Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

so so Thank you.

I'd like to call this meeting to order on behalf of the Board of Commissioners. I would like to mention before we start, we do have closed session tonight, and we will be having it actually in this room, and so we'll be asking everybody to leave at that time. But part of that, I just want to go ahead and announce, there will not be any action taken afterwards. Commissioners, the next item on agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. We do have a special guest with us tonight, Mr. Clark Poole. Would you lead us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

Thank you, Clark. Commissioner, six items, agenda approval.

I'd like to make a motion. We modify the agenda to remove the appointment to the library board. We already have an appointment to that board. Second.

Is that number 4544? I got it. We got a motion to remove item 264544. We have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I call the question. All in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed? Likewise. It carries. Thank you. Commissioners, I'll be looking for approval of the agenda as modified.

Make a motion we approve the agenda as modified. Second.

I think we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I call the question. With a favor, raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Gentlemen, we have an agenda. Commissioner, the next item is 4523. Pardon me, is that bringing it up? This is a public hearing on an ordinance concerning the fire code. I will open up the public hearing and recognize Frankie Hamrick, our fire marshal.

chairman commissioners uh before you tonight is the resolution for the burn ban ordinance that we spoke about the last meeting basically the state has a burn ban that covers all the property except for what the cartilage of the home which is 100 feet from the house and what we're doing tonight hopefully is adding to that where we can issue that burn ban within 100 for the house also adopting the fire code, which will allow us to do multiple things on the fire code side, but also deal with the illegal burn ordinances as well.

Thank you for the summary. Commissioners, are there any questions, discussion?

To clarify, so this directly concerns any fire within 100 foot of a residence? That's correct. What about fires outside of 100 foot of residence?

Then that's where the state burn ban comes in. So this is filling a gap? Yep. Okay. Just kind of an addition, too, because as of right now, the way it stands, the state can issue a burn ban, but anything within that 100 feet, they can burn all day long.

Any other questions? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing, and I will ask if there's a member of the public who would like to speak to this matter regarding the public hearing. Please come up now. Before us is item number 4523 of public hearing, ordinance concerning the fire code. Would a member of the public like to speak regarding this public hearing? My attorney has advised us that we have to ask this three times, which is why we do this every time. Finally, is there anybody here that's a member of the public who would like to speak regarding this ordinance? At this point, I will close the public hearing, Commissioners. I would like to recognize Richard, at this time, because I believe we discussed the technical correction.

Yes, sir. I do make recommendation to this Board for one technical amendment to the proposed resolution. The resolution includes the entire language for the proposed new ordinance. This will be a new Article 2 for our Chapter 6 of our Rutherford County Code. For clarification purposes, it has been the intent of this ordinance, when it comes to a proposed burning ban that would be declared by our county fire marshal, that it include multiple different kinds, as we define, of outdoor burning, including what we call open burning as well as recreational fire. It was pointed out to me earlier today, actually by Commissioner Houks, a very fair point, that we ought to make one change to the open burning definition to clarify the intent of this ordinance. It's intended to include all of them. I believe technically it's correct as it stands without this, but it can be very confusing. I think this will clarify the confusion. And so I have a proposed motion under Section 6-16 of the proposed ordinance is to remove the final three words from the definition of open burning, which refers to recreational fires. Since recreational fires itself is already defined, this is unnecessary and might create confusion. This is the proposed resolution with the red line showing how that, where the change occurs within the context of the ordinance itself.

Mr.

Commissioners, there's a motion that could come before us right now, if you so choose.

I recommend I make a motion that we amend Section 6-16 of the proposed ordinance by removing the final three words, or recreational fires, from the definition of the term open burning. For the specific purpose of clarifying, it is on the intent of this ordinance that both open burning and recreational fires are intended to be included as outdoor burning.

Second. Got a motion to second. Any discussion? If you're going to call a question, all in favor, raise your right hand. Any folks likewise? Okay. Thank you. Commissioners, there's a resolution before you as amended. And what's the will of the board?

I'll make a motion. We approve the resolution as amended. Second.

Thank you, sir. Got a motion to second. Any discussion? You're going to have to call a question. All in favor, raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Okay, carried. Thank you. Commissioners, the next item is public comments, and this is the time for the public to come speak to it. The matter is before them. We do have Grayson Porter that signed up. Grayson, you have three minutes. Be nice to us.

I'll be your patent inside of another year. Government by the People is coming tonight from the amazing Pastor Matt Truella at Mercy Christian Church in Heartland, Wisconsin. What is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate? The lesser magistrate doctrine teaches us that when the superior or higher ranking civil authority makes unjust, immoral, or unconstitutional law, policy, or court opinions, the lower or lesser ranking civil authority has both the God-given right and duty to disobey. They must refuse to enforce the instructions of that superior authority and, if necessary, to actively resist the superior authority. The doctrine of the lesser magistrate was first formalized by Christian men who wrote the Code of Magdeburg in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1550. the lesser magistrate doctrine is rooted in the historic christian doctrine of interposition interposition is when an official steps into the gap placing themselves between the oppressor and his or her intended victims interposition can take place procedurally verbally or physically the law of god is the objective standard to which all citizens and all governments of citizens are accountable if civil authorities make law policy or court opinions that are contrary to God's law. The lesser magistrates are to interpose and stop the evil. America's founders established this nation as a true federalism. In a true federalism, there are multiple levels of government and multiple branches on each level. They did this because they held to a Christian view that people are inherently corruptible. They did not want power to rest in one person or a small group of people. For example, the members of this county commission are lesser magistrates to the North Carolina state government. County Attorney Richard Williams and all law enforcement officers are lesser magistrates to this commission and also to the Rutherford County Courthouse. The ultimate duty of the people is to rally with them the interposing magistrates who are protecting them. The people need to support their protectors in government. The intent of federalism is if any one branch of government begins to play the tyrant, it is the duty of all the other branches to stop and interpose, to stop the evil, and this is separation of power. All public authorities possess lawful authority. If our federal authorities do wrong, it is the duty of the state, county, and local authorities to step in and stop the evil. If state authorities do wrong, it is the duty of the county and local officials to step in and stop the evil. State, county, and local public servants take an oath to uphold their state constitution and the U.S. Constitution. They do not take an oath of subservience to the federal government, nor do they take an oath to obey blindly the authority above them. Consider these facts. The destructive 5G, 6G frequencies and power levels kill bees and many other organisms on contact by damaging their navigation organs and DNA. Bees are God's creatures and we cannot live without them. So killing them is a form of evil. The Fightback has known for 20 years that smart meters...

Thank you so much for coming. You're three minutes is up. your notes with the HR director there, and she'll give you the rest of your work. Thank you so much. Commissioner, that's all the public comments for tonight. Next item is the consent agenda. Is there an item that you'd like to add or remove from the consent agenda? If so, please speak up. What's the will of the board regarding the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda.

Got a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner. Got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Any other call to question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Okay, carries. Thank you. Commissioners, next item is 4529. I'd like to recognize Brian King. That's me. I'm going to have to turn my phone off. I'm sorry. My daughter is texting me. If she's watching online, honey, I'm at work.

I didn't get that. Could you try again?

No. Pardon me. I'm glad my daughter's home from college, so I'm just going to say that. So 4529 is recognition of Rutherford County offices that have been recognized by the North Carolina Department of Labor for safety in the workplace. The Tax Revenue Department, third consecutive year, which is gold. The Public Works and Planning, second consecutive year, which is gold. And the personnel HR office, 22nd consecutive year. I don't know what. Is that gold, silver? Triple gold. Triple gold. Platinum. So this is a great, great thing. It's a good thing. You got certificates. Did you guys go to the banquet? There was a banquet that they do every year, I think, in Shelby. So I'd like to recognize we have the directors of these departments. You guys come here and hold your certificates. And the commissioners will stand up and you can hide behind a head if you don't want your picture or anything. There you go, sir.

Thanks, sir. We'll have the vote.

This will go on our monthly newsletter. You guys can sit down there.

You guys want to come around? Oh, you all can't? Well, I know.

Thank you. Next item is 4522. As a voting delegate to the NCACC Annual Conference, I'd like to recognize Hazel Haines at the top of this, Tom Hazel.

Thank you, sir. The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners will hold their annual conference in Durham in August of this year. In order for Rutherford County to have a voting delegate, the board must make that appointment. NCACC has also requested that there be an alternate voting delegate appointed also.

Thank you. So is there a recommendation from the board? There's actually two motions here. Who's the voting delegate?

I make a motion that we nominate Alan Toney as the voting delegate this year.

Thank you.

We've got a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, sir. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? If you're going to call a question, all in favor is your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Okay. Thank you, Allen. The second one is the alternate voting delegate. What's the will of the board? Make a motion. We appoint Mike Benfield. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Thank you, sir. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Tune in to call the question. All in favor raise your right hand. You can vote flatwise. Okay. Thank you. You guys are voting. Maybe. Commissioner, next item is 4542, appointment to the Rutherford Rail Trail Development Corporation. Again, I'd like to recognize our clerk, Hazel Haines.

Yes, you have an unexpired term on the Rutherford Rail Trail Development Corporation due to a retirement. It has been requested that the Deputy County Manager, Public Works Director, Danny Searcy, be appointed to fill that vacancy.

Thank you. Commissioners, we'll move the board. I'll make a motion we appoint Danny Searcy.

Second. I get a motion to second. Any discussion? If you don't want to call the question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Okay, Danny. You've got something else to do. Commissioners, next item is 4538. This is appointments to North Carolina Arts Council Grassroots Committee. Again, I'd like to recognize Hazel Haynes.

There are presently two vacancies on the North Carolina Arts Council Grassroots Committee, one due to a resignation and one due to a retirement. Ms. Jessica Keever of the Economic Development Department and Ms. Chandra Johnson, who is the new Library Director, have both applied to serve these two unexpired terms. So it's requested that Ms. Keefer and Ms. Johnson be approved.

Make a motion to approve.

Sir? Make a motion to approve.

Thank you. Second. We've got a motion. Second. Thank you, sir. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? If you're going to call a question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Points have been made. Thank you. Commission, next item is 4544. That's the one that we scratched at the beginning of the meeting. And now we're on 4532. Commissioners? 4532 is appointment to a chairperson for the Rutherford County Tourism Development Authority. Again, I'd like to recognize Hazel Haines.

The board must designate a member of the Tourism Development Authority to serve as chairman of the TDA for the upcoming year. This is a requirement of House Bill 414 and also the TDA bylaws. Your current board members are Amy Bridges, Dave Long, Debbie Stanfield, Emily Walker, Jessica Davis, Margaret Annunziata, Richard Lundy, Scott Martin, Spence Romaine, and Willard Whitson.

Thank you. Commissioners, what's the will of the board?

Motion we appoint Richard Lundy.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? If you're going to call a question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Polling is confirmed. Thank you. Next item is 4528. And polling to the Tourism Development Authority, Hazel Haines.

The Tourism Development Board does have a vacancy due to term limits. Ms. Shelly Bands has submitted an application for appointment. She would represent the Travel and Tourism Promotion Department, so the board may wish to consider her appointment.

Thank you. What's the will of the board?

Make a motion to approve the appointment.

Thank you, sir. Got a motion to get a second, please. Second. Thank you, sir. Got a motion to second. Any discussion? Another call question on favor raise your right hand any pose likewise. What could make?

This year's next items for four five four one budget amendments like to recognize our finance director and also our deputy county manager Good evening a couple budget amendments for your consideration the first one is to carry forward some unspent part-time salary money in the veterans department and The next one is a library musical play space grant that has been received. It will support play spaces at all three of the county libraries. And then the last item is the transit received a DOT grant for student transportation to and from ICC Spindle campus and the Polk County campus. The money is over a two-year process, and it is not restricted between the two campuses. So if it's heavier one county versus the other, we can move money accordingly.

Thank you. Are there any questions from the board?

Are these indoor park spaces?

I think so.

Okay. Thank you.

If there's not any questions, what's the will of the board?

Make a motion to approve.

Thank you. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, sir. Got a motion to second. Any discussion? If you're going to call a question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Thank you. Approved. Thank you. Commissioner's next item is, excuse me, 4530, Department of Social Services Monthly Update. I'd like to recognize our director, Tiffany Dodd. Director, good to see you this evening.

Good evening.

I understand you're going to visit with us for a little bit tonight.

Oh, yeah.

We're on 4530. Please give us the report.

All right, so good evening, Chairman and County Commissioner. So the first item that we have is the monthly social services report. And in that report, you will find that this report outlines all services, all areas of DSS that we cover, all citizens that we serve, everything that we do with the department. It outlines from April to May and then it looks at May of 2025.

Are there any questions from the board? I do like seeing the trends.

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask is noticeable trends that we should be paying attention to.

So if you will notice down at the – one thing that we did discuss was that we are working and our children's services are working on our foster homes. Yeah. So we do have five that's getting ready to go through the training, and we got two that's pending that's getting ready to be ready to start accepting kids, our kids that's in custody. Other things is you'll see a difference in the program integrity, and you'll notice that April of 26 at the bottom, it went up tremendously because that's taxes. That's where taxes was withheld, and we start receiving that money. Other than that, that's the economic services, the families that we serve, and applications. We also just got crisis intervention money. We got $205,363 to assist our families.

This may be covered later in another one of your reports, but on the food assistance, the number of households has dropped. Quite a bit. Is that has to do with the new snap program?

We're starting to see changes coming forth with that.

Mm-hmm This is for information only at this point it says to accept the method before we to accept You may sir, okay, I will accept the report then Thank you for clarification got a motion need a second second We're going to call a question. All in favor, raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Okay, thank you. If you don't go your way, there's more for you, Director. 4535. Thank you. Thank you. So, this is the MOU of the Department of Health and Human Services. I think we did this two years ago. This is a refresher. Please tell us about it.

Yeah. So, this was when any county that was impacted by the hurricane, they did not have to do a MOU with the state. So now they're bringing that back around. Susan actually presented this last month at the board meeting, commissioner's meeting. And so what this is saying that if we go into, if the state identifies any concerns, they can come in and overtake the agency. And they give us three to six months to work on whatever they identify as an issue. And if that is not worked on, then they will look to replace the director and any staff. We have an awesome staff at Rutherford County DSS, and I'm not at all worried about that, even though they hadn't been monitoring us. We continue to do our reports and we're staying ahead of everything.

Thank you commissioners. You have the before you in the packet. There's a recommended motion before you, but before we move further, are there any questions you ask the director?

Appreciate your confidence that all is in order.

Yes, thank you. I make a motion that we authorize the execution of the Memorandum of Understanding, or the MOU, by the Chair of the Board of Commissioners, the Acting County Manager, and the DSS Director, and contingent upon the approval of the Board of Commissioners. Thank you.

Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Do we have a motion to second any discussion? I'm going to call the question. All in favor raise your right hand. If you oppose, likewise. Okay, carried. Commissioner's next item is 4536. I knew you were going to be visiting with us tonight, Director. Let me pull this up. So this is interesting, it's new as well, but it's the data sharing information technology security memorandum agreement between the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Rutherford County Department of Social Services. I know there's a summary there, but please tell us what this is.

So with the PATH-NC and when we send information to our state partners, We have to make sure that we're sending confident, we're making sure we're protecting everybody's identity and sending the correct information. So what this is is an agreement that we will make sure that we are following all federal and state policy laws and we are sending the correct information, no misuse of data, that we're ensuring that the information technology system and securities are in place and that we're making sure that we're delivering the correct services and program operations and abiding by all confidentiality laws. And with Passing C, you know, we can just go into files now, and we've got to make sure that we are following the rules and not doing anything that we shouldn't be doing.

My understanding, too, is this has something to do with you're saying the inner county, so you might have members in different counties, but you're going to share information and keep it confidential.

Correct.

Would it also cover the out-of-state if we had it?

Yes, this covers making sure that we are not sending anything that, that we shouldn't be sending and making sure we're blacking out anything that shouldn't be sent over.

Okay.

And redacting.

Is this new?

This is new. This is, and I, it's because of Path and See, because it's easy access.

Right.

You can go right into the new system and you can go, instead of us waiting now in the county to send us records, we can just go into that record ourselves. We don't even have to call and let the county know we're going in. So it's making sure that we're following those laws and rules.

That makes it a lot faster, too, sounds like. I mean, as far as to be able to access it, you don't have to go through the hoops, I guess you could say.

We can bring it right off ourselves.

Okay. Commissioners, are there any further questions or anything like that? Please.

I'll make a motion. We authorize the execution of the Memorandum of Agreement, or MOA, by the Chair of the Board of Commissioners, the Acting County Manager, and the DSS Director, contingent upon approval by the Board of Commissioners.

Second. I think we've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing no call to question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Thank you, Director, for being with us tonight. Appreciate it. Oh, gosh, here's another one. No, I see it. You know I'm just messing with you. I know. We're happy that you're here. Makes it easier. 4537 is the energy outreach plan. I'd like to recognize our director of DSS, Tiffany Dodd.

And so this plan is to ensure that all households are made aware of assistance available. So it's all of our community partners that we send the information, let them know what services is available. Just like we got the SIP money, we would send that out so that they could put it on their websites. They can let anybody, any community partners can let them know that what we're doing at our agency so that everybody in the community is made aware in all different ways. Crisis intervention, low income energy assistance, weatherization, anything that we have going on in economic services that's beneficial to our families, making sure we're just getting out in the community.

What's the income threshold when it says low income? Do you know?

So right now, I ain't going to be able to tell you that. But I'll get it for you.

OK. Are there any questions from the board? What's the will of the board there?

I got one question. If a faith-based group steps in and does any of this, do they have to comply with anything special or just let it back? As long as you all know it, then that's fine.

Yeah. We don't treat anybody differently. I'm sorry. I want to make sure I understand what you're saying.

Just if a faith-based stepped in and did their power bill or something or helped them on that, do they have to notify you for any reason?

They do not.

So it takes them out of this other system. Thank you.

Thank you. I would say that your media outlets, you're not including any social media, but I would suggest that, that you make that post. You might be doing it anyway and you didn't put it on here, but I think it's a good thing to do.

Yes, we are utilizing social media a lot more now. We have a person in the office that is our social media person, and we get everything posted. So, yes, I will make sure that that's in there.

Are there any other questions from the board? What's the will of the board?

I make a motion that we authorize the execution of the energy outreach plan by the chair of the board of commissioners, the acting county manager, and the DSS director, contingent upon any approval by the board of commissioners.

I'm going to motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the question. All in favor, raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Carries. Thank you, Tiffany. Commissioner's next item is 4533, charge to collect annual tax collections and settlement report. I'd like to recognize our Revenue Director, Richard Lawson. Director, good to see you.

As required by statute 105-273, I come before this board tonight to present the annual collection settlement report. You should have received all this electronically. It's faster and cheaper than putting these reports together. And the other part that I'm to do is to give you the final collection rate for the taxes for 2025, which this year is 98.15.

Are there any questions from the board? We do it.

So that percent's down just a little bit this year? It's up? Yes. Okay.

Last year it was 98.10. Okay. Okay. I would like to say at this point the 24 taxes right now that have been collected is at 99.24. So we've collected 1.14 in the last year on our delinquent taxes. We will top out at probably about 99.85. So it takes about two or three years, but we get there. Those are Those are our difficult ones that we have to deal with Any other questions There's a

The tax summary report, there's no actions required, but there is a matter of approving the charge to collect. What's the will of the board?

Make a motion we approve the charge to collect. Thank you.

We've got a motion. Do we have a second? Second. I have a motion to second. Any discussion? Anyone want to call a question? All in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Okay. Thank you, sir. You've been charged. Thank you. Okay. Commissioners, next item is 4540, the Ruffler County Transit Grant. I'd like to recognize the director, Kerry Giles. Director, good to see you.

Good evening. I am thrilled to be here tonight to share with you something that is a personal passion project of mine. Commissioner Houck, I don't know if you remember or not, but when you were interviewing the department heads, I mentioned a goal of wanting to find funding to get people, citizens, to Isothermal Community College for workforce development training, knowing that if we can get citizens to the college campus, they can get training, and then we can in turn also give them a 60-day pass to work we could change some lives and truly believe it's a transformative idea. And I am thrilled to say that North Carolina Department of Transportation agreed with us. Back in April, I was on a focus group call and had an opportunity to talk to the director of the Integrated Mobility Division about their concept grant. They wanted to know why people weren't applying for it. And I said, well, that grant requires three counties to collaborate together. If you would consider making it only two, you might get more transit systems to participate in that idea. And he said, well, do you think people would apply if we made it 100% and no match? I said, yes, sir, they absolutely will. So they informed us in April of it with a July 1 start date, which is unheard of, to turn around that fast. And we were awarded an $800,000 grant. with us and Polk County Transit working together along with Isothermal Community College to get students to either campus. Could not have done it without the help of Dr. Nunziata and Vice President Greg Thomas. Greg and I have been working on this for about a year and a half, recognizing that it's not enough for us just to drop people off at the front door. Isothermal also will be working to help them figure out what is the right pathway for it. for them so that we will have long-term success. I'm very excited for Polk County Transit to be able to bring their citizens either to the Columbus campus or to bring them over to the Spindale campus. We may do a shuttle of some sort, but we'll wait to see what the demand is on that. All that to say, it's a two-year grant. It's $800,000. It's primarily for mileage cost to bring people to the campus. It doesn't have to necessarily be split as Ms. Roach indicated between both counties, but we'll likely work towards that initiative. We have not yet received the agreement in hand. Department of Transportation is trying to get those out because it's already in effect for July 1st. So what I'm asking this evening is is if you guys would consider approving, allowing the interim county manager to work with the county attorney and county finance officer to approve the grant agreement once it's received, as well as to work on an interlocal agreement with Polk County. We are designated as the fiscal agent, so all expenses they have will have to pass through us and in turn be reimbursed through DOT.

Any questions from the board?

No, that was good work. Yeah, it was good. Will the board?

I make a motion that we allow the interim county manager to work with the county attorney and finance director and approve the grant agreement when it's received and then approve the interlocal agreement once it's based upon the terms of the grant.

Thank you. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion to second. Any discussion? If you're going to call a question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed? Likewise. Thank you. Thank you.

That will help us expedite fall enrollment. Thank you.

We appreciate the work you've done on this. No, we're going to listen to our mouthpiece here. 4534, Ordinance Repealing Chapter 17 of the Replicating Code of Ordinances, Transportation Authority. I'd like to recognize the county attorney, Richard Williams.

Yes, sir. Chapter 17 is an ordinance on the books that is obsolete, for lack of a better word. It established a transportation authority subject to or pursuant to Article 25 of Chapter 160A, 160A of the general statutes to create a public authority. This would be a body, a public authority independent of the county with its own rules, separate identity, power to sue and be sued, enter into contracts, hold its own property, et cetera. In practice, however, frankly, I'm not sure we ever determined if this had ever been established. pretty much was supplanted in 1990 by a Rutherford County Transit Administration that had been created, and subsequently that was dissolved in 1995. We're now on to, I think, two steps removed from this authority. which is we presently have a Transit Advisory Board of Citizens. This board directly oversees transit, of course, as one of its departments. The Transit Advisory Board advises on transit matters, both to the director, county manager, and, of course, to this board. As such, this ordinance holds no particular point of purpose in the code of ordinances. This is a bit of housecleaning, gentlemen.

Make a motion we approve the ordinance. Thank you. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Anyone have a follow-up question? All in favor, raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Carries. Thank you. Commissioners, next item is 4539, service contract for fire service with the Bostick Fire Department. I'd like to recognize our county attorney, Richard Williams.

Yes, we have a service contract with each, and I believe each and every single one of our fire departments in the county, both municipal as well as private nonprofit volunteer fire departments. This was, we have a contract with each of them, each of them to cover one of our service districts that were established by this board in 2015. And it turns out when we established these service contracts, we had two kinds, one appropriate for private nonprofits. And one appropriate for the municipalities. We do contract with Rutherfordton, Lake Lure, Spendale, and Forest City. Each of the municipal fire departments cover one of our county service districts. And as it turns out, we entered into a service agreement with Bostick Volunteer Fire Department appropriate for a private nonprofit volunteer fire department. This was cropped up as an issue sometime within the last number of months. Turns out the Bostick Volunteer Fire Department is actually a municipal department of the town of Bostick. This would be a proposed service contract to correct the fact that this is really a municipal service, a municipal fire department. We need a service contract in keeping with that. There are some very minor differences, but important. We don't require the municipalities to hand us a compilation by CPA, for instance, or make sure that they have private insurance. Those matters are not really relevant to a municipality. This addresses the oversight.

Any questions from the board?

They've been operating this way. We're just clarifying.

I believe they have been held to a municipality for some time. Certainly we've not been requiring the compilation. If I'm not mistaken, and I'm afraid I'm going to speak out of turn. I believe the problem is they transferred since 2015. And since that time, and I'm looking at Paula to see her shake her head, I believe it was that since we did all this, they ceased being a private nonprofit. We're absorbed by the town of Bostick. They've kept the name, but nothing else.

Any further questions? What's the will of the board?

Make a motion we approve the service contract. Second.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? If you're going to have a call or question, all in favor raise your right hand. If not, likewise. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner's next item is 4545. It's the Gateway West Commercial Park Update. One of our projects. I'd like to recognize Danny Searcy.

Good evening, commissioners. Hope you're doing well today. In light of recent events, I just thought it would be an appropriate time to be able to share an update with you regarding Gateway West and to say thank you, Rutherford County, for all of your work and diligence to be able to continue to invest and improve properties and lives around Rutherford County jointly with your economic developers, their boards and staff. But Gateway West, some of the things that's been going on there recently I wanted to talk about today is how this particular area has been driving investment in housing, industry, and commercial development. The most recent event is a closing of 47 acres there on the east side of Daniel Road. You were blessed to be able to sell 47 acres of county-owned property to a housing developer. The property is expected to support more than 160 single-family homes, which will obviously greatly expand the county's residential inventory by converting these publicly held lands into housing development. Coming off the heels of... A briefing that informed us that we are a number of units shy. I believe it was 20,000 over a four-county region. We could certainly use some housing development here in the county. So I just wanted to make mention of the housing and the fact that a $1.8 million investment has came to the county on behalf of this 47 acres. the work done there. Besides housing, I also wanted to mention industry. Trelleborg, just across the road there from that 47 acres is a 28 acre parcel that Trelleborg purchased in 2024. Some of the things that they've been doing there is building a second industry here in Rutherford County, reinforcing their commitment to Rutherford County and more than a $30 million investment for this new advanced state-of-the-art manufacturing company. Not only is it expanding their footprint here in the county, but again, it shows their commitment to remaining in Rutherford County for years to come. I think this expansion is going to create an investment from Trail Board for more than $30 million. So again, kudos to you guys. Great job for the work and to your economic developers as well. Last but not least, I wanted to mention the Commerce Park right there coming off of College Avenue. There's a cul-de-sac with six lots. A few years ago, you sold lot number two, which has allowed Skyla Credit Union to be developed and built out there. The county still owns five remaining parcels. Three of those are approximately one and a half acres each. One is in excess of four acres, and one is about an acre and a half. Those five lots are still available for commercial development. Some of the top inquiries that we've seen coming so far include automotive services, healthcare, hotels, convenience stores, and some other interests. So I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you and to draw attention to recent events and the fact that there's some substantial investment going on here at Gateway West. So thank you, guys.

Thank you.

So, you know, you mentioned the fact that we sold the land for the houses. How many houses did you say? North of 160. Okay. So that's housing construction of roughly 50 to 60 million on top of the 1.8. You're exactly correct. So that's really good for the county. Having all the construction happening here is really good.

It would be a substantial investment for Rutherford County to have this.

That's substantial, 50, 60 million in new houses.

Yes, sir. I would like to say is that this has truly been a team effort from the Board of Commissioners, our staff, and EDC for both these projects. And we've had meeting after meeting as it's been coming along, but it was great. Terrell Borg was a big hit as well. I think we're competing against two other sites, and we're very blessed and appreciative of all the hard work. I'd like to thank the EDC for their part, and our management team here. There were some midnight calls, or late evening calls, but the investment was wonderful. I think a key factor is ICC. Having the Applied Science Center there is a key factor. So, you know, as we continue to plan and move forward, it's just exciting to see not only housing coming in through all our hard work, but also new jobs as well. So thank you for the update on that.

I'd like to say thank you to the economic development staff that's here in the audience tonight and to your economic development boards. Okay.

Thank you. Commissioners, anything else? This is for information only, so no action. All right. Thank you. Commissioners, next item is 4543, Industrial Project Presentation. I'd like to recognize Mr. Joe Dilotti of the President of FedRIC Industries. He has a presentation for us regarding an industrial project for the Board of Commissioners. Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Chairman and Commissioners.

Again, my name is Joe Valorti. On behalf of our company, Hedrick Industries, appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. The purpose of my discussion tonight is really to share a little bit more about our company who we are, what we do, and share more about a specific opportunity that we think could be of long-term value to Rutherford County. I would invite any questions as I'm going through this presentation along the way. We do have some folks with us tonight that I may recognize to help answer those questions. But again, I'll just go ahead and kick things off. A little bit about who we are. Hedrick Industries, we've been around for a long time. We were founded in 1924. a little mine site in Anson County. We're a four-generation family-owned and operated business. The ownership and leadership group has lived in western North Carolina since the 1950s. The family originally started in Salisbury, North Carolina. We have 12 active mine sites that produce a variety of different aggregates and and crushed them across the western North Carolina into the Charlotte, Piedmont, into Tennessee. We've got 300-plus employees. The average salary of our full-time Our average wages for our full-time employee last year was $78,000, and that would be before benefits and any profit-sharing contributions. Hourly wages range from starting level $22 to more skilled labor of $45 plus. Our mission is to provide top-quality sand, stone, and gravel in a safe and environmentally responsible way to help build our southeastern communities. What we stand on, again, we've been around for 100 years, so we have some sort of guiding principles that, again, we feel strongly about. We believe they're more than just kind of words. They're kind of our guiding light to make sure that we stay on track as a company, and we believe they're backed by millions of hours of work, safe work, millions of dollars that we've contributed back to the communities that we work in. and generations of relationships that we've built with our customers and the communities in which we work. So our number one core value is safety. We understand that the work we do is unusual work. It inherently has hazards in it that a lot of workplaces don't. And so we have fully committed ourselves as a company to making sure that we're the safest workplace we can be. Over the past two years, we've registered more than 1.2 total man hours across our entire workforce. We've had one lost time accident over that period of time. So we're very, very proud of our track record when it comes to safety. We're audited by an agency called MSHA, Mine Safety Health Administration. They're a federal agency. They'll make unannounced visits to our mine sites and make inspections from stem to stern to ensure compliance on safety. Last year we had 23 of those unannounced inspections across our mine sites. In 20 of those inspections, MSHA was unable to find a single violation of safety. So we take that piece very, very seriously. Community is our second core value as a company. Again, we demonstrate that by being part of the communities that we're in. One way we do that is through gifting back to the communities. We have a company foundation. Over the last 10 years alone, we've committed $10 million back into the communities in which we work and we serve. We're committed to our people. We want to be a workplace of choice for the folks that are part of our community. team and have chosen to be with us, so we want to be a great workplace for them. We're committed to productivity, excellence, and integrity. So what we do, basically kind of the simplest way to put it is we take big rocks and we turn them into smaller rocks. We produce and deliver top quality aggregates in a safe and responsible way across the southeast. There's typically four stages of production when it comes to crushed stone. The first is to remove overburden from a stone deposit and then to drill and blast that rock and then to make sure that rock is then loaded and processed into large haul trucks. And then the final step is through an outdoor manufacturing processing facility that's a stage of crushers and conveyor belts and screens until we make a finished product. Some of those products are items that are all around us, and they're necessary to build anything from a house to a new school to even just topping off somebody's driveway. So we make ABC is... kind of a crusher run material at most of our granite quarries. We make a clean stone product that's used in concrete and concrete ready mix and asphalt mixes. We produce washed sand products. We produce drainage stone, landscaping materials, boulders, and erosion preventative materials, rip wraps. So again, once we have a full portfolio of products at one of our operating quarries, We're producing materials of construction value to the communities that we serve. Typically, the customers and projects that we serve are local. So that would be anywhere from your local homeowner showing up needing a load of crusher on for their driveway to local grading contractors, municipalities. and also very large contractors that would be bidding on larger projects across several states in this area. We're also a supplier to Ready Mix and Asphalt customers across western North Carolina into Charlotte and landscaping yards. So again, from the smallest project you could imagine to the largest. A recent project that we've been supplying up in Buncombe County from two of our quarries uh... over the last six or seven years is the interstate twenty six widening project so we've uh... supplied several hundreds of thousands of times to that project from our north buncombe quarry which is in weaverville and our growthstone quarry in black mountain for every mile of interstate highway there's typically about thirty five thousand tons of crushed stone that's required uh... to go into that and so we participated in very large projects to more typical projects like a housing development or a single home, which again requires hundreds of tons of stone in order to construct. The reason I'm here tonight is really to speak about a specific opportunity here in Rutherford County that we're referring to currently as Cool Springs. The Cool Springs Quarry is really an assemblage of four parcels From our testing that we've done to this point, it's a high-quality, strategically located granite reserve that has been sitting dormant for many, many, forever, but in particular for the last 25 years. And the time, we believe, for Rutherford County to benefit from this unique piece of property is now. It's a 175-acre site, as I referenced. It's four specific parcels, about four miles south of Forest City. The access would be via Henson Road off Highway 221. There's a confirmed granite deposit with an estimated 25, and this is a conservative estimate, million tons of reserve base, which would give us 40 to 75 plus years of safe production. This site has already received a mining permit. It was issued by NCDEQ back in March of 2002. So the environmental suitability for this site has already been established. This site is of particular importance for our company and interest is because it really bridges our Asheville division with our Charlotte division. And we would have a very highly familiar customer base in this market. The surrounding land uses to this property we believe are compatible. There's salvage yards, solar farm, agricultural fields, and wooded areas. There's also rail access that comes through this property that, again, could be of specific use for distribution. One just footnote that's worth pointing out when this project was of consideration 25 years ago is there was a specific bridge That was weight restricted that has since been improved bridge 144 on Henson Road that we believe Specifically meets commercial needs commercial vehicle needs and weight requirements at this time making this project more viable We believe at this time as well The investment that we're prepared to make in this property, in this opportunity, again, this would be after receiving a permit from the state, would be somewhere between $20 and $25 million over the first three to five years of startup. We believe that this quarry would generate somewhere between 15 and 25 full-time jobs. We have a sister company that we also believe could potentially bring some additional jobs to the area. They're in the ready mix concrete business. One of the things that we're proud of with our industry, in addition to being all part of really high-value projects in the communities that we serve is that each quarry job and there's study after study that proves this supports four to five additional jobs in the local economy. Those jobs are in trucking, electrical, construction and grading, equipment maintenance, welding, fuel supply, and other local services. Every dollar spent on local aggregates generates another $3.47 in economic output. And then our startup investment would cover heavy mobile equipment, our crushing plant and equipment, obviously significant site engineering, building, and infrastructure. And so, again, we're excited about this opportunity. It does present, we believe, a unique opportunity for the county now and also for our company to participate. In terms of our expectations, in terms of how we'd operate, and again, this is kind of beginning phases, typical hours of operation at most of our quarry are from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Again, we understand that the proximity of this property to Chase Middle School, we'd be willing to modify those hours to ensure there wasn't integration with bus traffic, so from 8 to 5. We believe there's significant market opportunities here in Rutherford County, Polk County, and even into the upstate of South Carolina from this specific quarry site. Again, we think this quarry could be somewhere between 250,000 to 750,000 tons of annual production and sales once we meet full scale. And then a question that typically comes is about blasting. Initial blasting expectations is that there would typically be one blast event per month in the first year or two years of quarry operation. And once we reach full scale, it would be closer to two blasts, two blast events per month. Again, this isn't a great visual, but it does show kind of a 25-minute drive time radius, which is typical to a local quarry in terms of its ability to competitively supply construction projects. Again, this is a concept that we've been working on and developing for a while now. We don't believe this is speculative. We've done significant due diligence, which started last spring of 2025. We were introduced to this site by the current property owner, and that started our due diligence phase. We've had conversation with stakeholders here in the county, including the Planning Commission, the economic development folks back in the fall of 2025. We put together a 32-page concept report for the Planning Commission, which I actually have, and I'll leave it with you to share with the commissioners after the meeting. Again, just for reference, it provides more detail in terms of operational expectations. And then I presented to the Planning Commission in January in the same room about this opportunity as well. Currently, we are moving forward with active technical studies that are part of the permit application that would be required at the state level. So we are moving forward with those studies currently. That includes traffic studies and environmental studies that, again, are also in kind of a handout as part of this packet that I'll share if anybody has any interest in that. One thing that I do think is important, again, there's perception and there is oftentimes a level of trepidation or concern about quarries coming into communities. I do think it's important to share the benefits, the true benefits that communities that have an active quarry in their community are able to take advantage of. And the first one that's most obvious is the lowering of construction costs. It makes sense that, again, a product that is heavily dependent on transportation costs, the closer your local quarry is, the more likely you're going to be competitive from a construction standpoint. So, again, as I noted, most quarries serve a 20- to 25-minute drive time radius. Again, projects that are within that radius can see up to a 30% savings in total, not just transportation, but construction costs. That's actually been proven most recently on the I-40 Gorge project, the repair project. They've actually, the state... permitted kind of an emergency quarry to support that project. It has lowered the estimated construction project for that cost by 30%, and that's taxpayer dollars. The other reason that we think that this quarry is of particular interest at this specific time is its proximity to the Highway 74 corridor. Most recently Tim Moore again shared on social media and beyond that he had inserted something into the Build America 250 package which would designate the portion of US 74 from Gastonia I-85 to Polk County I-26, that Highway 74 corridor becoming an interstate, which again would be, if it were to pass, the first designated interstate for Rutherford County, which would not only make Rutherford County more competitive for economic development, but having a quarry in close proximity to that corridor would make it more competitive from a construction standpoint as well. So we feel strongly that, again, the timing on this could be quite favorable. The second key point that I think is worth sharing about your local quarry, and this isn't just us, this is any local quarry that services a community, is that it helps with emergency response preparedness. And we've learned that in particular during the Helene event. We are very proud as a company to know that we were on the front line of supporting the and responding to Helene up in Buncombe County, McDowell County, Polk County, Henderson County, and Yancey County from four of our quarries that are situated in what we would call our greater Asheville division. Within 48 hours, we were supplying stone. In the aftermath of that, storm and we stayed open for essentially a month straight to help meet that demand. This quarry is strategically located to support storm recovery in the Lake Lure area, which was among, as you know, some of the hardest hit zones during Helene. And again, there's been recent landslides and flooding on the US-74. That underscores this point in terms of vulnerability in this corridor. So, again, having a locally sourced stone eliminates supply chain delays and, again, helps with emergency response. That picture doesn't do justice, but that's our Swannanoa quarry that we call Grove Stone, and there's a line of trucks from our scale house probably another mile down that haul road, and it looked that way for about, a month straight and the demand stayed elevated for six months. And a lot of that was just critical access and making sure that folks could get in and out of their communities. And again, having your local quarry is a real essential resource. The last thing I would point out that I think is of value is, again, we stand on our track record as a company. We're more than just selling stone. We believe in being good neighbors and serving the communities that we're in. That's through community foundations. That's through collaborating with the communities that we're working with. So our expectation when it comes to Rutherford County would be to find out what's important to this county to ensure that, again, we were the best neighbor we can possibly be and also investing in the things that are truly important to the citizens of this community. We take pride in being responsive. We do understand that quarries, there are levels of nuisance when it comes to noise and dust and light and blasting. We understand that. Our land use is unique. It's different from most property owners, but we also feel like it's our responsibility as a company to make sure that we are responsive to any concerns or feedback we get. We have an internal system as a company that we train on as hard as anything that we train on. to make sure that when there are complaints, concerns, or questions from the community, that we are responding in a timely manner. And to the extent that we can fix that issue, we do. We're proud of that. And then the other piece that I think is worth mentioning, and this is something that the current property owner had shared, is that At the extent, at the end life of this property in full reserve extraction, the property owner did share that would be willing to either commit this property to the county or really entrust it in whatever vehicle or mechanism the county thought was of most future value, long-term value to the community. So that is, again, worth sharing. You know, one piece that, again, we have to discuss and we feel is important is that this piece of property is in proximity to Chase Middle School. Again, it's 328 feet to the nearest property line. It's 1,500 feet to the athletic fields and 2,000 feet to the nearest building where student learning would be occurring. Again, to some people, that may sound particularly close. To us, having been in this industry for as long as we have and seeing the advances that have been made in blasting, it does not give us any concern in terms of moving into this type of commitment for generations. We have a quarry. Again, I've referenced Grove Stone. That's within 2,000 feet of Owen High School, in quite close proximity to Owen Middle School. We've been operating. seamlessly for 70 years. Mark Marietta and Vulcan Materials, two of the largest publicly traded companies in our space, have several quarries that they're operating within even closer proximity to schools than this current recommendation. So again, we would expect to collaborate to make sure to the extent that this opportunity moved forward, that we did it in a way that worked for the community and worked for the school. And there's several different ways that we would make sure that happened, including third-party blast and sound studies. installing permanent seismographs, installing earthen burns to help with any sight or noise mitigation. We would want to coordinate with school leaders to ensure that our blasting cadence and timing made sense for their schedules, and then making sure that all truck traffic was routed south to 221. Again, those would be commitments that you'd have for us day one on this project. I think I'll stop there. I know it's been a mouthful. I've shared quite a bit of information. I'd invite any questions from commissioners about any aspect of this, and to the extent that I'm not the right person to answer it, I'll call somebody else up.

Do you have any questions?

So I had some concerns and visited your site in Charlotte, which is actually not too far from my main office there. I'm an acoustician engineer and brought some measuring tools because I was concerned about the blast. With the technology that you used, I was really surprised that the decibel level didn't measure even as loud as a quiet concert. When we do a concert, when it gets quiet, it's 92 dB. When it gets loud, it's 106 dB. And I measured your blast at around 90, which is less than a concert. Is that average? Was what I experienced the average blast?

I'm going to go ahead and recognize somebody from our company that would be a better individual. Jason, you want to come up and speak to that?

Yeah. This is Jason Connor.

He's vice president.

And, Jason, I was standing on the blast side.

Yes, the typical blast that you, you know, saw that day, that would be a very typical of what you would experience. You know, it can vary depending on timing. But, you know, again, with that community form that we have, if we notice an issue, we can work with the blasters.

And those houses seem close to the quarry.

Yes, those are, gosh, there's around 1,000 feet. It's a trilogy development, 1,600 homes that are 55 and up, you know, one of the age- Retirement communities. Yes. Yeah, so we have three permanent seismographs located within that community, and we monitor those, you know, every blast.

I was surprised it wasn't louder.

Yeah. You said you had seismographs. What's the reading you're getting in that community?

John, you may be up. He monitors, so we have a third party that we outsource to the majority of our quarries. They monitor those seismographs for us. But John's an expert in the blasting and the seismology, so he definitely would be able to speak on that.

Jason, do you want to speak to the state limits and kind of typically in terms of that?

So the state limits would be for decibels, and that is we'll consider that overpressure. So that's when the blast occurs. It pushes the rock and then pushes air out. So that's around 132 decibels, and then we're allowed 2 inches per second on the ground vibration.

Where are we typically?

We're typically 0.1 or something mostly lower. And then if you're directly in front of the blast, Commissioner Hall, it could be a little bit different. So we're typically 111, 112, something like that.

At what distance from the blast is that measured?

That's measured around 1,000 feet.

Okay.

Yeah.

Joe, how many feet roughly was I standing when I visited McDowell Quarry?

I'd say 1,500 feet, plus or minus.

So closer than the 2,000 feet that you'd be to a building at Chase Middle School. And I was also amazed by the fact that, one, we didn't have any ear protection on, I don't believe, and it wasn't anything to worry anybody. The sound was... not what i expected it to be it was a lot less is what i'm getting at and also didn't really feel anything underneath just a little bit um i don't know how much that would change from the 1500 feet to the 2 000 feet that you would be at the school uh but i just wanted to touch on how I know in my mind I was expecting it to be a lot different, and it's not. I don't know how much the technology has changed over the years for how that has changed, but it was way less than what I was expecting and what I feel people have questions about. So I just wanted to make that known.

It's one of the reasons we like to invite the community in to truly experience it firsthand is I think there is this notion that it's going to be sort of this earthquake type event. It's really a sort of a blip, and it comes and it's gone. Typically, when it goes to plan, which, again, to your point, the technology has evolved significantly. There's dozens of blasts across the state of North Carolina every single day. It's a very controlled event that's happening all the time in communities all across the state. In this instance, in terms of this opportunity, the pit, the blast would actually be directionally going away from the school. And so a lot of that sound would not be heading towards the school campus. It would be heading across really the operating footprint of the quarry at 175 acres. Yep.

Another thing I wanted to highlight real quick was just your community commitment is something that I think we need in that area of the county, and I think will go a long way. So I'm really looking forward to that.

And do you know, you've got a lot of employees at the company, average length of employment for a job?

Yeah, we actually track that pretty carefully. So, again, this would include somebody who works with us for 30 days to somebody who's worked with us for over 50 years. I believe it's 16 to 17 years is our average length of employment. Again, we have folks with us that have been with us for 40-plus years. We just had a gentleman at our growth stone quarry. who retired after 45 years of service just a couple weeks ago. So again, we want to be a great place to work. We want to be a place where people can help raise their families, send them on to college or whatever their pursuits and goals may be. And it's something we take seriously. We do an anonymous survey from our employees twice a year where we solicit feedback. We want to know, how are we doing? Are we walking the walk? Are we committed to safety? Are we paying you fairly? from your perception. So that's something that we take seriously. We monitor, we measure, we make adjustments, and we want to be a place where people can spend their whole career.

And I remember asking you about the heavy equipment operator when I saw driving across, and you said you have heavy equipment operators making 100-plus.

You know, one of the data points I wish I'd shared is the percentage of our workforce that is making over $100,000 a year. And I wouldn't be surprised to venture to say it's 40% to 50%. It's, again, it's a significant portion of our workforce, and it's something that we're very proud of.

There was a gentleman that I toured with when I came to McDowell County that was with you that day. I think he had been there around 30 years, 32 maybe. Our superintendent? Yeah.

Yes, yeah. And again, really a typical story for our community, somebody who had not even sure if he had a high school education, maybe did high school education, started at ground level, entry level, and worked his way up, gained skill sets, learned how to weld, learned how to operate every piece of equipment we had, and next thing you know, he's running the place. Yeah.

The thing I would like to ask a question about is, as a retired state trooper and an accident reconstructionist, the big trucks that are involved, I mean, there's side roads and school kids riding on these roads all the time, families. Even you're saying you're going to 221 with all your big trucks. We've got Harris School right there, school buses, people taking their children to school. It just bothers me with the traffic. that would be involved when you've got that many vehicles. How many trucks coming in and out on average a day?

Again, it's dependent on, I mean, there's a lot of speculation here, but let's say at that 250,000 ton a year level, it would be about 50 trucks coming in and coming out. So that would be customers 20, let's call it 20 tons of load, 50 trucks spread out over a nine-hour period. And again, those are customers. Again, we don't own those trucks typically. But that is something that we take seriously to the extent that there are bad actors or trucks that aren't behaving properly or crossing the center line. That's some of the feedback we get from our communities. And to the extent that we can enforce that, we do. We've also conducted a traffic study, and we'll have those results available for the commissioners and then also part of the permit application. So again, I don't want to speak to the results of those, but It will be better to share the report. Thank you.

Any other questions? I know you took a pause there, so you want to continue on?

Yeah, there's one more slide. Yeah, there's one more slide. And that's just essentially the path forward, what would be required to keep this moving. And again, as we've shared, we're continuing to advance this on our side. There would need to be consideration to amend the existing school zone protective ordinance. Again, and that would be at a county level. From there, we would submit a mining permit application along with the studies, and that's an extensive, exhaustive process that could take a year or two for us to receive state approval. During that period of time, we'd expect to be engaged with the community in making sure that we were a good actor and we were setting this operation up for success. And then obviously the investment in hiring would come after that but Anyways, I did think it was worthwhile again appreciate the opportunity to share a Little bit more about this opportunity that we think could be of great value to Rutherford County Did you have the gentleman with you that

Got the readings for the community that was right next to it. Did you say you had them ready? Seismographic?

Yes. Would you like for him to come? Sure. Come on.

Evening. Evening. you want me to share on like the readings that we're getting and what it means yeah oh sure yeah what's your what you're getting and yeah exactly what it means yeah sure so there's two state limits one is for air over pressure which is a decibel limit and like we were talking about that's when the air gets pushed out from the blast it's a slightly different decibel scale than what we're measuring for acoustic noise That's why the numbers you were seeing on. We're seeing below, yeah. Yeah, because that's like a C-weighted scale. That's right.

I was using C-weight.

Yeah, exactly. So when we throw out the numbers for the decibel levels that we're measuring, it's an A-flat impulse. Okay. Because we're measuring below what the human ear can hear, and we're measuring at that wave as it travels through the air and encounters a building, and that's what the neighbors feel. So that's why you're hearing a difference in the decibel levels there. So when we monitor the ground motion, the state regulates that at approximately two inches per second, depending on the hertz. And I will say at all the quarries we monitor for Hedrick, we do all the monitoring for Vulcan Materials, Mark Murray, everybody else as well. Hedrick has the lowest readings out of anyone. And I think it's because of the engineering that they put into their blasting program. So before a blast even occurs, their third party blasting vendor has engineered its computer modeled. They understand it's going to take place before that blast even occurs. And we're the third party that we have automated seismograph stations set up around the quarries that automatically records that data, reports it to us, the blasting company, and the quarry. And all that is independent down to where the seismographs are actually interpreting that data and showing that data and how it compares to the state limits. So the highest readings that we get, like at the Lake Norman quarry where you're at, is about a 0.20, and that usually ranges like 10% to 15% of the state limit. But we're monitoring what people feel in their feet, like you were talking about, like you didn't really feel it in your feet. That's because the readings are so low. We're monitoring what people feel in the air in their homes as well. So 10% to 15% of the state limits is pretty much normal.

You good? Thank you. Thanks, John. Just to add one more piece, you know, We do look at the ground limit and the movement and the blast. And so let's say we get a call from that community saying, hey, something felt a little different today. We will check. Oftentimes it is 5% to 10% of the state limits, maybe even below our normal threshold. We will still go back to our blasting party and say, take a look at how you engineered this. We want a better result next time. And so we're not just using that limit as kind of our – ceiling or or expectation we want it we want to be uh as good to the communities that we're operating within as we possibly can and so to hear john say that we're operating at a strong level i think it really is that commitment that that good enough is not good enough for us we want it to get to the point uh where it truly is suitable for our neighbors

No more questions for Mr. Lord?

Sir, I'm glad you're here today. I appreciate the insights. Is there anything else you'd like to provide?

No, I think that's it for tonight. Thank you.

Commission, this is information that we received tonight. Appreciate that. But before we move on, I'd like to ask the board if they have any thoughts.

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion for county and staff to study how a proposed amendment to the school zone protection ordinance may impact the residents and abutting landowners, and if reasonable and consistent with the state purposes and ordinances with the protection of the health, safety, and welfare of Rutherford County citizens to prepare such an amendment for this board's consideration pursuant and consistent with state law.

Well, Commissioner, do we have a motion? Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Do we have any discussion? Well, I'm going to step out and make this since you guys have. Jobs, investment, expanding our tax base, community investment, important to me. Also, it's hundreds of millions over.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's important to me. Yeah Also, what's important to me is is that when he leaned hit here on the aggregate? Was hard to find we had it get it But now that we're in recovery mode and we even with this new development that we have hundreds of homes We're gonna have to have aggregate And we have the resource right here at our home, and hopefully it will save us money on building costs. You're actually saving your own taxpayers and your people money as well. So I just want to say that. That's my part of the discussion. Usually the chair doesn't speak, since you didn't. In case you want to say anything, you can now. So we have a motion to second discussion. Any further discussion? If you're not going to call a question, all in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. Carries. Thank you, gentlemen. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we're actually getting ready to go into closed session. It's going to be the Board of Commissioners, our attorney, our HR director, our clerk. We're going to close session under NCGS 14331883, which is attorney-client. We're also going to close session pursuant to NCGS 1433181186, which is personnel. There will not be any action taken afterwards. But thank you for being here tonight. But now you can go home. Motion to go into closed session, please. Motion to go into closed session. I got a motion to close second. Do I have a second? Second. I got a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I call a question. All in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, likewise. We now enter into closed session.