Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to the June 9th 2025 uh town of Kovville Hills Board of Commissioners meeting. I call our meeting to order and invite everyone to please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. I'll now invite everyone to please join me in a moment of silence. [Music] All right. Next item business this evening is our agenda approval board. We have an agenda before us. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. We have an agenda. Next is our public hearing for the town manager's recommended budget for fiscal year 2025 2026. Uh Casey, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, mayor. Um following rules of procedure are going to apply to this hearing. Public notice was published in the newspaper and posted on town bulletin boards and the town website which meets or exceeds the statutory requirements for the subject matter. Copy of the public notice has been filed with the town clerk for entry into the official record of the hearing. Town clerk's going to be recording all comments in a concise and brief manner. Uh any written statements that have been submitted prior to this hearing will be recorded in a similar manner and made part of the record. All speakers uh should come forward to the podium microphone so that your statement can be recorded. Uh if you do choose to speak uh as you

approach podium just identify yourself by giving name and complete address. Of course there will be no debates as as with every public hearing. Limit your comments to matters relevant to the issue and to a threeinut time period unless you're speaking on behalf of a group at which point a fivem minute exception will be made. So this public hearing is coming to order now and the hearing is called for the purpose of the Kill Devil Hills board of commissioners to consider the town manager recommended budget for fiscal year 2025 2026. For anyone interested in speaking please approach the podium now. All right, turn it over to you guys. That's been up for discussion. Um, all right. Well, um, I thought we had a pretty productive workshop, our last meeting, and, uh, it's a product good discussion. I fancy any questions or comments board members may have at this time. Nothing for me. Should we wait till new business item number one to take a vote? Okay. Well, uh, hearing no discussion at this time, we will move on to our first section of public comment. Now is the time you set aside for public comment. This is an opportunity for anyone in the audience to address the board on any topic of their choosing that pertains to the town. Um, any takers? No. All right. Right. Well, we'll uh close public comments. Nothing to respond to. No ongoing business. We can move on to new business. Item number one, recommend an action to adopt the an operating budget for fiscal year 2025 2026. Um I'll open it up for a motion if anyone would like to make it or any

other questions or comments. I wanted to make a comment. Sure. Um, and it pertained to the um, skating rink. Um, in the budget we had $200,000 appropriated for that. Um, I I don't agree with that. I don't think that we need to move with that. I think we need to make some improvements there. I think the wall is in dire need. Um, but I don't think think we need to move forward with the $200,000 uh for the improvements. I think that um and I don't know what the the cost would be, but to rehab that wall, I think we need to appropriate $50,000, take the other 150 and it would go back into the capital, I mean into the general fund. Well, or if you'd like, it could go into the recreation reserve fund. Well, what I was thinking is that we could put it in the recreational reserve fund and it could be utilized on some of the projects that we've got coming up or we could utilize it if there's additional improvements that need to be made there. Yes, sir. But I think we need to hold up and wait and watch for about a year. I'd like to also see what it's going to cost. I mean, that's, you know, we need to know what it's going to cost to replace those boards as well. So, if we, you know, if we don't have an exact cost on that, then it, you know, pulling leaving 50,000 in there might not be enough or it might be too. It may not be. Um, and if there are, you know, further considerations you guys or further information you guys want prior to making such an amendment, we can do an amendment at any time in the future after such information's obtained. I figured if we if we leave some money in there, at least it'll get us to a point

where we can replace some of the bad boards that um I think the back side of it is double boarded, but I don't think the side towards the restroom area is. I think that's a single board in there. So, um the boards that are bad are bad, you know, and they're going to need to be replaced. Um the whole thing needs to be painted. So, that was the reason I was thinking for, you know, leave money there for that. But if we put it in the recreational, then we can certainly make a you know, we can draw from that. or or the money or the money if understanding the board's desire is not to do what was in the recommended budget. Um but your desire is to do some improvements to the rink. Um and of that 200,000 you want to um fix the walls, do some painting. I can assure you that if that's what you instruct me, you could leave all 200,000 in there and that will be what we will do. Um, and then what other monies that you want to use and the rest of that 200,000 would go into recreation and you wouldn't have to make any any move. So, whatever's left would Yeah. And we'll we will report back to you what it's going to cost for each of the phases. That's fine. Yeah. Oh, sorry. No, no, I was I was just gonna say that I was caught off guard by it. I didn't know that we were spending that kind of money on that one part of our recreation um when when it when it came out. And and then I was also caught off guard by the fact that we didn't like like most recreational things we've we workshop, planned, discussed, um had a lot of input into. We've had

committee. you you had your own committee when we did uh a couple of uh recreational projects that you headed up. So, you know, I I I definitely want to earmark that money for that. You know, I do I think you agree earmark that for that, but or or for recreation in general, but uh um you know, like how to go about the skate project and how much to spend on the actual skate project itself, boards, no boards, all that. Um, you know, I think that needs to be discussed. I think the boards make it unique. So taking the boards down is just going to make it another flat pavement like spot which may or may not be attractive to whatever. But, you know, uh but the board that's the boards itself, you know, the the um the idea that we could earmark the money for 200,000 for for recreation and then with the idea that we're going to focus on the uh the rink as the primary project and then talking a little slower. it will slow things down obviously but talking a little more about how to do it and having the board you know the commissioner's input but all the mayor's input but also I don't even know maybe go as far as creating another committee potentially to to that's a lot of money to spend that we could possibly use in different ways I'm not saying that that that spot doesn't need all of it might but uh exactly The intent was to to commission a design and bring that back to the board for your approval. So there there would have been input. Okay. The intent wasn't to go out and and do all of this without it coming back for the board's blessing. Oh, I thought it was decided like exactly the design. Oh. Oh, no sir. Okay. Well, no, because we talked about it. There might be a number of things that Right. We we just threw out some things that could be considered because

we feel like there there's an underuse at certain times of the day and maybe if we could add some things we could fill in those gaps. I thought it was more done the way it was present. No, nothing's done. It was No, no. The way it was presented in my mind as I was sitting here last time was, you know, oh, we we we already decided this is what we're doing. So, that it didn't seem almost like that. So anyway, that's what that's what I thought. So I I didn't know we were Well, that was that's the recommended. That's what that was. So no. Um but absolutely the board would have have input. Okay. Um and as far as a committee, um there's no reason that this wouldn't and couldn't go back to the special street and special use committee. So I don't I wouldn't suggest that you create another committee just to talk about the skate park. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. you know, some committee input may be helpful. Sure. And that would that would be a perfect one for it, too. A lot of the use there's there's I've seen like three groups that use it. The skaters, the lacrosse people, and the hockey. Um and the comments that I've gotten back mostly are they'd like to see it remain the same physical structure, you know? Right. Yeah. Um and uh I think that's important to preserve that. Um, the way I look at it, I know the the derby bade, I I look at it just like with the disc golf. I mean, it's it's something unique that happens in Kill Double Hills and doesn't happen anywhere else. Um, so I think we need to preserve that if you know if possible. Um, yeah, I would totally agree with that and I think that was the I mean I that's how I saw it as the intent. I would say I completely agree that that space is underutilized. I mean, just like we're thinking about taking the disc golf course and adding paths through there and utilizing that more, that space sits empty 90% of the time, despite the fact that there's I

mean, we have cameras. We could probably figure it out, but my guess would be maybe 80% of the time. I think it's utilized 7 hours a week by those groups, maybe nine hours a week. And the and from 8 to 5 it sits empty. So, if we could have some street ball in there, like, you know, the future of recreation, especially in this county, has to be multi-use. It has to be more than three, more than four uses. Yeah. And the containment of the walls containing it actually kind of has a makes it special in some ways. I always have a dream of like a roller skating rink, like some some public private partnership. We talked about this once like somebody who would rent skates maybe and maybe have that type of night where it was roller skating night or something like that where we could, you know, encourage even rollers just roller skating like kids love roller skate in roller skating there or potentially bring a company in to do an ice skating thing in the in the in the change it to ice. They do that with a lot of space flat spaces. They they they companies can come in, they can do an ice skating uh take down ice skating rink potentially. So there's a lot of there's a lot of ideas. I still think that if you take the walls out, it kind of changes it to just like a, you know, a flat pad of asphalt and just like anything else. So it has a unique feel, right, with the lights and the and the boards. I can't imagine a skater going around that circle and winding up in a chain link fence. Yeah. No, that's wouldn't be as fun. And it has a it has a uniqueness to it. I'm not sure you want to want to lose that, you know. Well, I think I think we've gotten the message. You definitely want to have some additional input, but you are willing to consider the 200,000 for recreation. Yes. With some improvements to that rink. That's all. Yeah. And maintaining the uses that are and if we can incorporate other uses without taking away from those, you'd be amenable to that. Yes. We can rehab the surface, multistripe it for different activities. I I I think

what we need to do is is get a a plan together and let the committee start reviewing it and see because I'm hearing different things that you want to see. It's the best surface they've ever had. Um I'm not saying there's not problems, right? But they said the surface is fine. And one of the issues that came up was the black color uh causing a lot of heat. Well, they skated on it last summer. They played hockey on it last summer and it was black. So I don't think that's an issue. Um well they do that at night. So I think I think we just need to watch it and Oh well. Yeah. Let's let's look at it for a little bit more time before we jump into something. Well, and like we had talked about the other day, the intent wasn't to do anything until after the first of the year because we've already made obligations with folks using it. And I appreciate uh Meredith. I appreciate y'all meeting with me, you and Charlene, uh, out there the other day. Thank you very much for that because that brought me up to speed quite a bit. So, thank y'all. But I think it's a great recommendation to earmark that money for for recreation, even if it's not all put into that one project. Maybe some other project or what? Sure. Absolutely. Put in the recreation budget. Yeah. Yeah. But for the purpose of the budget, let's let's just leave it keep it in where it is. I've got the direction. Exc. outside of the skate rink. Any other topics to discuss or questions before we take action? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to adopt the operating budget fiscal year 2025 26. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Anything else? If I may just add and that would include

um the capital reserve ordinance for the purpose of construction and improvement to streets and storm water as well as some consolidated fee schedule for fiscal year 2526. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any more discussion hearing? Not all in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. Hi. Thank you very much. We look forward to implementing your budget. Yes. All right. New business item number two. Recommendation for bid acceptance for 2025 2026 street drainage and right of ways improvement projects. A West Martin Street and B Ocean Acres Drive. Um, Meredith, maybe I can turn this over to you or actually we have turn it over to the engineers. Gentlemen, uh, Peter Patrick, the double peas. I can answer any questions about the second. Mr. Mayor, members of the commission, it's great to be with you tonight. And before we address this matter, uh, congratulations on all of us surviving and finishing the Riceville Boulevard project and the Southeast area, uh, water main improvements project. I'm tempted to quote Dr. King and shout free at last, but it's it's a good project and thank you for the courage to take on one that big. the one that we have before you tonight u as opposed to the two that we just finished is well actually it is a two for two much smaller u a little less than half the size and um prices are still somewhat high but you know they're good bids whenever that they're grouped fairly tightly together one contractor isn't 30% lower than another and such is the case here so we'll certainly entertain

any questions you have about the projects or the funding or the bids But know that it's American Engineers recommendation that you award them as presented in the uh in the staff's package uh to Hatchel Concrete Incorporated for the West Martin Street and Swan Street project and to uh Fred Smith for the uh uh Ocean Acres Drive repaving. And for that or after that, we'll stand by for your questions. Any questions or comments? So, for for Ocean Acres, we're looking at Burns Drive to Burns Drive, how it loops back around. Um, that's right, Commissioner. Um, it's the the pavement oddities that were discovered didn't go up the hill as it were in the back. Right. And in the front the we basically began the paving at Burns. So it's just that kind of washboardy section. That's what I was that is being done over from from the 2012 P. Got it. Okay. Just making sure that that's I've encountered the washboarding in my old vehicle. It was especially noticeable. Jesus. Yeah. It really gets you. Yeah, that's for sure. Try it on a motorcycle. Oh, thank you. or not. Thank you, sir. That's all for me. We do not have any more comments or questions. I will entertain a motion for this. And by the way, if you will, mayor, um or not, I don't know whether it's a separate item or not, but we would greatly appreciate consideration and approval of our proposal for construction phase services as well. It's it's all I wouldn't leave you out. I'll make a motion. Uh I move to adopt the budget ordinance

capital reserve ordinance for the purpose of construction of improvements to streets and related storm water management consolidated feed schedule for fiscal year 2025 2026. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any more discussion hearing? None. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I very good. All right, moving on to new business. Thank you, gentlemen. Honor to be in your service. We're going to excuse ourself and go look at a certain future sidewalk project. All right. We're always lucky when team PNP shows up. So, thank you very much. For new business, item number three, appointments and nominations. We have an nomination open for the land transfer tax appeals board with the county. It's a long appointment. Surprise. That's she is a soldier. Yes. Um she is that that's a big that's a long long one to really dedicate yourself for, but um Jacqueline Rick's uh samples uh term has expired in June 2025. One that she's held since 2010. So uh thank you Jackie for your service to the town. and I believe she has expressed interest in uh continuing her service. Um and she's got a pretty impressive resume when it comes to service to our town as well. So um would like to make a motion. I I'll make a motion to approve Jackie Rick's sample to the Dair County Land Transfer Commission appeals board and land transfer tax appeals board. I'll second. We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. All right. Congratulations, Jackie.

First appointed to service to a town in 1991. So that's rather incredible. Very impressive. Okay. Do we have uh committee reports? None here. Yes, sir. No, sir. Commissioner's agenda. I do have a item I wanted to bring up. I had uh expressed concern and I still have that concern um as it relates to our fire department with the u decline in the volunteers. Um the town manager and the fire chief met with me and I I appreciate y'all doing that. Um and uh discuss that. I think that reporting back to this board that we need to monitor it very closely and pay attention to the personnel um study that we had done and uh just keep a very close eye on it because I think it's a real concern and I think it's there and we need to be ready to act. Um, so my recommendation is to to keep a close eye on it and follow the personnel policy or the uh manpower study we had done. Chief, what's the minimum age for someone to volunteer at the fire department? Thanks for your question. Uh, mayor 18. 18. We do we do have a Well, I was curious because we have lifeguards that are under 18. Yes, sir. We have a there's a junior program too that's working with the high school um to where during the day you know how some will go do some other type of uh jobs um training there's one in the high school right now that we're you know we're trying to build upon and everything started last year and trying to build upon it each year um

KDH either it's I mean it's it's across pretty much across the field isn't it almost all departments are experiencing decline in volunteers. That's national commissioner. It's a it's a national concern. Everybody in life is so busy with um family, careers, um just the day-to-day hectic lifestyle that everybody's facing now. Volunteerism is dropping off significantly. Yeah. So, we just got to pay close attention. Just curious for our lifeguards who are currently enrolled at First Light High School or any other local high schools. that probably be a while opportunity during the shoulder seasons. They want to stay on. They're already part of the team summertime. That mean there's a way to tap into that. Uh and a lot of kids, especially with, you know, their aspirations and their curriculum requires a certain number of volunteer hours that maybe resource to tap into. Anyway, good point. All right. Thank you, Professor Gray, for bringing that up. Any further commissioners agenda items? I don't know if this is something that we have control or recommendations over, if it's something that can be done by resolution perhaps. Um I'm sure we've all noticed in the summertime cell phone service, particularly on the weekends, um it still seems to be seriously lacking. Um you can't really particularly data. I don't know quite as much about direct calls. I didn't know if it's a safety issue necessarily or anything like that. It's just something that I pick up on and I forget about it every summer until we get to the weekend. I'm like, "Oh, I cannot look anything up." And I'm I hear about it all the time all over. Is Is that something that we can ask for an improvement on? I'm not sure how that even is handled. Who would we I mean, it's not like like our utilities like

DOT who we go to for the roads, right? We go to for power. We're talking individual providers. Yeah. for um but who we would door we can knock on is the fiber making it any better? Well, it's not really the Wi-Fi service so much as it is just a straight up let's say Verizon data service. Okay. I've heard like AT&T doesn't seem to struggle as much for some reason. But Verizon's a massive national carrier, but you can't use it here on the weekend hardly. It seems um on a cell phone. Talking about purely googling something before you go somewhere. Okay. Um, again, it's just something I've been thinking about. Well, we have a um we have a contractor that we use that helps manage our tower. Um, the one in the bear center. Yes. So, let us get in touch with him and see if there's anything he would suggest that we could do. Yeah. Just just curious really. I've been thinking about bringing it up for a year now. Sure. See what Mr. Dominic has in mind. Thank you. That's all for me. All right. Um, thank you, Commissioner Hikkins. Any further any other commissioner agenda items? All right, hearing none. Um, we move on to mayor's agenda. I am requesting the board enter into close session for the following reason pursuant to general following general statutes um 143 8 31811 to consider qualifications competence performance character fitness conditions for appointment or conditions of initial employment of a public individual public officer or employee and request a motion which is in order. So move Mr. Mayor second. We have a motion and two seconds to go into close session. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. All right. Right back.

No cookout ever going to happen though. Can we monitor somebody? Yeah. Um, do we need to make another motion to end close session or can we just or they're coming. Need a report. He's got it. We're good. But please do just provide just a general report. General report. Report. Are you g if you wouldn't mind if you All right. We will continue our board of commissioners meeting. We concluded our um discussion on performance of an individual public officer and we'll be ready to report that to the individual. Satisfactory. Great. Um moving on in mayor's agenda, uh Mary's Paul Park celebration. As you know, Kill Devil Hills is a dog friendly community. Well, on this past Friday, Kill Devil Hills really went to the dogs. We had our Mary's Paws Park celebration. That's a tongue twister, by the way. At Aviation Park to celebrate the best dog park in the world, there were lots of dogs with their people enjoying free pup cups and giveaways along with SPCA and Eagle Rescue organizations, opportunities for everyone to bring their pup into their family. Uh special thanks to all of our town staff for making this event possible. I made a cameo when Commissioner Gray was there. Uh it was a fun time. So yeah, staff did very nice job. Staff did a great job. Very nice. And there's new turf down. Yeah, it looks really good. The gazebo there is really good. That's was hot. You needed a little cover. It It works out. How are you doing the music? I love the I know you've always had those little pop Not always. I know you've had these pods for

a long time, man. It sounds I know. Maybe turn it up or something. I don't know what's going on. It sounds nicer. It's nice music there. It's like Disney. Yeah, it does. Has a Disney feel. I don't know who chooses the music, but it's also good music. So, we got a little taste. Yeah. Yeah. Who's behind who's behind the curtain? Charlie, I guess the the dog park DJ will just have to remain in mystery. Yes. Um, moving on. Uh, offshore drilling public comment period. Last month, the plan was announced by the president's administration to develop a new schedule for offshore oil and gas lease sales. The public comment period runs through June 15th. And if the board is amanable, I will submit a letter with our most recent resolution opposing such activity off our pristine North Carolina coast. Yes, sir. Yes, please. Yeah, we've been really consistent in and renewing that message with every new board that's se seated and um the clock's ticking. So, tomorrow morning um First Flight Farmers Market. Uh just a reminder that our first the first of our summer markets begins Tuesday, June 17th from 900 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Aviation Park. The market will include more than 50 vendors consisting of produce, jewelry, baked goods, homemade candles, food trucks, jams, and jellies, and a one-of-a-kind local crafts, photographs, and products from local artists. It really is um a fun, well attended event. And it's neat that how markets, not just ours, but everywhere from just keep getting gaining steam and getting more participation. Really enjoy them. Yeah. support your local people, right? Yeah. People, we're committed to it and the how these vendors can kind of set up in different places, different ways to make it work.

It's neat. Uh and our Independence Day fireworks. Make sure you mark your calendars for our upcoming annual Independence Day fireworks show scheduled July 4th at Avalon Pier. Bring your families and friends and enjoy the show. And it will be live streamed as well if anybody would like to see that virtually. Come see the real thing. That's best with you. Yeah. Watching it go. I can tell you July 4th, Avalon Pier's pretty Yeah. happening spot. Yeah. I had to record a video and there were people a lot closer to me than you are now. And I was trying to do that and they were, you know, having a great time. So, I got one more piece. Uh, AC, I want you to share this for me. Uh, two Saturdays ago, Officer Lane from our police department hosted a bike safety course for the Cup Scouts back 116, and it was very, very well attended. We had a a brigade of bikers just doing laps around the frog pond out here. But he he did a really great job. He's really good with children and we're lucky to have him as an ambassador for our police department. So, please relay my thanks to him. He did a really good job. Yeah, it was fun. It was a good It was a real good day. That's all I have for mayor's agenda. Town manager's agenda. No, sir. All right. And nothing from the town attorney either. All right. We will move on to our consent agenda that I got. Minutes from the May 28th, 2025 month report April 2025. Um have a few budget amendments. First one is to record the revenues and right to use assets associated with the new fire station. Um 14 is to appropriate insurance proceeds from um our insurance claims. The PEG channel support fuel funds received from Dair County for um fleet maintenance

inventory. Number 17, appropriate sales tax reimburseable funds. And then F is a budget transfer which transferred funds from the finance department to the MSI system um for a paid paid intern program this summer. Number four is the official traffic map. Um from time to time, as you know, when the traffic map is changed, the board needs to adopt those changes. And this involves the status of the overnight parking. Um staff recommends approval of the consent agenda as presented and a motion would be in order. So move. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor please indicate by saying I. I. Thank you. Public comment. Slim Pickkins. Um seeing no takers. Um, we have nothing to respond to and I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. We are. Can't believe that.