Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Heat up here. and welcome to the January 12th board commissioners meeting. On behalf of all the board of commissioners, we thank you for being with us and um we will call this meeting to order and have roll call.

Okay. Thank you. And if you would, let's uh rise and Commissioner Brown's going to have our invocation. Dear heavenly Lord, thank you so much for this day, for this new year, and to all be gathered in this room tonight to put you first, Lord. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you through the county business. We ask that everything that come before us tonight, we have open hearts, open minds, and we put you first, Lord. We lay everything on our hearts and on our family's hearts at your feet. We ask that you bless all of our desires in this room. Lord, we love you. We give this evening to you. In your name, we boldly pray. Amen.

If you would uh remain standing and I'm going to invite Kriana Howard from Aiden Griffin up to introduce herself and she'll lead us in the pledge. Good evening. My name is Kiana Howard. I'm a senior at Aiden Griffin High School. I'm currently serving as a battalion commander of the Aiden Griffin High School JOTC. Thank you for having me this evening. At this time, please join me for the pledge of allegiance.

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. You may be seated. Thank you and have a good evening. Okay, we have a motion to approve the agenda. A motion and a second. Please uh vote. Madame manager, do we have any public addresses? Uh there are none signed up.

Okay, great. We'll move on to presentations and we have two. We have the resolution of appreciation and honoring Tim Daniels and we have the proclamation uh for recognizing human trafficking awareness. Um we need to vote on both of those please and then we'll go down. I have a motion and a second. I have a motion. Got a motion here. Second. Okay. Please vote on that. Okay. to come forward. Anyone you brought with you?

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, um, and those watching by audience, it is my pleasure to read a resolution of appreciation to Tim Daniels honoring his service with Pit County government. And it reads, "Whereas Tims began his dedicated service County on May 9th, 1994. And whereas throughout more than 31 years of service, Tim consistently demonstrated an extraordinary work ethic, always willing to take on any task required to complete work orders with a positive attitude, strong determination, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. And whereas Tim's exceptional skills in operating heavy equipment, including backho, tractors, and lawnmowers, set a high standard of proficiency and reliability for his team. And whereas his enthusiasm for equipment operation never wavered, even in the most challenging conditions, excluding including extreme heat and icy cold weather, exemplifying his dedication to the job. And whereas Tim was always willing to share his knowledge, generously offering his time to teach, mentor, and support others, inspiring team members through both his expertise and encouraging spirit. And whereas Tim Daniels is widely regarded as a great co-worker and an even better person known for his positive attitude, strong character, and willingness to help others at every opportunity. And whereas Tim concluded his distinguished career with Pit County government on December 1st, 2025, leaving behind a legacy of service, professionalism, and goodwill. Now therefore, be it resolved that the P County Board of Commissioners hereby recognizes and honors Tim Daniels for his exemplary service to P County and extends its deepest appreciation for his dedication, hard work, and positive impact on the buildings and grounds

department and the community it serves. Adopted this 12th day of January, 2026, signed by Mark Cy Smith, chairman, and attested by Kimberly Hines, clerk to the board. Mr. Chairman, if you will present that. Mr. Daniels, on behalf of the board of commissioners, we thank you for your service. Yes, SIR.

Let's get a picture before you go. You got it. Y this way. And if Pam Strickland and anyone else here associated with human trafficking would come forward.

Great to see you. This is our chair for you.

Excellent. Our elected district attorney for Dixon joining. Um, and I am pleased, as we do every January, to read to you the human trafficking awareness and prevention month resolution. And it reads, "Whereas human trafficking involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation provision, buying or selling of human beings for their service of labor or commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. And whereas human trafficking violates basic human rights and deprivives victims of human dignity and freedom. And whereas human trafficking is a national problem with North Carolina being ranked ninth in the country for prevalence in human trafficking. And whereas in Pit County, the Pit County human trafficking multidisciplinary team responds to local victimization at increasing rates. And whereas sex buyers are the reason that children and adults are being groomed and recruited by traffickers into the exploitive sex industry. And whereas our community must hold accountable those people who purchase sex, exploit workers, and those people who look the other way. And whereas the pit county coalition against human trafficking seeks to eradicate human trafficking by empowering organizations and individuals through collaboration, leadership, and training. And whereas NC stop human trafficking, ECU Health, Daughters of Worth, Pit County Sheriff's Office, the Greenville Police Department, the Center for Family Violence Prevention, and many other organizations are active members of the Pit County Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Pit County Human Trafficking Multidisciplinary Team. And whereas Pit County is committed to protecting people vulnerable to human trafficking and acting to end human trafficking by holding the sex buyers and traffickers accountable. And whereas the Pit County Courthouse Cupa was lit

blue on Sunday, January 11th, 2026 to observe human trafficking awareness day. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Pit County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim January 2026 as human trafficking awareness and prevention month in Pit County and commend its observance to all citizens. Signed by Chairman Mark Smith, if you will present this to Pam. Sure. On behalf of the board of commissioners, thank you both for your hard work on this. Thank you. Thank you. Look at a picture.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yes. Okay, next up is items for report. I'll invite uh Russell Hill up for the tax collection report.

Good evening, Chairman Smith, Commissioners, Manager Gallagher. This evening, I present to you the December tax collection report. The fiscal year combined tax collection rate through December 31st for real and personal property was 81.74%. The combined rate one year ago for real and personal property was 81.36%. Pit County Tax Administration continues to pursue all outstanding taxes using the necessary remedies available through the North Carolina General Statutes. If there are any questions, I'm happy to answer them. If not, it's my recommendation to approve the tax collection report as presented. Okay, any questions? Do I hear a motion? Move to approve.

Got a motion. I hear a second. Okay, please vote. Thank you, Russell, for your report. Thank you. Okay, I'll invite uh Michael Hardy up for the ARPA update.

Good evening to the board. Uh tonight I brought an update for the ARPA fund. Uh first of all, the Pit County received 35.107 million. Uh a couple items with the ARPA fund. They had to be uh uh encumbered or obligated by the December 31st, 2024 date. Uh all the funds must be liquidated for the ARPA fund by December 31st, 2026. As we're moving into these uh grant reconciliation period for uh the ARPA funds, we'll be seeing what's unexpended, any uh thing that we need to do from an ordinance standpoint, updating any type of slight or small reversions that we may have. So this first slide, you'll see that this is a broad call center summary. You'll see that on the left side of the screen, you'll see the total amount 35.107 million. We've currently expended to date 33.765. We do have um a slight uh pending obligation that we will be liquidating by that December 31st uh 2020 2026 deadline. So you can see right now with a couple of uh as far as what's available or s uh essentially uh unobligated which is being just a small amount with some of these being just small contingencies that we incurred through some of these projects. But you can see on the left side of the screen uh some of the different call centers are essentially the purpose of what the money was being spent for such as the broadband, the community health, employee health and safety, housing and homelessness, business and employment assistance, water and sewer infrastructure and then some of the ARP administration or essentially overhead uh items we had with this actual grant administration. This next slide uh simply takes all what you saw on the previous slide the cost summary and this is more the detailed side of it. You can see once again the cost allocation is at the 30 or the

total cost on the left side of screen is right at 35.107 million. You'll see expended which would equal that 33 million with what's left is the pending obligation which we will be liquidating by that December 31st uh 2026 deadline. You'll see on the left side the broad categories as you'll uh work your way down the sheet but a few of them such as you can see in the broadband the actual project of uh um the great which is the growing rural economies with the addition of technology grant um as far as that broadband of adding uh to rural communities. Then you'll see right below it the two community centers. You can see we expended for those two community centers 15.686 million. And then down below in the employee health, you'll see the various different projects such as you see the corehouse improvement project that was 1.678 million. Um we also had EMS equipment. These were EMS vehicles, ambulances that we purchased with uh this AR these ARPA funds. And then down below you can see the various housing and homelessness uh categories there are and the total amounts that we spent on uh the temporary housing and the sheltering is uh during utilizing these ARPA funds. And then down below you can see the various uh business and employee system which is non the not forprofits that we distributed monies using utilizing these ARPA funds. And then down below the different infrastructure projects such as the CA Green Granville utility project and then the town of Aiden utility project. And then we just had some at the very bottom the some of the administrative cost. Uh we we've essentially funded some of the salary costs of some of the positions during this time leaving on the right side of the screen. You can see what we have left is right at $38,000 with the pending obligation. will be liquidating that by the December 31st,

2026 deadline. Are there any questions? If not, I will ask this to be recommended to be approved as presented. Any questions? Yes, I have questions. Okay. Uh especially on the um the housing, the homeless. Uh we have I see what that 37. Mhm. So, how do you plan to to spend that? And when I thought we did not have any more funds for uh homeless for the homeless program

for this particular project with the housing housing improvement replacement project 37,000 essentially when we were building out that project there was some inherent contingency built into all the projects. a lot of projects were going into that uh $ 1.36 million uh dollar project. The contingency was built in. Some of the cost with a lot of things that were purchasing may have not came in at what the uh the estimated cost was. And at that point, the actual cost incurred um was that $38,000 less than what we anticipated. um due to that due to the obligation obligation date has passed the 38,000 would be one of the items that we'd have to revert back.

Okay. So literally we don't have any money left is obligated. Is that what you're saying? At this point any time any uh any type of uh available budget would have had to been encumbered by the December 31st 2024 deadline. Mhm.

So whenever these costs were spanning across that actual incumbrance deadline when they came in less less than what was anticipated at that point you had uh not many options to be able to apply it elsewhere. So it would be that particular money would actually have to revert. Does that answer uh I'm not sure. You're saying the money is going to have to be revert the remaining the remaining un unobligated 38,000 or $37,350 in that particular project. This

so you can see if you go back to the previous slide you can see the uh the housing homeless systems you can see 3.474 474 million is what we essentially had for uh the actual that particular project or that particular broad category we spent 3.437 million. So with the uh with all the various projects that went into that when we went across that December 31st 204 deadline essentially those costs that went across that deadline some of those may not have not come in as what we anticipated leaving what was left at 37,000.

So we didn't plan well enough to spend all of the money. Is that what you see? Well, essentially during this time with the different the var the variance in cost, you uh it's hard to always to determine what those costs will be for a project and you always build in contingency because you do not want to actually uh a lot so many dollars and then actually go beyond what you were going to spend. Do you want Yeah, if I could uh Commissioner Huggin, uh maybe explain a little bit about that uh extra money. So we did as far as the housing side of things, we did replacement housing and repairs to houses.

So we had to enter into contracts with the home provider at the 24 December 24 uh deadline. We factored in contingency money because anytime you're working in construction, you always have uh unknowns. So, we factored in 20% of the cost of that. We did dip into some of the contingency funds, but we did not need all of the contingency funds. So, that led to the uh overage and what we have to send back. I understand that, but I don't like having money.

I understand. But we couldn't once we realized that we were not going to spend all the money, the way ARPA was working, you had to obligate the funds and have it under contract. So, we couldn't after that 24 deadline, we couldn't go back and have a new contract created uh to spend that additional fund. I understand what you're saying. All right. But the money is still And the only thing I'd add to that is looking at all of these numbers out of $35.1 million, we are very very close to the mark. Yeah,

there isn't anybody unless they overobligated through poorer planning and ran short who would hit that to the penny. when you're planning a project two years ahead of time. Yeah, I I know what you're saying, but there's so many of these still left out there. Any other questions? Any other commissioner questions? A motion to approve this? I'll make a motion. Got a motion to hear a second. Okay, please vote. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate your report.

Okay, Madame Manager, you are up next. Yes, I have a short report for you. Your next meeting date is January 26th in this room at 8:30 in the morning. That'll be a combined workshop on your capital budget and strategic planning. Um the way that agenda is looking from 8:30 to 9:30, you'll hear about strategic planning. First, you'll get a report from Karen Witchard where she will present to you the proposed mission statement, vision statement, um, values, and objectives going forward um, before she prepares her final report. That will run from about 8:30 to 9:30. And then we'll transition into your capital budgeting where you'll hear from Michael Hardy about the projects recommended and not recommended. And then you'll have an opportunity to hear from Pit County Schools and Pit Community College and discuss before you're released before noon that day. And then on February 2nd will be your regular meeting following that in this same room. Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. we'll recognize our employees with five-year milestones in service. Um so all commissioners are welcome to attend if you're able. Reminder that county offices will be closed next Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And on chairman appointments, just a reminder to let you know that those chairman appointments have been provided to you um in your weekly packet or laid at your place setting. Um and that's all that I have.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Manager. We'll move on to items for consent. I have a motion to approve those. Move to approve items for consent. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. I hear a second. Second.

All right. Please vote. And we'll move on to items for decision. First up is uh the M East Commission Regional Digital Inclusion Plan, Michael Taylor and Jamie Hath. Good evening everyone.

Good evening.

I'm here to um present the M East region digital inclusion plan. My name is Jamie Heath. I'm a planner with the M East Commission Council of Governments. Okay. Um so, uh this digital inclusion plan was funded through BandNC, which is a part of NC State University's Institute for Emerging Issues. And BandNC stands for building a new digital economy in North Carolina. The goal of BandNC is to equip counties and regions with the tools to build more digitally equitable communities. BandNC provides technical assistance and planning capacity to support every county in developing and implementing a digital inclusion plan. So our planning process um our plan was done on the regional level. Um in addition to Pit County, the M East Commission also serves Bowurt County, Martin, Bertie and Herford counties. So those were the other counties that are a part of this plan. Um the steering committee was developed to guide this planning process. The committee included a diverse range of participants which included local governments, broadband support organizations, organizations serving vulnerable populations like minorities, seniors, and the re-entry population, institutes of higher education, economic development, workforce development, health care, internet service providers, cooperative extensions, social services, chambers of commerce, private businesses, faith-based organizations, and community institutions such as libraries and senior centers. In total, there were 99 steering committee members from across the region, including participants from Pit County. Um, and just to uh recognize people from Pit County that served on that committee, um, we had Mike Taylor, the county's chief information officer and deputy county manager, Commissioner Melvin Mclaw Horn, Miss Veronica Robertson from the, um, Winterville Town Council, Rebecca Cavaness from the

Winterville Chamber of Commerce, Matt Stevens from Pit County Cooperative Extension, Ernest Lee and Sheila Black Ormond from Pit Community College, Richard Ze from Pit County Council on Aging, and Harvey White from Pit County Department of Social Services. Um, our committee met seven times between August 2024 in May 2025. We had um hybrid meetings in person at the Teles Center in Williamston with a virtual option also available. Meetings were usually two to two and a half hours in length and information was disseminated by email between meetings. The NC Department of Information Technologies digital equity survey was used as the public survey for the planning process. Steering committee members played a strong role in gathering responses from community members and a total of 389 residents responded to the survey. There were three public open houses and two focus groups held to obtain additional public input around digital inclusion priorities and needs in local communities. One of those was held in Pit County. Public input was a strong driving factor in the development of goals, objectives, implementation strategies, and priority projects. The vision statement for the plan is a digitally inclusive M East region where every individual has equitable access to affordable and reliable internet, digital skills, training, essential devices, and support services, fostering economic growth, education, and quality of life for all communities. The mission statement of the plan. North Carolina's M East region is dedicated to bridging the digital divide by ensuring that every resident, regardless of background, demographics, geography, or socioeconomic status, has equitable access to essential technology and skills needed to thrive in the digital age. By leveraging local partnerships and resources, we will provide broadband infrastructure, affordable highquality

internet access, digital skills programs, essential devices and support services that empower our community members to overcome barriers, enhance educational and economic opportunities, and improve their quality of life. Together, we strive to build connected and inclusive communities where every individual has the tools and opportunities to fully participate in the digital economy and society. Um, we had goals, objectives, and detailed implementation actions. I just have um the goals here. Um, under access to devices goal, increase the number of residents in the Mid East region who have access to an affordable device that meets their needs and allows them to fully participate in the digital landscape. Affordability. Increase access to lowcost or nocost broadband across the M East region through stipender subsidy programs and services. Availability. Improve and increase broadband connectivity throughout the M East region to provide residents and businesses access to reliable high-speed broadband service. Digital skills develop technology support and educational programming that meets a variety of needs and accommodates all skill levels, empowering community members to gain the necessary skills to fully participate in the digital world. implementation resources build structure and organization to support long-term digital inclusion success and to empower partners to create their own digital inclusion programs and partnerships. And we have priority project profiles as part of the plan which we've tried to make as grant ready as possible. Um and those priority projects are device access program, device repair and technical support program, internet subsidy program, cell tower infrastructure expansion, improve the quality of broadband networks, resiliency backup networks, broadband infrastructure expansion, public access

locations, digital skills training, workforce development program integration, advocacy coalition, coalition of churches, digital skilling coalition implementation resources portal and publicformational portal. This plan is available on the Mid East Commission website at mid Eastcom.org or if you Google Mid East Commission that will come up. Um any community organizations that are interested in joining the implementation committee which is meeting virtually monthly can contact me at the um email or phone number there. Um, I'd be happy to answer any questions and there is um an adoption resolution in your packet for consideration.

Okay. Any any questions? Okay. Commissioner um on that last slide you asked about community organizations. How did you um seek uh to have community organization join it if they had questions? How did you go out advertising that particular slot that spot?

Yes. So, um when we were developing the plan, we basically called or emailed around to all the senior centers and libraries and all of the um institutes of higher education in the region as well. And um if there were any other organizations that we thought would play a broadband um support role like any nonprofit organizations, we reached out to those as well. Um, we did not locate any nonprofit organizations in Pit County that we're doing broadband education to reach out to. Um, but of course if there are any, we would love to add them to the implementation committee. Um, but that's just that's kind of the organizations that we reached out to and we just called, emailed them and asked them if they'd be interested in serving on the committee.

Was there any uh municipalities that you contacted? Yes, we um tried to have um at least one municipality from each county participate and um we had uh Winterville, we had Miss Veronica Robertson and um a staff member from the chamber over there participate. You didn't go out in the rural area for any of those. Uh there were definitely uh some uh smaller rural towns in some of the counties that participated. We tried to get at least one town in every county to participate and we did have like close to 100 people on the steering committee. So we also didn't want the committee to get like so large that it was unmanageable as well.

And so you selected Winterville.

Well um Winterville the the reason Winterville was uh selected is because the commissioners that we started with were the commissioners that um were on our comprehensive economic development strategy committee. um because the um expanding more on broadband and digital inclusion planning was kind of a goal of that committee and we the commissioner from Winterville was on that committee for Pit County. So that's um it kind of grew out of that economic development planning. So that's how we ended up contacting Winterville first in Pit County. any municipality or any nonprofit organization or anybody who's active in this space in the county is um certainly able to use this plan to apply for grant applications to support their projects. And if there's any additional municipalities interested in being involved, we certainly would love to have them on the implementation committee. So that's still open to anybody.

Thank you. It's still open. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other commissioner questions? It's the pleasure of the board. Move approval. A second. Got a motion and a second. Let's vote on that, please. Okay. Thank you, Miss Heath. Appreciate you coming out this evening. Thank you all.

All right. I'll invite uh Jonas Hill, Tim Corley up for the interlocal agreement. Hi, good evening chair, members of the board. Glad to be in front of you this evening. Um, this next item is interlocal agreement with the town of Farmville to administer their building code, the North Carolina building code requirements as well as the flood damage prevention ordinance. Um, they have taken this to their board and have approved it. Uh, all fees that will be collected will be used uh by our inspections department. Uh we anticipate those fees will cover uh any and all employee resources that we need to provide these services. Uh so we're asking tonight for approval to move forward this interlocal agreement to provide those services to the town of Farmville. I've got Dean Burbage, our chief building inspector here as well as Jonas Hill if there any questions regarding any of the particulars.

Okay. Any commissioner questions for Tim? I have one. Hey sir, um are you saying that the money that we get for the permits for building will cover the people we have employed right now so that we won't have to hire another person?

Well, what we'll do is we will um so our fees are a little higher than what Farmville are. Um but the fees that we collect, anticipated fees that we collect from Farmville based on the last two years of their permits um will cover an employee if Dean deems it necessary to hire someone. they only had a part-time employee that was doing their inspections. Um, and so if Dean determines that an extra employee or a half employee is needed, then we'll do it at that time. Um, the way that the inspections office works is there's legislation where the monies that come in for permits and inspections has to be utilized for that per same purpose. And so we've that is a a healthy fund right now. And so we will have funds available and come to you for another position if it's deemed necessary to do based on workload. Um that changes obviously based on economy. Uh we just got a bunch of uh a whole uh subdivision for Farmville actually. Um which is I think approximately $200,000 just in permit fees that will be collected over the life of that subdivision. So, um, that's a fluid fluid thing as far as, uh, how much work load we have permit-wise as well as inspections. So,

and you don't see that overloading the inspectors we have now for the rest of the county? I don't believe so. We actually, um, we actually have a position that's floating right now within inspections that we could hire someone today if we wanted to. So, uh, we're in a good position. Thank you. Any other questions from commissioners? Commissioner Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, do we provide this service for other municipalities? We do everywhere but Winterville and Greenville. Everywhere. Yep. So, all uh Winterville and Greenville are the only municipalities that we that we that have their own um building inspectors. Okay. We do the rest of the county and all the other municipalities. Okay. Thank you.

And Tim, would you go ahead and share the relative volume? Um,

I will. Give me one second and grab that. Sorry, I should had those with me and I can pass these out if you'd like to see them. So, as you get these, you'll see um the P we were only able to collect the data from April because of our new EPL software. Um our old software, it was it was going to be very difficult to actually collect the data. Uh so this is just representative of April through December of 25. Uh so you'll see the Pit County limits approximately 2400 permits and 3600 inspections and then the relative inspection fees. So you'll see Aiden is uh is basically the first municipality that you know where the growth is that is where where the most growth is in Pit County. That's where the most fees are being collected and the most permits and inspections are being issued. Um you do see I will note you will see some formal inspections. It's based on zip code. So there are some zip codes that are not within the formal city limits that show up on this. Don't let that confuse you there. U but again this is just April through December just for representation.

I have a question.

How would they be found? That would fall under the pit county. The second to the last line there that says Pit County. Okay. That would be all the unincorporated areas of Pit County. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Okay, we got a motion on the floor to approve it here. Second. Got a second. Let's vote. Thank you. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate it. All right, we are at the end here. We will start to my right with commissioner comments. Commissioner Brown, we do have a closed session. Yes, just a happy birthday to to Commissioner Manning. Other than that, I do not have anything.

Thank you, Commissioner Brown. Commissioner, I don't have a comment. You sure? Don't ask her twice. I've already asked about the prepare. Okay. Commissioner Hollowman. Commissioner Manning, happy birthday to you, sir. Yes, sir. And thank you for all the well wishes. Yes, sir. A good day. Awesome. Commissioner Nelly. Okay. Commissioner Huggin, happy new year, too. Okay. Commissioner, happy new year and happy birthday, Sheriff. Okay, I will let the county attorney read our close session statement.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's been suggested this body go into close session under the following grounds. One, to consult with the attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve attorney client privilege under North Carolina General Statute 143 318 1183, which privilege is hereby acknowledged. Two, to establish and instruct the public body staff concerning the position to be taken in negotiating acquisition of property under North Carolina General Statute 143185. Three, to discuss matters related to the location or expansion of industry under North Carolina General Statute 1431811A4. And four, to prevent the disclosure of information that is not considered a public record under North Carolina General Statute 1431810. Thank you, Matt. We have a motion or a motion and a second to go into close session.

Second. Motion and a second. Please vote. He's for our close session. He's the guy from DQ.

Okay, welcome back. We're back in from uh close session. Um Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a motion to approve the close session minutes from December 15th. Good. Got a motion to approve in a second. Please cast your vote. And with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. We got a motion and a second. Please vote unless you don't want to leave. Oh, Chris isn't here. Okay. Thank you.