County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

We will call our June 1st evening meeting to order. It is 6 p.m. At this time, if we all would, let's rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. no changes in the agenda is there okay need a motion to approve second motion second all in favor 5-0 moving on down public comments anyone here would like to make a comment about anything which is on the agenda tonight feel free to do so minutes okay can I do this then back up since I've got the floor open for comments seeing no movement we'll close the floor for comments and I need to back up here and approve the minutes from 518 of 26 trust everybody's looked over that entertain a motion so moved all in favor 5-0 thank you all right we're done doing public comments

moving on down presentation there's amy lucas county extension director good evening everybody thanks for having us here today sorry you have two copies of this but you can get one later today thank you mckenzie for doing that in our pockets for everybody i just wanted to take a little bit of time come and brag on the amazing staff that we have in Cooperative Extension. And just as a refresher, Cooperative Extension is the educational outreach of NC State University and A&T State University. So me and the team of people that you see behind me serve this community and I think do a really good job at what we do. And we're really proud of what we do and the impacts that we make. the lives that we touch so i'm going to talk for just a minute but i just want to draw your attention to the very first page um we're comprised of six individuals in the county extension office here in the allegheny center two of those three of those people are chairs one is we like to joke brad is shared all over southeast north america because he literally is everywhere it seems like But you can see we have had more than 2,500 direct contacts in the year 2025 and more than 185,000 digital contacts. So we provide programming not only in person, but also online. So we are reaching far greater than just our community, but we're also here for people to come to us in person and offer advice and teach educational outreach. So the other piece of what I do is 4-H. So last year in 2025, we served more than 800 youth in Allegheny County, which is pretty, I think, impressive. I work not only in the school system providing hands-on opportunities like embryology and butterflies, but we also do nutrition classes, sewing classes, STEM education, go to the fair. We do livestock shows. We do so much with our youth in the community, but I don't want to focus on me. I'm going to turn it over to my counterparts behind me because they've got a lot to share with you. So I'm going to let, we're going to let Brad come up first because he's in the front.

Well, I just want to thank everybody for letting us come by and give me a little rundown on what we do. Extinction in this county is very important. And having you guys behind Extinction is very important too. And Amy, I'll talk just a little bit. I don't have no place talking about 4-H, but I can tell you this. I'm in a lot of counties and I'm very familiar with the 4-H programs all through the state. The kids in this in the state of North Carolina. And we should be 100% behind her and very thankful for that. But that's all because of what Amy Lucas does. So I don't play with the kids much. Every now and then I get to go on a field trip with them. It's always a lot of fun. She took me to, we went to Mount Rogers last year and took some kids to the top of the mountain and then it started downpouring and raining. So we all had to run down the mountain in the rain. But you know what? These kids are great. You have a great time. i work with christmas trees i work with christmas trees in this county ash county watauga county if growers in those counties have trees in other counties or other states i work in their states as well so i end up in tennessee a lot i end up in virginia a lot and i do a lot of traveling as far as speaking at other meetings just this past february we was in pennsylvania for three or four days up there doing presentations and talking about allegheny county and north carolina christmas trees um so having that be said i think one thing you want to notice is these pages aren't numbered but about two pages in there on the bottom it says allegheny county's the nation's christmas greenery capital guys this county right here is small and as mighty as it may be we're producing more greenery in this county than any other county in the nation lot christmas tree sales are down christmas tree sales are declining we're fighting artificial trees 83 of homes in america are using artificial trees but what we've learned is the greenery aspect is actually gaining ground so every year our greenery sales goes up and why is that people that have a fake tree still want that scent in their home so they're bringing in baskets or reefs or kissing balls and we make there's so many different products made right here that is shipped nationwide and that's just one thing that you know you guys may not know about but but we want to talk to you about it and let you know um we're we're very thankful for the businesses we have and the industries that we have that work with extension on not only we're cutting edge dozen drones in this county right now that are fertilizing and spraying trees. That's precision agriculture. Precision agriculture is the only way you can survive in agriculture. And that is actually cutting labor costs way down. So tree prices may not be able to come down very much because labor's always going up. And, you know, things like these drones, and us as an extension being so involved with what's going on is the reason Christmas trees are never leaving this county. So we're very proud of that. And I would encourage each and every one of you to reach out to me if you want to go visit some farms, visit some of these growers. There's some guys here you all know, but there's some other companies in this county that you probably don't even know about. And one of them, just for an example, is Continental Floral. Continental Floral is one of the biggest florist operations in the nation. And you're going to see them explode in this county. They're going to end up buying a lot of land. They're going to end up leasing more land. And they're making products that basically end up in the chain stores. So we think about greenery as a whole. Greenery is tied to the chain stores. That's how we move the mass numbers. What controls the chain stores is floral operations, places like Metrolana Greenhouses. So believe it or not, we've got local growers that work through Metrolana to put a product in places like Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart, all through the Southeast. And it wasn't that way just five or six years ago. So now we're seeing our growers team up with these huge floral so we can get product in the stores. But now we're seeing those floral people move into here so they can work more direct with our growers. But I would encourage any of you to come out and spend some time with me. We'll go see some growers. We'll go see some things. I know that Mr. Sheffley, we took him for a tour in November. He probably won't ever forget. So we look at these numbers. These numbers are lowball. $40 to $50 million is what the greening market's worth in this county. That's a little low. It's actually more than that. There's days when I was saying that Allegheny County could build 50,000 reefs. It's probably more expensive than that. That's per day. And those reefs are shipped nationwide. So I'm not here to tie up nobody's time. I just want to say we appreciate you. We appreciate you being behind Extension. If you have any questions about what I do,

any questions comments about the drones that i think a lot of christmas trees people are using tell us something about us how big they are how much they cost how much they save instead of driving over the land and spraying and fertilizing what all do they do saturday this past saturday i spent um eight hours flying one of those drones

The drones are basically about the size of a vehicle. The drone I'm flying will lift 180 pounds other than the drone's weight. So it'll carry 180 pounds of fertilizer. That drone, me and two guys on Saturday, put out seven tons of fertilizer with that drone. That's a really good guy on a really good day might put out a ton of fertilizer. So we took three people and done twice as much work as what a full six or seven man crew would do. Or we did the work that a six or seven man crew would do. There's some regulations. There's some laws. You know, it's not just go get you a drone and go fly it. You've got to have a license. You've got to be on top of it. The drones are just like laptops or the phone in your hand. Six months and they're outdated. The technology is so advanced and so changing so quick that these drones, basically the guys that bought drones a year ago are buying drones now to replace them because they're faster. They actually haul more load and the drones have what's called LIDAR and radar built into them. Well, if you've ever seen those cars out in San Francisco that drive their self, the same, exact lidar system on those cars are on these drones so they're not cheap um and you it's not just a drone but you've got to have a really souped up generator like a 17 000 watt generator to handle the charging of the batteries for the drones you've got to have plenty of batteries to keep the drones in the air the batteries are over two thousand dollars a piece so a good drone setup is about fifty thousand dollars um but it a major grower it actually pays for itself in less than a year but what do they charge how's how is it charged per acre or well there's no right now the growers are on their self so the growers are training their guys that's always done this work to be able to fly these drones um so yeah there there is contractors bobby all over the midwest all over out west, all over eastern North Carolina even that fly by the acre or fly by tonnage, they'll do it by the ton. But nobody in this county is doing that. Everybody that's got drones in Allegheny County own the drone and are just using them on their own farms. They're not contracted out to do other work for other people. Which changes, you gotta have a lot more licenses and a lot more, there's a lot more regulations when I bring a drone to your farm and try to do work versus if I have my own drone and I work on my own farm, the regulations are a lot different. But they're amazing. They're amazing tools. Basically, we take a handheld GPS and go around the tree blocks. We put that data into the drone, into the controller, and we push a button. There's no flying the drone. The drone flies itself. So it comes up, it takes off flying, we can put in the, say we're fertilizing, we can put in exactly how many pounds per acre of fertilizer we're wanting to run through the drone. The drone will run out midstream, it knows where it runs out, it comes back to the truck, it lands, we fill it up, we hit the button again, it goes right back to the exact spot where it ran out. The thing about using a drone is we're learning, we're getting a lot better spread and coverage with our fertilized versus putting it down by hand. And what that means is we're actually using less fertilized, we're buying less fertilized for these farms than what we used to if we was doing it by hand because the drone's more precise.

Once a drone flies over a field and a GPS is put into the home base, they can use that

coordinates year after year yes sir so it's a one-time deal to figure out how or where that drone's going to fly yeah and that's a lot of the technology that's changed just recently but but right now we can go around the common procedures to take a side by side and go around the blocks or the farm however you want to look at it 15 minutes you can have a drone in the air and the whole thing mapped out so a lot of what's happening is you're seeing these growers buy starlings and they're starlings that are with the drone, not on the drone, but next to the drone, because that drone's working off of the internet as well as the controller. And it just makes the drones a lot happier to use. So the same drone that goes out and puts out this fertilizer has hoppers, basically just great big plastic tubs. We can pull that plastic hopper out that spreads fertilizer and drop in a water hopper or a spray hopper and hit that button again, the drone will run the exact same paths, but instead of putting fertilizers out, we can actually be doing aerial spraying that way too.

One last question. You know, we are a lot of steep mountains and terrain in Allegheny County that we can't get to with a tractor or a trailer. Can a drone, say, put out a herbicide to kill multiflora roses?

Absolutely. And there's, you know, the technology's coming where the drone will be able to identify multiple roses. That's where we're at now. Right now, I would need to go put in and show the drone where the roses are, and then it'll go spray them. But it's coming where the drones will be able to read and lay them. And if you tell it you're looking for this multiple rose, it'll go find them. And it'll keep a record of what it does. It's amazing that the reason drones are just now showing up in this, although they've been in corn and soybeans for probably 10 years, is that terrain you're talking about. So drones are just now getting smart enough with these LIDARs to where if I tell this drone to fly 25 feet above the ground, it's going to fly 25 feet above the ground no matter what the ground does. So it'll go up, it'll go down, it'll run across the side of the hill. um super super accurate and when we go around these blocks we're finding that the fertilized pattern goes exactly to the edge of the block it don't go over like if you was doing it with a tractor or some other way or with manpower it don't come under it hits things dead on so it's precision agriculture and it's it's happening right here and one last thing the community colleges don't they teach drone people how to fly drones i think there is some classes that's Yeah, but we're still cutting the edge right now. Basically, Bobby, what we're seeing is the companies that sell the drone just send the guy with the drone to train the people. But about one day working with that guy, these controllers look super complicated, but once you understand them and what they're wanting to know and what the inputs are, you're wanting them to do. So one day working with a trainer, and pretty much anybody can be fine with a drone.

Does that have the ability to change the flow rate as you're flying? If you've got a place that's weak, it needs a little more.

That's something that can be put into the drone. You know, if you've got a cornfield that's got a weak spot in it or whatever, it needs more fertilizer in one corner, the drone can do that. It's just, it's amazing. And like I said, there's more AI getting into it. So the drone's going to only get smarter from this point where it can actually detect things that we want it to do. and its inputs. But not only that, these drones are flying at somewhere around 20 to 25 miles an hour is where they're working at. So this thing is spreading fertilizer 20 to 25 miles an hour. When it gets to the edge of the block, it's so smart that it turns up and it makes this turn, but when it does, it turns the auger speed down. So it turns the auger speed down where the drone can slow down, and then when it goes back to speeding up, the auger speeds up, So you get this perfect even coverage, whether the drone's flying straight or making turns. It's pretty cool.

That's amazing.

Any other questions? Come see it. Come see it. I want you guys to see it.

I'd like to see that. I'd like to see it spraying.

All right. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

it's fun to hear about new technology mine is not new technology but it's just good basic common sense we've been doing a lot of wellness programming in the past year from little children with preschool story times at libraries school age kids adults we've been doing our express your stress mental health classes which have been very interesting and informative we have so many people in our community that can benefit from trying to get a little bit of help in the mental health field and trying to make that more of an acceptable thing to see that it is fine to get help for not just physical health, but also mental health. And there's lots of resources out there. And then with our physical health, we've been doing things with school-age kids. We've also been doing the San Brown Mountain Park Project. And it was so much fun on Friday. I wish you beautiful day and a lot of people had the experience of the new parks, but they didn't even know that it was there. So we're hoping they'll continue to use that and take advantage of that beautiful resource that we have in our community. We are very blessed to have all the different places where people can be physically active, but sometimes we will boost to encourage that to get people out there and enjoying what we have available to us.

So I'll let Jill go next.

Good to see everybody again. I know you can read, so I won't go through all the details from some of the workshops I did last year, but ultimately my job is local foods. Not 100% food related, but I work very closely with entrepreneurs and small businesses. I manage the Allegheny Farmers Market and a 3,000 square foot commercial kitchen in Jefferson. I saw you at the market a couple weeks ago. It was pouring rain, but we were super busy, weren't we? We do have had some people say they saw us in our state magazine, so that's been a nice little boost. I'm in my second year of being completely at capacity at the market. I have no more space. I can't really, tents are not really an option there because of the terrain. If you've ever been to Grouse Park, it's very sloped and you really need a flat space. I have, let's see, 25 full-time vendors. We have 26 spaces, by the way, 10 part-time vendors and a wait list of eight. When I first started in 2019, granted, it was the very end of the season, but there were three vendors there in October of 2019. So it's really massively grown, but I'm kind of busting at the seams as far as space goes. We can put people kind of in between a little bit. So that's what I've had to sort of work with just getting smaller tables and stuff in between. And with the kitchen, a new update that's not in here is I'm working with Wilkes Community College to hopefully have a satellite culinary certificate program at the kitchen. There's been a big demand from restaurants in both Ashe and Allegheny with just finding line cooks and stuff that have just basic experience, so knife skills, things like that. You can probably attest to that. having some struggles with finding people that just have good skills to go to work instead of having to train them from scratch. Anyway, that's about it. I know we're short on time, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime or come see me at Market. You know where to find me every Saturday through the end of October, and then we have our holiday market.

Any questions for Jill? We appreciate you. Appreciate what you're doing.

Thank you.

oh lord just picking at you i know for sure because i told greg greg and bill that you know at least an hour and a half just to get done trying to make sure to know what else what did we tell you

You said the beginning of a 630. Exactly. With everybody.

But no, so as far as agriculture in Allegheny County, there's several things I want to highlight that has been going on that has happened here recently. And one of those is actually this past week, Ash, Allegheny, and Watauga Counties held a joint event at the research station for beef reproduction. And that class was limited to 10 people. It was supposed to be spread out across those counties. And I was really proud. We had more people from Allegheny County eligible to attend. There was six of those and only two from Ashe and Watauga. And everybody really benefited. We had the two specialists from the western part of the state and also Raleigh come up and do a hands-on one-day course that was very user-friendly as far as reproduction work in cattle. We just worked with Wahoga County as well as Brad and Amy. We held a farm safety training with everybody getting back out in the fields this year. It's that time of year just as far as providers. We had 225 people attend that event and that was a bilingual event because most of those We touched on roadway safety. We touched on first on the scene if there's something that happens while you're out in the field or on the road. We also had pesticide safety covered that day. And that also, other than the ones in our office, the sheriff's department was there that day helping, the rescue squad, Lake Creek Fire Department came out and helped. Just knowing the understanding of what a fire extinguisher does, differences in fire extinguishers and how to operate them. And when you have a bad one, what do you do? Because there's always a dead fire extinguisher that you could run across. So that was a really good day that we were able to train over 225 people. A couple things that is in this packet, one of those is the cattle working contest for youth. That is an event that we had started in North Carolina 12 years ago, which is actually the second oldest contest in the nation. past year there's five other individuals that I've been able to work with and we initiated the national cattle working contest that was held in Georgia this upcoming year it will be held in Kentucky and that event I see continually growing there anticipating the due date for registration was today I think last year we had five this year we're going to be at ten or twelve um from kids all across the country uh will come in and compete at that and i think that's something that we've been able to get established in and seeing more and more uh response um a couple things um as far as youth activities that we have coming up um is there will be a group of going to georgia in july to the southeastern area youth retreat there's actually more youth from north carolina or from allegheny county any other county going on that trip and that's an event sponsored by the North Carolina Bear Youth Foundation so that's something you know as far as the kids being involved we also have several kids that will be competing at national contests this summer one two kids will be going to Florida to compete in national contests and another one will be going to New York so it's not only competing at the county level but being able to see what else is out be successful on the national level. Two big things that have been issues all spring. Number one is the lack of water. So we've been very lucky for the water we've had recently, but that's still something that is addressed because the fish shortages haste short this year. And also trying to determine how to fertilize this year. So we've had tons of soil samples sent off. recommendations of how to apply that expensive fertilizer in a correct manner and then the last thing I just want to make you all aware of it and I've had more questions about this in probably the last two to three weeks is poison hemlock people are seeing more poison hemlock this year than ever before And it's something that looks like Queen Anne's lace a lot of times. But the thing is, is it can be deadly to people and cattle. So I actually have a meeting set up on Wednesday and trying to talk with a few producers as far as methods of being able to control that because it is on roadways. And the thing is, is it can be absorbed through the skin if you come in contact with it. And it causes cardiac, issues or failure so that's something to be aware of and then what's the best thing to spray it with the best thing to spray it at this point is like 240 and roundup it's fairly susceptible to any type of broadleaf I've been spraying a fence lawn for two years and it keeps coming back and coming back but it's not as bad as it used to be but my neighbor doesn't spray doesn't do anything what do you what do you do because now i'm finding it further in my fields yeah and the worst part is because it it like if you sprayed this year it'll knock it back but then the roots will regenerate and you've got to be really careful on trying to pull those roots because it can actually cause health issues um and as far as your neighbor i guess the best thing to do is try to help educate tackle i mean that's that's part of the issue i had one guy that had found some and he's like you know my neighbor hasn't done anything but it's trying to provide that information so we do have some resources as far as educating people saying hey this is something you need to be aware of and what it looks like so that's something new it's not something new but it is just more prevalent this year and i don't know if it's because of the drier season but it is something that is um definitely of concern and it grows pretty tall it'll get yes it'll get six or seven feet yeah it sure will but it'll have a lot of bloom on it a lot like ones in ansley's um so that's why i wanted you to to be aware of that um and the last thing that i was going to mention and i know this is um where all of us in our office are involved with it is the ag fair and the numbers for the ag fair are in there this past year And we've had over 500 people that participated in some aspect of the fair this year. We had over 30 adult volunteers and had over a thousand exhibits. But the one thing that I did want to brag on with the Ag Board being able to do that is this year was the first year we've been able to nominate individuals to the North Carolina Association of Ag Fair Scholarships. They awarded seven scholarships from all across the state. And Allegheny County received two out of the seven for two different graduating seniors this year. So I think that's one thing that's a huge highlight, which was a little over, right at $6,500, coming back to kids. So I know several on that board had sold $100 tickets, but it was well worth it. And I think that's one highlight that we can be proud of, being able to

help provide those initial scholarships so thank you very much that's for sure anybody got any questions comments i got a comment go ahead i'm sorry that's okay i was just wondering um along the new river i noticed this plant you know it looks kind of like uh it looks kind of like cabbage but it's leafy but it's looks like cabbage a little bit so and uh sudden it's like along the river there's there's literally thousands of them and somebody up along the river that lived along the river said it's called skunk cabbage is that is that accurate and what is that exactly um i can bring it i've never seen it before yeah i can bring you the information on that okay you'll have a better idea okay i've lived there for 10 years i've never i've only seen a one every once in a while there's literally thousands that have come

well and I will say that after all the flooding from Helene and all that that has shifted tons of seeds so that's that has definitely changed as far as a lot of the things that have gone we call it Commonwealth cabbage Commonwealth Virginia yeah I just want to comment on all you do we appreciate it and all the the cattle shows is great to see the sheep shows you have

It's just quite an accomplishment. See Allegheny in the game as great as we are. Y'all have done a great job.

And I just want to recognize one more individual who does not want to get up here, but Michelle Hamm is our admin assistant. Without her, we would not be able to keep anything straight. So she does a lot of the behind the scenes, registrations, gets all the bigger work ready and allows us to be out in the field and do programming. So I can assure you we could not do what we do without her. So we are very thankful for her and appreciative of what she does for us. But we also want to thank you guys for your support because without you all and your support behind us, we could not do what we do either. So we're very appreciative of what you do. Come see us. This is just a quick overview of what we do. We have something going on all the time. So please come out and join us. We'd love for you to come. Brad does adult drones. We're doing a kid drone class this summer. So we're teaching kids how to code and then how to fly those drones this summer. A little different scale, not quite that big. I mean, we're doing all these things. So come out and be a part and we're appreciative.

you guys and all you guys are doing and then your support with us so if we can ever help or if we can ever answer any questions let us know because we're part of this community and we thank you we appreciate all you guys thank you we're in good hands i just i know you all know this but i think amy's one of the strongest leaders in our community and she does have great

I could not do what I do without these people.

One of the first things she always does is recognize the rest of the team and kind of direct credit away from herself. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank all of you. Let's see.

do we want to do that nomination or what yeah okay we need to back up here just a minute got the ag board nomination so all this is this is information for tonight and this has been sent in this is just so that we have our rollover date of July 1st we have two new members

vote on that in two weeks all right we appreciate it thank you move it on down general business this is for action Caleb and JCPC we done had had a story behind all this we need a floor for a motion back here to the names

okay so they'd made the recommendation of the new appointments which was jonathan jordan attorney and then the reappointment of lee bricker assistant d.a and randy murphy um i make a motion that we approve all those second got a motion second any further discussion if not all in favor

okay okay item number two Ms. April Hand CFO okay we have several budget amendments line item transfers this evening the first budget amendment is for the TDA for the town portion of the wayfinding signage it will be a budget amendment but we'll also have a line item transfer just transferring that money that has been received from the town to the TDA

okay open floor for a motion got a motion need a second second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 you got it there just keep rolling right on so the second budget amendment is for the inmate canteen expenses this is basically just a pass-through i'll make a motion to approve motion a second any discussion

all in favor 5-0 okay the first line item transfers for EMS where EMS has been down full-time staff we need to cover some expenses in part-time and overtime plus we just completed the Medicaid cost report for the EMS motion to approve the line item transfer EMS got a motion a second any discussion all in favor 5-0 okay the next one is actually for dss and it's some additional cost for an indirect cost plan that has just been completed also okay open floor for a motion i'll make the motion to hear a second second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 Okay. The next one is to cover some additional food costs for detention center meals. And I had a conversation with the sheriff, and we're actually going to take that food expense from the detention center budget.

Okay. I make the motion to approve. Second. I make the motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor? 5-0.

okay the next one is actually the sheriff's department budget and this is to cover the separation allowance from our past sheriff when he retired so we need that was not budgeted for the current fiscal year so we need to budget that amount okay motion to approve got a motion hear a second second motion second any discussion all in favor 5-0 Okay. The next one is for internet phone and security expense in the IT department. And Chris did find some money within his budget.

Okay. Need a motion to approve? Make a motion to approve. Second. Motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor? 5-0.

the next one's for recreation uh just transferring 900 from part-time salaries to contract labor which is mostly the refs for the youth ballrooms yeah okay i'll make a motion to accept second second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 okay and the next one is for the detention center to cover some additional inmate

hospital insurance cost and the utilities for the detention center okay need a motion to accept second I make that motion second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 and I believe that's the end of it okay thank you move it on down county manager comment

I remember to turn this on while we're high-fiving over here. Yeah, I just have a couple things, Mr. Chairman. The Memorial Day celebration I thought was beautifully done, and maybe Bobby can help chime in and tell us all the folks that were involved in putting it together. But we had, what, Bobby, about 75, 80 people?

I would say closer to 100.

100? Okay. And it was very touching and just done extremely well, so I was very pleased with that. Another thing that I wanted to fill you in on is that the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners is putting together a documentary for their conference on county governments, and they selected six. and we were one of the six counties that they selected to be in this documentary. And they came here, what was it, two weeks ago, Bill? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. And so I asked Dana from the school to be one of the people that was interviewed since she does that CTE programs that we've been so pleased with some of the outcomes there. And she's an example of the school and the county working closely together. Um, I asked Amy Lucas to, to be part of that. Um, David was part of it. Bill Osborne was part of it and I was part of it. So they're putting that together and it's going to be on six counties. So it's probably just a short period on, on us, but, um, we're always interested in trying to get our name out there and let folks know what's going on in our beautiful county. Um,

that's that's really all i have for today okay i have a lot next meeting but for today that's it moving on down commissioner comments uh garrison i guess let's start off with you thank you mr chairman um i've got a brief prepared statement that i'd like to uh read to the board here um The proposed relocation of the Department of Social Services is a matter of significant importance that deserves its own dedicated public discussion and agenda action item separate from the broader county budget process. Decisions involving long-term facilities, lease agreements, and operational impacts should be evaluated transparently and on their own merits, rather than being embedded within budget deliberations where critical details can be overlooked, especially considering the displacement of small businesses with minimal notice. As elected officials, I think that we have a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure taxpayers fully understand the financial implications of major decisions before commitments are made. The public deserves a clear explanation of the rationale, costs, alternatives considered and long-term impacts associated with this proposal. Transparency is not an obstacle to progress. It is essential to maintaining public trust. Additionally, I continue to have concerns regarding the proposed rental rate associated with this project. Approximately three years ago, A rental amount was presented that appears to be nearly double what many would consider reasonable for our local market. Before moving forward, we should carefully examine the methodology used to establish that figure, determine whether it accurately reflects current market conditions and the wishes of the building owner, and ensure that county taxpayers are receiving fair value. A thorough review of the original assumptions and supporting documentation is warranted i have to ask the question did we actually ask the building owners about a new rate or did we just assume a failed motion from over 36 months ago was still valid and the answer is no i'd like to see recent correspondence from the property owners detailing the rep the requests for a doubled rent I reached out to the building owners personally and confirmed that no recent attempt to negotiate or extend the agreement had been made as of June 1st. And I find that very trouble beyond the immediate discussion of office space and rental costs. I believe this conversation highlights a broader question about our county's role in economic development. As a small rural community, we must be intentional. about creating an environment where entrepreneurs, small business owners, and local investors can succeed. Every major county decision should be evaluated not only for its operational necessity, but also for its impact on economic growth and community vitality. I think we should ask ourselves, what functions are we currently providing to actively encourage entrepreneurship and business development? Are we maximizing opportunities to support local businesses, attract investment, create jobs and expand our tax base? Are we utilizing county owned resources in a way that strengthens our local economy? Are we truly comfortable discarding the last remaining county sponsored economic development initiative? Economic development cannot simply be a talking point. that must be a measurable priority. Supporting local entrepreneurs and fostering private sector growth is one of the most sustainable ways to strengthen county finances, improve quality of life, and create opportunities for future generations. I think that before moving forward with any significant commitment, regarding the department of social services relocation and dissolving the leases to our bdc tenants i believe the board owes it to our citizens to have a transparent standalone discussion that fully examines the costs assumptions alternatives and economic implications of the proposal and the taxpayers of the county deserve nothing less if you'd like to voice your support or concerns

for this project or against this project I invite the public to attend our next meeting Monday June 8th at 6 p.m. and speak during the public comments section thank you I'd like to talk about the agriculture for the county that is our number one income and I think tonight you know showed the extent how much money just talking about Christmas trees, roping, just that small part of it. But we're a large cattle county. There's a lot of pumpkins growing. I think Mr. Shipley and I had a discussion about North Carolina's, I think, second in bee production in the United States per population. I mean, Allegheny County, depends on agriculture and like we discussed at our budget workshop the other night of the day i still think that we need to look at the fairgrounds and how we can improve the fairgrounds because that is one of our main showcases for agriculture we just we just do a very few things for the farmer as a county publicly you know that we get out and push them but they're our mainstay for business and i would like for uh timmy and myself we're on the facilities buildings and bill and david maybe one day this week go to the fairgrounds and spend about an hour going through it and see if there's some things that we need to do wasn't added in for the budget and I think times of in essence because we're getting close on the budget so that's one thing I'd like to try to set up for this week the other thing is fiber fest is coming this weekend Friday and Saturday that's usually a good draw the weather looks like it's not going to rain hope we get a rain late in the evening not during the day late in the evening the other thing is the veterans committee is still we have a brick sale still going on for any veterans uh till the first of july uh 15th of july that's the cutoff for this year for the bricks to be installed for veterans day in november and talking about the memorial event that we just had i'd like to really thank all the county employees who pitched in that day to make it make it work the pa system did pretty good job but we had a lot of maintenance people that helped set up things the vfw and all the other veterans organizations in the county that helped set up that stuff that day. I'd like to thank them personally. And we're still working on the new sidewalk. It's almost finished. We have a lot of support from the county to do that. The veterans committee is paid for the bricks and that labor to do that. But the county has also put in some labor and some time And I'd like to thank them for doing that. Hopefully in the next, I don't know, three or four weeks, we'll have the parking lot resurfaced and restriped. One suggestion about the striping of the parking lot is to be sure that we get as many parking spaces as the way the parking lot's laid out so we can get maybe a few more cars in there.

but other than that that's it thank you I do appreciate the rain we got last week and I hope we'll get eight or ten more days of it that's about all I got yes sir I'm just wanting to circle back with like I've mentioned before, Amy and Aaron Rays, you know, their department, I don't even start trying to mention all their names to thank them all because they are, they do, they're up there in a different building and sometimes, you know, people forget we have them, but they do a lot of good work up there and we do appreciate all that they do. and of course all the information they give us is proof that they are doing something that's good for our county and young people also i mentioned about amy i was thinking many years ago she's actually she used to be our zoning she worked for the county and was zoning so i know she's doing something much more fun now So I'm sure she's really happy about where she's at. And, uh, last but not least, I wanted to, uh, thank Ms. McKenzie. Uh, it's funny because when I go into office, I'm not sure she, she's like, she's not sure she wants to run and hide, but we just want to thank you because we know this job is not easy. Um, and for our part and for bill's part and whatever but i just want to tell you that we do appreciate you doing this and i think you'll learn some good things through it if you don't figure out what you're going to do you're probably going to decide what you don't want to do if nothing else but thank you for that and thank you for your time and effort you're spending that but and that's pretty much it thank you timmy i ain't got much to add on that other

Bobby says Lefiberfest is coming this Friday and Saturday, and it's always a good event. The weather's going to be nice, and it's free. Everybody come out and take that in. And same with McKenzie. I popped my head through the door once.

She's going to look up over there.

She's doing a great job. Wishing Lisa a speedy recovery with her surgery deal there. little bit about blade creek i got a call from the chief the other day and they're just one step away i think from lowering their fire rating for that community out there i think the test is coming up right here shortly i've got the exact date but hauling their water and doing the water transfer but that's that'll be good for the citizens out there i think get a lower rate and help them save some owner homeowners insurance that's about all i have Any of you ladies got anything? Anybody else?

Music on Main is also on Saturday, so I just want to remind everybody that that's happening, and that's a free event also on Main Street.

Good deal. I forgot about that. Music on Main. All right. Nobody has anything else to say? Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Thank you, everybody.