Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Okay, good morning. I'm going to call to order the January 3rd, 2026 regular meeting of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners. And at this time, if you can stand, please stand for the pledge and for the invocation.

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.

Proverbs chapter 21 verse 21 says this, whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor. When Solomon penned these words, he was intentional about including kindness alongside of righteousness when living an honorable life. I would invite you to join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the reminder each and every day through your word and through those who have lived before us of the important things which should drive us in our daily life in pursuit of honor and pursuit of righteousness. Let us not forget Solomon's words that kindness should always accompany righteousness. It's in the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen.

Okay, thank you, Sheriff. We don't have a public hearing today. Next will be our public comment session. If you would, please limit your comments to three minutes. And Amy will, there'll be a clock. You got that figured? That way we can keep up with your time. It's okay. So the first person that I've got signed up to speak is Ted Carr. Welcome, Ted.

Mr. Chairman, good morning. Commissioners, when my wife and I first elected Haywood County to move to, we selected acreage in the Bethel community because of the beautiful expanse of farms. We had corn fields and peppers and tomato fields and cattle. It was all along Highway 215, 110, right? 276 and out Lake Logan Road. So we became active in the Bethel World Community Organization to help preserve those farms. By educating farmers about the voluntary ag district and enhanced voluntary ag district and conservation easements, we brought about 500 acres in the community into the fold. Educating the entire Bethel community about the value of the farmland, we were able to prevent water and sewer lines coming to Bethel. But in recent times, in today's times when Levi and his team assess farmland, then there is a exempt deferred tax that's placed on that farmland. And so then if the farmland is sold, that deferred taxed amount for the last three years goes into, I believe, a general fund. But I'm saying it's not necessary. for that to go into the general fund. And you ask why? Because our county manager, Mr. Moorehead, has developed a balanced budget for the year and doesn't need that windfall of the deferred tax. So I ask you, I ask you, commissioners, to place the deferred tax into an account That account would be part of matching funds to leverage state dollars for the preservation of local farmland. So just think about it. The current farming family decides to retire, but the youngsters have gone off to the big city and they don't want to come back to the farm. The Agriculture Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund with the help of collected taxes from the deferred tax dollars, would purchase that farm, perhaps turn it into a co-op, and it would be run by the current farmers. The Mountaineer article that Ms. Amanda Stacy wrote a few days ago, July 22, explained very, very well that trust fund. And she pointed out that the farmland preservation is not about preserving, preventing growth, And I quote, it is about ensuring that growth is balanced and that future generations inherit a county that will still contain the working farms, open spaces, and agriculture traditions that make Haywood County unique. I ask you again, commissioners, please put the deferred tax not in the general fund, but in a preservation fund. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, very much.

Thank you, Ted. Okay, the next person signed up to speak is Mandy Stacy. If I pronounced that wrong, Mandy, you just corrected me. Okay.

Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Mandy Stassi, and I'm here this morning to support the proposed Haywood Working Lands Fund. This proposal represents a practical, fiscally responsible investment in one of Haywood County's greatest assets, our working farms. The fund would allow the county to reinvest its share of present use value rollback tax. Rather than allowing those dollars to simply be absorbed into the general budget, this resolution creates an opportunity to reinvest them into protecting other working lands for future generations. The greatest benefit of this fund is not necessarily the dollars it contains, but the doors it opens. Many state and federal farmland preservation programs require local matching funds or give preference to communities that demonstrate local commitment. By establishing even a modest source of local funding, Haywood County can become more competitive for grants from all kinds of conservation partners. In many cases, a relatively small local investment can leverage several times that amount in outside funding. A $25,000 to $50,000 annual investment in the county budget can present benefits a potential leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside conservation over time. That return on investment is the type of fiscal stewardship I'm sure this board would like to continue to invest the county's money in. More money coming into Haywood County, more farms preserved, and more opportunities for farm families who want to keep their land in agriculture. This fund can also help cover costs that grant programs often will not pay for, such as appraisals, surveys, legal work, environmental assessments, and other expenses that otherwise can prevent worthy projects from moving forward. Most importantly, this proposal will help us preserve more farms and provide more competitive offers to landowners considering conservation easements. At the March 16th Commissioner's meeting, Commissioner Long, you said politicians can speak platitudes about farmland preservation, but in their heart, they don't really want it. This is all of your opportunity to show your constituents what is in your heart. Agriculture remains a cornerstone of Haywood County's economy, culture, and heritage. The decisions we make today will determine whether future generations inherit working farms or continue to watch them disappear one parcel at a time. I respectfully ask this board to support Haywood's Working Lands Fund and demonstrate Haywood County's commitment to preserving the lands that have helped define our community for generations. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Mandy. Okay, our next person to sign up to speak is Ginger Hahn. And if I didn't pronounce that right, you correct me, Ginger. Okay. Thanks for being here this morning.

Good morning. My name is Ginger Hain. I am on the Haywood County Planning Board. I was appointed by this board to represent the town of Waynesville where I chaired the planning board of the town. But today I'm here as a private citizen. I have some prepared remarks to read. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about a practical way for Haywood County to protect one of its greatest assets, our working farms. North Carolina provides grants to help counties preserve farmland through voluntary agricultural conservation easements. But these grants usually require local matching funds. Without that match, Haywood County simply cannot compete. And those state dollars will be awarded to other counties that have positioned themselves to take advantage of that opportunity. I would encourage you to consider 100% of our county's farm rollback tax revenues as a permanent source to matching funds for farmland preservation grants. This is not just another local expense. Bringing tax state grant dollars into Haywood County expands our local economy without increasing local taxes. It's a strategy to leverage our local dollars. This is economic development because it brings new capital into Haywood County while protecting assets that continue to produce economic value year after year. I understand that some of you have expressed concern about the balance between protecting farmland and preserving future tax revenues gained from development. I respectfully suggest that these goals are not mutually exclusive. Even if every viable working farm in Haywood County were permanently protected, there would still be substantial acreage available for residential and commercial development, even with our mountainous topology. Farmland preservation does not stop growth. It simply ensures that growth occurs without sacrificing the productive lands that can never be replaced. Finally, I recognize the very real pressures that you face each year in balancing the county budget. But that's precisely why I believe rollback taxes should be dedicated exclusively to farmland preservation. These revenues exist because productive farmland has been converted to another use. Dedicating 100% of these funds to protected farmlands that remain creates a clear and lasting commitment. It ensures that every acre lost helps preserve other working lands, provides a reliable local match to state grants, and sends a strong message that Haywood County is serious about investing in its agricultural future. If these funds were redirected to unrelated purposes, we lose not only the opportunity to leverage state dollars, but also the chance to turn today's development into tomorrow's preservation. I hope you will consider establishing the rollback taxes as revenues in entirety and as a dedicated source to matching funds so Haywood County can leverage state investment to protect the farms and define our community. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Hayne. And thank you for your service on the planning board. That can't be an easy job right now. Okay, our next person to speak is Dawn Smart. Welcome, Don.

Thank you, Commissioner Inslee and other board members. I'm Don Smart, full-time farmer and president of Haywood County Farm Bureau. I'd like to say we've just celebrated 250 years of our country. If we have another 250 years, we've got to do three things. We've got to preserve and secure our borders. We've got to preserve our farmland. And we got to teach our young people about the value of democracy and freedom. Farm Bureau and its 6,500 members strongly supports this resolution that you put forth today in the agenda. Since 1993, we've worked hard in this county in establishing a farmland preservation ordinance to try to preserve some of the most beautiful farmland in the world here in Haywood County. We got a beautiful county and we need to keep it like it's been. And this resolution is going to go a long way to help provide matching funds so we can get funds from the state and elsewhere to help people in this county that want to keep their farms for the future. So we support you. We look forward for this happening. As I say, we've come a long way, and we've got a long way to go, and it's a big step forward. Thank you much.

Thank you, Don. Appreciate all those good vegetables you grow, too. Okay, our next person to speak is Martha Mills. There you are. I just want to say, Martha, that your daughter, Sheila, is doing a good job with the extension. Yeah.

Good morning. I am Martha Mills, and I serve as the chairperson for the Ag Advisory Committee to the Farmland Preservation. First of all, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for coming forward and seeing the need for some matching funds. We have found ourselves in Haywood County competing with other counties in the state. Haywood County was probably the first on board with this farmland preservation. I served as an ag advisor several years ago and now the competition is much greater. We jumped on board at first and we were able to get several farms in and now we need some matching funds. I know that y'all have been working on this and I want to say thank you. It's important not only to protect our land, but for future generations. We've got FFA kids, we've got 4H kids. They need a way to be able to continue to farm. It's very important, not only just for the education part, but to protect our lands and protect our food system. And we just need to move forward with that. And I want to say thank you to each and every one of you.

Okay. Thank you, Martha. Appreciate you. Okay. So that concludes our public comments. Okay, we'll move to constituent concerns. Just want to say just one thing from the commission is that Raccoon Creek Bike Park will hold its grand opening this Saturday, August 8th. Festivities will begin at 10 a.m. and go to 2 p.m., and this will be a family fun day with a bounce house. DJ, Corona Ice, and Recreation Games, please come out and enjoy everything this new park has to offer. So it'll be this Saturday from 10 to 2 if some families would like to come out for that. As far as on the farmland preservation, I was talking to Don this morning. I feel like maybe me and him both have come kind of full circle. We used to always try to protect our land and everything from regulations and things like that, but Unfortunately, we have folks that's coming into our community now that are doing things that we don't like, I guess you could say. And unfortunately, that's going to keep going and going. So I think this whole board probably supports this. And Dwayne's going to give us a presentation here in just a second. But just to let you all know. Does anybody else want to say anything along those lines?

I just want to tell them thank you for coming and talking to us about that because I'm 100% behind that and I've pushed for it as long as, you know, since I've been involved in it. I think it would really be a help to the farmers and we need the farmers back. We need to do everything we can possibly do to help them because one of these days we'll understand why I believe all this growth keeps coming and we start getting hungry. But I appreciate everybody coming. I'm behind you 100%.

Okay, anybody else?

Yeah, just to add on to what Commissioner Ramey said, if you can't tell by looking at me, I like to eat as well. So I'm behind all of our farmers 100%. Anything that we can do to help our farmers, I'm all for it. Even if it costs us a little money to match that, I'm all for it because, like I said, I like to eat. I even consider myself a little bit of a farmer. I've got some honeybees and some chickens. So I guess I can be considered a farmer by having those things because I like that honey and I like eggs. And I appreciate all the vegetables that all you other farmers grow. And I've even got some beef from Mr. Long there. So I like beef as well. But anyway, anything that we can do to help support our farmers, I'm 100% behind it.

Well, I would like to say thank you for everybody that came out and spoke to this matter. Those of you that know me know that that's where my heart is and I've been pushing for this for some time and it always helps to have somebody get behind and push a little bit. And we've had a lot of people come up this morning and speak and push toward these tax rollback. We've been talking about it for some time and as far as farmland preservation goes, It's almost like somebody woke up at the last minute and said, wow, we better do something. I was in Raleigh here not long ago at a meeting, and some of those, I call them urban sprawl counties, they, all of a sudden, they want to be champions for farmland preservation. Actually, probably, you know, their county's just about gone. I think they woke up. I hope we're waking up before it's too late. And I miss Amanda. I'll call you Amanda. It's very easy to pronounce. I couldn't really hear what you said. Our sound system here sometimes doesn't project well up here. But I think you said March 16th. I said something about some elected leaders maybe speak platitudes toward farmland preservation, but they really don't really want to move the needle. You know, hopefully we can change that. and uh commissioner ensley and i went to the district 17 meeting out in jackson county here a few months ago and for those of you don't know this i've spoken about this several times our mountains have been discovered and they're starting to become a retirement destination and we have people coming here to retire it's beautiful and i was surprised as we were in that meeting and i don't know about commissioner ensley but Every county from here to Murphy in District 17 on the chart as far as items that the commissioners are hearing back from their constituents and something we need to really move forward with is farmland preservation from Cherokee County all the way this way and I was I was surprised it was kind of a unanimous voice that we heard And so I think our legislators in Raleigh are hearing that. They've appropriated some more funding in this budget cycle. And I think Mr. Bill and Dwayne's going to speak to that here maybe in a few moments. But this is a big day. This is kind of a big day. It's on our agenda. And I think we all here are in agreement that we're going to push this across the finish line. And so for everybody that's pushing for this, Thank you. Thank you for coming and thank you for speaking for farmland preservation. I'm all for it. I've been for it for a long time. So thank you.

Good morning. I'm just going to comment on some of the things my fellow commissioners have said. This has been a long time coming. And really since the beginning of the time that I was on the board, one of the things I've said was important to me was maintaining the unique character of Haywood County. I was with Farm Bureau for a long time. My husband and family and I have a small farm in Clyde. We had a new calf born on Saturday morning. That's always a good thing to see. I understand how important it is and I'm glad to get to be a part of this. I believe as a board and as individuals we are, I think we're all excited to see it pushed across the finish line and to affirm as individuals and as a board that we recognize the importance of maintaining the unique character of Haywood County along with obviously you know we've got to have places for people to live but we've got to protect the future of our farmlands. So I'm tickled to get to be a part of it finally and it's good to accomplish things and see the board come together in agreement on something so I believe that we'll see that come to pass.

Mr. Chairman, I might also add, our neighboring county here, Henderson County, they're taking it another step farther. They're going to have it on the ballot this fall to maybe appropriate some tax that will be dedicated for farmland preservation. If you know Henderson County, they're under a lot of pressure from development. Countywide Sewer and Water brings the D.H. Hortons the world, and their farmland is... evaporating because of that. And so they are getting serious in Henderson County and they're going to put it on the ballot and let the people decide whether they want to raise taxes, property taxes, a penny, two, three cents. And so That's something that we could possibly consider here. I believe in letting the people speak, and we put it on the ballot and earmarked some real money toward farmland preservation. I know some of you folks who spoke here, you might want to explore that and find out about what's going on in our neighboring county over in Henderson County.

Okay. I've got some more comments, but I'll wait until Duane comes up here in just a second, just a little bit. We've got a couple of items before that. Does anybody have anything else, by the way? Just constituent concerns?

Yeah. Yeah, I had a kind of busy, I had a busy few weeks and I've kind of wore a county manager's phone out about various constituent concerns and Judy, I think Judy's had several calls and I've tried to help with some folks that's had some concerns there. So I appreciate the staff taking care of some of these issues that's been brought forward. So thank you. Okay.

And also, I said last time, please visit a produce stand because you've got local food being sold at these produce stands and most of the time they're the farmers are the ones that are selling it. So I know the other day we've grown some stuff in our garden and my wife fixed everything that we ate just come out of the garden and it doesn't get any better than that. But I do want to Just ask everybody to visit a produce stand if you can. Okay. So, the next order of business will be administrative agency reports and presentations. And we have an update on the river gauge and siren system project. And our recovery and resiliency manager, Cody Grassley, is here to speak to that. And this is a good time to talk about this because we're about to get into the heart of hurricane season when these things happen.

Good morning, commissioners. Wanted to update you a little bit on our siren and river gauge project that we initiated a couple years back. Want to use the presentation that is going to be used for public consumption later. Emergency services has built this. Allison and emergency services have built this presentation and thought it was a good opportunity to educate you all and the public using the presentation that's going forward here. It contains all the information we need for the update. When we look back and we ask why sirens needed to be added to the portfolio of how we alert people, it's because sirens make a good audible impact to the way that people understand that the emergency is unfolding around them. What does that mean? That means that a siren's loud and it wakes you up sometimes. And that's what's important. but also we were looking at ways that we could mitigate the number one cause of death during storms in Haywood County, which is flooding. We pulled data from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner from North Carolina and from North Carolina Emergency Management and found that that flooding contributed to the number one way people died during the storms here back in 2004 and then 2021 and 2024. And so looking at that data and looking at what's missing from the portfolio of alert and warning, a siren made sense. And it improves also how we alert people in areas that have poor cellular reception, those buffer areas around where the federal lands are in the communities that are poorly served by cellular alerting capabilities. So we looked at that siren system as a potential for how we would alert them. What we got out of the grant a few years ago from North Carolina Emergency Management was funding for 18 sirens. And we strategically placed those sirens in places that we wanted to make sure that people were alerted for whatever may happen related to flood. We placed 10 of those in the Crusoe and 276 corridor, three of those in the Lake Logan corridor and the 215 corridor. Center Pigeon and 110 received one siren down towards Brookshire Drive, or Brookside Drive, I'm sorry. Clyde received a siren there in the town, and then the Waynesville watershed. Once you get past the gravel pit there on Allens Creek, you lose cell phone reception, so we wanted to be able to warn some people above that, especially as the watershed comes down from above them. We also placed two sirens at the Smoky Mountain Events Center and one at Camp Daniel, I'm sorry, one siren at Camp Daniel Boone and one siren at the Smoky Mountain Events Center. Reason being is those are special populations that may be impacted by severe weather that is just outside the norm of flooding. It was an opportunity for especially You know, we could have never predicted the travesty that happened in Texas, but us having Camp Daniel Boone, it being in a cellular poor area, we wanted to go ahead and make sure that we were protecting that vulnerable population. And then Smoky Mountain Events Center, because it's close to Lake Junaluska Dam, and it's also an area where visitors come and may not know how to react to the emergencies that unfold here in Haywood County, we thought that those were two great special populations to seek siren placement for. Looking at the map here, and I'm sorry that, and we're happy to show you an interactive map later if you need it, but here are the placement of sirens across the area. As you can see, the 276 and Crusoe Corridor received the balance of sirens, and this was a Tropical Storm Fred-based grant that we got this off of, so it made sense to link it back to Tropical Storm Fred. but also looking at those other areas, you can see that we have a wide placement across the southern portion of the county of Sirens. How they work is pretty simple. One is they can be remotely triggered or remotely activated based upon rainfall and observed conditions. That means if we see that river gauges are rising too quickly or fire departments call in and say, we've got some water out in the road, we need you to go ahead and activate the siren, we can activate the entire system or groupings of sirens within the system for certain areas of the county to alert people that flooding is imminent or flooding has started. The other thing is that if that should fail, it has a manual backup where the fire department can go to the siren and activate it using a special capability that they have. So it was very important for us to have that redundancy built in. So we have both those options. What do they sound like? As good as I am at singing, I'd prefer not to make the sound, and this is a PDF version of the PowerPoint. This PowerPoint will be available at readyhaywood.com later this week. And you'll be able to click a link and actually hear the siren. But it's a high-low tone. It's a digital high-low tone. Some people are used to the old air raid sirens. It does not sound like that. It sounds more of like a siren that you hear coming out of an ambulance or something like that. And it's meant for outdoor warning and to permeate buildings that are close by. There's also a spoken message into it that some people might not hear if they're a little bit further away from the siren, but if they are closer to it and able to hear, it says climb to higher ground, okay? And then something that emergency services is using as a catchphrase, and I agree with 100%, is high, low, time to go. And that way we can reinforce that if you hear the high, low siren, you need to be moving towards higher ground immediately. How far they travel depends on where you're at. Safe estimate is a quarter of a mile in each direction, so a half mile radius from the actual siren. But that can change based upon valley conditions. That can also change upon leaf conditions, rain conditions. The company that we used pulled a modeling from a national engineering firm that does acoustic modeling for things like this. And so we believe that based upon that acoustic modeling that we place the sirens in the best locations for where they're at. Does the entirety of the Crusoe corridor from, you know, around the Hungry Creek area down to 276 have siren coverage? Not the entirety of it, but the reason being is some of it doesn't have housing. We're concerned about alerting people who are in houses or in clumps of houses or temporary housing like campers. So sometimes you'll see gaps in the map where that might be and that's because it didn't make sense to have a siren for a field. Although we're talking about farmland conservation, 100%, we didn't think that was necessary for every pasture. Again, those tones and the distance that sound will travel will change with rain, with wind, with leaf coverage and everything like that. So we are encouraging people to sign up for Haywood Alerts and go through readyhaywood.com and then watch the National Weather Service and use this as one means of being alerted for storms during disasters. What should people do if they hear it? First thing, they should evacuate immediately and not hesitate. The activation of the siren isn't a warning of, hey, this might get bad. It is, hey, it is getting bad. You need to go. So we're also recommending or emergency services recommending do not get in your car and you should take pets people, phone if possible, and start climbing to higher ground immediately. We find that during storms nationwide, people get in their car and they start driving, they come across water and they think they can make it and then they can't. So we encourage people to get out of your house, climb to higher ground immediately, do it by foot, and take this as a real warning of almost like a firefighter knocking at your door saying you've got to get out now. Again, high, low, time to go. That means that flooding may already be happening. That means that ways to get out of the community might be cut off. So the safest bet is to climb to higher ground. And we encourage people to do that on foot. And some people might ask if this is a drill. We will, the county will, put out a lot of messaging before doing a drill. And it typically will try and choose good weather days, like a blue sky or something that's predicted to be blue sky day. People will receive text messages, sign boards will be put out, so there will be ample opportunity where the public should know that this is a drill. Otherwise, if it's a very rainy day and it's going off and they have not received the text messages, I understand people may be concerned and they may want to call to confirm, but please climb to higher ground before calling to confirm or anything like that. We will do a test drill in the county at least once a year, audibly, just to confirm that the mechanics of it are working. But we do a silent drill every night at every siren. People can't hear that, but it tests the components of it. Because it's an all-electronic siren, there's no mechanical parts. We're at 99% accuracy of the testing. We can say that it will work in an emergency. That's from the manufacturer. No siren near me, what should you do? Sign up for Haywood Alerts. Siren coverage can't cover everywhere, but we want to make sure that everyone's staying abreast of all the emergencies and all the things that are happening in Haywood County, so we encourage them to sign up for Haywood Alerts. We also encourage them to have a weather radio. that can activate during storms and then of course have AM FM radio. One thing that we learned during the storm during Helene is that AM radio was one of the best ways to communicate to people during the disaster. We were able to utilize our local radio station for that. So we encourage everyone to have a backup battery powered AM radio. Of course, always check on ReadyHaywood.com for the best ways to stay alert. They are changing. The way our society consumes information and gets information and reacts to that information, such as a siren going off, is changing weekly, daily at this point. So ReadyHaywood.com is the sole source or the best source in Haywood County for how to stay abreast of all the alert and warning capabilities of the county. And also we encourage people to stay weather aware. The county, the state and the federal government have invested in 28 river gauges throughout the county and 14 rain gauges throughout the county because we want to make sure that when we see flooding happening we can let people know as quickly as possible or they can watch the conditions themselves. And they can do that by going to NC Feynman. You can Google NC Feynman and see those rain and river gauges in live time. But I don't want people to think that, oh, I'll just watch that during the storm. Your internet may cut out. Or the capability of those rain and river gauges to transmit might be degraded during the storm. So those are great informational items, but we shouldn't rely on them, again, as the sole source of information or the sole source of making decisions. To note, commissioners, we added to those 28 and 14 that you see on the screen there with this grant, we added a number of river and rain gauges from the grant that we received a couple years ago from NCEM. So we've increased that number exponentially, so to speak, to make sure that we have good coverage. The biggest reason being is that Flooding starts in the headwaters, which are on federal lands, and we can't really put any kind of monitoring device on federal lands, especially in the wilderness area. It's against the federal law. You can't have anything that moves, and technically these move. So we have to place these gauges around the county in various areas to capture data as close to those federal lands as possible to try and make sure that we're capturing when flood stages are reached. We want to encourage people to make a plan before the storm. Again, there's some resources on readyhaywood.com, but they should consider a couple of things. One is if they hear the siren going off or they get an alert saying that there's a flood emergency, they need to move uphill as quickly as possible. If they are in a known flood area, they should do it by foot. They should have an emergency kit ready, practice the plan as a family on a blue sky day, what we call a good weather day, and plan now before the flood happens. Ultimately, we encourage people to know their hazards around them. There's a QR code on this presentation. Flooding is one of several emergencies that can happen in Haywood County, and we're preparing for as many as we can. And then lastly, we want to encourage people to remember if they hear the high-low from the siren, it's time to go. We're proud of the work that we've accomplished with the siren, but we don't want people to lean on that as the only mechanism for how they're alerted for a flood emergency. And we encourage them, again, to go to ReadyHaywood.com, sign up for Haywood alerts, and seek other opportunities, AM, FM radio, weather radio, et cetera, to be informed about whenever a flood happens. I'm happy to take any questions or anything from the board.

When you have a siren go off, you've got them countywide, they're not all going to go off at the same time, are they? Because if it's flooding in Crusoe, it may not be flooding in Waynesville.

Great question. We have the capability to set all 18 off at one time or to set off like just the Crusoe area or just the Lake Logan area. So we have a lot of options available to us, so we don't have to set off all at one time. Okay.

So, Cody, I've encountered some of these rain gauges just sticking up in random places on private property. This website in your presentation, fireman.com. NORTH CAROLINA.GOV. YOU CAN GO ON THERE AND ACCESS THESE RAIN GAGES IN OUR GENERAL AREA?

YEAH.

ANY TIME?

YEAH, RIGHT NOW IF YOU, FIMON.NC.GOV, YOU CAN GO TO IT, AND THEN YOU CAN SEE ACROSS THE STATE ALL THE RAIN AND RIVER GAGES THAT ARE PLUGGED INTO THAT, AND THEN YOU CAN ZOOM INTO THE NORTH CAROLINA, OR TO THE HAYWOOD COUNTY ONES, AND YOU CAN SEE THEM. YOU CAN ALSO SEE A MAP, LIKE A GOOGLE MAP ALMOST, AND KIND OF SEE WHERE THEY'RE PLACED. And then you can see where they're going up and where they're going down, what flood stage looks like and everything. So it's a great tool for learning about flood risk in your community.

And those sirens, are they capable of an automatic? What's the difference between an automatic and manual? I mean, will they sound an alarm if the inputs from these rain gauges and river gauges... Will it automatically give a warning or do y'all have to manually activate that every time?

Right now, the best option for us is to manually activate them based upon what the fire department's reporting or what we're seeing on these rain and river gauges. The topography of the water basin, like the floor of the river, has changed since Holene. There's more... there's more gravel, there's more, you know, rock, sediment, and everything like that. And so it may take a little while for them to readjust some flooding stages. So we think it's important that we do that manually right now. The system is capable of that automatic activation, but for right now, while they're mapping, while we're doing some studying and everything, we want to limit the activation to just manual, either at the siren using the special way the fire department can activate it or emergency services or activating it remotely with some kind of manual input.

CODY, I'D JUST LIKE TO SAY I APPRECIATE YOUR WORK ON ALL THIS. I KNOW IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. I REMEMBER RIGHT AFTER TROPICAL STORM FRED, I WAS IN A CAMPGROUND UP CRUSO WITH SENATOR CORBIN AND REPRESENTATIVE PLESS, AND THIS CAME UP, AND EVERYONE THOUGHT WHAT A GREAT IDEA, YOU KNOW, BECAUSE TROPICAL STORM FRED WOULD HAVE HAPPENED AT NIGHT I THINK THE DEATH TOLL WOULD HAVE BEEN A WHOLE LOT LARGER THAN IT WAS. SO HAVING SOMETHING LIKE THIS AVAILABLE FOR OUR CONSTITUENTS TO ALARM THEM WHEN FLOODING'S COMING I THINK'S A BIG DEAL. SO AGAIN, JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK ON THIS. AND LIKE I SAID, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, SO IT'S GOOD TO SEE THAT IT'S IN PLACE AND READY TO ROLL. AS CHAIRMAN NANSLEY SAID, YOU KNOW, HURRICANE SEASON'S UPON US. I hope it don't happen, but I'm afraid our storms are getting worse, as the Bible says, and it's going to continue to do that. So it's good to see this in place. So thank you. Thank you.

I want to thank you too, Cody, for all the hard work. Do you know if Clyde and Canton are going to put any over there around like where the major flooding was there in Clyde or anything other than one we're putting over there?

We've been in discussion with some of the towns about where they might want to place some, and then funding opportunities, another grant or something like that. So we're working through some of those mechanics now to see if that is plausible, a path forward for more sirens added to the system based upon what the towns need. Thank you. Yeah, no problem.

I don't want to jump the gun, but I'm sitting here listening to what you were saying and thinking about what will come up next with Duane on the farmland preservation. And I thought, you know, it's a good day in Haywood County. It's good for us to see things that have been concerns of ours, I think, to come to pass and feel like, you know, that we're... We're moving it forward for the people that live here. So thanks for what you're doing. And I hope we never use them. I hope they sound once a year only as a practice. I hope we never have to use it to protect life and limb. It's a very scary thing every time you see the news go on. So thank you for what you're doing.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Appreciate you coming. Thank you. Appreciate all your work. You work on the vials too, so we appreciate that. Yes, sir. Thanks. Okay, next will be Hurricane Helene Mitigation Update Assistant County Manager for Resiliency and Recovery, Garen Bradish. Welcome, Garen.

Good morning, Commissioners. It seems strange to think that we're not that far out from the two-year mark from lean as it approaches. And we've seen that recovery takes time. It takes years to go through. This is the year where we've seen the mitigation and acquisition of the homes for Tropical Storm Fred. And through development services, we have a number of groups that are working to help repair homes on a weekly basis as they come in. I remind the public that mitigation itself is a state-centric program once we submit those packages to the state for their approval with FEMA. So it does take time. And as part of that, once we formed the recovery and resiliency office shortly after the disaster, Cody began speaking with all the citizens who wanted participate in that mitigation program. So I would ask him, since he has been the one that has had so much contact with these homeowners, to come up and provide us an update of those numbers.

Thank you. To date, right now, what we have in the pipeline is 87 homes for acquisition. That mirrors exactly what I said at our last update. We haven't lost any in the pipeline, and that's very good to hear. We have 11 in the elevation pipeline. When I say pipeline, I mean that the state and FEMA are working through the process of getting approval. We have 29 landslide applications in the pipeline. We have seven generator projects in the pipeline, and then five infrastructure projects in the pipeline. Out of those acquisition projects, acquisition will always come first to help people in the situation they're in. We have 25 that have been approved, and we're working with the state to actively move towards the acquisition or purchase of those properties. Where we're at in the process is very early on. They're hiring a contractor sometime in the next couple weeks that will manage that acquisition process for them because we're using the state kind of like our subcontractor and they're going to kind of sub it out themselves. And so that contractor, just like in Fred, will work with people to maneuver through the surveys, the title search, the legal stuff, and then ultimately the acquisition of their properties. Don't have a firm timeline on when this might happen. We're hoping in the near future we'll have a kickoff meeting with those individuals and that selected contractor. But of course, we're dealing with the state's timeline. It's not the county's on this, and we're working through that. The remainder of the 87 homes are spread across two different projects and maybe a third coming online. We'll see probably approval for those in the near future. I'm very hopeful for approval based upon a meeting I had with the state, but again, it's FEMA's decision. I don't want to give false hope or anything, but I'm very optimistic about approval for those just at the state and FEMA's timeline. We do know that those projects for acquisition ARE AT FEMA RIGHT NOW FOR REVIEW, AND THEN THERE'S DISCUSSION BACK AND FORTH WITH THE STATE, EXCEPT FOR THE LAST PROJECT SUBMISSION PACKET, WHICH IS A STATE THING THAT THEY'RE GOING THROUGH TO FIX A FEW THINGS, AND THEN THEY'RE GOING TO SUBMIT THAT LATER THIS WEEK TO FEMA FOR APPROVAL.

Okay, thank you. Anybody got any? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Cody. Any questions? Okay. Sorry. Okay. Okay, next order of business is the Haywood Working Lands Fund Soil and Water District Director Dwayne Van Hook. And we got Bill Yarborough. You want to come up, Bill? Bill? Bill, you had a meeting about a year ago, I think it was last September, wasn't it, when we talked about this?

Good morning, commissioners. I'm Dwayne Van Hook, the district director with the Haywood Soil and Water Conservation District. And with me today is Mr. Bill Yarbrough, who is the chairman of Soil and Water Conservation District. And I want to first thank everybody from the public that made the effort to come here today in support of farmland preservation. It speaks to how important this issue is to the community. And we're going to go sort of quickly through this and look forward to the commissioner's questions and feedback on this program. So I'm just going to make a couple of quick points. You all have seen this. We have the concept summary up now for everyone. to take a look at. I think one of the big points, a few big points to make here is that this is not creating a new county program or a new function. This is to support our existing farmland preservation program. And I think we all understand when we talk about rollback taxes, but just to make sure that the public is aware of land that is in present use value is what we're talking about. And if the property comes out of present use value for any reason, there is a fee associated with that, a back taxes that is paid. And so those rollback taxes would be the funding that would be part of this program. And that varies, obviously, from year to year how much would be available in that pot of money. And the way this is set up, it's up to the commissioners to decide each year kind of how much of that fund, once you're aware of what is in it that you would like to appropriate, to this use of funding. And that brings us to the next section, which are the different things that we would use the funding for. And of course, as everyone has talked about, it can be used to match state, federal grants, and I think that's important. We could also use it to match any private donations or to work with other nonprofits that may have some funding to put towards these easements. Some of the other things that are just associated with the cost of doing an easement, appraisals, surveys, legal title work, closing costs, baseline documents, environmental assessments. These are all things that go into an easement. Sometimes you do all of them. Sometimes you only do some of those, depending on the project. And this money could be used to fill in a gap if we need funding to complete one or all of those tasks. It sets up the Soil and Water District to be the easement holder of any associated project. That's something that we are already doing. And then we talk about some of the different funding partners that could be out there, the state ADFP program, USDA Farm Bill. And I think it's important to note, we have tried in the past partnering with some of the local nonprofits to go after federal funding. And it's kind of difficult to get those here just because of some of the stipulations on what they're looking for. But with each farm bill, new opportunities arise. And in the current farm bill, if it's passed, they're gonna separate out and do a special forestry funded program and change a little bit the regular agricultural program. So we're hopeful that that will open some avenues for us to apply for federal dollars in the future. And having some funding for match always helps when you're doing these grant applications. Of course, any private foundations or conservation organizations, landowner donations. So the initial structure would be that the The board recognizes the importance of the program, does not create a new program. You will consider an annual amount when you have finished an audit and know how much money is in that program. Does it establish any sort of floor or mandatory appropriation from year to year? Requires the district to be the easement holder. And then, of course, I just mentioned all the different things that we can use the funding for. So that is a quick summary of what is in the concept. You want to switch to the... So we put together a draft resolution, and obviously we're not going to be voting on this today, This really just the things that I just talked about puts it in a draft resolution form for you to look at. So I won't go back through all of those. It just talks about each of the different parts of that and lays them out into the different sections here in a draft resolution, which we can certainly edit and bring back to you based on your feedback, which is what we are here today to talk to you about.

Okay. Did you want to say anything, Bill?

Yeah, I could if it suits you. Thank you for letting us be here today. One thing I want to make sure. Talking to the mic here, Bill. Yeah, I want to be perfectly clear for you is how much appreciation it is for the county commissioners. You don't realize it, but Haywood was one of the first with the voluntary ag district. The commissioners had to approve that. It's one of the first with the enhanced voluntary agriculture district. Commissioners had to approve that. You allowed the Soil and Water Conservation District to do the things to make these possible, where other groups would have to pay. You did this because you allowed us to do it. We do the maps. We work with the legal. We work with the surveyor. And we work with the state or the Fed or whoever's funding this. And we also do another part that becomes very expensive. It's the monitoring of it. So somebody has to do that to make sure it continues. Your funding through Sewing Water and your ability to trust us to do it is what makes that work. So we already have a program. We already know what we're doing. We lead the state in a number of easements that we hold. So I think you can have comfort in understanding that we can do this process. The thing that has been missing, obviously, is additional funding, and we've been able to compete across the state. Commissioner Long mentioned that other Urban areas are now involved in this, much is time too late. But because they are, we're having a hard time competing because they can get additional funding from a lot of different sources and then that kills us with trying to compete. So what you're doing is very exceptional and we appreciate it. If there's anything we can do to answer your questions, we're certainly here to do that for you. Thank you.

Okay. Somebody got a question?

i would like to say that you know when i first became aware really of the mechanics of how a farmland preservation easement would work i was i was personally surprised at the cost for the landowner and so you know that could have been or could be a barrier to some landowners unable to proceed or apply for an easement because of the survey cost and attorney fees and things of that nature so I feel like this is a really good, I think this will be of great benefit to those landowners to offset the cost at least of getting started and has made the topic, I guess, very visible in the community. And my hope is that we will see some private funds come in also to support the match. So I just thought that was interesting because that's very costly for those landowners.

Anybody else? We named this Working Lands is what we're calling this fund because what we want is for these areas not to just be abandoned. We want them to continue to have cattle on them or crops, whatever that farm's being used for. When you all see that Working Lands fund, you'll know that That's what we're referring to as farmland preservation. I hope we can expand this as much as we can. I know developers will constantly be looking for potential property owners to sell, to buy property, especially in areas where there is water and sewer. We don't have a lot of water and sewer in the county, but still You know, one day it could be there. So, any property owner that maybe has an idea that they want to do this, you know, it'd be good if we can get as much as we can to, you know, to further this. And I've even talked about a, maybe even have an additional item on our tax rate that goes just to farmland preservations. You know, maybe a penny, two pennies, three pennies. I know a penny is about a little over a million dollars a year. I've talked with Brian about a sales tax. We're exploring some of that. To me, a sales tax would be good. I'm a property owner and I pay a lot of property taxes, but if we had sales tax, then some of the tourists coming here and other people would help pay for it. So we've... we're kicking that around and if we were to expand it to something like that what would you guys think you would need then as far as staff I guess you would need somebody to make sure if we get a lot of these that would enforce the the ordinance or not the ordinance but the conservation easement I guess we would need somebody to make sure we're doing that because I know we have Currently, I know of one, and there's probably some more, where they're, you know, as time goes on, the property owner doesn't realize or they sell it to somebody else and all of a sudden they think they can do what they want to and they don't realize it. And we want to make sure that we keep it like that because that's what they agreed to do.

And that is hugely important. I mentioned monitoring. If we don't do that, and our staff is already monitoring every single one of our easements every year. So that's the other thing that the commissioners did several years ago was allow us to be able to utilize your legal. So Frank Queen right now can do those if we have an issue because that could be an incredible thing. Two or three generations down and then all of a sudden they build something we didn't do our job. As far as how much can we do with the staff, I'm confident with what we have now, we can continue to use that. If it was $1 million, we can turn that around. There's already a place in the state fund for a match up to $2 million. Well, they'll actually provide $2 million for a $1 million match. So, yeah, and I think we can do the same with other private foundations. It's that match. It's like anything else, and I've said this for years. If you can get, you can turn $10 with $1, But that dollar is the hardest one you ever get because you've got to make sure everybody understands that you've got the capacity to be able to make it happen. I can assure you we have the capacity to make it happen because of the cooperation from so many people and so much time.

But the state monies, when we get those, do they appropriate? We only get a portion of those, right? Or if we have something for them to match, they've got it?

It's called an agricultural opportunity zone. There's only one or two in the state that have applied for that, but that's something that Henderson is looking at. If they can get some tax money, they're going to go into that so that the state would match it. The advantage of that is, right now, If we had a million dollars, or if they were to appropriate a million dollars through the state, it's spread across the whole state. You have to compete. With this money that you're talking about with ag opportunity, we get to choose, and that's the farmland preservation group that's been mentioned. That advisory is the one that come up and rank those So we'd be more competitive with that than with anything else. OK. So that would be automatic then? It'd be automatic if you get approved for it. And then that money is safe and, in a way, secured for this particular county. Right.

And see, Haywood County's always led, like you talked about. And I think we can lead in this. We've just got to identify where we can get that pot of money. Because I would like to see us get maybe upwards of $3 million a year or more. Because then we can do some real, you know, a lot of easements in it. People are getting the value that that they're supposed to be getting, because they don't get the whole value, I don't think.

Oh, no, that's the thing. Even with the state program, it's only 50%. We need to make, just like Jennifer said, the farmer is putting a tremendous amount of his own capital. That's right. It's in his heart to do this. It's not something that you can do it if you were to go to a Sylvia Porter farm economics class, it wouldn't be right. You say, you're going to give away half of what it's worth? They're doing it because it's the heart. But it's the next generation that says, there's two phone numbers if a farmer falls down with a heart attack, it's always 911 and it's a real estate agent.

Well, and that's their 401k, if you will. That's the farmer's 401k. It absolutely is. And people have got to realize that. You know, that farmer created what you're looking at. Don't take his property rights away from him by restricting it to the point where he can't do something with it. When, in fact, he's got another opportunity to be able to get most of that back and give a little bit, but not the whole thing, if you will. Correct. And then the community benefits from those farmlands being there.

Absolutely. And with the working lands, like you have it prepared here and through Haywood and Soil and Water, it has to be an agricultural practice. They can't go in and do anything else. So that's the main thing. It's not to turn it into a wilderness area or something. It has to be an agricultural practice.

Right. I think that's what everybody wants to see. We want to be able to see that. A lot of times I'll do surveys for new property owners and they're they move in here and they end up buying a piece of property and they're like, I don't want cattle on it. And I'm like, it's not going to look like, it's not going to look like a golf course when you take those cattle off in one year, two years, three years, the rabbit can't get through there, you know, cause it's just, it's just so grown up. So I think, you know, by, you know, making sure that it's used in agriculture, that'll keep that, that look that we're looking for and the, and to keep the land working, if you will. I didn't mean to take all the time, but anybody have anything else? Go ahead, Tom.

Dwayne, I'd like to ask, I know there's a few counties across the state doing this. Did y'all model this after someone else's document or just an original?

It was original.

Great.

You put a lot of work into that, didn't you? Bryant put a lot of work into it, and we were involved as well. And so I think he did take a look back. He definitely took a look around at some of the things that other counties had done. We didn't just build it from scratch. You should never do that because don't reinvent the wheel if it's out there. So let me back up and say, yes, we did look at what other counties did, and then we built this out. But we wanted to make sure it fit Haywood.

Yeah.

Yeah. I guess my next question, I'll go ahead. What Duane was sidestepping is that amateurs borrow, professionals steal. We did look around, but in conversations with you, right, it's a pretty simple program. The rollback figures will go into a separate account available to enhance the programs we currently have. But we did look, and other places around the state have similar programs.

But if we want to go big, we need to do what I was just talking about, either the tax rate or the sales tax. And I know Bryant's had some ideas about that. And we've also got to have some guardrails. Bryant, you and I were talking. You might just mention that. I hadn't even thought of that.

I think there's lots of different ways. ways we could go outside of, and this, if you look over the last five years, it's about $75,000 average when you control for some of the bigger parcels. So that's a much smaller program than anything where we'd be pledging PROPERTY TAX OR SOME SORT OF SALES TAX REVENUE. KEEP IN MIND SALES TAX, WE ALREADY LEVY ALL OF THE ARTICLES THAT THE STATE ALLOWS US. SO WE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE SPECIAL AUTHORITY FOR AN ADDITIONAL SALES TAX. SO THAT ONE WOULD BE TOUGHER TO NAVIGATE. And then as far as developing a program, I think we need to sit down and see what we're trying to accomplish to make sure that we don't incentivize the wrong behavior about that. So $75,000 program based on current operations and helping especially those that want to donate their land is one thing. But we'll need some time to develop something to make sure we're accomplishing at the policy level what the board wants to.

OK. Okay. Could we do, I mean, I think from what Bill, this program about that the state has that you were just talking about where whatever we give, they'll match twice. It's kind of like conservation capitalism, you might say. That's a way to look at it. If we can do that, it sounds like we need to kind of get on the bandwagon as soon as we can to start taking advantage of that, especially with with the attitude of some people coming in here and building a lot of houses. You know, I think we need to let people know that maybe we're working towards this and they've got another opportunity they can use, if you will. So, could we do maybe a work session in the future? Certainly. I know when this first, let me just say this. When this first came up, we were in the middle of budget right in March. You know, and we didn't have time to look into this like we do now.

Yeah, I think if it pleases the board, we could start working on that and give an update for something in late fall, bring back to you, and then we could incorporate that into the upcoming budget. Right. We're already in August. I've already started talking about mixture's budget, but given... given the resources we're talking about putting into it, it will take time to make sure we get it right.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So maybe, I think the sooner we get down the road, the sooner we can start, you know, maybe collecting that match to get what we need to do the farmland preservation. And, you know, you're going to have more interest, I would think, because the farmers will be getting the value that they should always be getting. But if they do want to donate, I know there has been some that just donated straight out. You know, they didn't have kids and they just, you know, they kept out their house and they just, you know, but not very few people can do that. Very few people can do that, so.

And I'd point out, just as a note on this, this is starting to smell like a need for an actual ordinance. and the program be, figure out what the program wants to look like, figure out how it will be implemented and so forth, and then we'll craft an ordinance, a county ordinance for the process, and that will both describe sort of the funding source, the expenditure process, and perhaps if you start to get some competition inside the county for the funds, some kinds of determination process with that. So I think, I'm looking at Amy because we just finished with recasting the entire Haywood County Ordinance Book.

It's okay to add one. We always do that.

Yeah, of course we're always doing that. But this time, we're going to be... We'll be creating our own first from the ground up ordinance. I think that's what the thing wants to look like as end of the process because you're both setting up a permanent program or at least a program for now, but you're definitely dealing with funding and also multi-year obligations. So, just a note for the process. Okay. Okay.

One thing I would like to say about this is, You know, we've seen a lot of large tracts of land in Haywood County be sold or transactions have occurred and there have been development on them. And my hope would be that with large funding for matching in assistance for the farmer, that it would reduce villainizing a property owner who sells their property. for development. What I mean by that is that what has been available for payment to the landowner currently through these easements has not matched really market dollar. And so my hope it would be that this type of program, a local program, would make it more attractive to a landowner to not to not sell it for development, I guess, is what I want to make sure that people understand. We certainly never want to villainize our property owners, and I believe, Brandon and I have said this many times, he says, I'm a property rights guy, and I believe that we should have, I believe strongly in property rights, but we've got to make it a vehicle in which it is sensible for somebody that owns ag-related property to move it this direction instead of selling it to the highest bidder for development. And so that's what I want people in the community to hear.

Yeah, and we do have a waiting list for these, for the very people you're talking about. And the issue is there's not enough money.

Yes.

So they want to do it. Now, whether they have time to do it is another thing. But that's where this would come about. A good example is this year because Haywood and Don and Mandy and a bunch went to Raleigh and some of us to support the state program. The legislators put $47 million. That's the most it's ever been in it. And we were actually able to fund a large parcel that had been wanting to do this. The family had been wanting to do it for four or five years. And they're able to and got accepted. So your point is exactly right. There's people that want to do it. but they just can't do it for nothing.

That's right.

It's not fair to their kids or to the generation, or it's costing them money to keep that farm. This is the way to do it. So you're exactly right, but I think with additional funding, wherever we can get it, we can make it helpful. yeah that's a good point you got to maintain the farm too it costs you know yeah i know what you mean that's huge and i think for the most part the ones that have we have been successful on this since for over 30 years almost all of them it was in their heart but what money they got was to be able to put it right back on the farm and keep it there so i mean it it's not something they're banking and going to geneva for a vacation

Yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, you got to be able to do that.

I guess my question is, how soon can we go ahead and adopt this? Well, we're going to adopt this at the next meeting, I think.

I'm talking about a bigger program. Oh, I know.

I know. But I'm ready to move forward with the baby step here. and take some strides later. But this right here is good. This is a good start.

I'm sorry. That was the purpose of having the draft on there for feedback. If you're happy with the draft, we'll put it on the agenda for the 17th in this version.

I've looked it over, and I think y'all have done a wonderful job. Any of you guys see a problem with this?

I didn't see it, but... Will the rollback begin July 1? So if we vote on it next week, would the rollback begin, would it be effective July 1 of this year?

That would be the intent that we could look, once the audit's complete, get that in January, February, we'll know the exact dollar amount and the board can appropriate it then. Okay. It will become effective when you voted on it.

So we're going to vote on it at the next meeting. That was the plan.

Right. One thing that's strong in this, you know, there's safety in a multitude of counselors, and there's enough people involved with this that that can sit at the table and make this right. It's the way it's worded. Soil and water, the commissioners, Martha's group, other people. And you know, there's enough players here to make this work. So, yeah.

Okay. All right, so we'll get, and I guess in the meantime, you can be researching possible next step as far as doing the big lift, which is property tax, sales tax, what we might could.

We'll start working on it and see maybe we have something in, like I said, October, November to report back on a plan for that. SOMETHING TO BE INCLUDED IN THE BUDGET.

YEAH, BECAUSE THIS IS A BIG LIFT, AND SO IT'S GOING TO TAKE, OF COURSE, EVERYBODY, WE'RE ALWAYS IMPATIENT, BUT I JUST SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING OUT THERE, YOU KNOW, AND WE NEED TO REIN THAT IN AS SOON AS WE CAN. OKAY. AND BEING ABLE TO HAVE THIS ORGANIZED AND WHERE WE'RE HEADED WILL DEFINITELY GIVE property owners a chance to respond. And just the reports that will go out today, probably there'll be some feedback that we'll get. Yeah, so.

Mr. Chairman, just a quick thank you to you guys. I know Dwayne and Bill both have spent countless hours on putting all this together and working on this and many trips. And I just want to say thank you. You know, again, this is something I feel like that's definitely needed, and I support it 100%. So thank you, guys. Thank you.

Well, all I can say is thank you. I'm an old man to be able to see this actually come to pass. It's just a huge thing. You've supported it all along. And now you've gone to one step out. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for what you're doing.

Okay. You know, let me add, Bill, I've admired you for years in these efforts, conservation efforts. And Bill's the kind of guy that if he was driving down the road and you saw him fall out of his truck and jump on somebody and just hand over fist and fighting somebody in the ditch, over something like this, he's the kind of guy that you wouldn't even question. You'd just pull over and jump in there and help him. So I appreciate all your efforts, Bill, on these items. And Mr. Smart and Farm Bureau and everybody else that's, the planning board member here that's the chair of the planning board, you know, everybody that's involved with this, you know, it's good to see. She's on the Waynesville planning board. Waynesville planning board.

Right. Okay. Thank you, guys. Okay, next will be the Haywood Recycling and Solid Waste Update, Solid Waste Director Zandra Kirkendall and Administrative Assistant of Recycling and Solid Waste, Sammy Jo Franklin. Welcome. Welcome.

Good morning. We are here to do our recycling update for Haywood County and also just a general overview of what's going on with recycling and solid waste in our county right now. We did go and find some articles from 1993-1994 when our facility was built under the guise that we would need recycling in the county. Two-ish years in the making, we've done this. And our commitment has not wavered. We didn't actually have a recycling coordinator officially until fiscal year 2019 when I took over that position. So we're really looking forward to that. And if you want to read the articles, we do have those available for you. And I had joked the last time I was here that we had just gotten our recycling numbers from the state. And I had joked that I was reaching for number one. We were number six in physical year 24. We got our numbers last week. And in all of that, we, with our outreach and everything that we have done, and I do want to shout out to Dwayne before he leaves or if he's already left. Conservation field days, we do participate in that. So, it's a great program for them. Those are just the different outreach events that we have done in the past. So, we got those numbers and we hit number one in physical year 25, to my surprise. Was shooting for it, wasn't quite ready for it, but thrilled that we got it. Number one isn't the end of it. We have a long way to go. We've really worked hard to get where we are. But it's going to take more of a community effort. Our residents have worked really hard. Our office has worked really hard to get there. But we're not giving up. We're going to try and maintain that. Things change. We've worked really to get out into the community to make sure that our message is seen. I did leave on your desk some of our outreach that we've been putting out or some magnets with our hooked logo and also our recycle right. We've got some information on there as well. so those are different things that we're putting out in our community to make sure that we're seen and that we are being consistent with our messaging for recycling so going forward from that we are going to talk about our operations and policy update we have discussed this with our operators our management company cws and with our board we've had a lot of going back and forth to make sure that we are doing what we need to be doing to make sure that our operations are moving in the right direction. So we're going to start with what's a MRF. A MRF is a materials recovery facility. That's where we take our recyclable materials and then we get them ready to be processed into the next step. We receive all of the materials from our local households, our municipalities, and our businesses that bring in recycling material to that center, and then our management company transfers those to a larger facility to be processed. And what we're permitted for, we are permitted as a mixed waste processing, so that is all the recycling materials comes in mixed together, and then we get it ready to be sorted out from there. And what do we take? We take all sorts of household recycling, electronics, scrap tires, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, antifreeze, and our household hazardous waste by special event. We did have one of those this past Saturday from 10 to 2. We had 62 residents come through and we're approximating that we took about 15,000 pounds of materials at that event on Saturday. So not a bad turnout for an event for us. And then why, oh, it's not showing. How do we fix that? So why do we take it? We take it because there are landfill bans. And we want to be able to recover these materials. And the first and foremost for solid waste and recycling is protection of our county. It's an environmental issue. We want to make sure that we are preserving our lands, Haywood County, for future generation as well. And since 1992, when our permit was issued, We have had in place these processes to separate materials that should not go into the landfill because we want to preserve that landfill as well. And what we're trying to do today is reestablish that we do have a policy in our operating procedures and to make sure that the materials, whether it be waste or recycling, goes to the proper facility. We do have our MRF, which is our Materials Recovery Facility, our White Oak Landfill, and 10 convenience centers for the public to use. And what we're doing is trying to control what goes into our MRF to make sure that we are getting the correct materials in that facility for our residents and to direct the non-recycled materials to the proper facility, which would be White Oak Landfill. We want to strengthen our recycling efforts. Number one's there, but we can always do better. And we also want to make sure that we are not putting additional wear and tear on our facility. It is a 30-plus-year-old facility, and we want to make sure that it lasts for a good long time. And in order to do that, we need to have a proper use of that facility, and we want to keep our MRF sustainable and compliant because it is our MRF. It's our residents' MRF. It's for them to be able to bring their materials in and get it to where it needs to go. We want to minimize future rate increases. We know that that's always going to be an issue. We are protecting our taxpayers. We want to extend the life of our facility and to keep those materials that we are allowed to take out of our landfill. And with consistent use of this facility and making sure that commercial and hauler collected waste is going to the appropriate facility, recycled materials are going to the appropriate facility, that we will stay compliant with our state permits. And we are not creating a new requirement for this. We are just reestablishing what procedures that we have and making sure that our public knows that these operating procedures and policies exist so that we can move forward and make sure that we're doing everything correctly and then we will educate them on to make sure that they are doing everything correctly. And then, yeah, we do have some hall requirements listed at the bottom there. So we'll go, sorry, we'll go to what those requirements are. In our ordinance, we do have that they are registered with Haywood County Recycling and Solid Waste. That is part of our ordinance that they're required to do that. We are directing waste to the appropriate facility, be it recycling to the MRF, trash to the landfill, um residents if they have bagged waste and non-bagged recyclables that they would go to the convenience centers if they are not required to go into the other facility we want to make sure that they are following facility use requirements and that we are separating the recyclables the recoverable materials and the landfill band materials and handling them properly And for us to do that, we are working with our management company to direct these commercial and hauler collected waste to the appropriate facility, which would be White Oak Landfill. We are going to have a notification to the haulers that are going to reestablish the property or the policy and operating procedures. There will be an annual registration requirement. We've gotten away from that in the past. We are bringing that back online to make sure that we are staying compliant with everything that we need to be doing and continue to accept those materials and make sure that the band materials are being handled properly and doing that. We have an October 1 rollout for this policy to take effect. That gives us time between now and October 1 to bring those haulers in, make sure that they know what they're doing. getting the payment system in place and making sure that we are all on the same page together. We are requiring that registration to go into effect on January 1, but we will have a workshop for all of the haulers on September 1 at the at the Ag facility. So we're going to get everybody together, have that discussion, make sure that we are all consistent with our messaging on how things are going to be moving forward. And if you all have any questions.

So you know who your haulers are to contact pretty much?

We have a pretty good list going. CWS has a list that they've got, and then every time we see one pop up, we're writing it down to make sure that we've got a way to get hold of them. Okay.

On one of your graphs, you said we were number one. We are. That's in the state.

In the state. Out of 100 counties, we are for physical year 25. So in physical year 24, we were number six. We've been working really hard. I joked that we were going to, we were, I was shooting for number one. I wasn't expecting it.

Now we got to stay there.

Now we got, now we got to keep going.

We're going to be a goat. That's what we're going to be. That's right. Mr. Chairman, that didn't come easy. You know, you've seen where we were at and everybody knows me, knows I like to race. I'm very competitive. And, uh, Second's not good enough. I like to lead the race. I think you've done an outstanding job, you and your whole staff, the group, in working on this. I'm sure Commissioner Long will agree with that. He sits on the Solid Waste Committee with me. Y'all's outstanding work has put us in that position, and it's very much appreciated. I know that it don't come easy, and a lot of hard work went into it, so thank you.

Agreed. I didn't mean to jump in front of you. Again, I'm a big note taker and was just thinking about all of the positive things coming out of today. But, you know, the work that you do really does protect the longevity of our landfill and obviously the way our community looks and how we are able to handle trash and waste. And I appreciate what you do. It's much bigger than people realize when they. Absolutely. And congratulations on being number one. Yes.

Just have to work harder now.

You've got to maintain that. And then I'll add, too, you know, I've said this many times before, what I've learned is a lot of our constituents may not ever use EMS, may not have to use the Sheriff's Department, may not have to use a lot of other services, but every one of us have trash.

And you've got to get rid of it, you know.

And I'll say this, something I'm proud of, and I may be off on my mileage, but I think it's every five miles, is that right, that we have a convenience center?

They are within a five-mile radius. Within a five-mile radius, yes.

You know, and that's something I don't think, I don't know of any other county that has that. And we have that convenience. It's a true convenience to be able to take your trash and get rid of it. And the reason we do that is we don't want the trash on our riverbanks or spread out through our county. So that's something else that I'm proud of as well. Commissioner Long, I didn't mean to jump in front of you again.

Oh, no, I... I would appreciate Zandra and y'all's work in this area. And that's kind of one of our, one of my constituent concerns, as you know, as a person was, and it takes, you know, everybody in the county, there's a lot of people who were very conservation minded and recycling is top on our list. And, you know, we're continuing to try to get better and add services as we can. And recycling is tough sometimes, as you know. But we had a constituent that's very, very concerned about styrofoam.

Correct.

She wanted to let us know that down at the historic farmer's market, there's an individual that collects packaging styrofoam.

Correct. Certainly not anything with food on it.

No food, yeah.

Packaging foam, yes. That's feed me foam. Yeah.

I know we're looking, kind of maybe exploring if we can provide that as a county in the We're always looking to improve.

We did have discussions with our management company. We are in the process of seeing if we can figure out where, when, how we can establish that, yes.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Now, the packaging styrofoam, is that like what your TV has around it and your appliances?

Right. Anything that's packed, the very rigid foam that's going to go around the TV.

What about peanuts? I mean, you know the...

Okay, she said he'll take them if they're bagged.

Okay, at the historic farmer's market, that's fine.

Yeah, he's set that up to do...

He's got another one in October and September, I think.

No, November. One is in November.

It's on our social media.

Yeah. You mean he comes there? He set up on his own to go set up at the farmer's market in Waynesville through the end of the year. He's doing every other month. After that... is where we're stepping in to try and figure out how we can bring him in and make that.

How do we know he's there? Is it on your website?

We do put that on our social media. She's been working on making sure that We've got really good information out with all of the community, all the towns. We're trying to make sure that all the towns are included in our social media. And anything like that that comes up, we're trying to make sure that we get it out there.

Well, I'm glad he's doing that because styrofoam, it's just, you know, you get it and you put it in the trash and it takes up so much room and stuff. So that's great. And the other thing I do want to mention... I'm going way back, but, you know, Stephen King really got our program going. Absolutely. And he actually passed away. He passed away in 2016, and he was there working when that happened. Yes. He just had a medical emergency. He was shoveling snow. That's correct. So I just want to give a shout out to him. Yep. And for all his hard work. And then I know David Francis has really worked hard. after Steven and then David I think worked in recycling. He did. And then you Zandra, you've like been the guru and stuff. So we need to clone you so we can have. Of course I think you've got a clone right here.

I think I did pretty good, yeah. When I moved over to Solid Waste with Steven in 2009, he was the one that really got,

Got that moving forward. Yeah, he was, I know I was talking to him one time and I asked him, I said, do you recycle all your trash? And he said, yeah. And I was like, every bit of it?

Yeah.

And it was just, I never did get into that. I mean, you know, how you did all that. But I guess you can if you really pay attention.

Zero waste is very difficult. It's really hard, especially when you don't have an outlet for some things. And then you end up with, like, our concerned citizen and have a garage full that you really want to deal with. And unfortunately, until we can get that, we'll get it going. We'll get it going.

well in the municipalities they have you know recycling i mean my recycle bin is not as big as my trash bin but a lot of times my trash bin isn't full but my recycle bin is you know we're stuffing it and everything so the the recycle bins are all 65 gallons yeah so that's a good size most trash bins are 95 gallons we're trying to we're trying to do better with that yeah maybe we

The one that's in the house, you should be three to one. Your recycling should be three times more than your trash if you're getting the right material in there.

But if you really pay attention, you can recycle a lot. And there's stuff we don't want, which you have on your website. Absolutely. You might just say those right quick while we got everybody's attention.

Our website?

No, the stuff you don't want in the landfill.

That we don't.

In the recycle, rather.

The things we recycle. So in our household, we do bottles, tubs, jugs, jars. So those are our plastics. And then we do our glass jars. And then our aluminum cans and steel cans. And then paper, cardboard. And then we have... Are the plastics? Oh, our special recycling, our electronics, used motor oil, used antifreeze, white goods, which are refrigerators, air conditioners, anything that has free on, scrap tire, and a few other things that were listed on our list.

And what do you not want? Like, if I'm putting it in my trash bin, what do you not want? Like, I know you, I didn't realize the ticker tapes or whatever you call them off of a, You know, receipts you get. Your receipts? Yeah.

We don't want most receipts because it's a heat transfer paper and that chemical is not a good chemical to have in your recycling. We had a crash dummy, yeah. Yeah. Crash dummy came through this weekend in our recycling, which was. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. She's got a picture. It's great. She can show you all later. But a lot of what come through a crash dummy like one of those. Yeah, it was it was interesting.

I was in the recycle.

It was it was it was in our blue bag collection area.

Yeah, we can't recycle. No crash dummies. Nobody. Yeah, right.

But a lot of the misconception is that if it's plastic, we take it. There's a lot of filmy plastic we don't take that we don't want in there. A lot of the food containers, the clamshells, we don't take those because as soon as you hit those, they're going to crumble. So that makes it really hard to do. So a lot of people want to put that in there because it is a number one plastic. But we're asking that those stay out because, one, it's going to create a mess and our processor won't take it. okay so and and that's when with our education we're getting ready to ramp up uh august and september are probably our busiest months for recycling education getting out in the community getting into we've got the fair coming up we've got labor day festival coming up the

Pigeon River Fest bike park event.

The bike park event will be there. Pigeon River Fest is coming up. And just some different presentations that we've been asked to do. So we're getting ready to.

Thank you guys for being there for that, yeah.

Getting really busy, yeah.

Yeah, okay.

So.

All right. Anybody have anything else? No? Okay. Well, thanks, Sonya. Keep up the good work. Great. Thank you. Keep us number one. We're going to be number one. Right.

We made it there. Now we've got to stay there.

We're number one. We're number one.

Yeah. That's right. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Under discussion or adjustment to the agenda, Frank, you want to, so there was a couple of things in our packet that you were, go ahead. Were you going to address those? She would just want me to admit to filing it up.

Is that what you're saying? No, it's no problem, really. I'm perfectly glad to admit.

Oh, Frank, I just want to say this. I heard that you were the number one county attorney in the state. I heard you won an award for that, so.

Yeah, it was. But it's just like a participation ribbon in youth soccer. You know, you were there, you were on the field, you didn't score any points, but you participated. And that's what I did as county attorney. So the other county attorneys recognizing the shortage of a sense of humor among the other county attorneys. I received the county attorney of the ward a couple of weeks ago.

That's the good part. We're number one in county attorneys.

That's the good part. The bad part was that the resolutions that you're considering today about the the economic development things. This is Willow Hill and Pisgah Electric. You had your public hearing about it at the last meeting. The resolution was presented. You had all these pretty documents on it. In the process of transferring economic development agreements from an older version to the current version, there was a number of typographical and other errors made by me. So I have fixed them. And so the text of what I'm going to present for, or that Hannah's going to present to you for, for those two resolutions is a corrected version from what you have in your board packet, okay? But they are, however, now correct. So before I let you sign something, I have got it fixed.

Okay.

Okay.

So those will be on our website. People can see them.

Yes, absolutely. They're not really, and I don't regard them as materialistic. material changes, but they are nipping and tucking some references. There's nipping and tucking some sentences moved around. Don't ever give an English major or a former English major an opportunity to proofread your materials. So anyway, there you go.

It's always good. It's always good when you write something to wait a little while and go back and read it. Yes. And then you discover who was this idiot who drafted this in the first place.

And it turns out It was me.

And when I do an email, it's like, I'm going to wait a while for us to send that because I'm going to read through it. And sure enough, there's always some stuff that's like, oh, no, I didn't mean that.

So what you're saying is Frank was number one.

Yeah.

No, he is.

He is. It was really recognizing historical efforts rather than actually current efforts.

You know, I will say that I saw Frank in action at a state NCACC meeting. They tried to hem him up in the corner, but he slid right out. I mean, he slithered right out of that jam he was in. And I guess maybe that's why they voted him number one.

They recognize and they acknowledge that kind of talent. It's not much, but it's what I've got.

When a man can admit his mistakes, that makes life a lot easier. Instead of trying to cover up something, you just say, yeah, I made a mistake. And then you just go on, you know. It's like...

Thank you for the opportunity to acknowledge that. Okay.

All right. So we will need a motion and a second to accept replacing the published resolutions in the regular agenda, items three and four, with the modified versions provided by the county attorney, Frank Queen, today. Can I have that? Okay. There's a motion by Terry. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. Okay, so we have three items on the consent agenda. Does anybody have any questions for those? I know Graham's here. He's got one on the consent, if y'all have any questions. Okay, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. Any discussion at all? All in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. Next, we'll move to our regular agenda and request approval of the Southwest North Carolina Home Consortium 2025 Home Recommended Projects. And we have our Southwest Commission Project Manager of Housing, Lene Schuller, here. And thank you for waiting. It seems like You know, anyway.

She's here. Yeah.

No, if nothing else, it's great to hear all the good stuff that's going on in Haywood County, and always entertaining, too.

You guys represent those seven counties, so just tell me all the things we're number one in over there.

You know, you just never know what I have for you today, Kevin, but thank you all for having me. I am here to present a couple projects that this board will be able to decide if they would like to approve for the Southwestern NC Home Consortium. Just as a brief introduction to the consortium, we are comprised of the seven most western counties in North Carolina and the towns within. We were formed in 2020 in order to bring home funds, which is some HUD funds into the rural communities, providing grants to local governments, developers, nonprofits, on a reimbursable basis for affordable housing and affordable housing activities. The Southwestern NC Home Consortium Board did meet on July 1st to review the project applications that we received. We did receive three this year. This is for our 2025 pot of money. Out of those three applications, we do have two that we look to approve. The third application, it wasn't recommended just because they're not quite there yet, but it is a project that we may look at approving down the road. The two projects that we are looking for approval for, the first one is to Solstice Partners. This would be in the amount of $477,000. It would be for new construction of rental units for low to moderate income households. They're looking to construct 60 of those in Jackson County. This award would be contingent upon them getting their low-income housing tax credit grant through the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. So if they did not receive that, then these funds, of course, would not be committed to that project. The second award that we are looking to approve is to Foursquare Community Action. They are a nonprofit that covers Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and Swain County. We are looking to award them $40,000. This would be for security and utility deposits in conjunction with their Section 8 program, so helping folks have those upfront funds in order to get into that unit. We specifically were looking at this project. They're currently administering one very similar to this, so this would just supplement the funding that they already have received from us. But the key note there is that these funds would then be able to be used in Cherokee County as well. The current pot of money they have, Cherokee County is not eligible for due to the timing of when they joined the consortium, but they would be eligible for this pot of money now. So it helps supplement some stuff there. So with that, I'll take any questions you may have and look for a vote on that.

Okay. I'm glad to see Cherokee County is now participating in this. So I'm not sure what their issue was, but I'm glad to see that they are actually getting a little bit. So anybody have any questions?

No, just a comment. I'm glad that she commented about how entertain our meetings are for all the right reasons i'm sure she goes all the way out to the west and back she's probably experienced a few things that she doesn't get to experience here and that's a good thing i guess okay all right anybody got anything

Okay, a motion to approve item one of the regular agenda. I make a motion to approve item one of the regular agenda, Mr. Chairman. All right, sir. Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, that's unanimous, Lene. You made it. You did it.

I'll take number one for this.

Just tell them we're number one in a lot of things.

Thank you very much.

Okay, the next item is to request approval of a settlement of collections 2025-2026, tax collector Greg West. Welcome, Greg.

Good morning, commissioners. I trust everyone is doing well. Mr. Chairman, I'm here to request approval of the settlement of collections for 2025 through 26. I, Gregory W. West, tax collector of Haywood County, swear the attached report is an accurate statement of taxes collected on behalf of Haywood County and on behalf of the 25 fire districts, 10 road districts, one sanitation district, and the county landfill. This past year, 25-26, our net levy was $51,214,385. We collected $50,210,613 for a collection rate of 98.04%. We had the remaining balance uncollected was $1,003,771. So 98.04% was our collection rate for this past year. Okay. I'd be glad to answer any questions or.

No, I'll just say I'm glad you're back in there, Greg, and I know you're working hard to keep that, Where it needs to be.

Well, I appreciate that. And just a big shout out to the staff. They've worked really hard these last few months as well. Yeah. And we're still collecting. I mean, in July we've collected 125,000 of taxes, you know, that didn't count toward the 98%. So, you know, we're still out there collecting the money. So next year probably we'll see some good. All right.

Anybody got any questions for Greg? Okay. And so we need a motion to approve item two. I mean, I'm sorry. Yeah. Item two of the regular agenda.

Make a motion to approve item two, Mr. Chairman. Okay. The settlement of collections as presented. Second. Okay.

Any discussion or anything? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate you. Okay. Item number three of the regular agenda is to request approval of a resolution authorizing economic development agreement with Pisgah Electric Services to approve conveyance of a track of land off Reno Farm Road. Community and Economic Development Director, Hannah White. Welcome, Hannah.

Thanks for having me. So, yeah, this is just the resolution. We had the public hearing last meeting, so this is the resolution to convey the real property to Pisgah Services. As you remember, the general statute lays out several findings they have to meet. For instance, does the tax, the local tax revenue is greater than this as value? And then on the business side, right, they're improving the property, they're providing the jobs where the wages are above the county's average wage. And then next will be the economic development agreement with the business, and that will have all the callback in that agreement to make sure that the businesses are hitting those

OK, very good.

So we got any questions about that? No questions, but after speaking with the county manager, or excuse me, the county attorney. I probably need to recuse myself from this particular vote just because it could have a possible financial impact on my personal business. The company here that will be voting on, I do business, they do business with me, and I have a fleet account set up. So under advice of the attorney, I probably need to recuse myself.

Okay.

Okay, so can I have a motion then? Is there a motion? I make a motion to approve item three, economic development agreement with Pearsville Electrical Services. Okay. All right.

So all those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. That's 4-0 with Brandon recusing himself. or abstaining. So item number four is the request approval of resolution authorizing economic development agreement with Willow Hill Soap Company to approve the conveyance of a property off Great Oak Drive. So that's the other one we had a meeting about.

It is. And Willow Hill also meets all those threshold markers as well. And Ben McDowell, the owner of Willow Hill, is actually here with us today. And I sat through this entertaining meeting of what I pointed out.

Thanks for staying. I appreciate it. He's like, this is the boringest Monday I've ever been. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve that?

Before we do that, just another question for the attorney. I didn't ask him about this one, but Ben is a customer of mine as well. His business don't have a fleet account set up, but should I recuse myself from this one? Him and his family do frequent my shop.

doing business with you is not related to this expansion or sale of county property to them for their economic development activities. It's too attenuated. It's too distant. The statute requires a direct financial impact a direct substantial financial impact before you can recuse yourself. And in the situation here, it's too attenuated, it's too distant between the actions taken by the county and the effect on that business. What you're really saying is if their business gets better, Maybe their transactions with you will get better, but that's too distant. You're not a primary supplier to them. You don't have what you call a fleet account with them. They're just another customer. That's not enough of a direct, substantial financial impact to allow you to recuse yourself. You'll have to vote on the matter. All right. Thank you.

Can I add something? I was not present at the last meeting. I was away on vacation. I was talking to the chairman earlier. It's the first time I've ever missed a meeting for something personal like that, but we were out of town. But I did go back and watch the meeting. And I was cheering from behind the screen to see small local businesses be able to expand in our community. Many of us own a small business, and I cheer for all of us on a regular basis. We're a community of small businesses, and it was very exciting for me to see these two projects move forward. I hate that I wasn't here to say that the first time you guys were present in the courtroom, but I'm very excited for this.

Commissioner Best, we were all excited, and we're still excited.

I know. Yes, absolutely.

It's a good meeting, you know, to continue to see economic development and local businesses expand. And today we're moving one step further toward this tax rollback for the conservation for farmland preservation. And it's just another good meeting and seeing some goals finally achieved. And so that's great, you know. Would you like to make the motion since you weren't here last time?

Absolutely. I make the motion that way. Let me make sure. Request approval of the resolution authorizing economic development agreement for Willow Hill Soap Company. I make that motion.

Okay. Item four. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Hannah, for all you're doing. Okay, the next order of business will be appointments, and the first is to request approval of a reappointment of Jean Dilley to a three-year term on the Library Board of Trustees. Let's see, you want to?

Yeah, Jean does a, she is a fabulous contributor to the board, and I'm glad to see that she is going to come back for another term.

Okay, so you want to make that motion?

Yeah, I'll make that motion that we reappoint her for another three years to the Library Board of Trustees.

All right. I'll second. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. Okay. Number two is to request approval of appointment of Levi Cullen as assistant tax collector. Tax assessor. Tax assessor. Phew. Sorry. Got collections on my mind. You might take it. Yeah. Okay, so can I have a motion for item two?

I would like to make that motion to approve item two and also recognize Levi as being here today and his parents. And I guess, are you coming forward to speak, Levi? No, he's got to be sworn in. Oh, he's going to get sworn in?

Yeah, we've got to get him.

OK, all his family's here, so yeah.

He acted like he did want to speak. I could tell by his head shaking there.

OK, we need to approve this.

I'll make that motion.

Is there a second? Second. OK, all in favor say aye. Aye. Now it's official. OK. Now you can do your thing there, Sherry. Sherry's going to do the assistant tax assessor's oath of office. And congratulations, Levi, I think.

Maybe right here, Levi, so they can hear you.

Levi, would you like to introduce your family?

Sure.

This is my wife, Rebecca, and my daughter, Libby, right back here, Olivia, and then my parents, Greg and Gene. Yeah, right there.

I like that bow in your hair. Or is that flower? Yeah.

Yeah, in my playing club back here, I assume. Yeah.

What I'll say before you start that as well, I've known Levi for quite some time. He was probably about this big when I first would come to know Levi. His dad, Greg, and Gene, he served as a pastor at East Fork when I was on the deacon board up there. So I've known this family real well, and to see him grow up into the young man that he is today is exciting and an honor to be here today. So congratulations on what you're getting ready to accomplish here. Thank you.

Ah.

do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as Assistant Tax Assessor of Haywood County, and that I will not allow my actions as Assistant Tax Assessor to be influenced by personal or political friendships or obligations, so help me God. OK.

Very good. OK, that concludes the business before the board. Does anybody have anything else they'd like to add?

I would like to recognize all our county department heads that were here again today. It's refreshing to see these folks come out I'm not picking on the library, but the library is very well represented here regularly, and I appreciate Ms. Foster being here again. So, appreciate everybody.

Okay, so motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. Okay, is there a second?

Second.

Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, we're adjourned. Everybody be safe out there.