Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Yes. Y'all ready? Y'all ready?

Like to call the meeting tonight to order. Our uh April 6th regular meeting of the Craven County Board of Commissioners. We're going to start with a prayer from the county attorney followed by the pledge of allegiance. So if you would all stand while we do that.

Eternal God, by whom alone all exists, through whom alone we all are sustained, in whom alone we all must seek direction and find purpose. We confess that we are a nation and a county in progress, ever seeking to fulfill a divine mandate to establish liberty and justice for all the people. As such, we need your guiding hand along the way of our our pilgrimage. Look with favor, we pray, upon our nation and our county, and grant your blessing for the journey. Equip, O Lord, these county commissioners with uncommon wisdom, unwavering courage, and unfailing dedication to seek, to know, and to do your will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Amen. 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. Madam clerk, would you please call the role? Commissioner Howard here. Commissioner Hunt here. Commissioner Mason here. Commissioner Mitchell here. Commissioner Smith here. here. Vice Chairman Jones here. Chairman Booker. Commissioners, you have in front of you the agenda for tonight. Are there any additions, deletions, changes to that that you'd like to make?

Make a motion that we approve the agenda as written. Second. A motion and a second. Madame Clerk, would you call the role, please? Commissioner Howard? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Mason? Yes. Commissioner Mitchell? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Chairman Jones? Yes. Chairman Booker?

Yes. First, before we start the agenda of the meeting, I'd like to welcome We have a lot of guests here tonight and we appreciate you all being here. Uh, I'd like to start by asking those people who are members of Leadership Craraven to stand and identify yourself and your organization. And for the me for the uh public leadership Craven is an organization that annually brings a lot of our young uh future leaders, we'll call it that, together and they they visit many different organizations during their time at Leadership Craven. So tonight is our night. So with that, we'll start whoever's in the front row or the second row, we'll start with you.

My name is Cameron Kishell. I'm the associate dean for the Havlock campus at Craven Community College. Okay. Thank you. My name is Jory Mack. I'm production supervisor for Chad Products. Kiana McGee, HR professional at Men, project manager at Toro Building Systems. Rley Children, personal banker at First Citizens. Audrey Moy, production supervisor at Mud. Charlie Dunn. I'm the airport operations manager at the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport. Bur Minister. I'm the assistant director of HR Community College.

Sorry about that light in your face. Virginia or Jenny at 321 range bro center newburn.

Okay. Well, thank you all very much for being here. Hope it's a worthwhile evening for you and uh you will um uh we're glad that you're taking the um initiative to uh to learn more about what goes on in this county and how it functions. So congratulations and again thanks. Um, looks like we've got a uh member of the library board of trustees from the chairman, Joe Meadows. Joe, are you here? President.

Okay. Welcome. Uh, and he was a previous winner of the super sweeper award. I see. So, clean sweep guy. We we appreciate you. Okay.

Okay. So, uh, the number one item on our agenda tonight would be Mr. Jeff Wood. He is going to talk to us about, uh, project enterprise. Mr. Wood, chairman, Mr. This public hearing is for project enterprise, uh, which is Chadzsworth. This proposed economic development project involving the expansion of existing manufacturing operation in Craven County. The project includes the reuse and improvement of an existing industry industrial facility to support manufacturing of products and solutions related to information and communication technology, industrial automation, and information protection. The project anticipates capital investment of $9.5 million, including improvements to real and personal property, the creation of 45 full-time jobs over a two-year period uh with an a annual average of just under $50,000. All existing uh North Carolina positions associated with the project will be retained. To support this investment, the Cman County uh economic development department has been awarded on behalf of the project for funding through the North Carolina Department of Commerce building reuse grant program. This program provides grant assistance to local governments for the renovation and reuse of existing buildings to support private investment and job creation. Uh if awarded, the building reuse grant $360,000 will require a local match equal to 5% or $8,000 of the total grant award. Um Craig County would serve as the applicant administrator for the grant.

Okay. Commissioners, would uh someone like to make a motion to open the public hearing? I would make that motion. Chairman second. Got a motion and a second to open the public hearing. The public hearing is open. Is there anyone here who would like to speak about this particular project? I'm sorry.

Okay. Um, we got a motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. The public hearing is open. Anyone want to speak on this subject hearing? None. Do I have a motion to close the public? Motion to close the public hearing. Second. All in favor? I.

All opposed? Motion passes. Public hearing is closed. Thank you, sir. Item two, Craraven Pamlico Regional Library presentation. Julie Cox and Janine Holgren. Did I get that right? Welcome.

Thank you. We're delighted to be here this evening. Um greatly appreciate all the support that you all um give to us and to our citizens of Craraven and Pamela counties essentially. Um my name is Julie Cox and I am the regional director and this is Jeannie Homer. She's our assistant regional director. We're also tonight very pleased to have with us um our um grant writer, Miss Suzanne Gford. um with and we are grateful for our partnership with partners in education. We just wanted to take a moment and um share with you and share with the public a little bit about what we're doing and some statistics. I believe you have a handout in your agenda packet. So I'm just going to start at the top. You know we serve two counties Pamelo and Craven. We to last year we served about well let me back up. Population was 116,667. of that we have seven locations. We have Cove City, Havlock, Newburn, and Vanceboro in the Craraven County area. In Pamlicico, we have Pamlico County Public Library and the Hollowell Annex. We also have a book techmobile which travels all around doing stops in both counties with the majority of the stops being in Craraven County. This enables us to go out and visit rural areas who may have transportation issues um or low socioeconomic areas that may not be able to physically get inside library doors. This enables us to bring the library to them. Um last fiscal year we had over 2,300 programs provided from our facilities with an attendance of over 62,000 um people in attendance. So, lots of things going on. Um, we had over 197,000 visits to our libraries and we have over 56,000 registered patrons within both counties. And Genie, did you want to share?

So, between all of our branches, we circulated over 455,000 items last fiscal year. And with our budget of approximately $3.5 million, we were able to provide almost $13 million worth of services to the citizens that come into our library branches. So, we wanted you to be able to see the return on investment on what you when you invest in us, you're investing in the community and it really goes far. So, we just wanted to thank you for that. Good. And again, thank you all so much. And um if any of you would ever many of you serve on our boards and we thank you for that. But if any of you would love to come visit, we would love to give you a tour anytime. So thank you so much.

Any questions for them? I have when I was getting ready for this meeting, I was reminded that that's something that I have relationship with our director. Can you share what that with everybody? Yes, ma'am. So, Miss Smith was my um elementary school principal. It's a full circle moment. Thank you. Was she Was she tough? Maybe that that breeds goodness, right? Character. That's right.

Do we have any other questions or comments? I I would only comment that, you know, a lot of people think that because the internet is in most homes today that and you can find an awful lot of information. You know, there's nobody out there selling encyclopedia encyclopedia botanica anymore because it's on the internet. But I'm always amazed. I walk by the library every morning as I walk my dogs and there are a lot of people that are going in and out of the the main library here. So, uh, it's still very viable and we appreciate what you do. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Number three is Deanna Treble, Metropolitan Planning organization boundary expansion. Welcome, Deanna.

Thank you. Good evening. Um the Metropolitan Planning Organization recently completed its long range transportation plan which identified significant population growth outside its current planning area boundary. The transportation advisory committee which is our um the advisory board for the MO requested staff evaluate the feasibility of expanding the planning area boundary outside or excuse me to um expand the planning area boundary to include all of Craraven County. So, the Newburn Area MO was federally designated um as a result of the 2010 census. Um and it is um as related to the census, it's the urbanized population. It's a cluster of populations greater than 50,000. Um the MO is charged with looking at transportation planning for all modes of transportation. As a result of the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which is our long range plan, um we are required federally to update that every five years. And as we were updating it this time, we noticed the significant population increase. Specifically in Havlock and Vansboro, um it's a little harder to see in the map, but those lighter shades of yellow green, the lighter the colors, the more the population is expected to grow in the next 20 years. Additionally, we've also identified changes in travel patterns. Obviously, where you have population, you've got um growth for residential, commercial, etc. Um and as a result of this increase in population, the our board asked us to look at the the possibility of explaining our planning area boundary. So, the goal of expanding our planning area boundary would allow us to look at the county as a whole. Currently, our planning area boundary is that black area and the red is the county limits. By expanding the planning area boundary,

this allows us to have one central point of con of contact for anything transportation related. So, as you can imagine, if you are a citizen that lives in Dover or Cove City, when they ask a question of what's the status of my road, how do I get a road paved? Why do I have potholes? Where do they start to call? There's a lot of challenges that we've had because is it the city? Is it the county? Is it DOT? Who owns the road? I don't know where to start. And so by this is just one example of us expanding the planning area boundary that we bring all this to one point of contact which allows us also to have a more strategic framework to to look at regional transportation. As a result of expanding the planning area boundary to include all of Craraven County, the lead planning agency, which is our fiscal agent, is currently the city of Newburn. By moving the boundary to include all of Craraven County, we are now requesting that lead planning agency to be moved to the county, which would be more representative of what we're trying to achieve countywide. So, what's involved for us to expand the planning area boundary? So we met with all of the potential members. So all of the towns um we had a visioning session a couple of weeks ago and with that all members came around the table and defined what our vision is for this new MO. Um we also talked about what is membership going to look like on these boards and um overwhelmingly the result was an equal vote by all. So each of our the TAC which is our advisory board and our um the TCC which is the technical coordinating committee which is comprised of staff each of those would be representative one vote by each member.

He's breaking the chairs over here. Um also, um the um we we're talking about how to split. Again, we're grant funded and so that grant does require a local match just like the currentou um it is based off of a percentage of population within the area. And so we are continuing that same thought um through this new expanded area um planning area. um with the name with the change in planning area boundary, it was also the consensus to change the name of of the MO to the Craraven County um MO. And all of this would be solidified in a new memorandum of understanding. So, this is an example of how the local share would be split. Again, it's based off of the PR rata share of population. Um and the the biggest change really is um Craraven County used to be the second highest paid um for local share percentage in its current structure. It now will become the top. So Newburn and Craraven County just kind of flipped percentages, but this is an example. So the local share for FY27 um would be um just over $23,000. So theou would establish the percentage split and that percentage split would stay the same but it would the amount would change based on the available grant funding that each year. So currently um each town has to approve theou to join the no. Um currently riverbend Havlock and Bridgton have all approved and um as you can see Cove City and Vance are also considering it at their board meetings this evening. Once we gather all of the executedus, it will be presented to NC DOT at which point they will sign and execute their their portion of theou. Um the goal is to um move over the no to Craraven

County effective July 1st to run concurrent with its budget year. Um as a result um tonight I stand before you to request approval of theou um by execution of the resolution attached in your packet. Happy to answer any questions. Okay. questions. Anybody in the uh on the board have any questions regarding this change? Not the same. No questions. Then I entertain a motion to move. Approve Craven County for being a part of this or new organization. We got a motion. Do we have a second? Motion and a second. All in favor? I

I oppose. Looks like 100%. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes. Just to go along with that decision you just made, we will uh staff will prepare a letter to the RPO to let them know this decision, which will be our official notification to them that we would be leaving and um joining the NO in hold. Okay. So, we'll have that for your signature. Okay. Thank you. All right. That was easy. Appreciate it. Number five, consent agenda.

I'm sorry. Number four is petitions of citizens. We have nobody who is petitioned to speak on an agenda topic. So, we'll go to number five, which is the consent agenda. Tonight, the consent agenda has the minutes of March 16th regular session, tax releases and refunds, veteran service budget amendment, the sheriff laptop donation, a proclamation honoring Dorothy Hawkins Brian as North Carolina Central University centinarian. I'm going to pause on that one for a second. Um, everybody know what a centinarian is?

Okay, that means she's more than 1003. 103 103 years old and u she has a very interesting background and to some of us uh we know her daughter Gwen who was our city clerk or county clerk here for a number of years. She retired about 10 years ago somewhere along there.

So um and it's exciting to me that her mother is 103 years old. So we're going to uh at the end of the meeting today I'm going to sign the um proclamation and identify yourself again sir if you'd stand and do that. Curtis Ray for Worps, Middle Eastern Alumni Chapter, Newburn, a proud graduate of NCU, class of 1971. Very good. Thank you for being here. And we'll deliver that proclamation to you before we leave this evening. Thank you.

And lastly, a proclamation recognizing line workers association appreciation day. Line workers meaning these great guys. I assume it's all guys. Maybe there's some gals that climb the polls. Uh when a when an emergency comes and we have a hurricane and the power goes out, this proclamation is recognizing and appreciating those people who do that. So that is the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Howard? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Mason? Yes. Commissioner Mitchell? Yes. Yes. Commissioner Smith. Yes. Vice Chairman Jones. Yes.

Chairman Booker. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Item number six. Back to Mr. Wood. Um talking again about project enterprise. Sir,

this is uh asking and requesting for uh the commissioners to accept the grant that was mentioned during the public hearing and then also authorize the chairman and those in administration that would need be needed for any documentations that would come along with that. Again, this is a fantastic project. Uh in total, it's five-year investment, 150 jobs, $15 million. Uh $50 million investment. Uh Chazworth is has been in uh the community for decades. Uh strong company. Um and many of us were able to go to the celebration uh to kick this off. Just uh very happy to be able to work with them on this.

This is a great project for our county. So, this action board is that we are being asked to accept the North Carolina Department of Commerce's building reuse grant and provide a local match. Our local match, if I read this correctly, would be $18,000. That's correct. And the grant itself is $360,000. So, that's a pretty good deal. Okay. Do I have a motion? I would make the motion. A second. And a second. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Howard, yes. Commissioner Hunt, yes. Commissioner Mason, yes. Commissioner Mitchell, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Vice Chairman Jones, yes.

Chairman Booker, yes. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you.

Okay. Next, we have the clean sweep committee. Item number seven, Pam Hawkins. Pam, welcome. Thank you, Commissioner Booker or Chairman Booker and Commissioners, thank you for the time on your agenda tonight. Um, as he said, the Craraven County Clean Sweep Committee is here to present our 2026 Super Sweeper Awards tonight. The Super Sweeper Award was established by the committee in the fall of 2023 to recognize individuals or groups who go above and beyond to help keep Craraven County clean and free of litter. And as the chairman mentioned, we have our first original Mr. Joe Meadows recipient here tonight. So, here's a little bit of information about our first recipient tonight. There are many volunteer groups that participate in our sweep events, but some stand out because of their commitment to them. They call ahead of time. They come get the supplies needed so that they're ready to start the morning of the event. They share information with the clean sweep committee relating to other events or information about keeping our communities clean and beautiful. They have their own spot that they keep clean and free of litter so visitors and citizens can focus on the beauty of our downtown as they are coming over the drawbridge. The Richard Dobsp Spate chapter of the Dorders of the American Revolution was organized in Newburn in 19 21. Today they have 170 members. Their volunteer work is accomplished under a committee system with the conservation committee being the ones focused on preserving and protecting our natural resources. We thank the Richard Dobspate

chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution for your passion and your commitment to keeping our county clean and beautiful. Tonight we are happy to call you one of our 2026 Super Sweeper Award recipients. So if you would come forward and receive your award, those that are representing Three, two, one.

Two. Thank you. Control first.

So, on to our second recipient tonight. If you live in or near the Fairfield Harbor community, you have likely seen a gentleman walking the sides of the streets picking up litter. You may have seen him in your neighborhood, on Broad Creek Road, or even Highway 55. He's one of the Broad Creek Road Gang, as they call themselves. He isn't with a scheduled clean sweep event. Typically, he's doing this on his own time because he has a passion to keep his community clean. If he is like most of us, I am sure he has a list of things to be done at home, but he chooses to make this a priority. Mr. Ronald Boyce, thank you for your passion and commitment. And tonight, we are happy to call you one of our 2026 Super Sweeper Award recipients. Three, two, one.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Before we move on, I I would just like to say um it's unfortunate that some people are so careless and thoughtless as to throw trash out of their vehicles. In addition, sometimes the stuff along the side of the road blows off trucks. I personally have been guilty of that happening. um if it's not secured properly that can happen. Um we have the state and Jack help me. Is it twice a year that they do the major roads? I believe it's four times a year and then Kriswama does twice a year.

Okay. So just for everybody's information the state four times a year covers 70 17 that may be it. I'm not sure. Then Croama, which is the landfill, they are out there twice a year, twice a year on some of the side roads that are the busier roads. And I know you've seen them out in your neighborhood, right?

Um, so that's a second one. And then the big one are these folks that get out here on a regular basis and volunteer and pick up trash, the clean sweep folks. And we sincerely appreciate each one of you who do that. Um, that's a sacrifice and uh it it uh I can always see when that's been done the next week you can just feel the place just feels clean. So congratulations again to all of you and thank you for what you do. Okay. Item number eight is the health department a budget budget amendment related to new electronical medical record system lease. Mr. GL Mr. Clayton Gaskin.

Good evening. Good evening Clayton.

Um since November of 2024, myself and my staff have looked at nine different electronic medical record companies, nine demonstrations. We've had ARIRE and it have helped us looking at the different facets of those and we finally settled on one that we thought would be the best for our program. Um we're going to actually save money in the long run once we get there. We're going to have a better product. We've got currently got the one we've got currently. We've had over 10 years and it's just not meeting our needs anymore. Updates from CMS are not being built into that system like the newer system. So I'm going to read this to you. Uh the system is implemented through a multi-year subscription as a service contract. In accordance with governmental accounting standards board statement number 96, the county has determined that this contract, that's the contract with EMR, meets the criteria for a sub subscriptionbased information technology arrangement. That's a mouthful, SBITA. um because it provides the county access to specific services and devices for a set fee and duration. Consequently, these government accounting standards require the full amount of the contract be recorded as a capital outlay with the non-departmental organization. So, the amount that we that you'll see here for $65,715 is for three a three-year subscription to this EMR that we are required um to to document as a capital outlay. Um so, we're really not asking, this is a budget amendment, but we're not asking for any additional funds. It's just a shift in I believe of the way it's documented in our budget.

Okay. Questions for Mr. Gaskins? This is set to go live, by the way, on June 1st. June 1st. June 1st. So, we'll do some onboarding training with my staff between now and June 1st, and then June one will go live. I make a motion that we approve. Okay. Second motion. Are there any other questions or comments? Just for the audience benefit, Mr. CL Mr. Gaskins is the head of our hospice organization with the county and they do a remarkable outstanding job and uh we appreciate everything they do. That's a tough tough job. Tough job. So have a motion and a second. Would you please call the role of court? Commissioner Howard? Yes. Commissioner Hunt?

Yes. Commissioner Mason? Yes. Commissioner Mitchell? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Chairman Jones? Yes. Chairman Ber? Yes. Okay. And Mr. Gaskins, you're going to stay right up here and you're gonna talk to us about the revision of the home community care block grant. So, as you all recall, I'm the board of the I'm the chair of the agent board and uh that board, Commissioner Smith sits on the on that board with us and we appreciate your help. Um discusses that discusses allocations of the HCCBG funds to various providers. um DSS I don't know if you have this the form 732 in your packet that you could glance at while we're speaking.

Yes, we do.

Um so the over on the left the last four services um starting with senior care senior center operations which is kind of in the center of that line care management inhome aid level two and inhome aid level three. So, um there was a little bit of narrative left out on the information that was sent over, but all four of these um the amounts that you see on that 732 are new amounts. Two of the amounts were decreased and two were increased. So, we're really not DSS was just shifting some of the funds that they had allocated between those four programs to meet their needs. Again, it's zero at the bottom uh of the budget amendment. We're not asking for any more money. Um, but to get this in the minutes correctly, um, so the senior center operations, the original amount was $21,746. I'm so sorry, that's the new amount. It was $10,000. So, we've increased that line by $11,746. the care management. The next one in line, the original amount was $86,972. We've decreased that by 60 or two 263,500. Inhome aid level two was originally 128,000 which was not enough. So they have increased that to 145,500. And then the inhome aid level three was 8,274 and it's been decreased to 2500. So again we've or this is what DSS recommended adult service staff they've uh decreased two lines and increased the other two to meet the needs of the patrons.

So it's a net zero net zero. Okay. So you're seeking approval to move the monies around to more appropriately. Right. And it's not affecting any of the other providers that receive these funds. is just in house with DSS. Okay. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Second. Uh, any questions on this hearing? None. Madam clerk, call the ros. Commissioner Howard? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Mason? Yes. Commissioner Mitchell? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Chairman Jones? Yes. Chairman Booker? Yes.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Item number 10, Veteran Services, North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, budget amendment, Mr. Jeff Futel. Hey, Jeff. Welcome. Thank you, sir.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. Uh, come before you this evening to uh request a budget amendment. Uh, we were awarded uh we applied for a grant. The general assembly directed North Carolina Department of Military Veterans Affairs to provide grant money to counties to help support their veteran programs. We applied for the grant and we were awarded the grant back in February for $20,000. Uh so we're asking for a budget amendment to divide that money up uh within some travel training, some advertising, capital outlay, and office supplies so we can utilize that money and u serve our veterans well. Okay. So, we're being asked to approve the budget amendment amount of 20,000 related to the acceptance of a grant. Do I have a motion? So, moved. Mr. Chairman,

it's um Commissioner Mitchell, do you serve on that body? Uh, no. I serve on Military Affairs Commission. Okay. Thank you. Sorry for the interruption. We wanted to make sure we It's okay. You can interrupt anytime. Thank you. Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Are there questions for Jeff? Yes. Mr. Futrell, can you explain to everyone why in the consent agenda you asked uh we talked about $5,000 for training and those certifications? Why again it's in this motion?

So in the consent agenda that that $5,000 was due to appropriations. Every year uh North Carolina Department of Military Veterans Affairs appropriates funds to divide out to counties. Usually it's a $200,000 that general assembly allocates. Uh when counties apply for the allocation, they usually get $2,000. But if the request for allocations is greater than the amount appropriated, it's changed on a PR rata basis. This year or last year, very few people applied. I always request $10,000 on my appropriations just to make them calculate a little bit differently. And usually it ends up giving us about $2,200 every year uh that comes in through general fund. But uh so this year I end up getting the $10,000 appropriation. So, I'm using part of that to take one of my service officers to uh the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers training. Uh through the grant money, I had already asked for for myself to attend training along with uh all of my staff to attend some of the local uh instate training. Uh so now I'll have there'll be two of us that'll go to the national conference uh that's held in Reno, Nevada this year. Um my other staff member at the time while we're there he will obtain his accreditation with the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers and with anou agreement that they have uh he'll also obtain accreditations with the DAV and the VFW. Having those accreditations in our pocket helps us when a veteran comes to see us. if they have worked with another organization either in the county uh somewhere in the state or from somewhere else uh they come to us and if they've worked with the American Legion or they've worked with the BFW or DAV when they come to our office it's a seamless process because we have direct access to their VA claims folder and can directly assist them at that point versus send them down the road to somewhere else and put that bad taste in their mouth. So the more we can help the veterans in our community the better off we are.

I think that's fantastic. So, first of all, thank you for bringing more of our um tax dollars back home here to Craven County where they can be utilized in such a phenomenal manner, and I look forward to meeting that gentleman after he gets those accreditations. Speaking of our tax dollars, I'm going to add to this if you don't mind. Um, we just got the report from VA last year as far as their total expenditures that come into Craven County in different ways. Um, you know, Craven County and our our veteran population, we're 10th in the state. Uh, we've actually moved up a little bit on that. uh total and direct and indirect expenditures over $257 million comes in this county through VA funds every year.

Could you repeat that please? There's members in this room that are hard of hearing. Could you repeat that? 200 $257,666,571 comes into Craraven County directly through VA expenditures. Thank you, Mr. And that puts us 10th in the state with that. That's a 9.2% increase from previous years. uh direct money going directly into the pocket of our citizens is over $185 million and we're seventh in the state for that. Thank you. unrelated, but I think important that everybody knows that our state legislature left this le leg legislature u three or four years ago, maybe five years,

2023. 23 uh they approved um a um a new law that says if you are a veteran, you don't pay income tax on part of their income on their veterans on their on their military. You got to pay on your commissioner income. Correct. If military retirement is no longer taxed, the daily act, but that's a really important thing that that our military uh folks if they stay in North Carolina after they retire, they don't pay u they don't pay income tax. And so on their military retirement on their military, right, they're still paying taxes.

If they go get a job, they got to pay tax on that. I'm talking on their pension. military pension they don't pay income tax and there's personal property tax exclusions too for veterans. Yeah. But very be 100% disabled. Yeah. Be 100%. There is some exclusions on that there tweak that around a little bit. That was a a real good thing to keep our veterans here because they could go to Tennessee and pay no income tax. So or Florida. So or Texas or Wyoming can stay here now. So okay. Uh we have a motion and a second. Madam clerk, would you call the role please? Commissioner Howard, yes. Commissioner Hunt, yes. Commissioner Mason, yes. Commissioner Mitchell, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Vice Chairman Jones, yes. Chairman Booker,

yes. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. Appreciate it.

Okay. Item number 11, sheriff laptop radar purchase budget amendment. So, the sheriff is not here tonight, but he has sent a representative. Good evening, deputy. Welcome, Dashes.

The sheriff's office um is working with county administration and information technology to replace outdated equipment using forfeite funds. Sheriff's Office is requesting approval to transfer these funds to the appropriate budget line to complete purchase of laptops and corresponding chargers. Additionally, they would like to purchase radar units for the interdict interdiction team with the attached budget amendment in the amount of 21,000 675 and the 5,000 already budgeted. Staff can complete this this purchase. Um, there are quotes included in your packet. Do I have a motion to approve it?

Motion to approve. Okay. A second. Second. Okay. Mr. Chairman, may I just add questions? I know um we have a representative here tonight from the sheriff's office. There was a projected price increase on the laptops that are used by the sheriff's office. They're more ruggedized version of a laptop. Has a different case and a little different. we are able to if you approve this budget amendment which you already have a motion a second to get these at the existing price before that price increase happens. So there was it's a little out of sequence but it will allow us to get a little bit earlier and get a better price on the units. So that's why you see it here versus the budget time. That makes sense. So there's an urgency here. It's a there's a deadline. Yes, sir.

We have a motion and a second. Are there any questions? Hearing none. Madam clerk, would you call the role, please? Commissioner Howard? Yes. Commissioner Hunt. Yes. Commissioner Mason. Yes. Commissioner Mitchell. Yes. Commissioner Smith. Yes. Vice Chairman Jones. Yes. Chairman Booker. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. The SRO laptop as well. That was purchased by the board of education. There's a second. That's in the consent agenda. Is that a second? Yeah, that we did that already. Okay. Yeah, that's Thank you. Thank you for coming.

Okay. Under departmental matters item number 12, appointments. uh pending appointments, Craraven Aging Planning Board, Craraven County Clean Sweep Committee, and the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. Those will be coming up in the future. There are no current appointments and none upcoming. So, we can move on from that to item number 13, which would be our county attorney's report. Mr. Grady.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh good evening, commissioners. I have three items for your consideration this evening. Uh two involve county owned surplus uh real estate acquired through the tax foreclosure process. The first um property is an initial offer to purchase located at 1013 Bloomfield Street. It is within the city of Newburn and it has a parcel ID number of 8006208. The offer amount is $3,000. The original past due taxes and the cost of the tax foreclosure together were $15,32.34 and the tax value of the property is $6,000. The city of Newurn has already given its initial approval to this transaction and I would suggest the commissioners do likewise.

Okay. And we're at here asking for approval to put it out for upset. Yes, sir. Okay. Move to approve. Got a motion. Second. All in favor? I oppose. Motion passes.

The uh second item is another initial offer to purchase uh real estate owned at 1017 Bloomfield Street. It is also within the city of Newberg with a parcel ID number of 8006206. Uh this offer is also in the amount of $3,000. Uh the original past two taxes and the cost of the tax foreclosure together were $10,4853 and the tax value on this property is $6,000. Um the city of Newurn has given its uh initial approval and I would suggest that the board consider doing likewise so we can get it out for the upset bid process. Okay. Motion to approve. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor?

I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number three.

Uh number three involves a supplemental settlement in the opioid uh nationwide class action litigation that the board is familiar with that has been going on for uh quite some time. Um the plaintiffs uh which include uh Craven County and uh dozens of states thousands of other units of local government, cities and counties uh throughout the United States have reached a settlement with uh what we are calling the remnant defendants. These are essentially pharmaceutical distributors. uh they were in the supply chain and uh therefore were involved in the litigation as defendants and they have settled um the claims against them for the sum total of $97,625,000. Um it is a relatively small settlement uh compared to the primary settlement that the county uh has been involved with over the years. But nonetheless, when the dust settles on this uh it'll be another infusion of cash to Craven County to continue our fight against the opioid epidemic and the outcome of that. So, I would suggest that the um board uh consider adopting the resolution that's your in your agenda packet so we can sign off on the settlement and uh stay claim to our share of the settlement proceeds.

Motion to approve that resolution. We have a second. I a second. I had a question. Yes. These these are the last these aren't the last six. They're still probably looking for more opioid distributors. So, that's Yes, sir. And um several of the defendants are still working their way through bankruptcy court. So there'll be waves of settlements going forward. Probably progressively smaller, but uh nonetheless more will be forthcoming. Thank you. So it's 97 million which means with the many many many many people that are going to get in the line, it's going to be in the thousands probably of what we end up with.

It's very hard to tell at this point because we don't know who all is going to affirmatively participate. Um the deadline is uh coming up in a couple of weeks and I think after that we'll be able to more firm firmly predict what we'll get but it's not going to be a significant amount in Craven County unfortunately. This 97,000 is just for North Carolina. 97 million 7 million I mean no ma'am that's nationwide. That's that's for everybody. All the states and local governments that are plaintiffs in the cities cities. Yes sir. Big cities. Big cities. Small cities. We might be able to buy lunch with what we get. That's too many million in the state.

Whatever we get, we get. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Do I have any other questions, Madam Clerk? Commissioner Howard? Yes. Commissioner Hunt? Yes. Commissioner Mason? Yes. Commissioner Mitchell? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Vice Chairman Jones? Yes. Chairman Booker, that concludes my Yes, I approve it, too. And yes, thank you. Okay. Item number 14, petition of citizens. Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Chairman, we have uh two citizens that have signed up this evening. The first is Mr. David French.

I'd like to say we still can't see the time on the clock. I cannot see that. My face is towards you. I'm asking again to get the timer fixed. Okay. Well, please do it. Well, when you hear the buzzer, it's three minutes.

I'm David French104 Johnson. I'm here to very sadly say I told you so. On April 2nd, 2026, ncnewsline.com published an article about RenewNc in Western North Carolina. Renew is what Rebuildn was here and is here at ENC. Renew Nc has only completed work on 20 30 homes out of the 200 approved applications in the past one and a half years since Hurricane Helen hit them. Unacceptable. They are going down the same awful road as Rebuildn did and tens of thousands of people in WNC will suffer for years on end like we are. Why is this important to Craraven County? because of the fraud of Cooper, Stein, Buffalo, Hoget, Arland, Gibson, and their rebuild NC cohorts, and the spineless and feckless Republican controlled NC legislature, including Britson and Tyson, and also the NC State Auditor, bullish absolute failure for advocating a fight for us, the over 8,000 homeless hurricane flood survivors of ENC who have been continually traumatized and lied to for years on end. The NC legislature numbers have been told by me since 2022 and countless others before and since that this state controlled disaster recovery method is a fraud and a failure. Why is it that our elected officials at the federal level can find the time, energy, and billions of our taxpayer bucks to wage a war, but cannot properly help the people of ENC and WNC get back home? We are spending $2 billion taxpayer bucks a day to wage war. Now, do you know what that amount would accomplish here in ENC? It is equal to getting 4,000 homeless hurricane flood survivors back into their homes. So, in two instead of two days of war, we would have enough to get 8,000 folks back home, some of whom have been displaced going on 8 to 10 years, of which I am one. My dear cousin Maryanne never got to go back home due to the fraud of Cooper Stein and their rebuild NC cohorts. It is. Is it going to take another Hurricane Florence to devastate us here in Craven County for

y'all to wake up, stand up, and properly fight for us? Craraven County has over 40 years of successful disaster recovery. You all know how to do this. How can you stand by and let us suffer? So you, our Craven County Commissioners, are our closest elected officials. I have asked you all to stand up, advocate, and fight for us, and you do not. Therefore, I am demanding that you all along with other ENC counties demand of the state of North Carolina to make the people of ENC whole. The only thing they understand is being sued. So sue the hes out of them. Seeing how this is our beloved American constitutional republic's 250th anniversary, we all would do well to study our history and pay close attention to how our American Revolutionary War ancestors defended their rights given by Almighty God. There is a saying, the only way for evil to triumph is for good people to stand by and do nothing. I say if you stand by and do nothing, you are not good people. What kind of people are you? The Lord is our shepherd. We shall not want. I will not yield. What do you all have to say about this? Are you going to sit there like Mount Rushmore?

We don't comment when people get up here and speak. Thank you. Thank you again for your hypocrisy. Your time is up, Mr. French. approval from this board for violating your oath of office. Your time is up, sir. You're a hypocrite. You talk about things that concern you, but not about other people. Touch me, sir. You're my third picture. Okay, Mr. County Manager. Next is our Oh, I'm sorry. We got another speaker.

Yes, Mr. Ray Griffin. Ray Griff. God bless you. We love you. We appreciate you. Once again, we're talking about in the name of Jesus. There's a lot going on and there's an old saying, the end is near. It's not here yet, but we can sit for what we are. We are letting down God. We are doing some crazy things. And I thought about this at resurrection uh Sunday. Uh we uh resurrection Friday. How about think about even the schools were closed? Schools were closed uh what? Friday and Monday the city took off for resurrection Sunday and we can't even say that in the name of Jesus. They're getting paid. They're making money. They should be happy and jumping up and down and shouting. They're getting paid for that day off. Celebrating the name of Jesus is uh the holiest day of the year marking Jesus return and his ultimate sacrifice and humanity through his suffering and death at the cross. and says, "Praying in the name of Jesus, focus on uh representing his humanity, his mission to save and supreme authority." God's still in control. God still rules and God still reigns. And it will not hurt for us to say in the name of Jesus once in a while. And sadly, we pray. We pray. We play. We're playing with God. He did say in the name of Jesus a while back, but he does it one time. God doesn't want you play. He doesn't want you yard sale items and all this stuff. He wants the truth. The purpose of prayer use Jesus' name uh in prayer declares a believer's dependence on his promises that he will intercede for us at the right hand of the father. We pray in the name of Jesus through his death that our relationship with the father was made possible in the name of Jesus is how we we should be praying. In Colossians in 3:17, it says, "And whosoever you do in the word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God and the Father by him." It only takes just a few seconds to say in the name of Jesus. But people are getting afraid to stand up. They don't want to get fired up. They don't want to get prayed up. But we need to start looking up. Perilous times are coming. And a lot of it because we have let Jesus down and we have turned our backs on him and we should be standing up and getting fired up and prayed up and keep looking up. In John 14 and 13 it says and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name in the name of Jesus that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son. A lot of things that we say we're not asking Jesus' name. We're just going through rituals. We're just saying hey what we would like but we're not asking Jesus. In the book of Peter, it says, "Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus for remission of sins." It's in the name of Jesus that we're going to be believe in. You can say, "Oh, I believe in Jesus. I believe this and I believe that." But if you don't have him in your heart and believe in Jesus and believe in him that he can save us, then it's ritual. If we just make it out of mere words, it means nothing. What's behind you? You need to put it the other way where y'all can see it. Said in God we trust. Need to put it over here in back walls where you can see it. If we trust in God, then we're going to say in the name of Jesus, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what happened, God's in control. You worry about lawsuits, you worry about this, you worry about that, but you better worry about your own spirit and your own soul. But you stand in front of almighty God, you're going to have to stand in front of him for every deed and every word.

Time is up, sir. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. When are you going to stand up? If you don't stand up, you're going to burn up. So repent. Turn from your wickedness. I can stand. This is a freak. We have a public. We have a constitution. We're not in Russia yet. Mr. North Korea, Mr. Vid, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners,

appreciate the opportunity uh to be with you tonight and provide some comments to you. Spring is sprung and uh that means it's budget season for your county staff. We have uh been diligently working since the last time we met going through the budget. Um I would say it's been fun, but I don't know that's the right word for it. It's uh been something else. But we're we're progressing. Had good meetings with um school staff and also the community college in the last few weeks talking about their budgets along with others uh as we go through the process. One month from today, you'll both have the the school system, the community college presenting their budget request to you. Just put that on your calendar. And then in a month and two weeks, I'll be presenting the annual budget to you at your work session in May. It's really great to see the clean sweep folks here tonight and the folks that won the awards. They do such a good job. Mr. Chairman, you made some great comments about the folks. I see them all the time and uh it's amazing the work that they do in keeping our our county beautiful. Uh, with that said, uh, I've attended, uh, Highway 70 meeting since the last time we met. Mr. Straw, our planning director, and Don Bumgner, one of your members, attended. It was in, uh, Goldsboro last time. Great information. Um, moving forward, there were some new proposals. As you know, they've been solely focused now since James City and the Havlock bypass are either completed or under construction on the Kinston bypass, which is the last sort of missing link. They've hired a consultant that's looking kind of outside the box because there's still a pinch point u with DOT funding. And a lot of that comes for a couple ways. One, the natural eb and flow of the gas tax with uh higher fuel efficiency and electric cars, but also still a diversion to replace and repair the damage from Hurricane Helen in Western Park. Each division is still having to put an allocation of money to that pot to make it whole. So, with that said, there's lots of great ideas. Next meeting will be in May in Johnston County. We look forward to continuing on our advocacy for completing that

project. That said, that's my report for the night, unless you have questions or comments for me. Questions for the county manager. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay, next item on our agenda is commissioner report. So, who would like to go first tonight?

I'll go. I'd like to recognize the uh tourist development agency and wirehouser for the c cooperation and um um production and support for veterans that they did when the trail to tryon they uh last about four three weeks ago presented a check to the American Legion Post 539 for $1,300 to support American Legion uh uh things such as the boy state and then scholarships for veterans uh children. Very good, Commissioner Smith. Thank you. I have a couple of things that I would like to mention tonight. First of all, I have here tonight my sister. Oh, where is she? Is she gone?

She left. She left. Shame on her. She was afraid.

But I had my sister. My sister was here who came to support me. She since I've had my surgery, they come from time to time. and also she came in recognition of Dorothy Bryan who was who we were doing a proclamation for tonight. I want to mention that uh as you are aware I I have my I my heart is very near and dear to public education and um I would like to announce that the partners in education are having a lunchon which they have every year May 28 2026 at the riverfront convention center and This is so to support public education. It's the hug program. Most of you are quite aware of it. And please the tickets or $35. Please buy a ticket and go to the um lunch is a very nice affair. If you can attend, do so. If you can't attend, still if you can donate money to the public pie fund partners in education who provides support to the teachers in public education in Craraven County Schools. So if you need a ticket, I have a few here and I will share them with you. Not trying to sell tickets now. But one thing that I want to mention, I want to thank my fellow commissioners and announce and announce to the public that I'm also very proud tonight and appreciative that this board would recognize Dartha Hawkins Brian. Darth Harkin Bryan is my fellow um sorority sister

born in Newburn and of course as you know she was a she is 103 years old. She is a former teacher in Craraven County, strong community member, dedicated church person and she is a people person, quiet, beautiful spirit. you would love her if you if you were to to meet her. I am very proud and honored that we took the time to recognize her service, her kindness and her life. She is well she deserves it every bit of it and I do I do appreciate that very much and I think that takes care of my announcements.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, I attended the um NC East conference uh last week with Commissioner Howard and Chairman Booker last week. My main takeaway was that if um the county doesn't cover every inch with broadband services that businesses will pass us by. Um we are in the 21st century. This is just another reason um for us to reignite our efforts to covering all areas of Craraven County with broadband service. Personally, I consider broadband service a utility in the 21st century. And so, I'm going to ask my fellow commissioners, my state legislators, and my uh federal representatives for all of us to come together so that we can indeed cover that last mile in all of our corners of our county. And that's all I have.

Okay. Um, yes, I did attend a future forum. Yeah. Last week with last week, yeah, last week with uh Commissioner Booker and uh Commissioner Hunt. Um, it was a neat kind of gathering of education leaders, business leaders, community college folks. Dr. Stats was there from Craraven. Uh, tomorrow I will be out doing constituent services, which is something we do occasionally. Um, it'll be kind of neat. Um, you just never know what you're going to do on a day like that. I'll be at a be talking to a constituent about a demolition of a home, a sinkhole, um, abandoned Volkswagens, an abandoned home. Could be anything really. U, but these are specifically what we're going to be talking about. Um, cemetery, proposed shopping center, uh, noise abatement due to DOT changes perhaps maybe a contractor in that situation. noise abatement on the other side of Havlock near Liberty Church, Government Center East, and u a perennial issue um private roads uh in neighborhoods where people didn't know they were private roads in some cases and some cases those roads where it commit uh developer commits to turn those roads over to the state, but then when construction is done, they don't get turned over. Um so I've talked about that a lot. I know Commissioner B. Smith has talked about it, Commissioner Hunt, probably everybody on on this board has had that issue in their district. Um, we've contacted Representative Tyson. Uh, we're lucky to have him as a former commissioner and contractor himself. He knows it's an issue and he's been addressing it with leadership at in Raleigh. So, uh, at least that is the message that we've got. So, we we're lucky to have Representative Tyson doing those things. As I look in the audience, I do want to welcome Steve here. Uh, Captain Lashesky now. Is that right? Okay. Captain Lasheski who has served

the Havlock community for many years and Craven County larger um and comes from a storied family in Havlock. I think your dad is in my district too, right? And the Sasser family. Tara uh he's married to Tara Sasser who the football field in Havlock High School is named after coach Sasser if you knew him. uh great half football coach and uh again someone else who contributed a lot to the halflock community. So thank you. Nothing to I would like to say can I say

I I I left this off by speaking um I also in talking about doc um Dr. Ryan. She also is a graduate of the West Street High School, which is the first black high school for for um people in Craraven County, the first school for black uh students. And so I would like to mention that as part of of her uh legacy and uh it's very important and several of the community members are trying to save that school at this point. So I think it's it's worth my mentioning. Thank you. Sorry if I got that.

It's okay. Anything else? Okay, that concludes our meeting except for a closed session. So board, we're going to be asked to go into close session um pursuant to NCGS1 143318 111A3 regarding the case of Long versus Craraven County and another item regarding the purchase of real property. So I make a motion that we go into close session. Is that a motion? Second. All in favor? I thank you.