Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

We have Pastor Eric Thomas from Meadowbrook Baptist Church with us this evening. So, Pastor, where are you at? All right. Yes, sir. If you'll come to the podium. And as soon as he gets through with our prayer, we're going to have the Boy Scout Troop 263 from Granite Falls who's going to present our colors and lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. So, welcome, Pastor.

Let us pray. God, you are good. Amen. And God, we read from scripture that every good and perfect gift comes from you. God, as we gather this evening, God, I pray for these commissioners. I pray as they deliberate and decide matters impacting our county. God, I ask for your guidance upon them. God, I pray that you'll give them wisdom and discernment that ultimately comes from you. God, give them strength to uphold truth. to promote justice and steward resources faithfully, guide them to serve our community well. God, I pray these things in your Son's name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I 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. All right, you may be seated. I want to thank you again to the Boy Scout Troop 263 from Granite Falls who presented our colors this evening. Are there any amendments to our agenda this evening?

Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. We have one addition. It'll be item number 29, the last item for consent, and it's a budget revision, and it is for 911 consoles paid for through our 911 monies for our new facility at Pleasant Hill Road. So I'll discuss that a little bit further once we get to that item.

All right. Hearing the addition to our agenda this evening, it was a pleasure of the board in adopting our agenda.

Mr. Chair, I move that we accept this evening's agenda as the county manager has presented.

Any other discussion or comment? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. And our first item on the agenda this evening is an honor and recognition of the South Caldwell Lady Spartans softball team, 2026 6A state champions. And we do want to I welcome them this evening. I've got a list of all the players. I won't go through that list, but I did want to give some highlights of some of the things that South Caldwell ladies accomplished this year because they have developed now a nationally recognized softball program under the leadership of head coach Casey Justice. and this team concluded the season with a weighted cumulative team grade point average of 4.295, outscored its opponents 343 to 104 runs, and tied its own North Carolina High School Association home run record with 59 home runs. The 2025-2016 finished the season with an overall record of 27-4, earned the titles of co-champions of the Northwestern 6A, 7A Conference regular season, Northwestern 6A, 7A Conference tournament champions, the North Carolina High School Association 6A Western regional champions, and the North Carolina High School Association 6A state champions. McCartney Harrington was named the 2026 North Carolina High School Softball Player of the Year while the team earned five 6A All-Star selections and 10 6A All-District selections and eight uh northwestern 6a 7a conference selections and so we have a proclamation to read and honor a resolution i'm sorry for these ladies this evening and i want to say congratulations first and foremost and thank you for being here i know you've got a busy schedule this time of year many off to college i'm certain but we do appreciate you coming being a part of our meeting this evening and the resolution reads whereas The 2026 South Caldwell Lady Spartans softball team demonstrated exceptional skill, dedication, and teamwork throughout the season, culminating in their remarkable victory as the North Carolina 6A state champions. And whereas the players, coaches, and support staff exhibited unwavering commitment, overcoming formidable opponents and challenges to earn their well-deserved title. And whereas throughout the playoff series, the Lady Spartans showcased outstanding sportsmanship, resilience in high-pressure moments, and respect for their competitors. And whereas the championship team has brought immense pride to their school, community, and families, inspiring young athletes and setting a powerful example of excellence and determination, and whereas the accomplishment accomplishments of the 2026 ladies spartan softball team reflect the values of hard work perseverance and unity that we cherish and wish to celebrate now therefore be it resolved that the colwell county board of commissioners hereby officially congratulates the 2026 ladies spartan softball team for clinching the North Carolina 6A State Softball Championship, acknowledges the extraordinary efforts of head coach Casey Justice, other coaching staff, and each team member for their contributions to this historic achievement, and this board expresses its utmost admiration for the team's competitive spirit and for serving as role models of leadership, integrity, and excellence. And I will form that in the form of an emotion that we adopt this resolution this evening. Does anybody else have any comments for these ladies or in this resolution? I'd just say we're proud of them. Coming from South Caldwell graduates, right?

Yeah, first year South Caldwell graduates right here.

Tell you how old I am.

1981, South Caldwell.

So I am surrounded by South Caldwell graduates.

That lets you ladies know that you can do anything in life that you want to do. You just got to set your mind to it.

Yes, sir.

Congratulations.

All right. So with that, I'll call the question all in favor of this resolution. Say aye. Aye. And that is adopted unanimously. So we have a plaque to give you this evening and some challenge coins. A few ladies will stand up for us.

Let's give them a round of applause. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, has everybody got their picture? Moms or dads, I don't care if you don't make pictures. Thank you guys for the financial support also.

It took a lot of pressure off me.

Ain't that something? Y'all all graduated from South.

County manager's South Caldwell, too.

I would be West Caldwell. I'm going to say it. All right. Proud of it. All right, the next item we have on our agenda this evening is a public hearing, and that is for a rezoning request at 2565 Conley Springs Road. Ms. Kim McGee is going to come and make a presentation about this public hearing.

I wore some heels tonight so I can see over this. Okay. The first rezoning request that we have, well, hold on a minute. Eric's getting the slideshow started. Okay. The first rezoning request that we have tonight is Granite Trailer Sales located at 2565 Connolly Springs Road. Okay. A few years ago, they rezoned a portion of the tract to general business, and now they are requesting to rezone the remaining acreage, which is approximately four and a half acres, also to general business. The property is at the intersection of Connelly Springs Road and Baton School Road. It's outside the flood hazard area. The proposed rezoning area is vacant and partially wooded. It's also in the protected area of the watershed, which requires only a maximum of 36% impervious area. The latest traffic data in the area show an average per day of 11,000 vehicles. That's annually. This next slide shows the property. location and it's along Conley Springs Road between Orchard Hills Golf Course and Ingalls Market. If I'm sure you guys are familiar with the area. This next map shows the existing zoning in the area and it varies anywhere from single family, residential, agricultural, general business, industrial and light industrial. The property is outlined in green, and it shows the current zoning in the front next to the roadside is where it's already zoned general business, and they're just wanting the remaining portion, general business. And here's the aerial of the property showing the business, and then the current zoning in red, and then proposed zoning in red as well. Here's a photo of the intersection. It shows the existing business. If you'll see to the left-hand side, there's the lights there at the intersection of Baton School Road, and that gives you a good idea of where it's at. I'm sure everyone's probably been by there a few times. With any rezoning, the planning board and staff review the request against all the land use development ordinances. The first is the comprehensive plan and future land use map. The property is located, those two dots down there on the southwestern side of Caldwell County, those two dots, the top dot is where this property is located. That is in what's called a commercial corridor node that the comprehensive plan has recommended for that area to be zoned commercial. And then here it goes into the character of the commercial corridor nodes and recommends general business as one of the proposed zoning districts. Also, with the rezoning, state law requires that the board consider any use permitted within the zoning district requested, and those items are listed here, such as retail and service-oriented, animal hospitals, kennels, billboards, recreational facilities, and several others. A lot of the hotels, things like that, those would not be suitable for the area because there's no sewer. So those things you don't really have to worry about in considering the general business zoning district there. And the planning board considered all the relevant land development ordinances and is recommending approval because the request is reasonable and in the public's interest because the amendment is consistent with the county's comprehensive plan that suggests general business zoning for this area. There was no evidence presented to staff or the planning board that the rezoning would negatively impact the surrounding neighborhood or adjacent properties.

All right, thank you for that report. And the Planning Board did approve this?

Yes, they did.

Okay.

Yeah, that's a recommendation.

All right. With that, I'll declare the public hearing open. And we don't have anyone signed up to speak to this rezoning of 2565 Connelly Springs Road. I'll give you one more opportunity if anybody's here that wants to speak toward this. Hearing none, I'll close the public hearing and ask what the pleasure of the board is this evening in adopting this rezoning request for 2565 Colony Springs Road.

I'll make a motion, Mr. Chairman.

All right. We have a motion that we approve. Any other discussion or comment? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? And that motion carries unanimously. So that rolls us into our next, uh, public hearing, which is real quick for your minutes purposes.

Uh, I think it's by acknowledgement of planning director's comments from the planning board. Um, you all concurred with the findings as to reasonableness and a compliant with comprehensive plan as far as that, uh, request that, right. Okay. Statute just requires you automate those two findings, but you can do it by reference to what the planning board found. So you'll want to have that in your minutes.

All right. So we can reference that, Ms. Brown. Do I need to make that in a?

No, you don't. You can do it just simply by noting that it's in the planning board recommendation.

Yes, sir. All right. So with that, we'll roll to item three then, which is a rezoning request for 4322 Celia Creek Road. And again, Ms. McGee. Should I go ahead and open the public hearing up so she would be?

Sure. May as well.

Yeah. It's your testimony. So, all right. So we'll declare the public hearing open as we receive your testimony.

Okay.

All right.

Okay. This next rezoning is from David Drum to rezone his property located at 4322 Celia Creek Road from RA 20 to multifamily. The property, whoops, I went too far. The property is at the intersection of Heartland Road and Celia Creek Road and consists of eight acres. However, he's requesting that only three and a half acres be rezoned so the existing single family home and accessory buildings remain in conformity with the RA20 district. He is proposing the multifamily district in order to construct two two-story, four-unit quadplexes, if that makes sense, so a total of 16 units at that site. It is outside the flood hazard area. The area proposed for the rezoning is vacant and partially wooded. And that's just the area where he's proposing. It's in the protected area of the watershed, so the maximum impervious area. allowed is 36%. There's county water but from my understanding it's on the other side of Heartland Road and may be difficult to get county water to that side without boring under the road. The latest traffic data shows an average annual of 2,800 vehicles per day. And then here's a vicinity map of the property. It's located on Heartland Road in between Gamble Town Limits and the county line. This next slide shows the existing zoning in the area, which is predominantly single-family residential and agricultural. And there's a small area to the west that's zone neighborhood business that's actually a root-a-soul store, but the rest of it is all residential. Here's an aerial of the property that shows the entire tract along with the existing home and accessory buildings that he has on site. And the proposed rezoning area is lined in purple there. Here's a photo of the intersection and you'll see Creek Road is there on the on the left and it's coming from the picture is from Heartland Road looking up towards the property. And then again, with any rezoning, the planning board and staff reviews the request against all land development ordinances. The first is a comprehensive plan that recommends multifamily in areas near commercial corridors and within close proximity to resources and goods. It also states that public water and suitable soils for multifamily sized septic systems need to be available to achieve this. A minimum of eight acres is suggested in the comprehensive plan. Um, then in the zoning ordinance, um, When a board considers the use, you have to look at all the uses allowed. But with multifamily, of course, the only allowed use is the multifamily apartment buildings. Then other items to consider are the development standards of 10,000 square feet for the first unit and an additional 3,000 square feet for each additional unit. And then you've got the setbacks to comply with. There's also, to point out, there's 20% open space required for a multifamily development. Also, you have to have two parking spaces per unit. All this takes up a lot of room. The other ordinance to consider is the watershed ordinance that requires a 36 percent maximum built upon area. That includes all the buildings, sidewalks, patios, parking areas, all that. Space is pretty limited for this property. The Planning Board considered all relevant land development ordinances and is recommending denial of the request since the property is already partially developed. The usable area for the buildings parking, septic, repair area, setbacks, open space, will make it difficult to meet the zoning requirements. Also, based on evidence presented to the board, the rezoning would negatively impact the single-family residential and agricultural nature of the area.

Thank you.

All right. We do have two folks signed up this evening to speak. And the first is Myron West. So Myron, welcome.

First, I'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to address this issue. I've lived adjacent to this property for the last 42 years. I've seen a lot of changes there, but I think she made most of my arguments for me. I kind of took the wind out of my sails. A couple of things. Uh, it is an agricultural single family area. Uh, it is far from, uh, commercial corridors. Uh, it's not in the city limits of game Wolf. So there are no, uh, scheduled trash pickup or anything. So you probably have to have a dumpster. We have a lot of wild animals in the area. that could spread trash or whatever. I just think it's an inappropriate place for that many units of multifamily. And I don't have anything against multifamily. I don't have anything against the requester. I don't really know him that well or whatever. just feel like it's a bad place for it. So that's, that's basically all I wanted to say about it. So thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you. My next is, uh, Julian Vickers, Judy Vickers.

Okay. Thank you. And good evening. The Heartland Road area is a beautiful agriculture area. We moved out there because of its peacefulness and quiet surroundings. It's not without its downfalls, though. I said that the property that is adjacent to us has a business on it, and there's a lot of traffic with trucks and trailers that are constantly moving. on that property. He runs a business and so that's understandable. Heartland Road is a narrow road. People already speed up and down it way too much. There are semi-trucks that travel the road to service the businesses out there and emergency traffic that go down the road heavily on a day-to-day basis. Adding these apartments would compound the traffic on the corner of Celia Creek and Heartland Road. Delay response times for the neighbors who might need help. Also, what if there are children playing on or near the road? There is not a lot of room for kids to play. And you know how kids are, especially if no one's watching them. Kids will do what kids do. And that seems like a recipe for disaster. No one wants to be responsible for that. This zoning change does not make sense for the people who live in close proximity and on our neighborhood in general. Since you are the gatekeepers of our county, please consider a common sense decision on the rezoning of this property. Your constituents do not want this. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, I don't have anybody else signed up, but I will give you an opportunity if you're here and would like to speak for or against this. You would, ma'am? Yes, sir. Please come up. Okay. I'll try to listen.

My name is Joyce Knight, and I live very close to this piece of property in question. This lady here lives beside me. She has been there. She lives in one of my houses, and she's been there 18 years. Her son lives in another house that belongs to me and my sister, and he's been there eight years. So they like it. We like the community. It's peaceful. It's quiet. And I think that it would tear the community up. I've heard things about these other communities that have these facilities built in and they get negative comments and I have a friend who lives in one of these multi-unit complexes in another county. He says it is noisy. He says that they play music loud. They have fussing and fighting, shooting. And he says the police is out there very frequently. I just think it would ruin the community. We can sleep peacefully at night. We do have a lot of traffic. And some of them think they're still on the Antioch Raceway going down through there. But we live with it. We like it. I'm the third generation to live right in that area. And I would hate to see that torn up. I don't see anything positive about it.

All right. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. I will ask you one important question. What was the planning board's decision?

To deny.

Yes.

To deny the request based on it's inconsistent with the comprehensive plan. All right. And I'll also point out, I'm sorry, I have had multiple phone calls, every one opposed.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to have to abstain from voting on this because the guy that's applied for this, he's a friend of mine that I know and I just don't think it would be fair for me to vote on this. Either way.

All right. So make a note that Commissioner Branch is abstaining from voting this evening due to a personal relationship. So with that, I will close the public hearing. and entertain a motion assumed for the denial due to the planning board's recommendation of the request of inconsistent with the comprehensive plan not to be reasonable use of the property.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion. I mean, we've got a planning board in place. I feel like if we go against them, then, you know, the question is, why have we got a planning board? Right. You know, they're the one who knows the rules, the regulations. So I'll make a motion we deny the request, sir.

All right. Any other comment or discussion? All in favor of denying this request, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries as well. So the motion will be, request will be denied. So thank you, Kim.

Thank you, Kim.

All right. Next is a presentation from our library director, Ms. Janet Ford, and turning the page at the Colwell County Public Library. Welcome, Ms. Ford. Oh, did you bring your supporters this evening?

I did. If you work for the library or on the library board of trustees or are part of the Friends of the Library, stand up.

Welcome. Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share all of the exciting things that are happening at the Caldwell County Public Library. And I'm here tonight with the full support of our very hardworking staff, our wise and wonderful Board of Trustees, and our amazing group of volunteers and our friends of the library. I started at the library almost 10 years ago. And at that time, the administration had two goals. One was to reach 300,000 checkouts, and the other was to increase the number of programs offered. We were just about to reach 300,000 checkouts when COVID happened. So we rebounded, and we hit 300,000 in 2023. But in 2025, two years later, we were already up to 349,000. We have 400,000 in our sights. And we're going to hit that very quickly. And I just need you to know that those numbers are a testament to the librarians who thoughtfully purchased those books. our tech services who process them, the staff that promotes those books through displays and recommendations, and our circulation staff who check out the books to our patrons. And I want you to make a note of this, please. Teen checkouts are going down nationwide. Our teens in Caldwell County have shown double-digit growth for four years in a row, and they have continued, and that will happen again this year. I can already see it. Programming was the other goal. I remember that summer in 2018. We were so proud because that summer we were able to offer the teens a program a week, eight programs that summer. That was a first for them. This year, between the three branches, the teens had 42 programs that they could have attended. That's an increase of 425% in six years. No, eight years, sorry. And not to be left out, children and adult programs saw significant increases as well. We have some great programs that we offer. We have an awesome partnership with NC Works. One of their staff comes to the library every Wednesday afternoon to help our patrons with job applications and resumes and more. We also partner with them every other month to offer a job fair. Lenore has also partnered with the COG for what we call digital drop-ins. Two of their staff comes once a month for four hours. You can make an appointment to get help with questions about your device or a website that you want to learn to navigate. I made an appointment for my own mother because I couldn't teach her how to use the Facebook so that she could get in contact with her grandchildren, but the COG was able to do it. Opportunity for all is probably our best attended program. It's for adults with disabilities, mental or physical, and their caregivers. When I first came there, that population would show up and they would sit like this. They didn't speak to each other, they didn't speak to us. And it didn't matter how much you tried to talk to them. Well, when we started Opportunity for All, that has changed. They talk to everybody now. They talk to our staff. They meet once a week, and we do science and art and story time and life skills. But by far their favorite is dance party. We usually have 40 to 50 people show up for dance party. It's great. Y'all need to come. Fourth Thursday of the month. No, fourth Tuesday of the month, 10 o'clock. The most popular team program we have is Dungeons and Dragons. Those kids love their role-playing games. And they've been meeting for over five years now. And the group has gotten so big, we've had to split them into two. Our younger kids have story time and music and movement and STEM and art, but my favorite thing they do is called Read with Abby. Abby is a trained therapy dog, and the kids can sit with her and read a book, because Abby doesn't judge you if you read slowly or if you mispronounce a word. She's great. These are just some of the programs that we do on a weekly basis, but all of that is amplified during the summer. During those eight weeks in June and July, it's our busiest time of the year, and this year was no exception. We had a record of 1,191 kids register for summer reading. And between them, listen to this number. They read 651,195 minutes collectively. Last year, Youth Services gave away 840 books. This year, we gave away 1,374. That's an increase of 524 books. Our kids are reading in this county. The teens had their highest bookmark return ever with 108 bookmarks returned. Each bookmark has a log of seven books that the teen has read. And listen to this. The average bookmark represented 30.5 hours of reading. teenagers reading during the summer and not to be left out 54 adults participated in our annual bookopoly game and together they read 594 books our numbers were up in every category this summer circulation door counts issuing new cards number of programs and programming attendance but i need you to know that the library is not all fun and games We see a lot of people on some of the worst days of their lives. We help a lot of victims of domestic violence find resources. Individuals whose power is in danger of being turned off and are seeking help from a local agency must have a paper copy of their power bill to get help. And they're quite distraught when they get to us, but our staff is able to be kind and patient and help them get that piece of paper they need so they can get the help they need from those agencies. We also work with the COG and their Call Well Together group to be a warming and cooling station when needed. And not as dire as those things, but still important, the Hudson Library helps a lot of desperate teenagers who go to the DMV and then realize they need a paper copy of their driver's log. So they race to the Hudson Library to get that paper copy so they can get their driver's license. While these joint accomplishments are worth celebrating, the true impact of our library is seen within the unique community served by each of our individual branches. The Lenore Library recently had the most expensive team building activity in the history of the county when a seam split on our roof and it started raining inside the library. I am so proud of the way the staff pulled together. In two hours, they moved over 15,000 books. Two hours. And they saved our collection. And they also saved the local history room. Most of the books in that room are one copy. They're primary sources. And they cannot be replaced. They saved every one of those books. I should also mention that the maintenance staff quickly shifted into gear that day to stop the water from pouring in. There were a lot of hard-working heroes at the Lenore Library that day. We've been located on Hospital Avenue since 1986. That's 40 years. The building itself is a couple of decades older than that, and it is in need of some updates. Out front, the paper bricks and the retaining wall are beginning to crack and crumble, and for safety's sake, they need to be replaced. Inside, there are terrible stains on the carpet due to the roof leakage, and the library has only been repainted once. In 40 years and the bathrooms are the original bathrooms from when it was Southern bell, 60 years ago, the Southern library, on the other hand, it's in great shape. It is, it opens shortly after COVID it was designed to be a youth centered library. And for the first couple of years, we wondered if we had made a terrible mistake, but it's finally happened. The kids from the middle school are walking down from the middle school to the library after school. They are finally coming. This summer saw an explosion in programming numbers, and their door count was up 13.5%. But the day that proved to me that it was really a youth-centered library was July the 3rd. You might remember that week there was a heat dome over the United States and it was over 100 degrees in Caldwell County. Erica Canadian branch manager called me early that morning to ask if we should cancel an outdoor activity. But we talked about it and we decided it was on the right side of the building where it was shaded and we provide cold water and our thought was nobody in their right minds coming anyway because it's going to be 100 degrees. They had so many teens show up, they had to turn people away. They ran out of materials. And so our youth-centered library has come into its own. And finally, the Hudson Library. One of the first things the staff member at Hudson said to me when I became director was, every morning we come in and wonder, is this the day that the roof, the ceiling, is gonna be on the floor? And my immediate thought was, Was this the day it's going to fall on my staff and the patrons that are coming in? I immediately, I called Isaac Bush in maintenance and I called Chip Hughes, the safety officer, and we did walkthroughs and we talked about it. And finally, the consensus was that the building needs a lot of work, but no one was in immediate danger. I I came to the conclusion that the Hudson Library needed to be closed, and I don't say that lightly. They've been in that building since 1973, and that's 56 years. It has the same 1970s paneling the walls, the same wooden bookshelves that were put there in 1973, a bathroom that is in desperate need of upgrading and a ceiling that is bowed in many places. But I want you to know I'm wrong. I was wrong. It does not need to be closed. It is not the Hudson library that needs to be closed. It's the Hudson library building that needs to be closed. People think of the Hudson Library as a library that serves mainly our elderly population, and they do have a very dedicated elderly population that visits often because they love the Hudson Library. And I know this is true because people stop me wherever I go. They call me, they email me to tell me how much they love that library. But more than that, something quite extraordinary is happening with the younger crowd in Hudson. Over the last two years, checkouts for children have increased by 28%. That's huge for a small library. The teen checkouts are up by 12. Their story times have been steadily increasing in attendance, and at one story time in July, they had 26 people show up. I don't know where they put 26 people in that little small building, but they did. We cannot in good conscience shut down a library that's beginning to grow. I have worked with our county manager and there are a couple of solutions we would like you to consider. One is a new shopping center that's opening directly across the street from the current library. There is a possibility that we could work with the developer to build a library and then lease that building. And I keep hearing that we have 20 acres of land around the new complex on the Pleasant Hill Road. Maybe we could put something similar to what we have at the southern branch. And finally, we're ready to turn the page. Because we have met those two goals from 10 years ago, the question now is, what do we do next? I mean, we're being successful inside those buildings. And I really believe we've got to start reaching out to our outlying communities. I want us to have a bookmobile. I want us to take the library to Collett School and Happy Valley and Patterson and Kings Creek and Oak Hill and Dudley Shoals. And with the county manager's encouragement, I've been investigating this. I've been to Catawba County and I've been to Henderson County to see their bookmobile programs. And I am convinced that we could have a successful program in Colwell County. Right now, only 21% of our county residents have a library card. But I just think how we could change that if we could get out of our buildings and how we could impact our county's literacy rate if we could go. and i could talk for hours about the library i haven't even mentioned our fabulous puzzle and game collection our much loved community puzzle our community favorite our seed library but i've bombarded you with words and numbers and successes and information about our buildings do you have any questions for me all right does anybody have any questions from this forward uh what your information is amazing it's amazing and i could go on for another hour I had to pick and choose about what I was going to say.

You know, I'm probably older than most of these guys up here, but I can remember when the Internet first started, I thought, well, that's going to put libraries out of business.

Heavens no.

The library just keeps growing. It does. We're proud of you for keeping the library going because I was afraid that Everybody just go to the internet for stuff, but it don't happen. You got a lot more to do than the internet can offer.

Absolutely.

And then you offer internet access to those people that do not have that access and do not have that ability. And then it's about reading books, but it's also about all the programming that you've made mention. So I would encourage you to continue to talk to the county manager and as budget time rolls around and it's not long before we talk about budget again. Let's talk about some of those things and let's continue to help you turn the page with the librarians.

I'll just echo some of those thoughts too and some of the programs that you folks are offering over there. I've got two grandchildren that look forward annually to the Touch the Truck program and bringing those trucks in and all the different types of apparatus that they all get to touch and sit in and be a part of, or a five or six year old, that is big. And I appreciate that as well as many of the other programs that you do. And as you folks know, just recently was appointed to the library board and so I've had an opportunity to be there on a couple of the meetings and look around the facilities and the buildings and we do have some challenges there and I think in talking with our county manager we may have some opportunity to go ahead and and repair some things, do some painting, carpet replacement, and some of those things that we could probably facilitate in this year's budget for them to get that ball rolling. I think maybe some parking lot or the facade out front is needing some attention too. And we've got a beautiful building there. I look at a lot of library buildings when I go to other counties and they don't, They don't stack up to ours. They do not. And especially the main branch there on Hospital Avenue. And then the multi-uses of everything else is done there. Of course, we house our Board of Elections there and all the annual elections and biannuals. But it's just a great facility, and it's one that we can be proud of as a county. And then our southern branch, what we were able to do a few years ago there with the with the opportunity to purchase and move into the building. And Hudson's gonna need some attention. We've been talking about that for several years. And I think with this new shopping area, we've maybe got some renditions of what that's gonna look like over there. And I think that's gonna be a great asset to Hudson as well. And I think we need to get on board to be over there in that. we've already had a couple people if i'm not mistaken approach us about buying the building at hudson who would like to go in there and renovate it and and do some different things and so A lot of moving pieces there, but I'm all for it, and I just want to say that this evening. But I don't know what we would need to do to facilitate getting some carpet put in, some new carpet for the stains that we suffered under a roof leak, which, by the way, the roof was replaced a few years ago, had a warranty under it. And so it wasn't our fault. We were proactive in that. So the roofing company had to come and repair it. And now they're having to do some things to make sure it doesn't leak again. But we appreciate your saving our materials. And I know there was quite a bit of work that had to take place there.

I will tell you, Isaac and I have been working on the numbers. Phase one, the out front, we're looking at about $130,000. And then carpet and paint would be around $200,000. That's not including the bathrooms. That would be a whole other.

So you need about $300,000 to start. To start. And we've got some.

funding and uh and uh leftover and skiff money yes sir mr chairman that's correct so we over the past a few years have had a capital project fund skiff money is what we've called it to do these exact types of upgrades and we do have that amount that's remaining within those funds so at your discretion we potentially could go ahead and move forward with the First two phases being the out front, the safety issue, concrete, retaining wall, and then phase two, the carpet and the paint, and then allow for some more time to gather some information on, I guess, what would be phase three, which would be the bathrooms, the more significant of the upgrades that would be there. Yes, sir.

so um and then well i won't say in fairness to miss four uh she inherited this uh when did you become our director six months ago six months ago right in the middle of budget season trying to get things uh applied for and so she didn't know she had some of these issues and i appreciate her willingness to be able to identify that and bring it to us and So go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off.

No, sir. Let's bring it in the form of a motion.

$330,000. I'll make a motion. We use gift money and give her $300,000 and task Isaac with fixing it. Isaac, you're here. And bring our little old library branch up to snuff. And then we'll move on from there about the bathrooms. And then we'll be making some decisions. going forward about what we're going to do with Hudson and a bookmobile.

I'm planning to go in October to Columbus, Ohio. They have a bookmobile conference because the two places I've been, both of them said don't use the bookmobile company build hours. And so I'd like to go do some research to be able to come back and give you some information on that.

that would be great all right and to get that out in our rural communities cause again I'm from collegeville area and we will welcome anything that we could get there I made my husband drive me to Mortimer the other day just to see if we could get it up there too one of these days so I have a motion for three hundred thirty thousand dollars to begin the process of repairs at the library any other discussion or comment

I just want to say thank you and thank all the staff at the other libraries. Sometimes y'all get left out, but we appreciate everything.

They do not get left out. We are a team.

And you see that when you go there, and I appreciate that, as well as many of our county departments. I mean, we're all a team trying to do the best we can for our community, and the library is one of those great things that we're doing. All right. So I'll call the question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. So pick some beautiful colors.

I can promise. Thank you very much.

All right. We'll give you a second to leave. And anybody else that would like to leave, we certainly understand.

Ms. Kim. I was going to tell her thank you.

All right. Our next item on the agenda is a proclamation for International Overdose Awareness Day. That's item five. And I'll read that proclamation, which reads as follows. Whereas International Overdose Awareness Day observed annually on August the 31st is the world's largest campaign to end overdose. Remember, without stigma, those who have died acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind. and raise awareness that overdose deaths are preventable. And whereas substance use and overdose continue to impact individual, families, and communities across North Carolina and Caldwell County, affecting people of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. And whereas every life lost to overdose represents a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker, and valued member of our community whose life and memory deserve to be honored with dignity compassion and whereas stigma can prevent individuals and families from seeking help accessing treatment utilizing harm reduction services and openly discussing substance use and recovery and whereas education prevention harm reduction treatment recovery support and community collaboration are essential components of a comprehensive response to substance use and overdose And whereas access to life-saving resources including naloxone, overdose prevention education, peer support, treatment, recovery services, and post-overdose response can save lives and create pathways to healing and recovery. And whereas Caldwell County recognizes the dedication of first responders, healthcare professionals, behavioral health providers, peer support specialists, treatment and recovery organizations, harm reduction workers, families, advocates, and community partners who work each day to prevent overdose and support individuals and families impacted by substance use. And whereas International Overdose Awareness Day provides an opportunity for our community to remember those we have lost, support those who continue to grieve, celebrate recovery, reduce stigma, and reaffirm that every life has value and that recovery is possible. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Colwell County Board of Commissioners hereby recognizes August 31st, 2026 as International Overdose Awareness Day in Colwell County, North Carolina. and encourages all residents to join in remembering lives lost to overdose, supporting individuals and families impacted by substance use, promoting overdose prevention and education, and working together toward a healthier, safer, and more compassionate community. Adopted this the 24th day of August 2026. Do I hear a motion we adopt this proclamation?

So moved.

Any other comment or discussion? All in favor say aye. And that motion carries unanimously as well. So we appreciate everybody's efforts and the overdose uses and things that we are providing through our county as well, which is that post of the program. So thank you. And we're going to have then follow this with a via health update. Dustin Burleson's coming.

oh i'm sorry i didn't even look up you can't talk we will not deprive you of telling us what you would like to say i just want to say i would not be standing here today if it wasn't for naloxone and programs like port um i work there now and it's sort of a full circle moment because they help me yes ma'am and i wouldn't be standing here today without programs like that so thank you all so much for doing this

All right. Thank you. So this is Jacqueline Tester and Laura Tolbert.

We're here to support with the post-overdose response.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you for everything you do. We appreciate you being here tonight.

Thank you.

And had I known it, I'd have called you up. I'm sorry. I saw you sitting here, but I didn't know that you wanted to speak. So thank you for coming. Thank you for everything you do for our folks in Caldwell County. Let's give them a round of applause. All right. So next, Dustin Burleson with Viya Health Updates. Another important thing we're doing in Caldwell County.

Absolutely. Yes, sir. Good evening, board, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for having me. Dustin Burleson with Viahealth Community Relations Regional Director for quite some time. And although there's been press releases, I'm here to formally talk about the merger that Viahealth is having with Partners Managed Care, so two public partners. managed care organizations, merge them together. And so you can see up here, although it looks like there's a little bit of an issue with the wording, this is actually the new brand. So it'll be Viya Partners, putting those two. So this is the brand name. And really this comes about as we're thinking about how to become a stronger organization and sustainability. So you think about how do we preserve the public system and really think about how do we keep the public health plans for managing the care in our communities. And so one of the ways was to create a consolidated LME MCO that can withstand the essential threats that's on the horizon. There's been conversations for years about elimination of MCOs or reduction of the number of health plans in the state of North Carolina. And so this was just a move that we really wanted to make to be proactive and become a start-up organization. Also, just to leverage the talent of all levels of leadership from an administrative piece as well, and to preserve local jobs and retain staff dedicated to the public system, to remain accountable to local communities and local solutions and the governance, which is really important to us. Secretary Sandoval really talked about here in this quote about the reduction, really the plan to get the number of health plans down. And so this was part of the decision that the two MCOs made to really be proactive and really cut the cost and think about what's the right size of health plans. So this will put us to three MCOs starting October 1st, whereas it used to be seven plus, I think. Here's a map, effective October 1. You can see VIA partners. So VIA had 32 counties. Partners had 15. So that puts us at 47 across the state. And you can see Alliance is the pink. And then Trillium, who covers a lot of rural communities just like us, they're in the green. And so I just wanted to make sure that the message is this is really a merger. It's not a takeover by Viya. It's a lot different than when there's consolidation with Cardinal in the past. It was voluntary from both MCOs, very collaborative and proactive. And so we still continue to work together as of today to try to figure out what each other does well and how we can really incorporate those into this new organization. Equal governance shared leadership. The legal name via partners help the brand name via partners and you saw the logo earlier on. So how will this merger impact counties? You guys really shouldn't notice any anything. Any changes here, most of the staff that's the staff in this county outside of them will leave in the organization, will stay in the community. And that's really what we like is having people who work here or live here, they're usually the ones that work in these counties. And so we'll continue all the local trainings such as CIT with law enforcement, things like that. Continue the same local presence as we have today. And it really just makes us stronger financially in the future. Now, there is going to be a change in the board structure, and that's what I'm going to talk about now. The governing board will include, it's going to be a new board with 13 representatives from the new catchment, so from 47 counties. Eight legacy board members, which is going to be selected by the current board of directors. Two consumer and family advisory committee members each. And then there will be three representatives appointed by each county commissioner advisory board. And just note that VALUE currently has the four regional boards right now in that structure. And that collectively makes up our current what's called a COB. The VALUE board chair and partners board chair will serve as the co-chairs until a new vote happens by the consolidated board in January of next year. And then the new board will hold its first meeting in October. And all these meetings are subject to the open meeting law, so anyone can come. So here's kind of the information that's coming your way. There's going to be a little bit of change in dates, I think, down here at the bottom. But each county is going to be asked to appoint one representative to the merge cob. And so it really needs to be either an elected county commissioner or former commissioner. It could be a county manager, DSS, or HHS director, public health director, or it could be another individual. We do like it to be somebody in leadership. in the community. The current regional boards have two people per county, so that's going to change. So you would have one instead of two. So just because we're now from 32 counties to 47 and have to stay within those restrictions there, but they'll be an email or letters coming out from our board clerk and our CEO that's going to formally ask that you guys appoint someone. It does say by August 21, which was a few days ago. So that date's obviously out the window. But there's been a little bit of delay. It's just a heavy lift to consolidate these two organizations. Key future dates. This is my last slide. Um, so the merger planning and the radius of review was May 21st through September 30th. And so that's coming to an end. The deadline's obviously going to change for that appointment for the cob. And then you can kind of see some of the regional board dates, the merger effective date, October one. Um, but yeah, just wanted to share that. And if you guys have any questions.

All right. Anybody have any questions? I was thinking about our value of opportunity. We were talking at one point about having an emergency, I don't know what the term was, but we're like a care facility that somebody could walk into with these issues that may be going on. I know we were talking about that in our value building out on Wilkesboro Boulevard. Yeah. Any updates on any? Sure.

Yeah. And I know that's been a long process over two years. So there's a couple of things. One, the behavioral health urgent care is what just opened a little over a year ago where people can walk in and get that really 23 hour assessment and then, you know, see where they need to go from there. The renovation of the Lenore office off of Wilkesburg Boulevard is going to be a substance use facility. And so it's going to be more outpatient. at first, but we're also in the process of looking at two properties to bring in two residential substance use treatment facilities for male and female adults. So that's happened in the future, but there's a lot of just hoops that we've had to jump around legally and just from our steering committee, things like that on top of a merger. And so we apologize for the delay, but we are certainly trying to prioritize that.

Okay.

As you said, it's been a priority for our community for a long time. Yeah, absolutely. We appreciate that. We know we have RHA sitting out there, but Avaya Health could certainly bring a whole different aspect to that.

Yeah, we're always trying to bring a really good network and options for the community so they get to pick who they go see. All right.

All right. Anybody else?

Thank you again.

The updates. Next is a presentation from Josh angle, our tax collectors settlement. So welcome, Josh. I assume this might be your last meeting with us this evening. So yes, sir. We want to thank you for everything you've done for our county. And I appreciate all the hard work that you've done and reappraisals and values and all those things. I know I've been contacted by some of the board members of Equalization and Review, and they're not happy that you're leaving. But we just wanted to say we appreciate you and thank you for the job that you've done. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, sir. So you've got a tax collector settlement for us. Yes, sir.

In accordance with North Carolina General Statute 105-373D, I'm reporting the final settlement to be delivered into the hands of the successor. The amount collected since July 1, 2026 through today is as follows. Current year collections of $37,549,153.95. I do want to point out that's 72.17% of the original July levy that we received. Delinquent collections for years 2015 through 2025 is $363,962.20. The sum of these numbers is $37,913,116.15. The remaining balance of the current year's levy is $14,546,161.74. I request this settlement to be accepted this evening. All right. And so here...

Our tax collector's report from Mr. Angle. What's the pleasure of the board in accepting this this evening? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we accept the tax collector's settlement as presented. All right. And I guess just a comment about that. is because you're in a sworn position and you're leaving that position, you have to basically end up your time and tenure, and this then will be handed over to our interim tax assessor that we're going to swear in here in just a few minutes. So that's the procedure that we're following and state guidelines.

That's the statute in English.

Yes, sir. All right, so all those in favor accepting this, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that motion carries. And you got anything you want to say for you?

I'd just like to thank you all for the opportunity. This being an appointed position, you put faith in me, and I appreciate that. Wish you the best. Wish our new county manager, Shane Fox, the best. I want to thank staff. I mean, I'm one person. Department of 21 people, two offices, the Granite Falls Collection Center, Lenore, They do an excellent job. They gave me opportunities. I represent the county, or I have represented the county on the state level. And one thing that I'd like to say about this team is customer service is up there with the best across the state when it comes to a tax department. I'm very proud of them, very proud of their accomplishments and all that they do. You know, it's all about them, so I just want to thank them for all they've done.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Thank you.

And before we start here, I'd like to say we did lose Monty Woods last week, and he had been a longtime tax administrator here, and we wish his family the best.

He worked for us a long time. It was sudden and unexpected that Mr. Woods passed away. All right. So that brings us to appointment and oath of office for our interim tax administrator. County Manager Shane Fox.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Board of Commissioners. After the resignation of Mr. Angle, I'm here tonight to discuss the appointment and then the oath of office for an interim tax collector. North Carolina General Statute 105-294, labeled County Assessor, states whenever a vacancy occurs in this office, the Board of County Commissioners shall appoint a qualified person to serve as County Assessor for the period of the unexpired term. recommendation of staff is that we would move forward in presenting you tonight with an interim position. Mr. Jason Pennell, who is our current real property appraisal supervisor, has been discussed through staff, and we'd like to make that recommendation for your consideration tonight. And Jason is here as well. All right.

So where is he at? He better stand up. Yeah, there he is. So do I hear a motion that we appoint Jason Pennell as our interim tax administrator?

Mr. Chair, I make the motion to appoint Jason Pennell as the interim tax administrator and to approve the required bond on the effective date on August 25th at 8 a.m. All right.

Any other discussion or comment on that? I'll call the question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. So congratulations, Jason. Thank you. You might now be the most unlike man in Caldwell County, but it's okay. They don't like us either. You got anything you want to say? Okay. All right. Yes, sir. So we've got to do an oath and swear him in. And our clerk, Miss Tasha Brown, is going to take care of the oath. Left hand on the Bible, I can tell you that.

Okay. Do you, Jason Pennell, solemnly swear or affirm that you will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States, so help you God? Do you, Jason Pennell, further solemnly and sincerely swear or affirm that you will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof? and that you will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution of said state, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of your knowledge and ability, and that you will not allow your actions as assessor to be influenced by personal or political friendships or obligations, so help you God. Do you, Jason Pennell, further swear or affirm that you will well and truly execute the duties of the Office of Interim Tax Administrator according to law, so help you God.

Congratulations. All right, next on our agenda is the charge to the Interim Tax Administrator. Do you handle that or we're gonna charge you with it?

In accordance with General Statute 105-321 and 105-352, I request the authorization to collect the remaining 2026 taxes.

All right. So here in Mr. Pendle's request, do I hear a motion that we grant his request?

I'll make a motion that we grant his request on receiving the rest of our money.

Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Was you going to say something? I'm sorry. Okay. Good deal. I'm glad he's doing it for us. Yes, sir. All right. And that brings us to our DSS monthly updates and our DSS director, Ms. Kim Arnett. So welcome, Kim.

Good evening.

Good evening.

First, I want to say thank you for allowing me to be here to give you this update. So throughout the year, DSS typically we highlight our various program areas in different months and so this month happens to be economic services and child support appreciation month and so what I thought I would do for you all this evening is we're gonna have one of our economic services Megan Wiseman. She's going to read a little bit about what our, um, economic services and child support staff do. And then we're going to play a video for you that Eric helped us with. And it's just about eight minutes and it's clips of some of the things that they do each day. It's really hard to understand or see what they do kind of behind the scenes, you know, multiple multitasking, interacting with different citizens, deescalating situations, taking phone calls, emails. There's a lot that they do. And so this video will just depict a small portion of that. So I'm going to let Megan say, read her kind of tribute to our staff and then show the video.

All right.

Good evening. Good evening. Like I said, during this Economic Services Appreciation Month, I just want to take a moment to show our appreciation to our staff who do this work every day. So behind every case number is a name, a family, a crisis that couldn't wait. These staff don't get the luxury of one problem at a time. They're carrying caseloads for Medicaid up to $1,600 per worker. FNS up to 800 per worker, and child support up to 600 per worker, each one demanding its own kind of attention. A recertification here, an application coming due, a missing verification there, a change reported daily, a family about to lose food benefits because a document got lost in the mail. A senior confused about why their Medicaid didn't renew. A family having to choose to pay for rent or gas. All of it, every day, all at once. There's no such thing as just one task in this job. The phone rings while a form sits half-processed on the screen. A supervisor needs an answer. Verifications are received via email. A client walks in, upset because the system failed them somewhere upstream. And the worker at the desk becomes the face of that failure. Then somewhere upstream becomes the face of the failure whether it's fair or not. They absorb it. They de-escalate. They explain policy they didn't write, using patients they have to manufacture on the spot because behind that anger is usually just fear. Fear of losing food, medical coverage, support to care for their children, a roof over their head. Right alongside them are child support workers carrying a different but equally heavily load. They're the ones caught in the middle of custody disputes and broken relationships trying to establish paternity, set up orders, track down payments, and enforce agreements, all while both parents are often angry at them for reasons that have nothing to do with a worker personally. A parent waiting on payments they need for rent, a parent disputing an amount they say is wrong, neither one wants to hear about processing timelines or legal procedure. They want their situation fixed today. These staff hold that tension every single day, staying neutral in the middle of others, other people's pain, doing the paperwork and determining the eligibility that a family is depending on. And still they have to prioritize which case is truly urgent versus which one feels urgent, which family is about to be terminated an error versus which one has more time. This isn't guesswork. It's triage done under caseloads that keep growing while deadlines don't move an inch. This work continues to grow while policy changes daily or even gets more complicated. It takes real skill to hold that many moving pieces in your head, not let a single one slip through the cracks that could cost someone their benefits. It's easy to overlook this work because it's quiet. There's no ribbon cutting for a caseworker who called an error before it terminated someone's Medicaid. No headline for one who stayed an hour past shift to make sure a family didn't lose their FNS over a missing signature. But that work is happening every single day here at DSS. So to everyone doing this work, thank you. Thank you for caseload you carry without complaint for the 20th phone call of the day answered with the same patience as the first. for absorbing frustration that was never really about you. Thank you for making sure that behind every case number, the person still gets seen. This work matters even when, especially when, no one's watching.

Thank you.

Quality Assess, Mandy. Sure, we have different ways that you can apply. The first way is you can come in person and see someone if you would like. We're open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5. You can also choose to pick up an application at that time and drop it off later. The other option is we do have the e-pass account or the website that you can go in and create an account. Hey, hey. Hey.

Sorry to bother you. I've got a report that I need you to take a look at. It needs to be done by 5 today if possible. I've got to know if you've sent an 8650 out and I also need to know if interviews have been completed on there. So I need you to get that to me before 5 today. And there's a client that's out front that needs to see you. There's something about verifications and wanted to verify what you all needed. okay all right i'll check thank you all right thank you i have this household of four student is getting ready to start app state in a couple weeks working 20 hours a week but i can't get it to pick up on the system it's not picking her up as a household member and she should okay so go to your student evidence so your paid employment looks correct so let's go look at your earned income and see what it's doing to not count her okay what's going on Household of four college students starting in a couple weeks. He's working at least 20 hours a week and is not picking her up.

What if we try reassessing the PDC since we just made those updates to the working hours and the earned income? Okay. Check it.

Okay, maybe something picked it up. Okay, awesome. Thanks. Man, you just need to be here.

All right, so this gentleman here, him and his wife, they've had multiple transfers in their assets even before trying to move his income or his assets into her name because, you know, spouse to spouse is allowable. However, they have given large sums of money to like his son. And they have started doing some promissory notes, but there's also other transactions that are not part of the promissory notes. And then also there was found income that we wasn't aware of that was not reported to us from the VA. And then they also have transferred vehicles to the son as well.

The camper, if we get an intent to return home for one of them, we can exclude it, but two multiple home sites, we can't.

Okay.

So we're going to have to look at that one, plus the one that they're trading in.

Yeah.

For a tax value, because that's going to be a transfer. Which other ones did we have listed down? Bank money's going back and forth?

Yeah, money's going back and forth, a lot of it.

And I can see that with these bank statements.

Yes.

I have a client in my office. that's receiving Medicaid, and they just want to get some clarifications about FNS. Okay. Sure. What you got? With the ABAWD, they want to know, based on the age, will they be subject to ABAWD time limits? I think she's in her 50s. Okay.

Well, with ABAWD, do they understand what it means? It's able-bodied without dependents.

Okay.

So that's what that means. And then it goes from ages 14 to 64. They've changed the ages. So anyone between the ages of 14 to 64 have to comply. So they're 54, so they would have to comply.

Okay, we'll have to comply. Okay, good. Now, the next question that they had is that they live with an unmarried partner and they have a child that's under the age of 14. Does that mean that they will be exempt from AVOD?

So with having a 14 year in the home and they're unmarried, but are the child is both of their child?

No, it's his child.

His child.

Okay.

So either or as long as there's a 14 year old or under, well, under the age of 14 in the home. Yes, they're exempt.

Okay.

I don't assume they're coming to the door, so if we just want to leave a note and then we'll call them when we get back to the agency just to verify that this is the correct address and the time that we're supposed to be here.

Okay. I'll document that we came by and the date and time. What time is it? Then we'll leave a note for them.

Hey Randy, I have this case. We can go over and staff from one of our PI cases we have. The original allegation for this case is that the mom of a child applied for food stamps stating that they're the only two in the homes. We have reason to believe that the father is possibly in the home as well. So we started the investigation and started looking into it. It was sent up to us. We have already completed a home visit with that client. When we got there, the father's car was in the driveway. However, when the client did come to the door, they wouldn't let us go into the home, but you could hear someone in the background kind of talking. We have also reached out and ran LexisNexis to confirm to see if that client is residing in the home and all of his records do pull to be at that address as well. Here is the printout of that to show that he is there and the address does match the same address as the person who applied for those benefits. When speaking to that client, she was adamant that he was not there though. However, that car was there and we went early in the morning and there was frost on the windshield still, so it did appear that that car had been there overnight.

All right, so I hope you're doing well today.

Well, I'm here.

I understand. This is probably not where you want to be. It's not. I understand. So I just do want to talk to you. We do have your worksheet. We got your income, all the things. We wanted to let you know what your amount is coming out to based on the guidelines. See if you'd be willing to sign a volunteer support agreement or if we're going to need to refer it to court. So your amount has come out to $1,250 a month. Son of a bitch.

Are you kidding me? No, sir. You know I can't pay that.

That is the North Carolina guideline amount.

That's honestly just ridiculous.

I understand your frustration.

You've said I understand three times now. And what I understand is that you people are parasites. Go get me your supervisor.

Of course. I would be happy to.

Thank you. All right. So there's no reason to get upset with the agent. You know, she's just going by what the state guidelines represent. Okay. She just gets the numbers and plugs it in. So that's what she's going by is the state guidelines. If you want to be mad at anybody, you know, it can be. who comes up with the guidelines. I get that.

It's definitely not her fault. She's just giving you the information she's given.

That's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. I understand that. We're here for the children. We can't determine who the money goes to, but it's for the best interest of the child.

Okay.

All right. So like I said, I understand it's nothing against her or nothing.

Well, I apologize for my outburst. That's a lot of money, and that was unexpected. And I don't trust that she's going to spend it on what she's supposed to be spending it on. Correct. I understand that.

Like I said, we have no control on where it goes, but it's just our job. Okay. I understand. All right. All right. I appreciate you coming in and speaking with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

A short clip of the things that our staff do daily. I want to reiterate the importance of our economic services program. Our staff is consistently ensuring the program's integrity by verifying accurate eligibility and protecting public resources. And our fraud investigation is a critical part of that. And you saw just a snippet of some of those discussions that go on and then home visits that happen when we are investigating fraud. because it is our responsibility to maintain that program's integrity and prevent misuse and protect our public resources. So I also want to highlight at the end of that was our child support program area. And so child support there at work is essential and their role extends far beyond just collections. So they help secure financial stability for children work with both the custodial and non-custodial parents. and enforce court orders that ensure these parents meet their legal obligations. This program directly supports family well-being and increases the independence, hopefully reducing long-term dependence on county programs. So, any questions about that video? I hope that gave you a little bit of a snippet of some of the things that they go through daily with the complicated nature of what they do and sometimes just the multitasking, all of the different things that they're responsible for during the day. So I want to go, as we enter the beginning of this school year, I want to say that we do, as far as our other programs, anticipate a usual kind of seasonal increase in our Child Protective Services area. So as we go through the months coming up and as I give you reports and updates, I'll keep you updated on what that looks like. But over the summer, we typically see a little bit of lower numbers in reporting. And as children go back to school with educators becoming some additional eyes and identifying concerns that weren't seen before, we will see an increase in our reporting. Also, child welfare is getting ready to move into a new state. Well, it's not new, but for us it will be new statewide software program. We're already in the program for our intake and our investigations in child welfare. We're getting ready to move into it for what we call ongoing services, and that is case management and foster care or permanency. So we will be doing that in the beginning of September. So our staff have been doing a lot of training around that, and hopefully as we move into that, that will go as smoothly as possible. We know from past experience there can be hiccups, and we hope that we're able to at least get the work done while trying to handle those hiccups and get through some of those. difficulties. At present, we have 161 children experiencing foster care in the county. We have 45 adults who are under guardianship of the county. We continue to face immense struggles in the county with placement. So placement for children and placement for adults, both groups. Um, this is not unique to Coldwell County. I will tell you that it is a statewide issue. It's a challenge. There's limited placement availability, uh, that impacts of course, the speed at which we can locate placements. That impacts the proximity in which we can locate placements. We're having to place children and adults counties away, sometimes across the state, sometimes in other states, because there are no placements for these children and adults. This becomes a significant. Our staff spends significant time working through these barriers. Um, and it really does increase the significant level of oversight and coordination that's required of our staff. So lastly, I want to provide a brief update regarding the ongoing collaboration with the county manager. We have been working closely with... He's been working closely with us to learn more about our programs, our processes, and our operational needs. As part of those discussions, we have explored the possibility of outsourcing certain functions. In that context, we did... Mr. Fox did recently request that we extend an existing contract for food and nutrition services that we had already began to use. It was coming to an end, but we are going to extend that contract. Our staff have found this outsourcing to be profitable. productive for them as you heard Megan say our staff are handling around 800 cases a worker and in July we accepted about 540 applications in addition to that. So they have seen some relief with this outsourcing and that has been a positive. Any questions about any of our programs?

Anybody have any questions?

I think you're doing a great job.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for the update.

Thank you.

All right. And next we have Anna Cook, our health director. Welcome, Anna.

Thank you. Good evening. I have a brief update from public health. So two case management programs are possibly ending in our women's health division this December. That is a state-mandated program. However, they're being taken by our PHPs, which is our primary health care providers. Dr. Pickton, who is our medical director, he's retiring in February. We're working on finding a contractual medical director, and that seems very positive right now. We've been busy with back-to-school physicals and immunizations. Certain immunizations are required the school years. And we see an influx of those throughout the summer, but then especially that first week of school when they find out they can't return to school. There will be a cancer screening event in November. We're partnering with the UNC Cancer Institute. Some more details later on about that. We had two cases of cyclospora in Caldwell County, unrelated to the outbreak that everyone saw on the news. Both of those were related to travel, so nothing within Caldwell County. And then lastly, our accreditation is approaching with documentation due in December and a spring site visit. So more information on that as well.

So we love accreditation, by the way.

We love it. A lot of evidence and meetings and things.

Anybody have any questions for Anna? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Anna. That brings us to our consent agenda this evening, and I'll turn that over to our county manager, Mr. Shane Foxx.

Mr. Chairman, we do have a fairly lengthy consent agenda here, so bear with me. We'll start with number 12, which is a budget revision. It's our typical purchase order rollover from last fiscal year to the current year. That's for $225,000. That's, again, not new money. That's just a rollover for purchase orders that were outstanding as of June 30th to roll those into the new fiscal year. Number 13, budget revision for the health department, $784,000 in Helene money. Again, this is a rollover. The next three are actually rollovers as well. As you know, once the fiscal year comes to an end, June 30th, we don't stop. We move forward to the new fiscal year. So these are rollover monies. Number 14, again, this is through the Health Department. This is ARPA. This is a grant, and this is, again, rollover in the amount of $26,000. Again, these are not new monies. These are monies from the prior years as we roll into the new fiscal year. Same with number 15. This is a health retention grant, a rollover. amount of $109,385. Number 16 is a budget revision for building inspection software. It's an additional $14,023 that will be paid for through the building inspection fees, and this is for the use of iPads and iPhones in the field for access to the inspection software that we currently have and are utilizing. Number 17, budget revision requires no match. This is for $7,982.50 of 911 money to be used towards additional equipment. Number 18, again, no match. This is acceptance of a grant of $25,000 from the Jonas Foundation. That's part of the North Carolina Community Fund and will be used towards search and rescue gear by our Sheriff's Department. Number 19 is a budget revision for acceptance of a donated fund of $10,000. This is through the Deb Hall family. She was able to pass along to us $10,000 after her death. $5,000 of that is to be used for supplies and animal control, and $5,000 is to be used towards adoption. We also will have an update in September. on the use of that donation along with an update of all of our animal control initiatives as well. So stay tuned for some more things coming in September. Number 20 is a budget revision. This is DSS additional LINCS funding. LINCS funding is for current and former foster care kids that are aged between 14 and 21. And this money is $11,400. Again, no match, but this is to be used for their daily needs, school supplies, et cetera. Important in this time of year. Number 21, budget transfer. This is moving money from our Evergreen project that we have been discussing the last few years over to what we're calling our Lower Cedar Valley project, and this amount is $50,000. Again, no new monies. It's moving from the former Evergreen project to the current Lower Cedar Valley project, and that is to be used for preliminary engineering work. Number 22 is an application. It's to allow for us to move forward with applying for a grant. And Mr. DePell is here for Internet Crimes Against Children. Again, this is just permission for the application. Same with number 24 we'll come to in just a few moments. 23, acceptance of the Bernhardt Foundation grant in the amount of $4,750. And again, this is not requiring any match of county dollars. And this is to be used or will be used for the purchase of mannequins. for CPR training, et cetera. Number 24 is another application, as I mentioned earlier. This is permission to move forward with a three-year grant for an additional narcotics officer, potentially, with zero match during that three-year time frame. Again, this is a Department of Justice grant, and again, Mr. DePayle will be asking permission to move forward with applying for that grant. Number 25 is resolution to approve the new capital loan. As a part of each one of our annual budgets, we approve our capital purchases to be made through a 59-month loan. The process goes through a bid, and our low bid is with United Community Bank. And at an interest rate of 3.83% for that 59 months, we did receive nine qualified quotes. And, again, that is for our $1.562 million amount that was approved as part of our annual budget process for our capital. So that is a resolution for you to consider approval for us to move forward with our low bid, which is United Community Bank, again, at 3.83%. over 59 months. Number 26, you had previously approved our North Caldwell EMS response contract with Watauga County. July 1st, we did remove the ambulance from Blown Rock and put that back into our typical fleet, and we had moved forward with a contract with Watauga County. However, after discussion with Watauga County Board of Commissioners, they moved to increase the amount of $15,000 annually that we'd pay them for that service to $20,000. That's why it's there back before you all for that $5,000 increase. And it does include a CPI as we move forward, typical inflation index. And those are on a one-year term with one-year reoccurring periods. to move forward again on a fiscal year term. Number 27 is the reappointment of Jarrell Sudreth to the DSS Advisory Board. He is currently a representation from UNC Health Care. Again, that's the reappointment to a three-year term to the newly formed Advisory Board. 28 is approval of regular and closed session minutes from July 27th. 2026, that's again open and closed session minutes. And then we added a few moments ago, number 29, which is a budget amendment. The reason for this late addition to the agenda was that we were able to receive a pretty significant savings by moving forward. So the budget amendment is for $575,512. And this is to allow for our 911 department to move forward with purchase of our new equipment for our comp center, our consoles. That's 10 consoles. By allowing this to be presented tonight and potentially approved, we will save in the neighborhood of $310,000 by doing so to meet the criteria that is before us. And again, that is a $575,512 budget amendment to utilize 911 money to purchase equipment and move forward with the new equipment for the comm center. With that, that concludes the consent agenda. I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have.

All right. Anybody have any questions or comments on the consent agenda?

Mr. Chair, I move that we accept this evening's consent agenda as the county manager has presented.

All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. And that's going to lead us into item 30, which is going to be a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143, 318.11a4. So I'll make a motion that we go into closed session. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. So thank you again for being here this evening. And thank you for being a part of your Conwell County government. And I hope you have a good evening.