Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everyone. We want to welcome you to the Combo [music] County Board of Commissioners meeting this evening for December the 1st, uh, 2025. and we've had uh a good evening with our new manager, Mr. Shane Fox, and things that have gone on around that and a reception in that category. So, we appreciate everybody being here in attendance and all those folks who came by uh to visit with him. So, uh we don't have anybody signed up for public comment this evening. Uh so, that'll lead us to our invocation and we have Pastor Nikki Waters with us this evening from Puy's Chapel Baptist Church. and then we'll follow that with our pledge of allegiance and Commissioner Donnie Potter will lead us in that. So, welcome Pastor Water.

Thank you so much. Uh I want to as a way of uh invocation uh not only for the season but for what we all need is uh Isaiah 9 and6 and it says for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor the mighty God the everlasting father the prince of peace. And as we pray and trust the Lord, I love what the what the angel told Mary. He said, "With man, this impossible, but with God, all things are possible." Let's pray together. Father, we love you and praise you and thank you, God, for all of your blessings in our life. God, we truly, Lord, can stand and say that we have been blessed, God, thank you for Cowwell County, God. Thank you for all the friendships and all the families, God, that you have knit together in such a great way. God, thank you that we have uh neighbors that love neighbors, God, as as your word says. And God, I thank you for our commissioners. I pray you would bless them, God, as they lead. And God, I pray you would give them your guidance and wisdom, uh, Lord, to lead us as a county. And Father, I pray uh, God, for Shane. Thank you for him, God. I pray you would bless him, God, in his new role as the manager. Lord, I pray, God, for your wisdom and uh and discernment, God, in his life. And Lord, I just thank you for all you do, God, in our hearts. And God, thank you for uh all of our emergency services. We pray for them for your protection and blessing upon them. And God, I pray Lord for every resident of our county. God, you would touch them and bless every need that they have. God, thank you for all you do in our lives. And God, we pray for your blessing upon this meeting, your leadership and your guidance. Lord, I pray for those tonight, God, who are uh just looking for help and seeking for guidance in their life that you would just speak to them and use us, God, as a light in their lives. We give you praise and we ask your will to be done in their lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Everyone face the flag. Salute. 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. Thank you everyone. We've got a couple amendments, I think, to our agenda this evening. So, Mr. Fox. Yes. Thank you, Chair. Mr. here. Um I've got one amendment to number 11 that would be adding and including the cancellation of the current contract. And I'll read the description um within the motion itself.

In addition, um which would be number 14, which is an amendment to the current audit contract due [snorts] to the um federal government shutdown. We've got a delay with the schedule of federal statements. So we need to amend that contract. All right. So here in the amendments to the agenda this evening, what's the pleasure of the board in adopting our agenda? Mr. Chair, I move this evening that we accept the agenda as the county manager has presented. All right. Any other discussion or comment? All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? And that motion carries unanimously. And that brings us to our first item on the agenda this evening, and that is the swearing in of our new county manager, Mr. Shane Fox. Uh he's here and his family is here as well. Some of those are going to come up. and our honorable uh Wayne Rash, our register of deeds, is going to help us with the swearing in ceremony this evening. And uh and we appreciate him being willing to do that, too. Absolutely,

Shane, if you will. Yes. Uh see, he's got this figured out already. [laughter] All you have to say, left hand on the Bible, raise your right. You got that part. And thank you to all the family for joining in this special time this evening as well. Shane, I'm going to read some statements and if you agree, just say I do. I, Shane Fox, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

I do. I, Shane Fox, do further solemnly and sincerely swear that I 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. That I will well endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God. I do. I Shane Fox do further swear that I will well and truly execute the duties of the office as manager of Cwell County according to law. So help me God. I do.

CONGRATULATIONS. [applause]

CONGRATULATIONS. CONGRATULATIONS. Photos now families. get them all up here and make photos and got a wife, daughter Caroline, son Owen, son Ryan, and daughter-in-law Abby. Wow.

So, let's let's all go over here to the side so we're not messing his photo up. [laughter] You get all the seal. [laughter] Bring them all up. Bring them all. [laughter] Aunts and uncles, cousins. We'll do that next year. Yeah. [laughter]

Everybody else come up. Yeah. [laughter] So, aunt, uncle, cousins family. One more time.

There's got to be another third cousin or two. [laughter] We'll take a few look this way in three, two, one. Come on, let's go back with him so he'll remember who threw him in this mess. [laughter] Somewhere along the way to you. This way you can always picture.

We won't be here long if y'all want to wait. [laughter] You want me to [laughter] wait? chair.

All right. So, uh, welcome, Mr. Fox. Thank you. And, uh, our honorable Wayne Rash, interim manager, is sitting in our audience this evening, and he said this may be the best, uh, meeting that he's attended in the last six or eight months. [laughter] But I do want to say that we certainly appreciate everything that you did for us, Wayne, and helping us through this time and uh allowing us to get to this point and then of course welcoming Shane uh and and what he's bringing to the county. So we're excited and really appreciate uh him getting here. So with that, anybody else got anything?

I just want to thank Wayne again, echo your statements, Mr. chair that appreciate all your hard work and keeping the wheels on the wagon and you uh you got a lot less hair now than you did when you started. [laughter] But we appreciate all your hard work, Wayne. Thank you, Wayne. Thank you. Thank you, Wayne. All right. Well, with that, then I'll turn our meeting over to our county manager for our organizational meeting. Each year, we have to choose a chair and a vice chair. And uh so I'll allow and turn this over to Mr. Fox to run that portion of the meeting uh and accepting nominations and a vote there. So

thank you chair. Um as part of the 2026 upcoming calendar, uh we are going to be opening of the floor for nominations for um chair of the county commissioners. Mr. County uh manager, I I nominate Randy Church for chair. Do we have a second? Second. So, we got a first and a second. Any discussion? How do you vote?

We'll vote. [laughter] I All right. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. Turn it back over to you, Mr. Chair. Well, let's do vice chair as well. Yeah. So, we'll allow you to do vice chair as well. Yes, sir. I apologize. First, that's okay. Yep. Do we have a nomination for vice chair for I'd like to nominate Mike Leo to be vice chair. Okay. I'd like to nominate Patrick Star to be vice chair. Okay. So, we have a first for Mr. Leo.

I'll second for Mr. Leose. We had a first at the same time from Mr. Stars. So, first motion I believe was for Mr. Leo and then second for Mr. Lose was here. Correct. All right. So, how do we vote for the motion that's on the floor? All in favor of Mr. Leo. We'll raise our hands. [laughter]

All right. Opposed Mr. Rose is vice chair. All right. So, thank you for handling that portion of our meeting and required each year to do that. And we're also required each year to meet on the first Monday night in December. And a lot of folks don't realize that. And that's the reason we're here on December the 1st, among other things. And uh so uh but we do appreciate everybody's attention and and uh the opportunity to continue serving. And so I appreciate this board as well. That brings us to our next item, which is the adoption of our 2026 meeting calendar. And I trust everybody's had an opportunity to look over that. Uh our staff put together that meeting calendar and we've made sure to stay off of the uh holidays and election days and the various things that would impact that. Uh so uh if I'll entertain a motion uh that we adopt the 2026 meeting calendar.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we adopt the 2026 meeting calendar as proposed to us. All right. Any other discussion or comment about that? All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? And that motion carries unanimously as well. And then that brings us to item four on our agenda and that is Mr. Jesse Trivet is with us this evening from our EDC board and he's going to talk to us about uh applying for a USDA loan. So, welcome Jesse. Thank you, sir. Good morning. Good evening, gentlemen. I'm trying to rush the day even into tomorrow so we can make that 6:30 deadline. Yes, sir.

So, uh staff is requesting board approval to apply for funding through the USDA rural economic development loan and grant otherwise known as a red leg program. The Redle loan program provides zero interest financing to eligible rural utility organizations which then pass those funds to local projects that will create or retain jobs within our rural communities. So what we're expecting is a partnership between Blue Ridge Energy, North Carolina Electric Cooperatives, Evergreen, and Caldwell County. Now what that looks like is following slide, please. Thank you. Thank you. Uh just general basics. The red long lead loan is up to a million dollars. That's 0% for up to a 10-year term. It does require a 20% match. Now, this is where the county comes in for this portion of course. Uh but the 20% match will be satisfied with funds appropriated through the Evergreen Development basically through the uh uh Appalachin uh commission and the green golden leaf grants that we've already received. So, our 20% match will be given through those. So there'll be no county money spent on that portion

because simply we've already appropriated put money through those grants. So it's already matched.

Second part of the red leg. Nope. Went back please. Sorry. The second part of the leg red leg is a grant. Not really a grant. It is an additional loan, but it's an additional $3 million that we can apply for. Again, it's zero interest. It too has a a 10-year term. It requires a 20% match, but that 20% match is paid by the utility. So, the co-op utility that we're using, which in this case is Blue Ridge, Blue Ridge is also throwing in another $6,000 to that. So, our total loan that we're going to be asking for is 1,360,000 and that's what could be awarded if our grant is successful. So, finally, just some real requirements of the um red leg loan. Both the Red Leg loan and the red leg grant are pass through loans. That simply means that it's going to go to Blueridge. Blue Ridge will pass that through to us. We get the same terms and commitment, of course, 0% interest, 10-year loan term uh that they get. The deadline for the grant, which is why we're in front of you today, is December 31st. Notification of the award usually takes about three months. We won't know for quite some time. However, the entire process could take up to nine months. So, but right now, we're expecting some information within the next three to six months. Finally, if awarded, the borrower must adhere to the Build America by America Act. That means all of the steel, all of the metal, all of the products that we use in our building will need to be not only made in the United States, but um built and made right here. So, we're we're really happy for that part to be um

good a paramount of of this loan. Yes, sir. That's great. Any questions? I know that's very quick. Very damn good. You did a good job. Great job, Jesse. Mhm. Okay, Jesse, what's this loan going to be used for? So, this loan is actually going to be used for the construction of a shell building at Evergreen. So, um we're going to pull aside about a 7 acre plot. It'll be our first 50,000 square foot shell building that Caldwell County will own and operate. And uh it's our first real progress in Evergreen in a really long time. So, it's uh our brand new um industrial park is coming to fruition. We're looking forward to working on it. Yes, sir. Any other questions?

All right. So, you need authorization to apply for this red leg grant loan. Yes, sir. This evening. And he told me all he needed was to know yes or no. So, I'll entertain a motion uh if somebody would make it for him to be able to apply for this loan through our EDC. Mr. Gentlemen, I make a motion we apply for the USDA red leg loan. All right. Any other discussion or comment? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? And that motion carries. And so, thank you for a brief u presentation, Jesse.

Thank you. We we talked a little bit before the meeting and I u we have our uh new manager and his family was all here and he said they're all hungry and I said I'm going to try to get you out here quick enough to go eat with them. Uh this may be one of the shortest meetings he ever has but uh we're we're aiming at it Shane. All right. [laughter] So that brings us to our consent agenda this evening and Mr. Fox if you'll go over our consent agenda please.

Thank you board chair and rest of the board. We'll start number five consent agenda. This is for approval and acknowledgement of the review of our surity bonds. That's for the sheriff, the registered deeds, tax administrator, administrating, administrator, finance director, and manager. Number six is a grant through the North Carolina Community Foundation grant. That's for the sheriff's department. That does not require a match. And if no items if the grants not received, then no items will be purchased. Number seven, this is acceptance of a $50,000 grant through the North Carolina Railroad Micro Program. Um that is for a preliminary engineering report to um analyze the sewer from Lenor to the airport. And this is kind of phase number two for the um future EDA application process that we'll go for in March. Um number eight is a budget amendment through the health department and uh or sorry write off through the health department. This is for their small debt. There's a total of 124 accounts. Um total amount $5,186 which is about $42 a piece. And this is an annual write off process that we do to clean the books up. Number nine is our budget um revision. Um this is the only budget revision for tonight. It's a um addition of funds through a grant. It's um grant received through the community care physicians network. It's for meeting quality benchmarks and reducing cost in the Medicaid program and that is an additional $41,487.37 coming to the county. um through that grant program. Um number 10 is a um approval to apply for a DEEQ grant. This is on the back side of the lean. Um this would be an ask for a $3 million um grant through DEEQ and this would be for capital upgrades. Most of that going to the Mount Herman Shar Road convenience sites. Um there is no match that's

included in this. This would be money to the county. um that process um would begin um or the approval would begin or have in 2026 again. So no no money is needed from the county and this would be utilized primarily to upgrade the Mount Herman and Sher Road convenience sites along with some capital that would go for each one of those. Um number SE 11 we did have um an amendment to earlier. Uh this is for overall the approval of contractual services with Govtech and it's for personal property auditing. This was included in the budget. So this is not asking for additional monies. This is just approving the contract that was included in the 2526 budget process. The one amendment that we wanted to add um through suggestions of our attorney is to also include that the board cancel the agreement with Evans and Associate Consulting Group. Um that agreement was dated on or about July 1st, 2022 and that the county would provide staff 30 days of written notice to Evans and Associates Consulting Group for the cancellation. So we want to make sure that's included in the motion and for the record. Is that correct, Mr.

Number 12 is the reduction of interim manager salary and return to the budgeted registered deed salary. Number 13 is the approval of the minutes. And then 14 is the addition of the amendment to the audit contract due to the federal government shutdown. Um the audit um schedule of federal and state awards which is prepared by the federal government through mostly DSS and health grants have been delayed. Um the overall financial audit is complete. Um but the section in the back which is that schedule of fellow state awards has not been completed by the audit firm and they expect to have that done this month. Um however it will be January before they're able to come and do the presentation. January 26 is what the schedule date is.

All right. So, hearing all the the uh items on our consent agenda, well, what's the pleasure of the board in adopting that agenda this evening? Mr. Chair, I move that we accept this evening's consent consent agenda as the county manager has presented. All right. Any other discussion or comment? All in favor say I. I.

I. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously as well. And so, that brings us to a portion uh this evening uh of close session. and we're going to enter into that. I'll make a motion that we go into close session under North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11A4. And this is uh in U disclosure of an economic development u action. I guess we're going to have a presentation in in our close session in that. We don't expect any decisions coming out of that. for those that may be wanting to hear anything. We don't expect a decision out of that close session this evening. So with that motion, anybody have any questions or comments? If not, I'll call the question. All in favor of entering into close session signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? And I have motion carries as well. So again, thank you everyone. We tried to get into a record tonight. I was I'm I'm clocking 23 minutes for your first meeting.

That's impressive. That it'll be the only one that's that short. [laughter] But we do appreciate everyone being here this evening, everybody tuning in. And I do want to wish you a merry Christmas coming out of this meeting and enjoy your holiday season. And uh God bless you all. So again, thank you uh for being here. Thank you to our employees and all that you do for Caldwell County. So have a good evening.