County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everybody, to the July 20th Clark County Board of Commissioners meeting. Commissioner Waldrop, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I will. 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.

Vice Chairman Mansfield, will you lead us in the invocation?

Very well, Valor Heads. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege to serve our community today. We ask for your divine wisdom, guidance, and spirit of cooperation as we address the important matters before this county board. Grant these commissioners discerning hearts to make fair, just decisions that honor you and protect our citizens. May unity and civility guide every word spoken in this chamber. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. In accordance with the State Government Ethics Act, it is the duty of every board member to avoid both conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflict. Does any board member have any known conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict with respect to any matter coming before the board this evening? If so, please identify the conflict and refrain from any undue participation in the particular matter. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda?

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented.

Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Waldrop. All in favor? Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

So moved.

Motion by Commissioner Shin, seconded by Commissioner Moore. All in favor? It carries. Next, we have a public hearing on revisions to Chapter 3, Animal Section 320. Oh, I got ahead of myself. Next is public comment. Mr. Chuck Linder.

Thank you, sir. Chuck Linder, Atlantic Beach. I represent Moorhead City Little League. Folks, I could very well put this easily in an email, but I think at times it deserves a little face-to-face. And I want to really thank you guys sincerely from Moorhead City Little League.

That was a test, just to see if you were paying attention.

It's been a long weekend. But really, thank you for showing some love. I know we've had conversations about parks and rec and youth fields and all that. But thank you for showing some love this spring to the parks, Swenson Park especially. You put some funds into that. It's been noticed. We just completed our Crystal Coast Woodbath World Series. Last year, 63 teams. This year, 84 teams. So we had teams from Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Michigan, Albany, New York. They all came to the Crystal Coast for a weekend of baseball. The good Lord spared us with the rain. Had a little lightning yesterday. Stopped a couple games, but we got it going. We got it in. Numerous comments about the condition of the fields and that's a tribute to you folks sharing the love Tina pure for parks and rec Charlie Smith making some good hires We've got two young park attendants out there Ian and Jacob that Sun up the Sun down We're knocking it out. They knocked it out of the park keeping the fields up keeping them prepped getting them ready for the next day and Numerous comments from the people that traveled here, the condition of the fields, the Crystal Coast. It's hard not to come to the beach and enjoy it, but when you got a good opportunity to play baseball on good fields, it made it better. I think everybody went home happy. We did leave a little financial impact away from Carter County because we did not have enough 60, 90 field to accommodate the 13, 14, 15 year old kids. They had to go to Swansboro, Creekside, and Newbern, and Havelock. So if we could continue to have some communication about getting more fields in this county, I do feel like I'd much rather put my investment, my tax dollars into helping the youth when they're young instead of having to put in more funds into, and I am a law enforcement guy, I love them to death, but I'd rather help kids at a young age than have to put them in jail when they're older. So that's why I'd like to see more recreational opportunities for every organization, sports organization in this county. They're all hurting for lack of fields. Soccer, football, lacrosse, baseball. Anything you can think of, we need more fields. I have a three-year-old granddaughter who's gonna start playing softball, baseball. You'll be seeing a request for new dugouts and some batting cages on field four at Swenson. That's coming in the mail. But I really thank you all very much for showing the love to the county parks and rec. It's been needed, and I hope you can continue.

Mr. Chet, before you go, a nice tournament-size facility like to have in Wilson or Rocky Mount, what kind of economic impact do you think that would have to this area?

You had a young lady named Melissa who came back here in the spring when we were coming quite often. And she had figures for that of what the Berg Complex in Wilson was doing, like $44 million a year. If you had, and that facility's 110 acres, you had baseball fields, softball fields, soccer fields, lacrosse fields, pickleball for the old folks, which I don't play pickleball. You if you've got that type of facility Rocky Mount Raleigh If you remember the property we looked at on 24 Was 120 acres and the developer was going to share another 40 acres with us. That would be 160 acres That's centrally located 70-some percent of your youth in this county is west of the Beaufort Causeway Bridge. We had teams from down east come into Moorhead to practice.

I saw a big crowd at Eastern Park this weekend.

You had kids at Eastern Park, Western Park, Fort Bend, Swenson Park, East Carteret. We could not get Crowetown High School fields. That's why they had to go to Swansboro, Sanders Park, Creekside, and Havelock. 60 to 90 fields. We had a lack of them. There would have been a much better financial impact for Carteret County had all those teams been able to play inside Carter County.

Okay, thank you.

Look at that Burt Complex in Wilson. That's what we're trying to model. Thank you.

Next, we have Kate and Graham Teal. If you will, come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes.

My name's Graham Teal. My wife Kate and I moved back from Wilmington, North Carolina. Just got here a couple weeks ago. We're building out a club. Got a rising ninth grader that's a promising tennis player, getting a lot of looks already in college. And to be honest with you, when we were here before, they were an elementary school. And I'd always seen nice baseball, softball facilities at East Colorado High School. And we met Coach Link when we came in and wanted to meet Emerson. He'd seen a lot of videos with our camp. And we went to the tennis court area, and we were shocked. I sent you pictures in the email. So then we asked him, are they practicing on the facility? And he said, yes. So we were more shocked. It's simply that facility there is an ER situation waiting to happen. And we can forward those emails and the pictures and everything. Since then, spoke with the AD, the principal. We know the superintendent really well. So I spoke with Richie. And Richie said, definitely get in touch with you, Chad. Our concern is they won the conference this year, as the boys did. The girls won. in doubles, and they don't have a facility at all to grow their program. We've got to start practicing two weeks from today on the city courts. I don't know if y'all have seen the city courts lately, but the pickleballers have come along and have pushed the nets down to where they're two feet tall. You got to have them three feet tall in tennis. I have called three separate times, left voicemail, got nothing back, just letting them know, trying to help Coach Link. If you know Tanner Link, great guy. He does both programs, but he also does fishing with his father. That's his summer job as a teacher, which all teachers have something to do during the summer. So I've tried to help kind of get it going, even though I can't coach. The other swing side of that, she's a Type 1 diabetic, so we moved back here and I want to commend the school system because the nurses are on board with Type 1 diabetic and they are not in New Hanover County whatsoever. That's why we're back here for the most part when they say 9 out of 10 versus a 4 out of 10. That's a huge difference. So I want to commend the school system for that because it was a phenomenal experience here. Karen Wood was our principal then and this is God's country. But when we saw those courts, it's not just about our kid. I wouldn't want to have a PE class on that facility. Anybody knows, if you want to grow a program, you really need to have it on campus. And right now, they're just scrambling, trying to find somewhere to practice. I know that there's some talk with email, we were exchanging, they were talking about having six more courts, maybe with a possibility, but as far as practice, they have nowhere on campus, and they're the only school that I understand, it's really, there's nothing been thrown at them. I think some of them was turned down a couple years ago, according to Dr. Paylor, but other than that, I've seen nothing. So really it's more of a question. So you guys, I don't know what's been talked about. I didn't expect this. When my wife and I got here, we were like, wow, we've got to come down here tonight and at least try to get things going with it. Because she's got four years there. We care about the FCA program, the Young Life program. You'll see us involved completely in the school system. But they do not have a facility at all. I mean, I'm kind of shocked that it was ever built there. It looks like it would be a great parking spot for my former football, baseball guy. You'll see me trying to help out there too. I think there was something brought up by the Before, it was going to be by the offices in that lot there, which I think would be a perfect spot for four to six courts. But that's kind of where we are. I guess I was just shocked that they didn't have anywhere to practice.

We're aware of it, and we're in talks with the school system, and hopefully some positive change will come soon. Appreciate you hearing me. Thank you for coming.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Next, we have a public hearing on the revision to Chapter 3, Animals Section 321 and 322, regarding dangerous dog procedures, appeals, and enforcement. Ms. Nina Oliver and Jessie Dale.

All right, good evening, commissioners. Good to see you again. We were here last month talking about the dangerous dog ordinance. Um, and we're going to be talking to you about it again. Um, as, uh, commissioner Chadwick said, I'm Nina Oliver. I'm the health director and this is. Jesse Dale, Assistant Health Director. The revisions that we will discuss with you today incorporates the feedback that you all gave us last month. So I want to make sure you all have time to find the ordinance because we're going to be going over some. So the revisions will do a few things. They'll clarify the process for which a dog is deemed to be dangerous or potentially dangerous by animal control. They will state the appeal process for dog owners. They will state the initial and ongoing requirements for owners of dogs designated as dangerous. And then they will clarify the penalty for violations of sections 3-21 and 3-22. of the dangerous dog ordinance chapter three animals. So in your packet, you will find the chapter three dangerous dog ordinance. I want to just share with you the black text, so everything that's in black is not changing from the current ordinance language. The green, the green text, is either an addition or a revision to the ordinance. The red is what is being removed. And most importantly, what we're gonna be discussing today is the yellow highlighted areas or the addition or deletions from the feedback that you all proposed or shared with us on June 15th. So I am going to go quickly through the yellow. If you look at the ordinance, you'll see the yellow highlights. I'm going to hit some really big portions or the areas that you guys focused on last time. So the first page, A to A. So you go to the A section, number two. Underneath number two is A. We have added to the... definition of a potentially dangerous dog. So that would be inflict a bite on a person that results in broken bones or disfigurating lacerations or requires required cosmetic surgery or hospitalizations or require stitches. So that was added to this. Um, I am going to flip to the next page. So here we're looking at, um, if there is an incident with a dangerous dog or potentially dangerous dog that is reported, animal control will investigate and they will confine the dog to the shelter for observation for a period of 10 days. not seven, which was seven before. So it's now 10 days. And that is to give animal control additional time to do some investigation. Also added in number one under C, all charges and fees are required to be satisfied before the animal can be released to its owner, if it's released to its owner. If we go down to the C5, Basically, that's if animal control finds the dog to be dangerous or potentially dangerous, that can be appealed. That will give that individual, instead of three days, seven days to appeal. The director of public health shall have the determination regarding the appeal within 10 days. If that comes to me, I need to have a written answer of appeal within 10 days to that individual. The decision will be final from the public health director. Any further appeal desired will be heard in general courts of justice in Carteret County, North Carolina. So that has been added as well. If the dog is determined, by animal control to be dangerous or potentially dangerous, the dog shall remain impounded at the animal shelter until the owner has satisfied the provisions listed below regarding a secure enclosure. So then we go down to the next paragraph. The following will be, the owner shall be given 20 days instead of 14 days. in order to comply from the provisions. Um, if, if the dog is found dangerous or potentially dangerous failure to comply with secure enclosure provisions in the specified timeframe will be deemed as a relinquishment of ownership and the dog will become the property of the animal shelter operator. All charges and fees are required to be satisfied before the animal can be released. And then I'm not going to go over these because they were here before, but these, the bottom part, and then when you flip to the next page, the top part are all the provisions that need to be in place. In addition to that, we spoke a little bit about having the dog also microchipped and sterilized. We have given the owner, instead of 20 days, a period of six months. And that was extended because the amount of time it could take to get an animal sterilized and microchipped. The owner must provide documentation to animal control regarding the procedure that it has been completed. So the last page, if you flip to the last page, I would go down, fall down to G and F. If animal control makes the determination that a dog cannot, so let me back up. Let's go down to, huh? Yeah, it's an F. Let's go to F. The owner, including the animal shelter operator, if applicable, will not give away, sell, trade, place for adoption, or otherwise transfer the dog without written permission from animal control and written notification to the person taking possession of the dog about the dog's dangerous behavior, if applicable. So then we go down to G and it says, if animal control makes the determination that a dog cannot be transferred, the animal will be surrendered to the animal control shelter and the prohibition regarding transfer will be communicated in writing to the animal control operator. Dangerous dogs deemed ineligible for transfer may be euthanized by the animal control, animal shelter operator at the discretion of animal control. F, if you go down again, violation of this section or failure to comply with restrictions and notification requirements is a class three misdemeanor.

I see that.

Uh, we, we see it. We'll fix that. Uh, punishable by a fine not to exceed $100 or imprisonment for not more than 30 days. Also, if a dangerous dog attacks somebody and causes physical injury that require medical care costing more than $100, the owner may be charged with a class one misdemeanor. So those are, all the changes we made considering your feedback from last meeting.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Oliver. We now need to go into a public hearing. Is there a motion to go into public hearing?

So moved.

Motion by Commissioner Walbert. Seconded by Commissioner Moore. All in favor? We are now in public comment. Public hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak to this matter? Yes, ma'am. If you'll come forward and state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes.

Good evening, commissioners. I am Brandi Orth and I live at 127 Carefree Lane. As you might remember, I gave public comment at your June 15th meeting at the first reading of the dangerous dog ordinance. I was attacked by a Doberman who was off leash. He knocked me down, causing me to black out, bit me in the stomach, ripped my little dog from my arms and viciously attacked and severely harmed the little dog. I am here to request that you add language in item 2A, defining potentially dangerous dog, to include my experience. I consider my attack to have been done by a dangerous dog. The dog bite did puncture my skin and required me to seek medical attention. Luckily, I did not require stitches, but I did require antibiotics. So I request that you add or require medical attention to item two a, I also want to point out that your proposed language suggests or require stitches plural. In my view, a resident requiring only one stitch by a dangerous dog should meet this definition. Please include clarifying language to include a singular stitch or more than one stitch would also meet the dangerous dog definition. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. I thought we addressed that.

We did not. We looked at different types of language that are in different counties for dangerous dogs. The balance that we're trying to achieve here is certainly if someone is injured and is taken to the hospital and requires stitches or has a major medical condition, then that obviously is a dangerous dog. We have to balance that with people that may be having a feud with a neighbor and decide they're sick of a dog barking, and then go just for medical treatment and don't really have a mark and then say that it's a dangerous dog. So we've got to, we've got to make sure that it's actually an injury that can be quantified before we take property away from people. And we had this discussion with the health department and the animal control folks who are actually out in the field all the time doing this.

So you kind of cover it anyway if you have a medical cost of more than $100. Yeah, you can just say hello at the medical office and it's $100. That's true. So I think we've got it on the dollar amount. So I think what you're trying to accomplish is being accomplished. Okay, is there anyone else that would like to speak? Anything from the board? All right, is there a motion to close public hearing? Motion by Commissioner Moore, seconded by Commissioner Clark. All in favor? Aye. All right, we are now out of the public hearing. Is there a motion on the floor? And this does need to be a unanimous vote. In the absence of a unanimous vote, the item will have to be carried over.

Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the proposal.

Okay motion by Commissioner Clark is for a second second about Commissioner Walter all in favor That's unanimous so the motion the Proposed amendments are adopted Thank you Next we have the managers report

Thank you, commissioners. I have a couple of announcements for everyone. Forgive my throat being a little bit scratchy. First of all, our senior services, Department is getting ready to launch its new respite program for families that are caring for loved ones with memory loss. Our biggest need right now is volunteers to help spend time with participants and assist with activities. No experience is required and training will be provided. If you're interested in volunteering for this service, you can contact Senior Services. That's the Leon Mann Center for more information. Our other announcement tonight is about our Highway 24 boat ramp. We were asked to give a general update about that. I wanted to let everyone know that as of last December, December 2025, we did finally receive, through a lot of effort, all of our state and federal permits. However, because of environmental protection concerns, we did have a lot of strict requirements and conditions. And that's why the boat ramp seems like it's taking a bit longer right now. We're trying to be very careful to follow all of the requirements of our permits. There are some that require us to be very careful with seagrass or to mitigate the seagrass. out in the water. We also have to follow very specific timelines of construction so that we do not disturb protected woodpeckers and bats that are in the forest. But we have this project divided into two phases. The first phase is construction of the driveway. Right now, we've gone out for bid And we actually had to go out for bid twice to get enough bids to follow our legal procurement, um, requirements tonight. There was, uh, something on the, the agenda and the commissioners have passed that, um, one of the items to allow us to get the engineering plans for the parking lot and, um, for the ramp to be prepared. We anticipate that the gravel drive that we're working on right now will actually be completed as of probably early September, possibly late August, and then we'll start phase two, hopefully, as soon as we get the engineering plans back. We hope to go out for bid for the actual boat ramp and parking lot in very early January 27th. which will be hopefully January 2027. And to go ahead and start construction and then hopefully have the boat ramp open either late in 2027 or at the latest early in 2028. And we do apologize it's taken so long, but we're doing everything we can. So just wanted to provide that update. And I'm sorry if it was a little too much detail, but I know that some folks had had some questions about that.

Thank you, ma'am. Next, we have board appointments. The first one is the Carteret County Public Library Board. I'd like to nominate Donna Williamson for a reappointment to a two-year term. All in favor of Ms. Williamson? Next is the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. Christopher Golden, reappointment to a two-year term as the business community representative. All in favor of Mr. Golden? And Kristen Patton, also on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council for reappointment to a two-year term for the non-profit representative. All in favor of Ms. Patton? Moorhead City Board of Adjustment, ETJ seat.

Christopher Masters.

Mr. Christopher Masters, reappointment to a three-year term as an ETJ alternate seat. All in favor of Mr. Masters? Next is the Corrick County Planning Commission, Emory Ivy, appointment to a three-year term. All in favor of Mr. Ivy? Next is the Regional Aging Advisory Committee, Shelby Sally, appointment to a three-year term as an at-large seat. All in favor of Ms. Sally? Next is the Senior Center Advisory Board, Cherry Tripp, reappointed to a two-year term. All in favor of Ms. Tripp? Next is the Newport Planning Board. Mr. William Eason, reappointment to a three-year term as an ETJ seat. All in favor of Mr. Eason? All right. And that concludes the board appointments. We're not going to have any commissioner comment tonight in lieu of summertime, so everybody can get back out there and continue to enjoy it. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion by Commissioner Moore, seconded by Commissioner Walbert. All in favor? Thank you all for coming.