County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Again, welcome to our meeting. At this time, we have our pledge invocation by Commissioner Alan Thomas. If you will please rise. Uh, I'm going to do the pledge and then pastor Bruce Hurst will come and do the prayer. I pledge algiance 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.

Let us pray. Oh God Almighty, we give your name thanks. We thank you for fresh grace and fresh mercy. and how you blessed us all day long. We thank you for your tender love and your your mercy and how you bless us and keep us. We ask now, Lord, that you would bless our county commissioners as they make decisions that would impact the citizens of Hope County. I pray that you grant them wisdom and I pray that you bless everyone in attendance. The Bible say blessed are the peacemakers for they should be called the children of God. We ask it all now in Jesus name we do pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you pastor. Okay. Thank you uh Commissioner Thomas tonight for pledge and invocation. All right. Before we talk, are there anything we need to table add or pull? And the commission have anything to add, table or pull? Anything pull now? Do it. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, consent agenda. like to pull 3B interlocal agreement. Okay. Pull it from the agenda. Okay. It's already rated on statewide. Uh we we have an inter anoal agreement in place with the city from 2017 that's still in place. So we can use that for our purposes.

Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt? The motion second adopt pull in B. All that time consider all in favor. I I have it attorney. Let's go with public comment. This Deborah F. Good afternoon.

Good evening. Good afternoon. The first thing I want to say, um, well, good evening everybody, but I have been a resident of Hope County for 28 plus years, and I am a Democrat, a loyal Democrat. But I am here tonight because it has recently been brought to my attention on May 6th of 2024, the Ho County Commissioners decided to stop advertising in the news journal known as the Rafford paper. Instead, all legal notices are placed in Cumberland County newspaper. My understanding as to why this decision was made was pure revenge for the lawsuit Rafer paper filed, wanting information that we as citizens have every right to know. By placing all legal notices in the Favville paper, the cost is three times higher than if you would publish in the Rafer paper. Uh, an example of this is the most recent tax leans uh that was placed in the Fagville paper cost $15,000. If that ad would have been placed in the Rafford paper, it would have cost the taxpayers $5,500, a savings of $10,000 to the citizens. And Mr. Lynch, you just said that you are making sure that our taxpayer money is going being spent appropriately. And let me repeat, it would have been a savings of $10,000. And this is just one example. Uh, interestingly, in the past year, all zoning information has been placed in the Fagetville paper at a cost of three times more than what it would cost in the Rafford paper. In other words, zoning information is being hidden unlawfully in the F Theil paper, a neighboring newspaper. Zoning is a big deal in the whole county at this time. Yet, our elected officials are choosing

to hide this information in a newspaper we don't read or subscribe to in Hope County at a cost of three times what it should. North Carolina law states that local governments are required to publish local notices in a local paper to ensure transparency and accountability in government action and to provide citizens with access to information about important decisions affecting their community. This includes zoning information, bids, solicitation, tax matters, and other legal matters. Most Hope County residents don't subscribe to the Fey paper. If they subscribe to a newspaper, it's the Rafford paper. And this that has been in business for over a hundred years. I also want to point out that our county manager, Mrs. Eden's job description is to oversee the budget and ensure financial responsibility. She is failing to do this by allowing the misuse of our taxpayer money. As a Ho County resident and a taxpayer, I demand better from the elected officials. What you display is shameful and wasteful behavior and not being good stewards of our taxpayer money. To me, this is saying all commissioners think you are above the law.

As a fellow Democrat, and I am a Democrat, your time's up. Okay? and someone who in the past has supported all of you. Um, I can no longer do this if you continue to abuse our money. Thank you. Okay. And I also want to say I do not know anybody that is that works for the paper and I am not related to anybody. Thank you. Carala is

good evening everyone. My name is Cassie Hargela and tonight I'm I am here on behalf of Volunteer Village Company. I'd like to start by sharing some some statistics that might be of interest to everyone here. The 2024 census reports that 48.1% of Hope County residents ages 16 and older are currently unemployed in the civilian workforce. That's 49 out of everyone 100 adults without employment. And although specific numbers for our military families aren't available at county level, we know that nationally 40% of military spouses are unemployed and 60% of those who are employed are undermployed. In a community so closely connected to Fort Bragg, this directly impacts our families. And according to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, 26.2% of adults in our county read at or below a fifth grade level. That's one in four adults. These are more than statistics. They're a call to action. I tell you all of this to show you that parents in Hope County need support. And this year, we have an incredible opportunity to make a difference. Poke County Schools and the National Center for Families Learning is launching a family literacy program that brings parents into the classroom, not just to to support their children, but to learn alongside them. They'll receive support and access to classes for general education degrees, adult basic education, and English as second language to prepare for careers, higher education, or trades, while also becoming more more engaged in their children's learning. But one major barrier keeps many parents from participating, and that's access to child care. That's where Volunteer Village Company steps in. Our mission is to provide access to trusted hourly child care at no cost to the parents so that they don't have to choose between their own future and their children's. But we can't do this alone. And so I'm here today to ask for your support. We're seeking funding to ensure that no parent is turned away because they don't

have access to child care. We want to make sure that parents get to show up, grow, and be part of something that changes their family's future. And while education is at the heart of what we do, our impact extends even further. We also support organizations across Hoke County including the animal shelter, Hope County parents as teachers, the Rayford Hope Museum, Alpha Life Pregnancy Center, the Hope County Open Door Soup Kitchen, the Cooperative Extension, the 4 Club, and the Backpack Buddies program. We aim to provide childcare support for these organizations so that parents can give back by volunteering and engaging and building a stronger, more connected community. Every dollar given supports a parent who wants to step up for their kids, their future, and their neighbors. Together, we can break down the barriers and build up our community one hour of childcare at a time. So, thank you so much for your time this evening, your generosity, and your belief in the families of Hope County.

Thank you, Mr. Kane Gregory. foundation again Gregory

uh note in uh the uh ordinance uh 8.1 uh electronic gaming operations shall not be located within a th00and ft in a direction in any direction from a establishment which supplies section uh applies to primary accessories use within a th000 ft of a religious institute, public, private, daycare centers, facilities, public or private schools, private public or private uh parks. Measurements of the dishes separated shall be in the straight line to the outer doors. Now, 12 years ago, I took a and measured from the school, the private school in Rockfish, went across Rockfish Road in the parking lot to the door of that building. It's 165 ft. So, why was their license allowed or their permit allowed to be issued that close? And you guys had changed the distance on that twice. once once for 500 feet and then it went to another one. So basically 500 or thousand feet that is too close and that place should be their permits pulled for the uh gaming. Thank you.

Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Thank you attorney and thank each of you for taking time to come and share with us tonight. We certainly welcome public comment at each of our meeting and certainly sit here and very glad to hear our citizen as they come to participate within the meeting. So again, thank each of you very much taking that time to come and share with us tonight. Thank you. Consent A, C, D, and E. And the board me. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to pull a 3D Three text change of the zoning ordinance. 3D. Okay. I have a motion to approve A, C, and E. Mr. Chairman, I make such a motion.

Second. I second to second. All time cons I Mr. M commissioner Thomas. Uh, yes. Mr. Chairman, I see the change here about about um businesses engaged in electronic gaming operations may not simultaneously hold a license issued by the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Commission. I I just wanted to uh learn more about that. Are there any current electronic gaming operations that currently hold those licenses? Who who's in emergency folks is here owning people? I want to I want to learn more about exactly what but that is this for the future or is it No, go ahead. I'm sorry I interrupt you. Sorry.

Yeah. I guess I'm trying to figure out and if it is, are they going to be grandfathered in or I'm trying to learn more about what exactly are we doing with this change because we just updated this ordinance about a month ago and so this is a new change that was added in from the one we just just approved a month ago. So I'm just trying to learn more about it. Should we get some of our inspection folks and zoning folks if you want to is he got a grad? I'm not sure Andrew actually u talked about this. Grab Andrew from Jr. Jr. got it. This is not about

being able to sell the alcoholic beverages in the same place that the gambling machines is at. It's about consuming the alcohol, right? Consume it on site. You can't consume it on site is what that ordinance is going to update. Right. My question is the license. So, so if they have a license, they can't have gaming. If they have a license,

you can't you can't have a license and have gaming. And so, I'm not really question about whether they can consume it on site or not. I'm just wondering are there any electronic gaming operations where there there's currently a license uh by the facility it operates in? I'm just I don't want to get a phone call tomorrow, you know, about something not approved. Uh not knowing what exactly we're doing. So, I'm trying to make sure we're on the same page. And if there's currently a business that we've already allowed to operate, if it has a license, are we in fact right now voting to shut it down? Or or are we going to grandfather them in? What What exactly are we doing with this vote?

So, I I think what is happening is there's trying to make a distinction between on-site consumption versus on-site sales. with the with with the ordinance. So, we've got some right now that have ABC permits and machines. That's correct. And what this does is allows that to continue as long as there's not any onsite consumption. Consumption. That's right. And if we don't make this amendment, it's going to be non-compliance.

And and and so if this is only about making sure that they don't consume the alcohol, why does it say uh for sale or consumption? There's a distinction between the two types of permits from um the ABC permits. So u the sale would mean that for for sale would mean they take it off site. Consumption would mean they were taking it in there. So we just want to delineate so that they won't be consuming alcohol in the place of the gaming. But can they sell it? Because this is saying you can't sell or consume. Can

Yeah. The the prohibition that I proposed was to get rid of the on-site con was to prohibit on-site consumption and allow for sale which would be like your gas stations. So should should he just read for sale and not or just for sale and not consumption or

because like you said is just in consumption and once again it it reads businesses engaged in electronic gaming operations may not simultaneously hold a license issued by the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Commission for the sale or consumption of alcohol be beverages. is on the premises. So, this to me is saying you can't sell alcohol or consume alcohol. And I just want to make sure that that's how it's written in the text as it exists today before any amendments. So, is this not the amendment that So, that's the original text, right? That's the original text, right? He's trying to make an amendment.

Okay. Okay. I would need to see it then. So, what what I see when I click on my my information, I guess, is the original text. Then I need to know what the amendment changing it too. Yeah. Yes. You when we're preparing to vote for something, we we need the change, not not the original. And so what I've been reading over and over is what I'm seeing here in my record is what we're voting on. So this is the original. Can somebody read out the change?

I'm trying I'm trying to get mine to blow up right. Okay. If he needs time, we can Can I give you Can I just give it to you how I a staff proposal? What I'd see what Well, my recommendation was is to make it to prohibit on-site consumption and allow sales and allow sales for offsite. Okay. Okay. Mr. Chairman, as long as long as that's what's actually written, I'm I'm okay with that. All right, Mr. T, you okay with that? I discussed with the attorney prior to

Is that what the intent was? The intent was to so bottom line is if we say you can't have alcohol sales and machines a lot of places out of compliance. So all we're trying to do is bring those into compliance but make sure that there's no place that has consumption that also has machines. The whole idea is to make sure that there's no machines at any location that allows consumption also. I'm good to go. You good? Yes, sir. All right. Need to make a motion to approve it then. I move to approve. A second. Second. All in favor? I

Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Grant. Okay. Addition one year stand. Miss Cleo Branchet from the ABC Commissioner is here. Miss Branchet, you please go. And tell us why you're here tonight.

I'm here to try to explain uh the situation that we had. We appointed a young man, a young man to serve the term out of a uh person that has deceased. And when we appointed him, we did not state that we was appointing him just to fill his time out. So, he was appointed and served the full term and now we are trying to get it set up. We don't like to have a a member. We don't have two or three members serving at the same time or having to be appointed at the same time. So what we need to do now is to try to get the young man that we appointed give him one year appointment and then he have to come back to the board one year later in order to serve the full term

which is three years. Yes. Which is three years. But what happened is when we appointed him he served he served full term just like if he was just going on the board. Okay. but he was supposed to been replacing a young man that had deceased and we want to come back and try to correct that so that we won't have two people having to be appointed at the same time. Okay. And that's Mr. Gilbert Johnson. Okay. So, Mr. Branch, you want to have the staggering appointments? Yes. Okay. Board heard the request. What what's the uh So, we're just doing a one-year extension and then they can come back after the year and get the full term we so desire. Yes. Okay. Make a motion to approve.

Second approved. Mr. G one year extension. All have time to consider. All in favor would I? I that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Be violating loan fund. Mr. Mr. Willight know those who is here tonight to that Mr. Will is going to bring up your name. What he do is bring it up and tell us who requesting it. ask each of you get all your information into the county attorney.

Y'all like if you have a a minute or two to speak on it and then after you speak on it, make sure that you get all your information that the attorney will request and we'll move forward from there. Mr. Will.

Okay. What we have, we've got more requests for money than we have money available. We have approximately 2 or a little over $229,000 available in the revolving loan fund. Now, money is coming in all the time. coming in right now at a rate of about $6,000 a month. So, we're building up the balance that we can loan back out. But right now, we have three people that have asked for money. And I mean, they're all deserving projects, but I thought it best to let y'all make the decision as to how we were going to divide the money up or which ones we were going to approve. Um, the first one is the Northwest Water Supply. and they've requested $150,000 to improve their critical critical infrastructure. Um they do have uh land that they can put up as collateral. Um they serve about 500 customers and they have a dire need to do repairs to their system. Um the second one is and Lillian Stubs.

Mr. Will, can you Will can you give us the dates that they applied? Do you have the dates? don't have the dates. I can give you the order. Um, Greater Vision was the first one to apply. Okay. And then the Page Trust Building, the Raymonds was the second one to apply and the third one was Northwest Water Supply. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry I don't have the No, that's that's funny. I don't have the exact dates, but I can give you

Well, just explain to us just a little bit that so everyone know that these are not tax paying dollars. No, this is money that the county received long ago, long before my time. I think it was a grant of some sort that goes into a fund. And what the county has done traditionally has lended this money out typically to small businesses that are looking to do expansion or have critical needs. Um, and that the money is loaned out at zero at 0% interest. Um, they typically like to be paid back within we've typically tried to stick to about five years. that is varied depending upon the board's you know what the needs of the company are what the board approved to that's some pretty flexible guidelines there um but anyway it is money just to help our mainly to help our small businesses um we generally like to have it well sec or we always want it well secured because we want the revolving loan fund to keep providing and keep working for years to come. Um, also we've we've loosely tied it to job creation, but that has not always been our precedent where there's been a need. It's it's up to the board's discretion.

Okay. Um, so the first one is Northwest Water Supply. I'll let Lillian speak when she wants to, but let me go ahead and give you all kind of give you a brief overview of all three of them and then we'll let all three of them speak if they wish to.

Um, the second one is Greater Vision Counseling. um and they have purchased a new building at 632 West Prospect Street and they would like to remodel the building. They are constantly hiring people. They're a great employer in Hook County and in order to make this building really functional for them and work well. They need some money to they've invested a lot of money purchasing the building and but now they would like to do some renovations to it and their renovations would run about $64,000 and they would like to request that.

The third one is a request for $120,000 from Paul and Jacqueline Raymond. Um and that's for the Page Trust Building right here on Main Street. Um they'd like to start out by replacing the the windows in the building. Um they do have several tenants in there that are good employers in the county. Um but also it would make more count make Main Street more beautiful and especially that's a priority with the new courthouse going up. We want all of Main Street to really look good and um so that would be a benefit to the county. Um anyway, I'm g like I say I'm gonna ask them if they would like to speak to their need if y'all are I think that's appropriate.

Good evening, commissioners.

As the newest member of the Northwest Board Department board and current treasure, I would like to thank you for accepting our application and consider it for approval. Additionally, I would like to thank you, Will Wright, for your assistance in this process. I can assure you and hope that I have the backing of all Northwest board members that these funds, if approved, will be used to hire qualified technicians to improve infrastructure and repair ongoing leaks. At this point, I can say that I am embarrassed and very unhappy with these ongoing leaks that to my knowledge have been not been repaired for months and some for years. Moreover, I can say with confidence that some of you, if not all of you, state officials as well as our local sheriff department have been contacted regarding these leaks. Again, with your favorable response, you have my solemn assurance that qualified personnel will be hired to repair these leaks and improve the infrastructure on Northwest Water. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you again for consideration of Northwest Water Supply. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman. Sir, I didn't get the number. How much was Northwest asking for? 150,000. Okay. Thank you, Miss Lily. Yes. State your name for the record. Uh Lillian Stubs. I'm sorry. Mr. Chairman, I need the floor. He's good. Yeah. Commissioner. Okay. Um thank you. Thank you. Um Mr. Chairman, uh members of the board, me and Gum Pierce, Representative P has been working with Northwest Water Supply for several months. Uh and as a matter of fact, everybody here uh that resides in the Northwest Water Supply service area, y Please stand for a brief second. You will please stand shortfall under 14,000.

Okay. Thank y'all. Thank you all. Um Northwest Water, Mr. Chairman, has a um agent system and they serve uh like Will Reich said between 500 600 um members and they've been around a long time and done an outstanding service. I grew up in that community and and and use that water and my my mom's house is still in that community. So, um I I think that from from talking with representative peers, meeting with the board members and speaking with a lot of the residents that are here today, including my old school teacher, Mr. Pimp, Mr. Kim, um that's right. Um we need to um

help this community, help this this organization. They're serving a lot of seniors. most of what you saw stand up for seniors and they're over here with this this this aging system, but this system is a system that we can actually repair and get it back on target. So, this $150,000 that I'm requesting on behalf of them uh which is much greatly needed. I think that um they've been doing a lot of things in the community trying to deal with the water supply issue. Uh, but when they've been dealing with the state and I think out west, Asheville and Baltimore County, they got to get hit real hard with the hurricane. So, a lot of the state money has went out west. So, when they apply for grants such as the DWI, Division of Water Infrastructure Grants are low in Colon. They're real competitive. So, they don't have a whole lot of resources out there to help them get where they need to be. So, I'm asking that um we consider I strongly consider um this this loan of $150,000 to help me get on track and to make sure some of those licks stop so we can make sure our citizens especially our seniors are taken care of in that community. That's my question. Mr. Chairman,

thank you uh Commissioner Hair for those comments and certainly we will take all of these every one of them in great consideration when we get and count the dollars next. Will we we trying to figure out how to come up with enough money folks? I don't have an answer. That's why I y'all um next one is Greater Vision Vision Counseling and Consulting Agency and relevant Tilman.

Hi commissioners and thank you for allowing me to be here. Thank you for having opportunity to have the funding that you have to be able to support the local businesses. I've been in business in Ho County since 2017. Since that time, I was a uh single practitioner. I currently have four locations in Rayford that I was currently renting and through an SBA loan, I was able to get the um purchased the universal pawn shop in Rayford.

Um upon purchasing that, I had to take $67,000 out of my own um savings to put towards the um the loan. And since then, we've been taking money from payroll to try to build on a weekly basis the construction inside the building. So, I'm asking for the additional funding to to help complete the the um the building structure as a process as a part of doing outpatient therapy. I also do intensive inhome and peer support. Along with that, along the way since 2017, I have four other companies that I've mentored or four people who I've mentored who have opened businesses. Three of those will be renting a space for me in that location as well to try to help with the infrastructure. So, not only am I um asking for access to be able to finish a building, but I'm also supporting other businesses that would be able to provide um services in Hook County. I'm also going to be expanding to doing a um afterchool program which will also increase I'm looking at about 20 additional employees for Hook County just out of the funding um in order to be able to supply and provide for the location and look forward to um invite you to the open house to see that the work that we've done.

Okay. Thank you. And you was asking how much would that wheel? 64 64. Okay. And the third application is from Paul and Jacqueline Raymond with the Page Trust Building in Rayford. How much? They're asking for 120,000. 20. Okay. I know y'all ready to repeat though. I just wanted to do them down a bit.

Good evening, commissioners, everyone in attendance. Uh, as they said, thanks thanks Will for uh putting our names in the hat. In essence, um, we own the page building on the corner. Um, right now it is an eyes sore. Um, the goal is to begin at the second floor beginning to replace the windows and then go up to the second floor. Go, excuse me, go up to the third floor. Currently, we um have a quote for about $1,300 a window and there's 35 windows on each floor. So, we're talking about 40,000 about round it off 40 45,000 per floor. Um, also talked with uh Dr. Thompson, which has the bank building across the street. Um he said he paid about 85,000 for his windows. Um just the windows alone. Um the goal is to start with the windows and then begin to work on the inside. So like the other uh people that asked for funds so that we can begin to hopefully do something like some uh military or veterans housing upstairs because there are three floors um with with uh four bedroomedroom apartments on each excuse me four apartments on each floor. So the goal is to begin with the windows because like Will said u where Mr. Wright said the with the new

Thank you courthouse going up um it's going to draw a lot of attention to the downtown Rafford area and we wanted to kind of do our part. So any anything can help. Oh, excuse me. How much how much you say for to complete the second floor for the windows? For the windows, it's about 45,000 for just the second floor. And that's your your goal. And in Jackie's goal is to to do it in phases. Yes. Yes. That be phase one, so to speak. Yes. Um start on Main Street, do the windows on Main Street, then come around to Elwood Avenue, and then go so on and so forth. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Thanks for your time, Mr. Chair. I do have a question for Miss M Evans.

Yes, sir. Uh first of all, um I'm very familiar with your business and I'm familiar with you as well. So, you do an outstanding job in the community service and you've been serving us for quite some time. I appreciate you help me with my business and and get my business going. Remember that? I do. Young, too. Yeah. So, um you said you need about 64,000. Have y'all already started the renovations now? We have. Okay. Yeah. I still have the parking lot that we've got to finish. Okay. Um there's a couple areas on the roof that we need to finish. Um the roof is critical because if it rains on inside, there's at least three places on the roof that we've got to make sure that we um take care of.

Um the inside we've been every week we pay the construction guys through payroll every week for the work that they do in there. And I've been fortunate to get Lowe's. I've had some connection with Lowe's that's gave me major discounts on supplies that we've used inside. Okay. So, we've got quite a bit to finish the inside in the next two weeks, but I've the roof and the parking lots the two other big things that I've got to complete. How many employees do you have right now, Miss D? Um, in Hoke County alone, yes, about 35 employees. 35.

Now, that doesn't count the other two companies that are currently in there. Um, I have a lady that does massage. She just hired another lady. They do um VA um they work with VA to do massages. I got another lady that's doing home health and I got another an esthetician that wants to come in and rent an office space from us as well. Yeah. Okay. You're getting Brandy to do some of that work for you. I know, right? We might be working helping with the after school program. And that's the other thing that down the road I want to do. Um probably about November I want to look at an afterchool program that we could do. Maybe even a day treatment for children. Sounds good. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome.

We will take them all in. Uh, Miss Hunt, you have all information you need yet? I I I think so. I've got I think all the real property information. Everything you need. Okay. He will the attorney will go through all the information to see what's is put up for collateral and all that kind of stuff. And when he finish all that, he will let us know. So, how how soon, Mr. Chairman, can we give him a response? as soon as we can talk and see that he got everything he need

and you think you got everything you need because they're gonna get an answer. Most of these issues they got going on now critical um we got critical infrastructure needs with with Northwest and then Louis got some issues right now where she's paying payroll and so we got some critical issues uh the Thompson so everything is critical so I don't want to de lag and we come back next month and we have not met or resolved it if they have to meet have a call meeting I think we need to go and do am of the week. We should clear it up. I think so. I like that. I'd like to get back to them by uh Alan,

I guess I have a question. Can Can is it clear that that Northwest uh have they met all of the needs as it relates to collateral that that you're aware of? Will uh uh who was ma'am? So, so you've got five I've done a little more homework on this than uh so they've got five pieces of property. Yes. And I have the chairman of the board here. You can probably answer more than I can. I've been there about six months. Yeah. So, so there's there's five parcels of property. Yes. I see. We have an office.

Okay. So, so the one thing so all the the real estate I mean I've looked at it close enough to know there's no deeds of trust on it. It's free and clear. Yes.

And it looks like if I'm remembering my numbers somewhere about $150,000. And what what I was looking for and and didn't see and and you can help me with it. Is is there some personal property? I know there should be some tanks, whales, that kind of thing. It doesn't appear to be uh that I'm not picking up.

We have vehicles. We have So, so could you get could you get us a list of the equipment? Did I not send that to you? Um, I think I did. Honestly, I looked at the real estate and thought there was enough real estate there. Real estate's about it says 153%. So, so that's the reason I was asking about the equipment. But the value, if I'm not mistaken, is like a half a million, if not more.

There's a half a million listed, but I'm not sure how much of that is actual. I don't think you ever

tanks. Mr. Chairman, I know they're going to keep working on getting that information. The the reason I asked is because of of all the phone calls that we've received uh including from state our state representative on how critical uh these needs are for Northwest. Uh if we all agree on this funding, I don't think there's a reason to wait on this one. And and so when it comes to I know we don't have enough for all the requests, but if we agree if if we agree that that this request is critical to to the life of people, you know, people's ability to turn their water on and and and God knows we know how how big of a deal that is. Uh I I I think for me I feel more comfortable with us making a motion now to approve Northwest Waters uh proposal uh pursuant pursuant to uh them working out these small details that we're asking them to do uh so that they can have this checked by the time we have the next meeting and I'll wait until the next meeting and then rehash this when it comes to the need of the people who live in that that that very important community.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to just I don't have a problem with that, but like you said, our needs and our money, as Will stated, is is less than what we have. Um, and actually, I don't think we have, but $216,000. 216. Yeah, 216. That is what I have.

So, if we of course, I think everybody knows that the water is important. is probably as dire need as anything that we have here for request. I don't have a problem with that as long as everything works out with the um with the deeds and everything. Um but I would like to say there's no need of us coming back for any of the rest of it unless we're going to go ahead and give credit vision to 64,000 because that would put it at 214,000. We can't fulfill the other request at 150,000. So there's there's no need of either you're going to do one and the more or do two and the only two that you can do if you're going to do Northwest is that in greater vision and like Will said Greater Vision have their you know and I know we don't know maybe we don't do by application because we don't have but one application at a time

but I think that uh Greater Vision has had their application in for quite some time and there was hold up with some other things that we had going on and everything. But I would I would be inclined to go ahead and say let's approve both of those with the attorney looking at everything and approving both of those. Let let me add Commissioner and I think that's but what I want to do with him next. Yeah. Which is up next and and the page so so uh Paul so nobody 40 $45,000 first pay and even if we did with what Commissioner Hunt said then that only about $5,000.

But one thing about this revolving loan that we did is every month uh people pay back into our our our revolving loan fund. So what I would like to do and I agree with both you guys. I would I would consider that motion and supporting it if we make them priority for the first 45 or $50,000

that comes up. That's fine. because we we can't like you said uh I think will right said it best we don't have enough money for the three projects all three projects are vital to whole county in the city of Raper so we we we we support all three projects but we're looking at uh safety things like that so you got to give uh Northwest the edge um what Miss Leven is doing is is bringing a whole lot of jobs u and her her request is reasonable at $64,000 uh what Paul was saying I think it's reasonable in phase it would be good but because of the money we just can't do it right now but I'm saying let's him have come back say 6 months down the road um as our revolving loan builds up and and and make them make them priority

when they do come in every month it'll build very quickly and once we have these other two loans out it'll come in even more quickly make a difference so you know it'll build back up pretty fast Mr. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that we approve uh the the funding request, the loan request to Northwest Water Supply and Greater Vision Counseling and Consulting Agency uh for the amounts requested. Uh and that we also put in this motion uh that that the economic developer uh is aware that that the Mint's loan request, Paul and Jacqueline Raymond, will have priority as it relates to the page building uh and their request for funding. And I believe they'll come in pretty quickly.

Okay, that's a motion. Motion second. I don't have time to hear it. I only have time to consider. All in favor? I oppose. Motion as stated. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you all. [Applause] M Mr. Chair, if I could take 30 seconds. You got it. I want one of the greatest teachers that's ever taught in whole county stand up. Mr. Kemp, stand up for me. That's one of the greatest teachers I ever retired. That's right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you, J tonight, for coming. Oh, yeah.

This boy like to work hard. Amen. Thank you, boys. Working so hard. All righty. With tonight, Pennsylvania transformer, Mr. Will, you got to come back up. Oh, you still here? Okay.

Tonight, I'm back again about Pennsylvania Transformer. We've run into some delays along the way, but they are eager to make this project work in Hope County. Um, their goal, they would really, really like to have equipment on the ground starting in early September. So, we're we're pushing as hard as we can. We've run into some delays with the DOT requiring some road repairs. It's taken us a long time to get a handle on that. Um, we feared to begin with that might be a five to seven million dollar problem, but we've got it narrowed down with the DOT to under a million dollars. So, that's manageable. Um, we've run into some issues with a gas line easement with an adjoining land owner that we're getting very very close to getting worked out. Um, we should have that worked out in a matter of days I believe. The um other issue which has caused some delays has been and this is a fault with the property is that we have that power line that goes across there and the equipment they're going to have going back and forth under the power line is going to require that power line to be raised that is causing delays in the second their project is two different plants. one built on the front part of the property and one built on the back part of the property. And so due to the raising of the power line, it's going to take a little bit longer to get the second the second facility built. And so when we had originally brought their incentive package to you, there was a it was all lumped together. It was both buildings in one package. And what they're requesting to do is that needs approval from y'all is to split up the incentive package. So that it's the same amount of money. It's the same amount investment. I mean, there might be a little bit of rounding difference, but it's basically the exact same thing except we're breaking it out. Would like to break it out where they can go ahead and get incentives as soon as they get

the first building up and going. And then the second trough of incentives would be whenever they get the second building up and going. So that's the first thing that we're asking for. Grady, you can Grady's been working on this on a daily basis. So he can speak to any other changes that have come up that and and the change that's come up on the incentive agreement is like you said the phase in phase one and phase two with the two separate buildings. It's the same seven-year period. Uh you're just staggering it by year,

right? One's 27 tax year to begin with. start the seven years and the other ones the 28 tax year starting the seven years I think. So same amount of money, nothing changes as far as jobs, money, none of that changes. It's just that they're breaking it up into two phases. Just time. Just time. Just time. Yeah, it's changing time. And I do have the Sandy actually represent of Please come. We need to see who's putting all this money in county. Right. Um, we've got Sandy. I have a terrible time pronouncing his last name, but he is the president of Pennsylvania Transformer.

Then we've got Tariq, um, right there. And then we've got Ricky Graves. Um, we've also got Joe Melvin here with North Southeast who's been instrumental in keeping this project going. Um, so they're here to answer any questions. Um, Southeastern, I have a question for Joe. My question is you local, how much and how long it take you help us find some of this money?

They have helped us find a lot so far. You heard me. Couple million dollars.

3.8. Good. Good.

You heard me real good. Thank you, Tish. I would rather on the on the county in local dollars. Are you satisfied with the changes and our dollars going to be ready to go when time to come? I am. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, I want that. Yeah. I I just wanted to ask Grady. Um so Grady, are are you doing this as an amendment to the contract or are you doing it as how are you doing it? So I know how to make

this back in April, the incentive agreement. And really the only the only thing that's changed is the phasing and it's the same it's the same agreement other than pushing the time forward a little bit and the phasing. So you just need a motion to uh make the changes to the make the amendments to regarding the phases. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Mr. Chairman, I just want to

typically we were speaking to you all through through Will Rightight, our economic developer, but we just want to say thank you all for bringing $100 million to whole county. We just want to say personally thank you. This my first time seeing you guys in person, but we appreciate what you all are doing for whole county, our citizens, and the amount of money you can be paying our our citizens 60,000 plus annually. So, thank you all for coming to Whole County. We appreciate that. And I'm glad to see you bring the jobs to about 217 jobs. Maybe Jim Dav get one of them. But I'm glad to see you bring 27 bring the jobs to Hope County. Very much very much needed in Hope County. So again, thank y'all for bringing the jobs to Hope County. I make a motion to approve uh the request, Mr. Chairman.

Second. Second. All in favor with IO. I have it. Sher, try to get your job. Thank you, Will. You had a second. There's a second part. There's a second part. The second part is that as this project has evolved, they've changed their plans a bit on the because they had to switch their two buildings. And so, they still haven't quite worked out all the details of the second phase of the building, which is part of the reason it's being delayed a little bit, but they're looking at doing a solar farm with it. And they would like to get a first right of refusal on the portion of the property. Um we can't

um they have requested a 10year um and I will have to say anytime that you give them a first writer refusal. I mean you are basically taking it. It's hard to market it with that first writer refusal on it. But I understand with the delays they've had that they might end up needing a little more property than they've already gotten. So, I would certainly ask you to consider giving them um a first right of refusal on that remaining property for some period of time. And Brady can speak more to that too.

Yeah, I mean uh we the only thing changed I guess now in the in the purchase agreement is we now know that the actual acreage is 76.61 61 acres at $4,500 an acre, which is $344,745. Like Will said, the only change that's been made to the purchase agreement is a right of first refusal, and they're asking for a 10-year period. Like Will says, effectively that takes the property off the market away. So, personally, I'd say three years is is fair. And that gives them enough time to build their first the the two buildings and then gives them a little time to determine if that additional property is what they need. So, any anywhere in that area, I think's fair to them.

And us, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask a a question. And we're saying that this additional property is for solar farm or is it well part somebody want to come up and speak to it? Yes, please come up. This is Sandy. Sandy. Okay. Tell me the whole purpose of the additional property exactly what you plan on doing with it. Yes. Good evening to all of you.

So, the intent is to potentially use that additional space to either expand the solar park. We have commitments with the DOE to install a certain amount of solar in our in both our facilities and potentially uh maybe create a fabrication shop to produce uh transformer tanks for our distribution transfer facility. Okay. To intented. Are you considering using all the power or selling some of the power back to power company? Uh our intent is to have uh I mean not we kind still debating that uh but net metering is what our intent is some of the power back to the power companies.

Okay. So we give you these years and you able to sell some of the power back to the power company. The whole county benefit from it. No liberal river EMC might benefit from it. He's also looking at building another machine. I'm saying more facilities here and might need more power. Right. I don't want him to make all the money take away leaving somebody with us. That's question. That's what we're trying to do. So across the community

can't get 30. I think it's 30 30 38. We can just say the balance. The balance of Okay. Okay. Is that the easy to get to or is it 43.32? Okay. It's kind of in the back, is it? Hard to get to. It is. We are getting an ement from it will have an easement to it from Railroad. But

yeah, so the last acres which I know a little hard to get to are going to be recorded easement from our rails. Yes sir. Because you have to have that get to correct. Okay. What are your thoughts on uh another company wanting those 40 acres? I mean, I just want and I want to speak to speak frankly in my my memory of this layout, it would be difficult for them to get to uh with how these buildings would be laying on our property, but would it be possible for us to do another incentive package with another company on the 40 acres that we're considering for server farms?

It is possible. I will tell you a good portion of that propert. So it does not make it a prime piece of property. Um it's our best chance of developing it is not on our own has 30 acres that kind of surround it. Um I think our best bet to market it is with ANR. Um but I don't think cutting it out I mean you know these projects have one um I think at least several years an option is reasonable and I don't think we're cut by doing that is not the best property out there that's much better property quite frankly property that sits in front of this access property that 43 acres and it's always easier to grow a business that you already have the chances of growing are much better than another company coming in here doing that.

Thank you. We want to be good partners. So, I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page where what you all are investing in in Hope County. I think this offer is uh or this request is reasonable. I just want to make sure we're on the same page about future economics. Will sewage help that situation? Um it will because you will be able to get to that which is making it better. It still does not absolutely But yes, it does. We're not aging on a price to sell that. We're just going to give them first, right? You know, the price might vary down the road. We're not saying that we agree to sell this to them at $4,500 acre. We negotiate a price later.

Yeah. We're not doing an option contract. We're just doing a right and and it bring us good dollars to to our county. And my my my consideration uh board is is the fact that they're investing over $und00 million in Hope County. And companies don't come every day to invest that type of money in a in a county. Whether you're a whole county or Wake County, doesn't really matter. So for that type of investment, I I I would like to give them some years for first refusal. I was thinking uh in terms of five years. Um if I think that would be reasonable, sir. That's reasonable for you. Is that a motion? That's that's my motion. I second.

Okay. The motion five years together for the record for the minutes. All had time to sit off with IO. Five years. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Will. You Thank you, Will. Thank you. Thank you. We had a good night in Hope County tonight. Thank you. Thank y'all for coming. Thank you. Thank y'all. Thank you, Will. Okay. All right. You're right. Sheriff, it's your time to come and tell us how to save some money. All right. to you coming. Help me, sir. Help me out. Good evening, Mr. County Manager and citizens of the whole county. Tonight, I would like to uh request a budget amendment to our 25 and 26 budget. Okay.

Um I want to request two positions that we've talked about before, a captain and a lieutenant. Uh one for the courthouse and one for the uh patrol. Okay. Um we had the money uh working with the county manager. She shot me the numbers at the cost for those two positions. Okay. And what we would like to do is take the money that's going to cost us for these two positions for my budget for our vehicles. Okay. And that was two 265,000 was our budget for the four vehicles. And the positions I think was like $196,000 to position. Okay. Okay. We've been doing eight cars a year, right?

That's right. We're going to do eight cars next year, too, right? Okay. All right. They don't rig, but we got an assurance on them. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion that we accept uh the sheriff's request. I make that motion second. I should have two position lieutenant. All right. Time off with I have them sheriff be done immediately. So maybe until next take care of it. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, sir. Shar, you guys look good in Raleigh. I do too, sir. All right, man. Take your time, T. Take your time. Hurry. You want me to take my time? I'm not going to let

you get out of here too fast. Take your time. Um I'm gonna start off by having JR come up. J.R. come up and talk to us a little bit. Do we? Um, talk to me about animal shelter, please. And and Tyler Town Fire Department as well both.

Uh, with Tyler Town, we are working on the uh finishing touches. Uh, they're going back tomorrow to be working on a few of the touches with the electrical. Uh, so that should be finished I would say probably by the end of the month, probably earlier. uh with the Tyler town we had probably in the next week they have to with all the rain we had in the past week they have gotten the underground with the sewer for the animal shelter corrected um with that water we had it kind of messed up the ground

so they have to come back this week regrade that uh then we'll get that reinspected and hopefully by the end of the week we should be pouring concrete to get the new expansion on the way which would put us in line probably for two and a half to maybe three months will be completed there. You have to come back because the only one person I want to be here is not here. Absolutely. Planned it. So, you have to come back, JR. Absolutely. I definitely will. I'll definitely keep up day on that one. So, so Jr. for the uh the Talltown Fire Department, you guys initial investment was a half million dollars, but now y'all you all are over $600,000. Yes, sir. So, when do you think y'all going to be finished? Um September, October?

I would say probably the end of this month. We should be finishing up with that one and be ready. So I would say probably the beginning of uh September we should be done. Okay. And you are in the and just kind of predicting based on whether with the animal shelter I would say probably the end of the year. So probably about a threemonth period we should be completed with that one. Um obviously that's dependent on the weather but right hopefully that's what we're seeing. I mean we've had a couple setbacks while this rain lately with right in concrete. All right, that's been a little difficult, but Okay, we'll get started with that one and roll in really quick on it. So, okay. Thank you. All right. Absolutely. And and don't leave. I need to see you one second. Okay. Before you leave. Okay. Thank you, John. But come back next month.

Okay.

I want to give an update on our land use plan. Um they put out a community survey and that community um survey um is coming um they had the final day on July 31st. Um and they gave me an update on the number of responses that we had. Um they had 896 responses. They are um working on giving me the summary of the results and once I have that I will share that with the board so that you can see what those responses were. Um and the board gave me the the responsibility to take care of your world series and you wanted me to bring that back to you about your cost. If you remember, you said bring it back to you and tell you what it cost.

Who said that? The board did. Take care of it. Took care of you. Took care. So, you want it or you don't? No, you got to say it now. You brought it out. So, it cost the board a total of $18,974.26. So, you took care of that and I think that they were very appreciative of you and I just want the board to know that I took care of that and they were taken out in on Sunday, but they enjoyed it and everyone came back and said they appreciate it and they appreciated what the board of commissioners did for them. So, and they deserved it and they deserved it. So, I want you to know that everything was taken care of and um we took care of them like they asked us.

Thank you so much, J. And to thank you to the drivers, the county employees that that that took them down there. We appreciate their their sacrifice and dedication to the county. Sounds good. That it for you? That's it for me. Commissioner McConnell, if you give me the motion, we go home. I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn until our next meeting. Second Senate time with IO. Good night. We got to hit you early. Where you got to go do something about that turn teach.