Burnheart Furniture for giving us the resources needed to implement this challenge. All of you were key players in the successful completion of this project. Are there any questions? I think it's wonderful what what uh what you've been able to do and and you have a a village of people that are are here to support uh what you've been doing and uh Ryan back there. Where's Ryan?

Yeah. Thank you, man. And all the things that that you folks are doing with of course RHA and the health department and so many volunteers and everything. And I don't want the students to to leave quite yet. We've got something for you that that we want to give you. So, um, give us a m give us a moment to run upstairs and get it and give it so we can get it to you. But any other commissioners have anything they'd like to say?

I just want to take a minute to thank the students. I think it's important and I'm proud of you, too, for for stepping up, getting engaged, and being a part of something extremely important in our community. um you have an opportunity to make a to make a difference and that's exactly what you're doing. So, thank you for for all you've done and the other students that participated as well.

Yeah. Well, commissioners, come on. Let's come down here to the front. Let's get these two students come on come on up and we'll present you with a challenge coin from the county and uh just as a is our token appreciation of saying thank you. Just come right here and stand in the middle and take pictures and everything like that. It's just an opportunity to say thank you for what what you're doing, what you're mean to our community, and we want to we all want to shake your hand and just keep the great work going and just stand in the middle here and we're going to take we're going to get some pictures made here and thanking you for everything that you're doing. And thank you to all the supporters out here, the family and the friends. Let's give another BIG HAND. THANK YOU so very much. Next on our agenda is EMS week proclamation. And I want to read a proclamation. And if you haven't thanked an EMS paramedic or EMT or anyone associated with fire and rescue and emergency services, make sure you do that um in the next in this next week because uh we would not be

where we're at as a county without our men and women that um that service uh that serves us. And we we see a lot of some folks coming up and we're thankful for that. Trevor, did you want to say something before I read the proclamation? All right, sir. I may be a little biased. That's okay. Bias is okay.

Citizens of Cowwell County are blessed to have the best and that's um I can't speak highly enough for our staff. Um, we have over 400 credentialed EMS um, from first responders within our fire departments to our EMTs and paramedics here in Cowwell County. That's a quite a bit of people when you look at it. Um, all credential keeps up with their continuing ed um, a lot of that. Um, but you know, other than our staff, you know, our our leadership, um, once again, maybe a little bias on that, but we have the best, um, in my opinion, as well as our facilities, um, our equipment, and we thank you for the support.

Thank you. Any other commissioners would like to say something before I read the proclamation? Just want to tell you thank you. Appreciate all you guys do. um you make uh our county, you know, proud and just keep up the great work cuz uh we we got to have you. I'm getting older. So, there'll come a time I'm going to be in need of somebody coming to my rescue. So, that's the next proclamation we've got coming up. Keep those skills sharp.

Well, let me read the proclamation if you will allow me to. uh EMS week 2026 to designate the week of May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as emergency medical services week or better known as EMS week. Whereas emergency medical services is a vital public service and whereas the members of emergency medical services teams are ready to provide lifesaving care to those in need 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And whereas access to quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury. And whereas emergency medical services fills health care gaps by providing important outofhos care including preventive medicine, follow-up care and access to tele medicine. And whereas the emergency medical service system consists of first responders, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency medical dispatchers, firefighters, police officers, educators, administrators, prehosp nurses, emergency nurses, emergency physicians, trained members of the public, and other out of hospital medical care providers. And whereas the members of emergency medical services team whether career or volunteer engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enhance their lifesaving skills. And whereas it is appropriate to recognize the value and the accomplishments of the emergency medical

services provider by designating the emergency medical services week. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of commissioners of Caldwell County declare the week of May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as Emergency Medical Services Week in Caldwell County. In honor of the men and women who diligently and prof and professionalism keep our county and citizens safe, adopted this 18th day of May, 2026. What is the pleasure of this board? I'll make a motion to accept read.

Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? No. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you so very much and be safe out there. Thank you. Thank you guys.

Thank you. Our next proclamation is the one that Commissioner Potter was alluding to because he has uh fallen. Well, we all have fallen in that in that group, but we do want to allow Miss Coffee to come and say a few words before we read the proclamation. Miss Coffee,

good evening. We would like uh the commissioners to proclaim May as older America's month. For the last 55 years, we have honored our seniors in our community in the month of May with our celebration of life event. This was held on Friday, May 15th. We had over 263 attendees, 22 vendors, and our oldest um citizen that was in attendance was 103 years old. Um we had several people that were over the age of 100. Um, we give prizes away, we feed them. Um, I know we would like to personally thank Commissioner Donnie Potter and our county manager Shane Fox for attending as well. Not only attending, but serving food, talking to the community, and supporting us at DSS as well.

All right. Anybody have any questions or did you did you want to say something? I just came for support. Well, there you go. You're just there for moral support.

Yeah, we we all have to have that moral support. Hey. All right. Well, let me read this proclamation. Older Americans Month 2026. Whereas May is Older Americans Month, a time for us to recognize and honor Caldwell County's older adults and their immense influence on every facet of American society. And whereas older Americans have built the foundations of our communities through their dedication, wisdom, and lifelong contributions to family, work, and civic life. And whereas the strength and resilience of our nation depend on honoring the experiences, talents, and achievements of older adults while ensuring they remain valued, included, and supported members of society. And whereas communities thrive when people of all ages are connected, engaged, and empowered to share their knowledge and skills across generations. And whereas it is essential to reaffirm our commitment to promoting the health, health independence and dignity of older adults and to and to eliminating barriers that prevent their full participation in community life. And whereas older Americans Month provides an opportunity to recognize the diverse contributions of older adults and to highlight the importance of fostering agefriendly communities that respect and celebrate individuals at every stage of life. And whereas our community celebrates their achievements, learns from their experiences, and works together to ensure that every older

adult is supported, respected, and empowered to continue making valuable contributions to our society. Now, therefore, let the Cwell County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Older Americans Month. This year's theme, Champion Your Health, emphasizes the focus on prevention, wellness, and self- advocacy, encouraging older adults to take an active role in managing their physical, emotional, and social well-being. We call upon all residents to join us in recognizing the contributions of our older citizens in promoting programs and activities that foster connection. Well, social well-being and support of older adults adopted this the 18th day of May 2026. What is the pleasure of this board?

I guess since I'm the oldest old man on the board, I guess I go ahead and say except the proclamation has read for 20 older Americans month 2026. Thank you, Commissioner Branch. Is there any discussion? I just want to take a minute to say thank you. You guys did a tremendous job. I've been to several of these events and um this year was absolutely awesome. I mean, it was by far in my opinion, not the other ones were bad. This one was just y'all y'all y'all outdid yourself this time. Good event. There was a different vibe this year.

There was a total different vibe. I don't know what the difference was, but there was a total different vibe. You could feel it. You could sense it. You could see it in the people that were there. The people that I talked to were very appreciative and very grateful for all the hard work that y'all put into it. And if you've never been to one of these, I highly encourage you to go. Um, it's just it's a different it's an opportunity to see something that you don't get to see every day, and that's to spend time with our senior citizens in this community. Um, and it was wonderful. So, thank you guys for all your hard work. I know I know you put a lot into it. And also want to thank the sponsors. Yep.

Every bit of this is paid for through sponsorships. No county dollars is spent on this event. So, thank you to our sponsors. I don't know who all they were, but there was a bunch of them. But thank you so much because without you, this event could not happen. So, thank you. Anyone else? We have a motion on the on the table. Discussion has happened. All those in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you so very much. Thank you, ladies. Have a great evening. Our last presentation this evening will be by Mr. Brian Moore, Cwell County Chamber of Commerce update. Mr. Moore, thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen, Mr. Vice Chair, commissioners, county manager. Thank you for your time this evening. Uh the Cowell Chamber of Commerce um is a very dedicated business-minded organization and we are excited today to share a two-part presentation with you. One, you guys are giving proclamations. We would like to give you guys a certificate uh for the hard work that you do, but from our perspective to build a bridge. Uh I have a certificate. I'd like to read it first. Then we'll give you guys the opportunity to have a photo maybe and uh share what this says. Um, from our perspective at the Cowwell Chamber of Commerce, building a bridge to strengthen local business. The Cowell Chamber of Commerce is honored to celebrate your leadership for Cowbell County and your community. Thank you for collaborating with us as we support local businesses. We are encouraged by helping advance our local workforce with a proactive mindset and continuing to move our community forward through great partnerships with our local elected officials. This certificate proudly recognizes each one of you as our business partners to be able to help make sure that we're doing the right things to represent our business community here in Cwell County. I'd like to hand these out to you guys if you'd like.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

We have uh taken on the mission of doing with this with all of our municipalities and we're excited to have advocacy work not only in Raleigh but advocacy working locally here for our community as well. Um, I'd like to see quick and and these as well. I know I'm standing between you and a consent agenda and maybe so

I'd like to walk through just a couple of things for you. Many of you are aware of the work that the chamber does and many of you are aware of the work that we do on tourism on behalf of tourism for Cowell County. Tonight I have an opportunity to talk to you about tourism's contribution to our economic engine. I'm very fortunate to have economic development, the leaders of economic development for Cowell County in the room with us, but I wanted to just share with you a thought process on what the big picture of tourism can look like. You may know that I kind of wear the tourism manager hat as well as the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. And I do that with pride and confidence. The big picture for tourism is more than just managing visitors. It's a vital economic engine that serves as the front porch of community development. When executed well, we can evolve from just a pass through community on county uh US 321 and transition transition into a designated base camp for adventure, exploration, and lasting experiential visits. By establishing our position as a destination, we will elevate the county's regional standing and serve as a well-needed complement for long-term economic growth. When coupled with our improved quality of life initiatives, we will see that a strong tourism effort will help market our assets, drive visits, improve improve while all while preserving the authentic relaxed nature of our communities while positively promoting our long list of assets to visitors, to our residents, and helping erase there's nothing to do here mentality in our community. I believe that's an important role that we have not just to the visitors but sharing the great things that we have in our backyard to those that already live here. From our perspective, the economic ROI of tourism in Cowell County relates

to job growth and business growth and job creation, tax revenue generation, infrastructure and quality of life. I would like to highlight, and I'll do this in my presentation as well, um some neighboring communities that do it quite well. We are, if you like to compare apples to apples, uh, Wilks County and Burke County are somewhat similar to us in a number of ways. Their tourism effort in those communities is light years ahead of what we are in Cowell County. And I would like us to catch up. So my goal for us as we move into 2026 and into the future years ahead is to execute a plan of marketing implementation that would be a review of our assets that we have in our community. everything that we have to promote. We would like to have a digital asset and understanding of all those digital assets um so we can keep track of them. And we've already started that process. Finalizing funding sources and looking at our tourism dollars that are put together for us from a bill that was written in 1987. Hiring a dedicated tourism manager so we can have someone driving tourism the right way in our community. and then elevating the marketing efforts of what we've already done so far from the explored Caldwell website and efforts. So, I'm going to walk through a couple of slides for you. 1987, um, how many of you have anything in your home or car or vehicle or computers that are still functioning the way they were designed in 1987? Probably not very many of you. That's what transportation looked like in 1987. Technology looked like that in 1987 and music was on a cassette tape. So, uh, back in 1987, that's the way things looked. And that's what we're working on is a tourism bill that was written in

1987. We have opportunity, I believe, to move things in a different direction. A regional success. I mentioned Burke and Wils County. If we look at Merl's Merlfest in Wils County and all the big events and the work that they're doing on the tourism front for NASCAR and the races that have been happening there, they're seeing great success. That's happening in part because a community that's working together, but they have a dedicated tourism manager. Trail promotion in Burke County. Burke County has three people in their tourism office specifically dedicated to bringing visitors to their community, talking about their community assets and sharing the local businesses and restaurants that their local public would like to go and enjoy. They do a great job with promoting their trails. What I have up there is signs from the Font Flora Trail. I think a well organized tourism effort in our community would help with wayfinding signs and putting wayfinding signs beyond what's on the street for those that are using our trails to be able to know where to park, be know where the trail head is and access the things that within our community from an outdoor economy perspective. And then branding in Mcdow County, they've done a great job in McDow County as well to be able to move their uh effort forward. We also think it's about responsibility. I will tell you a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive past the little sign that talked about um an event that was happening out at Fort Defiance. I would like to have a tourism manager in place that knew about that event and I didn't have to see it on a sign. someone that's a building a relationship with the executive director there, building a relationship with the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and their events that they have going on, promoting our businesses and restaurants in a social perspective to be able to take it to the next level. We have already put together a job description. We really would like to be able to move forward with this. We just don't have the funding because the way of our bill

was written for tourism in 1987. We're somewhat missing the mark there. Experience. I would like to talk about the experience side of things. This comes down to the visit, the place to live, where we make an investment, and how do we work. I'm not going to go into that too much because you do have that slide for you as well. But I think this is a really important part of the economic engine that we are for tourism in Cwell County. What we're missing is a driver committed to success. Dale Nhard, rest his soul, was driven by himself. But Richard Childress Racing, needed the driver. I need the driver to help us drive Cowbell County tourism to the next level. I need a juggler to manage all of these components of work. And I'm going to show you a slide in a minute of the many, many moving parts of tourism that we can do so much better if we have a dedicated tourism manager. and then what's just a tourism focused rockstar to be able to pull all of these together and kind of be a mini me to help take tourism to the next level. So, a tourism manager um our funding needs to be elevated. We need a different level of funding. Uh Shane and I have had a conversation about some easy wins that we could accomplish that might help us get over the hump so we can get someone hired and move forward with a tourism manager. nothing that would require anything out of the regular budget for Cowell County. So, just a little perspective of that from the tourism dollars that come in, how do they get allocated and how do we use just a small amount of those funds for us to be able to take it to the next level. I'd like to show you this graph here. So when I started in 2019, uh we were bringing in in total annually $139,000 of tourism occupancy tax dollars just through the county. And as we sit and

finish 2025, um and each one of those years were based on fiscal years. 2025, obviously the fiscal year hasn't closed yet. So that is uh the number for the calendar year of 2025. But continued growth each and every year for us to be able to grow tourism. I would say some of that is contributed to doing it the right way. Also some of that is contributed to a very large topic that we should talk about as a group down the road which is short-term rentals. So these Airbnbs, VRBOs, those are contributing to our pool of funds. But there's also a component of those that need to be managed from a health uh public health perspective taking it to the next level. But we've grown uh substantially each year and our goal right now is to say okay we're going to take these funds do use them well reorganize the funding just a little bit and hire this tourism manager to get us the next step. I'm not going to bore you with this slide but we do have objectives that are in place of hiring this manager. what we'd like to accomplish. These are a number of logos. Towell County Pathways, we'd like to work more closely with them. The um Backcount Horseman's Association, um Wilson Creek action plan, which was launched as an improvement for Wilson Creek right before the storm that needs to be energized back up again. Made by mountains, the G5 Trail Collective, all these are so many organizations that I don't have the bandwidth of running the Chamber of Commerce to be able to do with a threeperson staff that I would have someone on our team as a tourism manager take us to the next level. We have great organization in Carwell County Pathways. We'd love to see Carable County Pathways get some grant funding so we can pay for wayfinding signs for people that want to go out and enjoy the outdoors in a hike or a mountain bike. So, lot of different

avenues that we have there for you. This is a a lot more detail of regional local tourism efforts, statewide tourism opportunities that we have. You have a copy in front of you there as well. That's page two and gives you just so many different areas of what we would like to do and how we would like to learn from Burke, McDall, Rutherford, and Wils counties that are close to us as regional best practices for us to take things to the next level. There's a quick little slide, an overview of the admin fees that are uh accepted and pulled in from the dollars because the county finance team actually collects the tax, keeps an admin fee. There's an admin fee for the chamber. Um, we have not increased the fixed fee since I have been here. So, that fixed fee helps us operate a visitor center at at the Chamber of Commerce. It also helps pay for the electric bill and pays for a few other things that we have. And I think if we just were able to edit that slightly, we could make it go up high enough so we can hire a tourism manager. And then we are very fortunate to within the bill the way it's written um contribute back to the county coffers for economic development, the work that economic development does to be able to say, "Okay, we're um putting these dollars back in." And in 20 uh 24 was $114,000. Um that is occupancy tax that goes back into industrial and u business development for economic development for um the e economic development team. And in 2025 is $143,000. So our goal today is to give you some awareness and some opportunity to understand who we are. And our goal is to identify and exh expand upon the work we're doing with explore Calwell. um a weekend where just time slows down and just doesn't catch up enough. So that's a quick little overview for you. I'd love again this bridge of opportunity to

work with each and every one of you on what tourism looks like for our county so we can do a better job for our citizens and our community. Any questions at all? Well, thank you, Brian. You did mention that you've already spoken and had some conversations with our county manager. Yes, a couple of our board members and myself have had lunch with Shane to just walk through some of these items as well and looking forward to what we could do next steps uh with working with each and every one of you is proper decision makers. My opinion is let's go you know what what do we need to do and just uh put a plan together. Yeah. Fantastic. Good. any any other questions or

I appreciate the certificate and and the acknowledgement and uh of our part of this, you know, what happens here. So, uh it means a lot and uh I think you I think you're on to something. It's um I travel quite a bit and you look at towns like Bristol, Tennessee, where they were 10 years ago to where they are today is remarkable. I mean, it's just, you know, it's amazing what their chamber and stuff have been able to accomplish there. So, um, I was watching something the other day. I can't remember, might have been on a Travel Channel. They were highlighting, pretty sure it was Travel Channel. They were highlighting these small communities like ours and what they've been able to do to turn things around and and make it more valuable and bring things back here. So, I appreciate your efforts and all you're trying to accomplish there.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time, brother. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. You're more than welcome. Uh that comes to the time in our meeting for consent agenda and I'll turn that over to our county manager Shane Fox.

Thank you, Vice Chairman Leo, County Commissioners. Um have a relatively short consent agenda here before you tonight to consider. Um the first two are budget revisions. Both are grants received by the county. The first is an airport due diligence grant in the amount of $26,490 that will be used um for our sewer project. um due diligence project at the airport. That is through the Golden Leaf Foundation that does not require any county match. So again, 26,490 without county match. The second is a $1,500 uh grant through Blige Energy to go towards our um beginnings conversations of our Northwestern North Carolina Economic Development Commission. Number eight is an application. This is through the North Carolina Department of Commerce building reuse grant and it is for um our company known as uh Pillar. um here Pillar and that amount is the maximum amount for that grant potentially is $500,000. Um this particular entity is wishing to expand and renovate an existing um facility. Therefore, the application um approval for you all is what's considered tonight. Uh the reappointment of Del Hamby to the Cowell County, Cowell Community College and TI Board of Trustees. um he is a current um member of that board and he's looking to be reappointed um through your vote tonight. And then last prior to the minutes is approval of fireworks application for Cedar Rock for July 5th of 2026. And then our minutes from our April the 27th, 2026 board of commissioners meeting and our May 6, 2026 board of commissioners special meeting is before you for consideration. Be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, Mr. Fox. What's the pleasure of the board? I'll make a motion that we accept as it read. Is there any discussion hearing? None. All in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes. Anything else to come before the board this evening? Is there a motion that we adjourn? So moved. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I.

I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes. Good evening, everyone. I stay there all the time. Even West Virginia probably. Yeah. We used to It's so funny because our system our we used to call had to break that out system and our expense Yeah.