County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Clark County Board of Commissioners meeting. Commissioner Quinn, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

My pleasure.

Next, we have Pastor Kevin Clubb of the Cape Carteret Baptist Church who will lead us in the invocation. Welcome, Pastor.

Thank you.

I've had the privilege of being a pastor here in Carteret County for 32 years now, and any time I find myself in a room filled with people, I'm tempted to do two things, preach and take an offering. It's not passing the plate. No, it's not. in it all right i don't think that's the way that works but i appreciate the offer i do all right let me lead us in prayer here father we uh come to you tonight to acknowledge that you are a god of great design and purpose and intention and uh yours is a good design and you've been gracious to us and we uh so that's why we come to you we acknowledge that We do trust in you, Lord. You know that and you know how we struggle from time to time to trust in you. So we would confess to you that we are faced with situations and circumstances in our community that call for great discernment and wisdom and insight and just the ability to see things as they really are. And so we thank you that you're the source of wisdom. We're grateful for the resources that you have so generously provided to us in this part of our state. We are grateful for the bounty you have given us and for the privilege it is to be able to live in a community like this. And so we would ask tonight that, Lord, as you have raised up leaders in our community, that you would give them great wisdom and discernment, that they would see things clearly and that they would make decisions that would be good for our community and ultimately would bring great honor and glory to you so we give the evening to you and ask your blessings on it in jesus name i pray amen amen thank you pastor thank you thank you

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 particular participation in particular matter involved. We're all good. I'd like to remind everybody to silence their cell phones and devices.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda for this evening.

All right. Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Waldrop. All in favor? All right. Is there a motion on the consent agenda?

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion on the consent agenda to table items 9 and 10 regarding jail diversion recovery services with two entities for the reason of give us a month or more time to evaluate a current contract that we have with another entity and to evaluate the necessity of writing two more contracts with other entities.

Okay. That's item nine and ten. Is there a second to Commissioner Shin's motion?

I'll second.

Seconded by Commissioner Clark. All in favor of taking item 9 and 10 off the consent agenda? Raise your hand. All opposed? OK, we're going to leave those items on there. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

chairman if i may if i may interrupt i'm sorry the motion on the floor to table the item for a future meeting has failed but any one commissioner can take an item off the consent agenda and make it eligible for consideration and discussion in the regular agenda okay so i would say loop back around And now Commissioner Shen, if he pleases, can make a motion to remove it from the consent agenda and to include it as an action item for this evening. If you'll excuse the interruption on that.

As well, I'll move to take them off of that and have a discussion in our regular agenda.

And we'd like to put that down around right before the manager's report. Maybe add nine a. I'm good with that. All right. We're going to move item nine and ten. Remind me of that. OK. Right before the manager's report. All right. So is that an amended consent agenda or that that is?

Yes.

The motion to approve the amended consent agenda motion by Commissioner Walden, seconded by also Commissioner Sheehan. All in favor. All right. Now we have public comment.

Point of clarification.

Yes, sir.

So if that had of not been the case and that had of been a vote right there, I abstained, so I didn't vote. But an abstention counts as an affirmative.

Yes, it does.

So it would have made it three to three. So what would have happened?

um tonight it it would have stayed put and it would have stayed on the consent agenda because the motion was to remove it and it didn't pass it would have been a tie and we don't have anyone to break the tie tonight because we don't have ourselves the tie would have kept it on there right it wouldn't have been a majority vote

All right.

And for the record, Commissioner Moore is under weather and he has an excused absence tonight. All right. Next, we have public comment. Mr. Derwood Hudson is first on the list. And you'd like to speak about a road name change. We're going to have a separate public hearing on that. So if you hold tight, we'll get you on the next one. The next one is Mr. James Jones. If you will approach the podium and give your name and address for the record and you have three minutes.

Appreciate that. All right. I'm part of a newly elected board that has been constructed in the Merman committee and community. And we're looking to establish a public park in the community. Something totally new, something that's exciting. The board members are excited about it. We've already gone throughout the community. We've taken and we've got names all the way up to Garbacon. And so we continue to get other names of individuals that are excited about a park coming in in Merman. And we're also in the process of allocating property. So hopefully the county and Merman, we can come together with this project and, you know, and really see the need for not only for the youth that are spread out for future grandkids that come in and a lot of people moving in that's got kids, grandkids that vacation there. And so, uh, that's a great need for it as well. We're excited about it because it's something new. It helps to develop also the community. It is property that we're looking to obtain that's going to be on the silver dollar road. You know, over the years, there's been, you know, all kinds of bad news or somewhat not favorable news, but we're here to turn that around because there's so many great people that live in Merman and as well as off the silver dollar road. And so we're looking for a partnership, you know, with the, with the county. for us to get on board with this right here and as well as help us out. Because we're new at this here, but we've already started doing the legwork for us establishing an account, 501 . possibly grants, talking to anybody that we could possibly talk to. And so we're excited and we're going to go further as long as it takes. We're going to be like a thorn in your side about this situation. I mean, I got a lot of great friends that are here in the room. A lot of you probably already know me as well. I got a lot of free time now since I'm retired. You know, hopefully, you know, we can keep this thing just on a friendship and keep this thing just rolling. You know, I thank all the commissioners. I thank all the board over there. I mean, I've worked in the courthouse many years, and I was a police officer here in Beaufort as well. And so they elected me because I don't mind talking. But anyway, I don't want to go over the three minutes, but we're looking forward to getting on board with the county. We're excited about someone donating property. so hopefully in that process donate property then we can turn hey turn that property over to the county as a partnership and further this thing is on and so we're excited about being boost on the ground right now but we're going to be furthermore excited about completing this project and not only completing this project but future projects that's going to that's going to take place out in that part of the county

so i guess that's my three minutes but anyway i want to give you guys stick around because you come to the right meeting because the parks and rec master plan is going to be talked about here tonight so you're you come to the right meeting yeah i've already met him so we're going to be teaming up yes sir there's chuck leonard in the background go ahead and talk get him on board with you too Thank you, Mr. Jones. Next, we have Mr. Ronnie Watson.

Well, I looked at the agenda. Thank God I ain't got to follow that. My name's Ronnie Watson. I'm from MLI on North Carolina. And I'm coming to speak to you, and I want to thank you all for the support that I've heard that you are supporting the tennis courts at Croatan, East Carter, and West Carter. I have Coach Sheehan here tonight, but he can verify what I'm going to say. You know, the courts, they might not be important to you all, but you know, sports are very important to our kids. You know, a lot of them, they play tennis, they play basketball, football, baseball, and they go on to college maybe and play the sports. But you know, I know the school bond referendum was passed, what, three or four, five years ago? And there was money in there for tennis courts. And I look at the tennis courts, and I was a coach there 20 years ago, and they're worse. I mean, nothing has been done to them. And the thing, the reason I'm saying this, Jim's, the guys, the boys' team and the girls' team, they have to go to Fort Benjamin to play home matches. And God forbid that they're going down a nine mile road and somebody gets killed. And I maybe hate to say that, but it's the truth. But if this happens, there'll be some lawyers involved and they're gonna bring the school in it as well. But we thank you for what you're doing. We hope that the schools will go ahead. They've got the money. And we need to build it. I've been building buildings and stuff all my life. And if you don't maintain them, I mean, it's like the gym, the football field, or the baseball field, and the track, which hasn't been maintained. I go to other schools in the area, in other counties, and I see they've got these facilities, but they're maintaining what they got. We're one of the wealthiest counties in North Carolina. And why we can't do it, it's just beyond me, but I pray to God that you do it. And Coach Sheehan, can you verify anything I'm saying?

an outstanding program. There's no telling how well the program could take off if we had a facility that was equal to what the kids are putting out.

Well, I thank you, and that's my three minutes. We appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Watson. Thank you, sir. Next, we have Mr. Chuck Linder.

Chuck lender, one, two, three center drive Atlantic beach. I like to commend these two young gentlemen that just came up here and spoke because they're advocating again for the youth of our county. And that's why I'm here. As you know, we're in desperate need of more youth athletic fields. I'm very curious to see what's in this master plan. As you know, Morehead City Little League has been bringing the wood bat tournament to Corda County and other tournaments for the last 15 years. We recognize that the county alone could not maintain their facilities, so we went out, we did tournaments, we fundraised, and we made close to half a million dollars improvements at Swenson Park. So I would encourage all organizations to become interested in bringing outside tournaments activities. It's been proven as Mr. Watson said, other counties are able to make money off of these facilities that they build. And last February, March, the young lady stood here and talked about the bird complex in Wilson. Uh, grossed about 44 million that year expenses were 40. So they had a, a small profit of $4 million, which is not a bad little, uh, investment. But I, I think what we need to think about more so than the finances that it's going to cost to maintain facilities is our youth and the investment that we need to make in our youth more so than. other facilities, I'd rather see the investment go to our youth than more jail space, not that I'm against it, but if we can get our youth at an early age to become good citizens, we don't need to keep building jails every 10, 15, 20 years. That's what I'm interested in. We have grandchildren coming up, and I would love to see them be able to stay in this county with something to do, but right now we're maxed out. With Morehouse City, just approved 310 new units in Morehouse City, our low-league program is going to, we're not gonna have anywhere to go next year. We need more youth facilities. I thank you gentlemen for coming tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Linder. In three minutes.

Next we have Miss Betty Williams.

Miss Betty Williams, is she out there?

Okay. All right, you're keeping James straight. You got your hands full.

Mr. Charlie Collins.

My name is Charlie Collins. I'm from Mohia City, North Carolina, and I'm here to represent Merriman for Merriman Park. Like James had integrated earlier, we got our youthers coming up, and they need somewhere to go, some activities they can come in, play nice playground where they can play in. And we can do this if we work together. And I believe in our heart that it's going to work. And if the county commissioners and the members of Beaufort and Moya City and our community are working together, we can make this happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Collins.

Thank you, sir.

Joshua Miller. Could you state your name and address for the record, please?

Joshua Miller from Pelletier, North Carolina. I'm here on, um, if I never thought I'd be here on a flock problem, the fourth amendment exists for a reason and Carpenter V United States Supreme court recognized something fundamental. The government cannot simply obtain a detailed record of a person's movement over an extended period of time without complying with a fourth amendment requirement. Yet this county has chosen to put a powerful surveillance system on the roads, one that captures our license plate records. They're updating them and getting new information every day. And when the citizens object, we're told, well, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. And that's not the standard of a free society. We don't owe this county an explanation of where we drive. We don't owe our government justification on our lawful movements. Benjamin Franklin, he warned us precisely this exact situation. Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Security purchased at the expense of constitutional rights is not true security. It's the surrender of our liberty. And I'm shocked you guys are doing it in this county right now. that's why i'm here is because i have kids so i have an obligation to be here and make sure they don't grow up in a surveillance state terminate the flock contract dismantle a warrant warrantless surveillance apparatus and bring this county practices back in compliance with the constitution and the principles that you all swore the oath to uphold i swore that same oath many times You can see I'm ticked off. And the American Revolution, it wasn't fought by every American. It was only fought by about 10% to 15% of the population. So out of every 100, 10 guys. And no, sorry, that's male and female. Fortunately for you, I'm one of those 10 that still believe in liberty. And I'm not talking about a historical statistic. I'm talking about the kind of citizen who believes that liberty is worth standing up for, who's not going to quietly surrender because the government says that it's for my own safety. I can keep my kids safe. I don't need the government's help. Protect our rights or we'll find people that will. That's all I got to say.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to break protocol. Mr. Miller, if you wait just one second. Where did you get your research on this?

You can go on dfloc.org and see where every camera is. And I went and verified and looked and saw the cameras.

They're not county cameras. We don't have any cameras.

So they can point them at the highway.

I don't know, but they're not county. You're a commissioner. You should know that. No, sir. There is not a contract with the county with Falk.

So why do we have them pointing at our roadways right now, tracking our movements? That doesn't concern you.

It's probably an municipality or something. No, I'm not saying it doesn't concern me. I'm just saying the basis of your conversation, your concerns are valid, and most of us agree with you. But the county does not have a contract with them, and we don't have any – cameras that we put up so all these cameras pointing right now on the highways getting all the license plates getting our bluetooth tracking they're not they're not they're not they're not with carter county they may be more in city they may be atlanta beach i can't speak for that and maybe we are actually a board of the carter county commissioners not of the municipalities Okay, so you may want to speak to some municipal meetings. Yeah, maybe we don't have a contract before. For the record, let's move on.

Thank you for coming. Next, we have Brian Nicola.

Good evening. I'm Brian Nick Lowe, 1402 Salter Path Road. We appreciate what you all do, and sovereign showing up is important because you all don't know what to address if we don't let you know. I'm here to make just a general comment. So it's about Noah Webster's dictionary, 1828. American dictionary of the English language was produced during the years when America home, church, and schools were established upon biblical and patriotic basis. Webster made important contributions to an American educational system which kept the nation upon Christian constitutional course for many years. A federal catechism was introduced into curriculum in 1794. It gave a short explanation of the principles of the American constitutional form of government. and defined America as a representative republic. Students learned distinctly why a federal representative republic is a better form of government. Shortly after schools became organized under the state systems, the substitution of democracy for republic was made, which was incorrect. Upon Horace Mann, who is also known as the father of American education, rests the blame for removing from the curriculum the study of an American philosophy of government which included the concepts of our Constitution. Horace Mann and his contemporaries made America's early education a ward of the state. Today, the necessity for restoring the clarity and identity of constitutional meanings is obvious if we are to make substantial progress in rebuilding the foundation upon which this nation was established. The reason I'm here telling you about an old 1828 Webster's Dictionary is to make you aware of the globalist effort to omit, substitute, and redefine the meanings of words and phrases. For the globalists, it's easier to change the meaning of words and phrases than it is to enact new legislation and enact pertinent laws. We experienced an onslaught of changes in the meaning of words and phrases during the, following the Stone election of 2020. Remember, they changed the word vaccine, the definition thereof. They changed the definition of recession, gender, gain of function. However, looking forward with the advent of AI, artificial intelligence that is, there is a massive effort by some AI companies to scan and then destroy old books. Once the old books are destroyed, it will only take a couple generations to convince people with revised information. So what I want you to do is save old books, register to vote, get out and vote because we have midterms coming up. Don't let 15% of the electorate choose your elected officials. And with that, I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Niccolo. Is there anyone else would like to speak tonight? All right. Next we have a yes, ma'am. If you will approach the podium and give your name and address for the record.

Theresa Morton, 3813 Semi-Circle in Morehead City, North Carolina. I would like to speak on the mass surveillance. I support the Protection Act against mass surveillance. My rights are important. My liberty is important. My freedom is important. And I think that sums it up.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have a public hearing for a road name change from a portion of White Oak Street to Circle Drive. Ms. Maureen Daughtry.

Good evening. Okay, so we've received a request for changing a portion of a street in Cedar Point from White Oak Street to Circle Drive. It's a portion of White Oak Street to Circle Drive. So a little bit of background, if you would flip the slide so we can see the map. Thank you. The issue is when this several subdivisions were developed white oak street which goes from highway 78 and hooks down to hidden bay sorry 58 highway 58 right um was supposed to continue um to have serve as a connection between subdivisions well there actually is a portion of white oak street that is impassable it was never constructed as planned so essentially we've got a white oak street segment coming off 58 and a white oak street segment coming off of hidden bay and it causes routing and emergency services and mail delivery issues because of that gap in the street so the proposal is to continue Circle Drive down to Hidden Bay Drive and cut White Oak Street so it ends before Circle Drive. And we have received over 51% of approval from the affected owners that are highlighted in red. And we actually received another petition for support the other day. Almost all of the owners have signed to agree to this change. And if, if you all would approve, um, we would update the 911 system to reflect and hopefully fix this issue for that's been there for many years.

Okay.

And here's a picture just showing that it's path is kind of a pathway, not even passable by emergency services, vehicle or mail delivery. Um, and eight owners now have signed the petition.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Nine were affected, right?

Right. And we've not received any, uh, any note, um, that, uh, this disapproves of the change.

OK, thank you, Maureen. We need to go in a public hearing motion to go into public motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Clark. All in favor. We are now in public hearing. If anyone like to speak on this matter, Mr. Hudson, would you like to go first?

I'm Derwood Hudson. I live on White Street. Thank thank you, commissioners, for listening. Thank you, Maureen, for a hard job. Marianne, I am I've delivered mail for 30 years. I know changing dress is a bit of a pain, but it's not that big of a struggle.

But I live here.

My wife has a her dad lives here, so we we we've been here. She's been she's had her place for 40 years. I've been here for nine. I've seen people with GPS that's horrible. Because if you get the GPS and you're coming from 58, it's going to take you here and it's going to take you here. And this dirt here has just been put there. I mean, it was like where the creek used to be and it's not anymore. I've seen ambulances get called and go there. Most of the firemen do not because they've been there on this side of 58, and it's going to turn them on to Hidden Bay. So we understand it's kind of a pain, but we really appreciate it if you guys could help us out. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Hudson. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Is there a motion to go out of public hearing?

So moved.

Motion by Commissioner Waldron, seconded by Commissioner Quinn. We're now out of public hearing.

Mr. Chairman, in an effort to public safety, I'd make a motion to approve the request to rename the affected portion of White Oak Street to Circle Drive.

Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Waldron. All in favor? All right. That passes. Thank you. Next, we have a public hearing for a road name change from Morris Lane to Sea Turtle Bay. Thank you, Maureen. Take it away.

You're welcome. So this is a previous request that was tabled last meeting. Just bring it back. There's no changes to the request. It's in Harkers Island, Morris Lane currently, which we can see the map. Morris Lane is currently only serving two properties and the applicant owns these two properties and they wish to change Morris Lane to Sea Turtle Bay. The road actually does cross Harpers Island Electric, a property owned by Harpers Island Electric. I did manage to find an official subdivision plat that showed this driveway to be labeled Morris Lane. And there was a maintenance agreement that the owners submitted for mortgage approval to maintain Morris Lane. That's all the new information I have. I tried to present the applicant with some history of the Morris's down east, and they still would like to change the name. So.

Okay. Is there a motion to go in a public hearing? So moved. Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Quinn. We are now in a public hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak on this matter? All right, well, I'll take the floor. I'm against this. The Morrises that lived on that road was Laurie Morris, his wife Brenda Morris, and his daughter Laura Morris. And you see these old guys walking down the street with a Vietnam hat on or an Army hat or whatever, and then you see on the Internet where it shows what that guy looked like 3040 50 years ago when he's in his tiger stripe camouflage outfit holding his m 16. He was much more badass dude looking back then than he is walking down Front Street here in Beaufort and or Atlantic or Harkers Island or wherever. So that's the kind of guy Mr. Laurie was in the army, or the Army Corps of Engineers, his wife, Miss Brenda, she was like a home health nurse. But that was before you had home health. They said the old people called it you sit with people. And her daughter Laura, she worked at our crossroads and made those big cheese biscuits that everybody likes. If you hadn't had one of them, you're missing out. So it might be Morris Street today, next week it might be Willis Street, or you go over to Newport and want to erase the Quinns or the Garners or Mansfield Parkway over to Moorhead. Now, where does it stop? So I'm for hanging with the badass guy back in the years ago when I was in the Army and not erasing a part of Downey's history or any other part of the history. And I'm for sticking to Morris Lane, and I'm not for the sea turtles. Not for sea turtle bay. So that's Chris's opinion, and I appreciate my fellow commissioners supporting me on that.

Mr. Chairman, motion to go out of public hearing.

Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Commissioner Clark. All in favor? We're now out of public hearing. Is there a motion on the floor? I'll make a motion that we denied a request.

Second.

Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? All right. Next item.

Thank you.

Thank you, Maureen. You've been with the county a long time and you do an excellent job for us.

Thank you very much. We appreciate your help.

With Mr. Derwood.

Next, we have the presentation and consideration of adoption of the Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan for 2027 all the way to 2042. Matt, right now, take it away, man.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I still have a lot of years ahead of me, so we built a 15 year plan. So last year, the county contracted the McGill Associates to assist with the updating of our parks and rec master plan. The primary objectives were to assess the existing parks and programs, gather input from the community and develop that amazing 15 year action plan. There was a lot of community engagement, which my partner here next to me will get into. But this master plan is to be used as a living document to help guide future program and financial decisions. It is also necessary to have this plan adopted by the board so that when we apply for grants such as partisan others that we have and it's up to date on it. To introduce Nate with McGill Associates, he's been the project lead. He has over 20 years' experience working in Parks and Rec at the local, state, and federal level, in addition to a master's degree in Parks and Rec from UNC Greensboro. And he was the project manager on North Carolina's statewide outdoor rec plan. So with that, I'll turn the next portion over to Nate. There we go.

Good evening commissioners, how are you all? So it's encouraging to hear that you had members of the public that come out and talk about how important parks and recreation is for the county. It's encouraging because you as the leaders in the community saw that in advance and took steps to do this plan. Um, the document itself is over a hundred pages long. I don't think anybody wants me to go through all a hundred pages tonight. Um, I am going to go and hit the high points. You're welcome to stop me at any point in time if you'd like.

And Nate, just to let everybody know this parks and recs, the plan that he's talking about is in the agenda package for tonight. So you can see it as well.

That's right. Yep. Um, so, uh, as I said, commissioners, you're welcome to stop me as we're going through this. I am going to hit the high points. Um, All right, so we're going to start with what is one of the most critical pieces of the comprehensive plan, that being the public input. And just to let you know, on the high notes, what we've gone through to include, to understand what the public wants is a statistically valid survey that's been done to academic standards. We actually partnered with a firm that does these all across the country, so it was done to the highest level possible. We also offered an open survey. that was not only done and encouraged community members to participate, but it was also broken up in a way so that we can understand what the area residents around Moorhead or Merriman or whatever part of the county, what they were interested in, we can see kind of in greater detail what they'd like. We also had public input meetings that were spread around the county. We had staff staff meetings and focus group meetings. Now, what we're going to do is whenever we go through the actual recommendation piece, it's more or less a conglomeration of what that is. I'm not going to go through each one of those in great depth. All right, so the other thing that we did was that we compared your park system against the National Recreation and Parks Association metrics. This is a best practice, and what it does is it compares your system. In particular, what we're talking about is parks and recreation facilities that the county itself owns against comparably sized communities around the county. I'm sorry, around the country. What we have up on the screen may be a little bit hard to see, but what I want you to pay attention to is, first up, before we get into this, Parks and Recreation metrics and benchmarking is not standards. So what we see up on the screen is if it is in red, it's below benchmark. If it's in green, it's within benchmark. If it's in blue, it's above benchmark. The reason why I brought up standards is it's important to understand that if you're below benchmark in a certain area, it doesn't mean that you're failing. What it is actually doing is describing what the community has, and then we'll compare that to what the actual residents want. So as you'll see here, there's several areas where you're actually above benchmark. And a lot of those are athletic fields related. That doesn't mean that you don't need more of that. That just means that that's how your current system is stacked up. Right now, your parks and recreation system is more leaning towards a more active recreation style system. All right, so some of the other things that we took into account are your program-related data. And as I mentioned, just because you have more athletic fields doesn't mean that you have too many. What we have up on the screen here is a review of some of your athletic programs. And what I want you to see is the trends that are going on. So your baseball programs are continuing to grow. Your soccer programs are continuing to grow. And then the one that's on the biggest area down there is total travel ball participation that's going on. And this is a trend that's not only happening just in Carteret County, but it's happening all around the county around the country is more and more athletics is being not only used to encourage local participation, but more and more it's becoming competitive in the sense that it's drawing more people in from out of the area. So why is that important? Whenever we benchmark your system against other comparably sized communities around the county, your park system in terms of acreage is low. And why that's important is whenever you have a smaller system like what you currently have now in terms of acres, the parks that you have can get loved to death. And whenever that happens, no matter how strong of an effort your Parks and Recreation Department is making, your facilities are gonna get worn out, they're gonna get used. And as we saw with this, with more and more people using your facilities, it's straining that system. It's jumping around. That's just something to bear in mind. And that's not true of just Carter County. It happens a lot, that whenever you build a system and you have a lot of growth that's coming in, in particular, especially with you all having Interstate 42 coming in, that's more and more what's happening. Your parks department is doing a great job. It's just your facilities are getting strained. So the next piece that I want to pull up is unmet facility needs. If you look at kind of from the bottom to the top, if you see more red, it means that those are unmet needs. If you see it in blue, it's a partially met need. I'm sorry, in gray, it's a partially met need. If you notice, your athletic fields are up towards the top. Now, that doesn't mean that you don't need more athletic fields. Your recreation program data is actually saying that you have need for more athletic fields, 100%. What this is saying is that you actually have community members that desire recreation that isn't athletic fields. So you have both a desire for passive recreation, trails, hiking, biking, those type of things. And there's also a desire for more of those athletic fields. But right now, both of those demands are trying to be met by a very limited amount of parkland. All right, so why do I bring this up? So whenever we asked through this statistically valid survey how important it was to have high quality, to fund high quality parks and recreation in the county, the part that I want to draw you to is 68%, I'm sorry, 64% said it was very important. The part that I want to really draw your attention to is that only 1% think that it's not important. And we'll let that sink in. We've heard a lot about people talking about how important it is for the youth to have recreation, but this is saying it's not just important for the youth to have recreation, it's important to virtually everybody in the entire community. So I want you to bear that in mind as you're using this tool, this comprehensive plan as a resource over the next 15 years. All right. So how do you stack up? We also benchmarked you both nationally and against comparably sized counties around the state in terms of what you're spending on operational funds for the state. You're actually not doing too bad. A lot of those other counties that are of comparable size are more inland. Whenever we look at another kind of coastal community, you're pretty close to where they're at. They're slightly above you. But whenever we benchmark you against those national tiers, the national lower median and upper quartile, you're a little bit lower. And the reason why I wanted to bring that in and why that's important is you have a destination. Your community is important not just to your residents, but to non-residents. And being able to bring people in is central to not just your quality of life, but also to your economy. So that's important to bring that in. All right. So whenever we we also did some kind of tangential study within the comprehensive plan, Carteret County through Visit NC data, recreation is a significant portion of your local economy. You have $743 million in spending related to tourism. 107 of that is recreation related. That doesn't mean that it's, you know, your parks and recreation department alone, but it is a significant portion of it. and what we're going to get at and i'm going to kind of tip my hand here for just a second is sports tourism is a growing portion of the the u.s economy and it's really important to a lot of different places right now your community just because of your system being so small you're really not really able to serve that niche just yet but it is something that we want to uh that as we're going to go through here in just a second it is something that we think that you should start to look at So I'm going to get in kind of two terms. I'm going to go through. There's a lot of detail within the plan that's talking about how the plan should actually roll out in terms of facilities and programs. I want you to take two major themes home with you. The first of which is most of your parks right now around the county. And we also look to see where the municipal parks were at and also your school facilities. Most of your parks to date have been largely developed in coastal areas and in the sound areas and certainly at the National Forest. It's currently inland. But with Interstate 42 development coming in, we really think that the county should start to look at inland areas for parkland and do some feasibility research into whether that be a nature-type park, a sports tourism destination. Because if you develop a park that is, one, able to serve the residents first, but also maybe in the shoulder seasons, whenever you could, maybe you develop a sports tourism complex or maybe you develop a nature park that's inland that not only serves as residents during your peak times, but in the off season and the and then your shoulder season is also able to put more heads in your beds to to bring more tourists into the area, which also bolsters your local economy. And doing that, we think, is really essential by trying to find some inland area to expand your park system. The other thing that we want you to think about is your program base. Right now, your staff is giving it all they can, but a lot of the passive recreation programs that the community wants, you need more space to be able to offer it. So a lot of things that the community is interested in are things like special events, more fitness areas, programs for seniors in different age groups. But the way your current system is set up is because if it's more active recreation, you have to have additional land to be able to offer more of those program spaces. And it's going to take you a little bit of time to actually get there. So in time, expanding more of that passive recreation to serve the community. All right, again, this was just an overview. What I have up on the screen are kind of what the details look like. I know that you've had a chance to see it. The community will also have a chance to see it. We finitely go through the very regimented list of not only the details that we think you need to pursue over the next 15 years, but break those down into different areas and prioritize them. The other thing that we do is we also give you a list of capital considerations that you should make over the next 15 years. Now, I will say that whenever you look at those capital projects, it benefits you to have a larger list within there that really describes the whole area of what the county would really need with the idea that if it's listed in there, you can actually go after grant funds. If it's not listed in there, you really struggle to go after grant funding for it. And then it's really meant to be a piece that helps you make decisions. Most communities will not go in and develop 100% of what's recommended, but it does give you a roadmap of what you can pick and choose and go after grant funding and move forward. All right. With that being, like I said, I meant for this to be an overview of the comp plan, and I'm happy to entertain any questions that you may have.

Any questions?

So does McGill? Sorry. Is that okay? So does, does McGill stay with us for any length of time after the publication of this? I mean, do we have you as a, as a resource?

I will say, so a lot of the communities we do end up staying on and working with the communities after the comprehensive plan for feasibility studies for site specific master plans for more detailed analysis of the data that we collected. Uh, I'd say that happens probably 70 or 80% of the time.

So we have to have this plan, Matt, ever renewed ever so often to be eligible to apply for grants?

Yes, sir. The standard is typically 10 years and correct me if I say anything wrong. So typically 10 years, we're just looking a little bit further out.

Yeah. So two of the major grants that the state offers, the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund and Land and Water Conservation Fund, I used to manage those for the state. So this plan has been developed to help you go after those grant funding. It is a 10 year window for this plan to actually be eligible for those. Typically a community will come in later and then actually update it. But yes, this plan will help you over the next 10 years go after grant funding.

Okay. So while you were in the midst of this, Did you get close enough to our county to know, or to see some of the regions instead of just saying inland where some of that land might be of interest for, uh, yeah, there are, I can bring up on the map, um, the zone area one.

You're going to have you're having a lot of growth that's happening along the Highway 50 area and then also Interstate 42 as that's coming through, especially around kind of the Newport area and the connecting pieces between that. um you do the down east community definitely had a lot of expressed need so i would not put that off it's just that's going to need to be developed more for local use the your thoroughfares your major highways are going to be where you're going to be able to hit the double benefit of serving the residents plus also attracting visitors I would, the only thing I'd add to that is we actually recommend a feasibility study within it so that you can go in and know, you know, if you put a certain investment level into a park, what's your ROI is going to be on that site and how many visitors you may actually be able to attract with that particular part.

And just of note, you did make note in the report that of 160,000 acres that we have of Croatan national forest, 54 of it, 54,000, you said one third is in Carteret County, right?

Yeah. So good point. Yes. The Croatan is definitely described within it. We also outline not just that, but other recreational opportunities that are found. Um, and. The Croatan forest plays a massive role in serving passive recreation, but it doesn't serve all of the need that's out there.

Okay. Any further questions? We're going to need a motion to adopt the comprehensive park and recreation master plan. So moved motion by Commissioner Walden. So I get seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor. All right.

Have a good evening.

We'll be in touch. We'll be in touch, I guess.

And it's worth looking at. So if you guys can go out and find our agenda package, go look at all hundred and X number of pages of it.

Don't go nowhere, Ronnie. The main event is coming up right now.

Don't go nowhere.

Next is we're going to have discussion about the tennis court needs for the current county public school system. Mr. Richard Paylor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate being referred to as the main event. So I am here to discuss tennis court needs and advocate for our youth. I became an assistant superintendent nine years ago, and when I became up to the district office at that time, we were talking about the need for tennis courts. At that time, we were also talking about a bond referendum. And the numbers for that bond referendum was they were put together in the years of 2016 and 2017. But that bond was not voted on until 2020. As you know, at that time, we had COVID and we had a $42 million bond. And the first two projects that were bid out were not accepted because of the bids were so high. And then we went back to the drawing board with our architect and figured out that for the $42 million bond, we really need about $80 million to complete all the projects on the bond list. At that time, the bond committee decided to concentrate on number one, safety, and number two was capacity of our schools. And so that's what we did. Right now, we're getting down to the end of our bond money. We just approved the last project, the last major project which will be a renovation at East Carter High School. Originally, I was on the agenda tonight to come to you and talk to you about the need. And I planned on coming and showing you the slides of how bad a shape our tennis courts and even our tracks are in. But that changed on Friday when the bond committee met. We do have a little bit of money left over that the last of the bond money and the bond committee decided to bid out tennis courts. And so we are going to bid out tennis courts. We're putting together the package right now. for East Carter, West Carter and Croatan. And we're also going to take some alternate bids for our tracks. So there's needs for all tracks at all three of our schools. We actually have a track at Broad Creek Middle School, but we're going to concentrate on our high schools for now. And we're going to definitely put the bids out for the tennis courts.

So thank you, Mr. Paylor. I think everybody's pleased to hear that we've got a couple million dollars going after the tennis courts first. And the tracks are in horrible shape as well. A lot of settling and going to need to be totally redone and what money we have left over or hopefully in the near future we'll be taking the tracks.

Right. We may need a need from you guys for the tracks, but we feel pretty confident about tennis courts.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Richie.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now you can go, Ronnie.

I didn't want you to miss that. All right. Next, we have our items that we moved off of the consent agenda, which is item nine and ten approval of a jail diversion recovery service agreement with Loaves and Fishes and item ten approval of a jail diversion recovery service agreement with the Merriam. Is there any discussion?

Mr. Chairman, thank you. I was it was it was my request to remove those from the consent agenda. And the reason for the request so earlier as you recall earlier this month we had a meeting with with vendors and the county staff the sheriff's department health department to discuss the current contract that we have with a vendor to provide mental health substance abuse treatment that's been kind of a rocky road since that contract was signed originally So I would like to see, before we sign contracts with two more entities, I would like to see some results or find out if there's any results or if anything's changed, if we've made any improvements or progress following our meeting earlier this month. And then to also evaluate the success of the contract that we have currently and to look at the necessity, the actual necessity of signing a contract with two more entities. I don't feel like we're fully utilizing the contract that we have. with southeastern integrated care that's who we currently have a contract with i don't think we're fully utilizing that contract and we did that in good faith and i feel like before we signed additional contracts with other agencies we need to evaluate the the real need and necessity for them these other agencies have been providing a service To my knowledge, I didn't know about it prior, but they were providing a service without a contract. They were operating, I think there were some insurance issues, which I understand now have been resolved. But also, these are Nothing against it, but these are religion-based organizations. I don't have a bit of problem with religion-based organizations, but the county has to be very careful as to how we conduct business with them. We can't just, you know, I encourage everybody to go to church and pray and whatnot, but there's a time and a place and there's a service for that. So we have to be very careful about what we do and how we interact with those organizations. So I'm not saying that we don't need those additional contracts. I'm just saying I would like to know the exact necessity and a little bit of time to decide if the meeting that we had was fruitful, if there's any benefits from it, if it was productive at all. I don't know. I haven't gotten any reports. uh one way or the other on that from that meeting so i don't think it's a big deal to give it a little bit more time to the next meeting or maybe the following meeting to make a decision that was the only only point i wanted to make in removing those

Okay. Well, certainly I respect your opinion, as always. I don't like having all our eggs in one basket. We know mental health is a big issue here in Carter County. And the Loaves and Fishes folks have been providing a service for us. The Merriam, Tammy Thomas, former deputy sheriff, excellent individual, running an excellent program. These people, when they go to this jail diversion, they are in the custody of the sheriff. So really, we should be approving a contract, or the county manager should be approving a contract. But really, it's up to our sheriff. We have a very fine sheriff, John Nyberg, back there in the background, chief deputy. David Clifton. I was getting it out. David Clifton doing an excellent job for us. And when people come to our jail and it's determined that they have mental health issues and maybe a program where there be a religious program, and I think studies show that religious programs have a better outcome than some of the other programs. I've been told that. Those folks, once they're determined to fit into that group that can go here to these programs instead of being in our overly populated jail, you know, we have 160-some people in our jail that's designed for 114 people. So we have these programs that we can place them in the Loaves and Fishes or Southeastern or the Merriam, and it helps the county out. And we talked about doing this last month, and we did find that there was some insurance issues. Our great county manager and county attorney, Sharon Griffin, went over the contracts with a fine-tooth comb and picked up that they didn't have the adequate insurance, so she reached out to them and they obtained the insurance. And I feel like we need a multitude of services at our disposal, not just one. And the contract we have with Southeastern It's not an exclusive contract. We have a contract to send folks there, but it doesn't exclude us from having contracts with other people to be able to send them wherever they might fit best. So I would like to move forward with the agreements. It's up to the rest of the commissioners what they say. Commissioner Waldrop, you got an opinion?

I support your position, Chairman. I also believe that in the past we've also used multiple opportunities for recovery. Miriam's not new to our program. We've been using Miriam, although they are exclusive to women. I think there is an opportunity for many recovery programs because I don't believe one size fits all.

Commissioner Quinn.

I certainly do appreciate Commissioner Shin's request to consider and go back over a lot of the agreements that we have had, but I feel that the more i've thought about it in the in the meetings that we have had previously that we've done that and that we've asked our the other two organizations that we've had a long relationship with to come up with the insurance that they need we are not in breach of any contracts with any of the organizations that we have currently signed and Again, I do agree with Commissioner Waldrop that it's not a one-size-fits-all as far as treatment programs are concerned. Some treatment facilities, treatment programs and methods of treatment are going to be more effective for certain individuals and not maybe for others. So I'm for moving forward with these contracts. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice Chairman Mansfield?

I mean, I don't have many thoughts. I agree with what everybody said here tonight. But to have a little bit more time would probably help. But, I mean, I think competition is good. I'm for free market. I'm not for picking winners or losers.

Commissioner Clark?

I think the key part of the argument is exclusivity, and we don't have an exclusive, as you've already mentioned, with the one that we've signed. And so I would vote that we just proceed.

Okay. So we need to take a vote on that, or...?

Yes, if you could take two votes, one on Loaves and Fishes and one on the Miriam, please.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve the contract with Loaves and Fishes for a jail diversion recovery service?

Just for the record, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to maintain my motion as before to table the contracts until a further meeting to evaluate the necessity.

So we need to vote on that motion.

You need to see if there's a second on the motion to table.

Okay. Is there a second to table this? Without a second, the motion fails, correct?

That's correct.

All right. So now do we need a motion to approve a jail diversion recovery service agreement with Lowe's and Fishers?

So moved.

Motion by Commissioner Waldrop. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Next, we needed approval of a agreement for jail diversion services with the Miriam.

So moved.

Motion by Commissioner Waldrop. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? All right. Motion carries. All right. We good there?

Yes.

Next is the manager's report.

It's me. I'll be very brief. Thank you, everyone, for being here this evening. And thank you to our commissioners for all the work that they do. A couple of announcements in observance of Labor Day. Most county offices will be closed on Monday, September 7th. It's a little late this year, and we do wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. Also, please remember, we're getting into the month in September that unfortunately is the peak of our hurricane season. if you've not made arrangements in your own household and with pets and with anyone that you care for like an elderly parent make sure to make some plans to be prepared for hurricane season and to have some things ready in your household we all remember some of the ones that have come through and kind of stuck around a little longer than we wanted them to so we want to make sure everyone's still keeping that at the front of their mind and maybe if we prepare really well nothing will happen Right. So, um, anyways, we're hoping, right. Billy's still over there. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, also the board of elections are recruiting and the, and the staff over there were, are recruiting precinct officials right now for the November general election. This is so important and we have training coming up in September. Um, precinct officials can either be paid or volunteer and you need to register, um, as a Carteret County voter before you can be a precinct official. So if you're not registered to vote here in Carteret County, you probably can't be a precinct official here, but if you're, if you are registered here and you're interested in serving, please call the board of elections to learn more about signing up for that. And that's all I have, unless any of you have questions. Thank you.

Any questions of the manager? All right. Next, we have appointments. First one is Carter Community College Board of Trustees, Cindy Brown. All in favor of Ms. Brown. Next is the Carter County Beaufort Airport Authority. Myself, James Falwell, Roy Graham, Patrick Joyce and Randall Ramsey.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve Mr. Chadwick, Mr. Falwell, Mr. Graham, Mr. Joyce and Mr. Ramsey to be reappointed for another two year term.

All right. All in favor of all those folks. Next, we have Civilian Military Community Council Commissioner Marianne Waldrop.

I make a motion to appoint Mr. Waldrop to a perpetual term to the Civilian Military Community Council.

All right. All in favor, Commissioner Waldrop. Next, we have Consolidated Human Service Board. Dr. Joseph Smith. All in favor, Mr. Smith. Next, we have the Highway 70 Corridor Commissioner, former mayor of Moorhead City, Jerry Jones.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to appoint Mr. Jones as the Highway 42, Interstate 42 on the Highway 70 Corridor Commissioner.

All in favor of Mr. Jones? Next, we have the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, Jackson Valentine. All in favor of Mr. Valentine? Next, we have the Carter County Planning Board. Michelle Moffitt to a three year term expiring August 17th, 2029. All in favor, Miss Moffitt. Next, we have the Senior Center Advisory Board. Shirley Cobb, a reappointment to a two year term. All in favor, Miss Cobb. OK, that does it. Next, we have Commissioner comment. Start down there with Mr. Clark, Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Chairman. I'll be brief, but I will make I would like to direct to some comments that were dear toward us earlier as a follow-up since we can discuss it in this forum this county does not have any contracts and in while I'm sitting here we have no intention of getting contracts with any flock camera companies I'm speaking so the NCDOT has control of streets, but the county, you can pull up our budget, and you can comb every page, and you won't find us paying for any flock cameras. So I don't know where you got your information, and I'm not denying that the cameras are there, but this board here didn't put them in place because I'm as adamant against those kind of things Don't control.

Commissioner Clark. Sir, this is not a question and answer session. So you're just going to sit there and listen and the commissioners are making their comments and then we're going to adjourn the meeting.

I'm done. Go ahead.

OK. All right. Commissioner Shin.

I'm over afraid from comment this evening, sir.

All right. Vice Chairman Mansfield.

I'll use my time.

All right. Commissioner Walden.

Good evening. Thank you, everybody, for coming out. Good to meet you, Mr. James Jones. You were a great representative for the Merriman Park. Well done. We hear you loud and clear, and I hope that you're able to work with our parks and recs, because I think that's really the next step is to work with Ms. Tina Purifoy. And we have pages and pages to comb over for our parks and recs master plan, and you certainly can be a part of that for your zone. So thank you, and thanks for all your enthusiasm. Mr. Watson, thank you for have been here earlier today. Thank you, Superintendent, for listening to us. Thank you for Croatan for stepping up and being a loud voice with Mr. Watson. I think we went a long way in trying to get that rectified. Thank you, Brian, for always being here and speaking. And I appreciate being nominated to the Civilian Military Community Council. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Waldrop. Commissioner Quinn.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Students are back at Carter Community College. We're glad to welcome them back on campus once again. Over 1,700 students registered, so that's an outstanding number for us. This is my 26th year as an employee of Carter Community College. I'm very proud of that number and very proud of all the achievements that the college has made during that time period. Things are looking great on campus. If you're in the area, please drop by. We have our women's soccer team that is going to be having their first home match next Thursday. I'm sorry? September 2nd. September 2nd. Thank you very much. That's going to be at Rotary Park. So please come out and support the women's soccer team. Baseball players are already on campus. I got a few in my class. And looking forward to that upcoming season. The street name changes, I just want to offer my opinion there. Because we had two street name changes that came up, and we approved one, and we did not approve the second. And the first one is pretty obvious. It's for a 911 emergency services issue, a lot of confusion as far as mail delivery, package delivery, and just confusion generally for the residents in that area. And so it made sense to me to approve that particular street name change. When it came to the second street name change, there's not a pressing issue when it comes to any kind of 911, emergency services issue. This is just a request in order to change the name from one to another. And I'm going to kind of go back to what the Chairman Chadwick said, that changing these names from our original family names, street names, place names, buildings, towns, This is going to erase the heritage of Carter County, the history of Carter County. We've got to hold on to those place names. We've got to hold on to those family names that are a big part of Carter County's heritage because that's what makes Carter County such a great place to live and a great place to visit. And so that's, that's the reason I just wanted to explain. That's why I supported one change and not the other. And then finally, the tennis courts. I'm so pleased that a decision has finally been made to build those tennis courts. I've been an advocate for that since I was sworn in almost four years ago. Really happy to see that that change is finally made. Coach Sheehan is here tonight, and he and I have had a lot of discussions about this and are really happy to see that this is going to be a move forward. These are much needed facilities. Football, baseball, basketball, they get all the attention. They bring in all the money. But there are a lot of other sports that are outstanding for a large number of student athletes that really build character. And I'm going to say one thing. I did not know that Coach Sheehan and Ms. Ellen were going to be here tonight. But I would love to see those tennis courts out at Croatan High School named for Coach Jim Sheehan. 47 years of coaching. building student athletes, their character, building the community. I would love to see that he is honored for the dedication, for the leadership, and for the commitment to developing young athletes in our community. This would be a great reflection of everything that he has been for our community, for our students, for our schools, for our county. That's all I got to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Quinn. It escaped me a little while ago when we were talking about Morris Lane, so I went back and looked at Laurie's obituary, and guess what his favorite meal was? Stewed turtle. So that's when Jesus said, Chris, do not let the name of the road get changed. So that's why Commissioner Quinn speaks a lot better than I do, but I'm going right to the point. The man, I worked on his car. His family lived there. They were originally from Atlantic. They moved to Harker's Island. But I went back and read his obituary, and his favorite meal was stewed turtle. That was just the sun just come over me, and it was the right thing to do. So that's where I stand on that. The Merriman Parks. I'm all in favor of the Merriman Parks. I want you all to get in touch with James Fulcher, with the Sarah James Fulcher Fishing Tournament. They just helped out North River and redoing the playground there. They've done one in Cape Carter, Eastern Park in Smyrna. I want to put you in touch with them. They're always looking for a project, a playground. To honor Sarah James, she had some disabilities. She passed away, and they have that fishing tournament at Cedar Island to honor her. And they build playgrounds that are handicap accessible, and they do mats. And they have wheelchairs that have big tires on them so disabled people can get to the water. But that's a good spot, and James would be loved. Jump right on that, I believe. So I'm all behind helping out the American community there. I almost didn't recognize Mr. Collins with his white hair there, but mine's turning a little white, too. But he's a good fellow. We did business together for many years. First class guy. School starts soon, so I want everybody to be careful about the buses early mornings. And everybody's going back to school, so I want everybody to be safe. And if there's nothing further to come before the board, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion by Commissioner Waldrop, seconded by Commissioner Shin. All in favor? Thank you all for coming.