Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Pitt County Board of Commissioners meeting. Thank you all for being with us this evening. Um, I'm gonna call the meeting to order and we will have roll call, please. And if you would, if everyone would stand with me, uh, Commissioner Manning is going to handle our invocation. with me please The Heavenly Father, we come before you with praise and thanksgiving for the many blessings you've bestowed on our county. We ask you, Lord, to guide us tonight as we take up people's business that your will will be done. And also, Lord, we ask that you bless our military personnel around the world. God bless America. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. If you would remain standing, I'm going to invite uh Jordan Hackney up to introduce herself and, uh, Talia in the Pledge. My name is Jordan Hackney. I'm from Innovation Early College High School, and where I am senior class president. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Jordan entertain a motion to approve the agenda. So moved We got a motion in a second. Please vote. Madada Manager, we have any public addresses to the board, Mr. Chairman, no one has signed up for public addresses to the board. OK, we'll move on to presentations. We have 3 presentations. If you'll join me to the front.

Chair, would you like this He said we didn't make that I was gra thank you Candace Jones did not see Candace Jones here this evening. Um, I'll just share for the good of the group. Each month we recognize an employee of the month and this month it was Candace Jones, a child support agent within social services. He was nominated by her peers, um, for her character, the work she does , and the assistance she provides for her department. Um, our employees of the month are usually here to accept their certificate and a $100 check, but due to the weather, circumstances this evening she was, I believe, was not able to join us. So we'll hold on to that for her . If Kelly Dixon would come forward in financial services. if you will stand on the this is, um, an honor to present and share in the celebration for Kelly Dixon, who is our assistant finance Director who completed the North Carolina government finance Officers Association certification as a certified local government finance Officer. This is a rigorous series of courses and testing, um, that she did on her own time, passed all of them exceedingly well and was awarded this by the local government finance Officers Association. We wanted to recognize Kelly, thank her for her dedication and commitment to excellence in her knowledge and service in Pitt County government and um present to you again this um special award. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah . Thank you. And then lastly, if our friends

from Public health would come forward. We have Director West Gray and Allison Swwart, if you'll stand in the middle. Um, it is my pleasure to read a proclamation that was signed by the Chairman, recognizing the 25th anniversary of the Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit, and it reads, whereas access to preventive and restorative oral health care is essential to overall health, well-being, and quality of life for individuals and families in Pitt County. And whereas in February 2026, the Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit marked its 25th anniversary of service to the residents of Pitt County. And whereas the Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit was established to increase access to dental care by traveling directly to schools throughout Pitt County, reducing barriers such as transportation, cost, and time away from school. And whereas over the past 25 years, the Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit has made a significant and measurable impact on the oral health of children in Pitt County by providing excuse me, critical dental services. And whereas during its 25 years of service, the Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit has provided more than 26,000 diagnostic procedures, more than 40,000 preventive procedures, more than 6000 restorative procedures, 150 endodontic procedures and 662 oral surgery procedures. And whereas these services have helped prevent dental disease, reduce pain and infection, support academic success and promote lifelong oral health habits for thousands of children And whereas the continued success of the Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit reflects the dedication of the Pitt County Health Department. Dental professionals, school partners, and community stakeholders committed to improving health equity and access to care.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Pitt County Board of Commissioners does hereby recognizing and commend the 25th anniversary of Pitt County Mobile Dental Unit, honoring its lasting contributions to public health and the well-being of Pitt County's children and expresses its appreciation to all who have supported and sustained this important program over the past quarter century, adopted this 16th day of March 2026, signed through his authority as Chairman Mark C. Smith, Pitt County Board of Commissioners and attested by him m ber Kimberly Hines, Clerk to the Board, Mr. Chair, if you would present that to the right. Congratulations, guys, on behalf of the Board of Commissioners, thank you for all your help. and Yeah Thanks guys. Thank you so much. Congratulations. OK. Next up is, uh, public hearings. I'll turn it over to Jonas for the first one. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening, uh, Madada Manager , Members of the board. Uh, the first uh, public hearing tonight is for a rezoning request by Michael Hammond is to rezone 5.18 acres of property owned by Frank Dell Farms Incorporated, uh, the parcel number in question is 13255. It's located on the western side of Moyurnage Road, north of its intersection with US 264, also known as East Marlboro Road, uh, from rural agricultural to, uh, general commercial conditional District to operate a wholesale, uh, farm equipment and hardware supply business.

Looking at the map before you, uh, you can see the site is located just to the southeast of Farmville, um, near the intersection of US uh 264/13 and Moyurnage Road. Looking at the existing land use in the area. You'll see the site is outlined in black. Uh, there is some residential, uh, scattered to the north of the site as well as some um government or utility, uh uses in the area. There's a, a well just to the north and a water tower, uh, just to the south of the property. They envisioned uh Pitt County Future land use character map shows that this area is predominantly agricultural currently. And that designation includes uh prime farmlands that are vital to the agricultural production within the county. Activities in this area typically consist of agricultural, forestry, limited low density and residential and commercial and institutional uses scattered. Uh, these areas are strategic, near strategic agricultural lands that surrounding areas. Again, the uses are agricultural , agribusiness, forestry, limited commercial, single-family properties as well as occasional low density small scale residential, uh, subdivisions. Utilities, uh, primarily relies on public water and uh septic system, very limited sewer in this area. The density is less than one dwelling unit per acre. Looking at the current zoning map of the entire area around this is zoned rural agricultural . and that uh proposed District is to go to general commercial with conditional District attached to it. Uh, the primary intended use for general commercial is to

accommodate retail service, Office, limited, wholesale, and moderate density multi-family, uh, residential uses in areas that have access to major thoroughfares and necessary utilities to support that development. Uh, the conditional District rezoning allows for the approval of a specific use and reasonable conditions to assure the compatibility of the surrounding uses. Um, the proposed use again in this case is a wholesale farm equipment and hardware supply business. Looking at the site map, uh, that was submitted with this. The rezoning areas outlined in red. You have a 10-foot proposed landscape buffer yard surrounding the entire site with the Office and warehouseBuilding highlighted here in yellow. You have the driveway, parking area, loading dock, uh, in gray, and then they are proposing a six-foot chain link fence for the storage of the equipment and supplies in the rear of the building. They have a nitrification field for their septic system here in blue and a proposed dumpster site in the rear of the property . Pitt County staff finds that the request is consistent with the envisioned Pitt County 2045 Conference of Lane Use Plan. The area requested for rezoning is designated as Agricultural on the future land Lane use map and the uses in the area are predominantly agricultural with limited residential use is present. The proposed use is agricultural related as a commercial use that will offer, uh, agricultural equipment and supplies to the area. Staff also finds that it's reasonable in the public's best interests because the site is just west of a rule Center, uh, know, they're the intersection of 264 and Moy Turnage Road, and there's very limited residential development near the site. Additionally, the proposed use

will be screened from any of those residential, uh, properties. The Planning Board heard this item at its February meeting and voted unanimously to recommend approval to this board and advised that it is consistent with the Copper of land he's playing in is reasonable. So I recommend the motion is to adopt the consistency statement, uh, stating that it is um consistent with the land use plan and is reasonable, um, with the following conditions. No zoning compliance permit is it will be issued until a formal site plan is submitted to the planning department and reviewed and approved the landscaping, uh , plan is required, showing that 10-foot landscape landscaping buffer around the site. Uh, parking spaces shall be improved , uh, with appropriate materials , a soil erosion and sedimentation control plan, uh, will be required, uh, to be submitted, as well as a storm order, uh, control plan for the site. Uh, the site must also comply with any emergency Manage requirements for fire protection and um they must have all the inspection permits prior to, uh, commence. the building With that, Mr. Chair, I'll turn it back to you for the public hearing. Jerry, thank you, Jonas , before we open up the public hearing, we'll let the County Attorney read his statement. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With this public hearing now open, Pitt County welcomes all comments on the Michael Hammond rezoning request. Please state your name, address, and the name of any organization you may be representing. Each speaker will be allowed up to 3 minutes to speak. OK, thank you, Matt. Uh, we'll open up the public hearing, Madame Manager, do we have anyone signed up to speak? Yes, Michael Hammond. OK. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. Thank

you very much for having, uh, the opportunity for me to have the opportunity to speak on my behalf for the rezoning request of this, uh, business, family business, um, I'm here to answer any questions the board or the com the, the, uh, public may have about the concerns or environmental concerns that this type of business may bring to this area, um, so I would like, uh, to formally ask for, um, an approval of this project. So, uh, I'd be happy to answer any questions, any questions from commissioners. OK, thank you, Mr. Human. Do we have anyone else that would like to speak in favor or against? OK All right. I will close the public hearing. What's the pleasure of the board? Make a motion. Now we have a motion and a second, and that and I'm just like some discussion, just OK. A couple of points of clarification. Sure. Um, because I like how this was presented. I, I know there've been times that we've had um, zoning requests in rural Agricultural Districts that were non-conditional to general commercial. Um, I appreciate that this application was conditional, um, and I appreciate the reasoning and the thoughtful reasoning from, from the planning board that gives a lot more direction to this board . Um, so I really, I, I wanted to make that comment right out the gate. um, and just to, um, and just that's it. So, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Nunnly. Uh, your motions do include the consistency statements as well, correct? OK, let's vote OK, thank you. And, uh, Jonas, we'll move on to the second public hearing. All right? The second public hearing is for Stonewood Solar LLC resented requests to resume 235.89 acres of property owned by OEM LLC.

Be parcel number 58349 located at the north, uh, western corner at the intersection of 903 and Oakley Road in the southern side of Sweet Gum Grove Church Road from rural agricultural to rural agricultural, uh, conditional District to allow for the operation of a solar facility. The site is located to the northeast of Greenville, just about halfway between Greenville and Stokes along NC 903. Look at the existing land use of the area. Uh, the predominant land use is agricultural or undeveloped. There is uh some residential in the vicinity of this property, just adjacent, uh , across Oakley Road to the east , uh, as well as some residential to the north of the property. You'll notice there are two nodes of commercial businesses, uh, located along NC 903. The vision Pitt County 2045 Future land use character map, uh, designates the spaces, um, open conservation along the creek there to the south of the property and then agricultural for the remainder of the property. That agricultural designation includes prime farmlands that are vital to the production within the county. Activities include agricultural, forestry, limited low density residential, as well as commercial or institutional uses. These are located near strategic , uh, agricultural lands and surrounding areas, uh, uses include agricultural, agribusiness, forestry, limited commercial and family, uh, single-family properties, occasional low density and small scale subdivisions. Uh, just about all this areas, uh, provide Wastewater is provided by septic with limited sewer

availability and the density for residential is one dwell dwelling un it per acre Uh the open space conservation, uh, on the southern portion of this property, uh, pretty much follows the floodplain, uh, area . This designation, uh, in our Laneys policy applies to lands deemed inappropriate, uh, for many development types due to the physical characteristics or envi environmental barriers, uh, including that flood risk. Um, it includes properties within the 100 year flood plain, wetland areas and also areas that have been designated for conservation or open space. Um, the primary uses are timber and agricultural activities. recreation, it may include development not in conflict with the existing residential uses. Uh. looking at the zoning map, uh, this entire area is just about zoned, uh, for rural agricultural with those two commercial nos that I spoke to earlier along NC 903, which are commercial. Uh the rural agricultural conditional District is intended to, uh, accommodate a very low density res residential uses as well as the associated and institutional uses, um, some commercial use in agricultural-related industries, which are interspersed throughout the area. The district reflects a wide variety of diversity, um, predominantly in the rural areas and therefore , uh, provides for that wide array of uses. Um a conditional district does allow for the approval of a specific use just like the last one we heard, uh, earlier. In

this case, it is for a solar facility or solar farm. The Pitt County zoning ordinance does have some guidelines pertaining to, uh, solar farms. There is a minimum setback of uh 50 ft from the property lines and a minimum of 100 ft separation from any residents with 150 ft for the actual inverters. The maximum height is 25 ft for all equipment. and structures And in this case, they have submitted the required documents , those being a site plan, the drawings and components. copies of the lease agreements and solar easements. Evidence of utility interconnection, the decommissioning plans and cost estimate. as well as the structural requirements, and they must meet all building codes Also, all electrical wiring is required to be underground. There is fencing and screening requirements associated with this plan. And the abandoned equipment will need to be removed within one year of inactivity. Looking at the site plan the property line is outlined in red here. The project boundary is highlighted in yellow. You'll notice that they have excluded that open space conservation Are that's associated with the flood plain to the southern, uh, portion of the property. The gray area here, dark gray area indicates where the solar panels will be located and the inverters that have to be 150 ft from the, any residents are centered along the middle of the property to achieve that setback requirement . I've highlighted or they've highlighted the residential

structures with that 150 ft buffer circled around. You'll see that they are clearly, uh, outside of those setbacks. There's also a 50-foot setback along the property boundaries, and they have increased the setback, uh, in our proposing a 100-foot setback along Oakley Road to provide some additional screening from those residences across Oakley Road. highlighting the floodplain here again, none of the solar panels will be located in that floodplain area. and the wetlands and buffers as well. You'll notice there are several riparian buffers that run through the property and they have to honor that 50-foot setback associated with that. There is existing uh vegetation, uh, on the property and on adjacent properties that the applicant intends to use for some of the screening that's required and they are proposing vegetation to be installed along Oakley Road and to the north and west in the rear corner of the property where there's not currently any vegetation there. They've included a rendering that shows what the, the screening will look, look like or along Oakley Road, uh, with the large trees spaced 40 ft apart, and then meaning the undergrowth, uh, plantings as well. Staff, uh, finds that this is consistent with the vision, uh, Pitt County 2045 Comprehensive land use plan and the area you requested for rezoning is designated as Agricultural O Space conservation on the future landiess map. The agricultural, uh, designation allows for limited

commercial uses in the area as open space conservation is proposed to remain undeveloped and will be left in its natural state. In addition, there's a significant amount of wooded and wetland areas surrounding the site that will provide that special separation. between the residences. Planning staff also finds that the request is reasonable, and in the public's interest because the request for conditional, uh, zoning District and spatial separation screening are required as outlined in the zoning ordinance. The applicant is also proposing to increase setbacks along Oakley Road from 50 ft to 100 ft . Staff recommends approval of this request and uh has the following conditions associated with it. Also, planning board, uh, met in February and voted 54 to recommend approval to this board and found it as consistent with the comprehensive land use plan is reasonable. So our recommendation is to adopt the consistency statement, um, and find that it is reasonable. and the conditions that are associated with it is that a zoning compliance permits shall be issued. A so erosion, uh, plan is required to the maximum extent possible, the site shall use that existing uh vegetation. and um to visually screen the facility from the residential properties. Um it must comply with the storm order ordinance and honor the

fifty-foot riparian buffers, uh, unless they have those exempted by either planning staff or the divisionalward Quality. They must obtain all the permits from Pitt County Inspections for the electrical wiring, and they must also obtain the driveway permit from NCDOT. All equipment and structures shall be 100 ft from all adjoining residential property lines and 50 ft from all, uh, property lines except we're showing, uh, as a 100 ft set back along Oakley Road. With that, Mr. Charo turned it over to you for the public hearing. OK, Matt, do you need to read that again? I can. OK, go ahead. With this public hearing now up in Pitt County welcomes all comments on the Stonewood Solar rezoning request. Again, please state your name, address, and the name of any organization that you may be representing. Each speaker will be allowed up to 3 minutes to speak. Thank you, Jonas. Thank you, Matt. Um, we'll open up the public hearing, and Madame Manager, I'll turn it over to you. I think we have several people wanting to speak. Yes, 11 people are signed up to speak. First is James Whitehurst. Hello, my name is, uh, James Whitehurst, James Michael Whitehurst, and, um, I live at 4327 Oakley Road. Um, so about 2 miles from the site. I'm 1/5 generation farmer and my father and I currently operate approximately 1500 acres around Stokes area. While we have not previously farmed the land under discussion today. Our home farm is located just 2 miles from the proposed project site. I'm confident that those supporting the solar development are skilled in their respective fields. However, I also know that no amount of online research can match the knowledge gained over 3 decades of

firsthand farming experience. The term solar farm is often used perhaps to make these projects sound more compatible with agriculture than they truly are. A true farm, whether it produces crops or raises livestock is a model of efficiency It must be productive and sustainable so that food remains affordable and the land remains viable for future generations. Farmers nurture the soil to yield crops that benefit our community and the byproducts of each harvest returned to the land, enriching it for the next cycle. By contrast, solar installations operate at roughly 23% efficiency. Capture and convert energy for limited use, leaving the land neglected for decades. Over the life of such a project, the Farmland losses, the farmland loses vital nutrients and structure are making it costly and time-consuming to restore. Rebuilding soil health can take many years and thousands of dollars per acre. At a recent planning board meeting, one member stated that this project represents the best interest of the public. I respectfully ask, where's the data to support that claim. Our district already has more than 1000 acres covered with solar panels, and I have yet to hear any clear public benefit that has come from them. In contrast my farming operation alone supports over 30 local businesses in Pitt County as well as others in Beaufort, Martin, and Lenoir Counties. Together, employing hundreds of workers and contributing directly to the local economy. Some have said that landowners should be free to do as they please with their property. I agree with that principle up to the point where those choices cause long term harm to the environment and to our shared resources just as we have laws

protecting wetlands, streams, and wildlife habitats. We should also recognize the need to protect farmland The most essential natural resource we have. North Carolina is losing more than 100,000 acres of farmland every year and ranks 2nd in the nation for projected farm land loss. This issue has drawn attention from the government, Josh Stein, and Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, who have both emphasized that farmland poses one of the greatest threat to our state's economy They are now advocating for increased funding for farmland preservation, and I wholeheartedly support that effort. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you coming out. All right. Jason, um Sprue. Yeah. Smith I don't have a speech like that, but my name's Jason Smith. I live at 1522 Stokes Elementary School Road. Um, all of us live in Viet County and I, I, I worked through Pitt County and we already have 4 on the north side of the river and you can drive by them they look like something from the Walking Dead. I mean, they, they're just hideous and this screen buffer that Pitt County allowed for them. Who monitored it, but you can ride down any, any one of them right now and it looks like a scene from The Walking Dead movies. Um and like he said, there's no, there's no support of, of what's going to happen 1520 years. where, I mean, where are they gonna lie in 1520 years. because there's no data for it Um like I said, and I, I don't farm myself, but I do help and I'd, I'd like, you know, somewhere to go and, and farm. uh my neighbors, they farmed that land and I just, I want something for them I mean they, they're steady

taking steady taking steady just like the south side houses, you know, where, where, what's protecting the farmlands that we have? What's, I mean, where, where do we step in to protect our stuff I mean, it's got to be a point where we come as a group to say enough's enough. We got to do something about it That's it. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you coming out tonight. Kevin Jones Kevin Jones. I live at 2337 North Carolina 903. Um, uh, the issue I have with the Soloarm, I agree with the farmers and the community, and they, they don't look very good at all to ride by every day. I also have my dad, my brother, and a few friends of mine live off of Ramshorn Road by the Richard, the Witcher Road Farm. and went in about 2 months, all of them had capacitors burn up on the air conditioners. The air conditioners burn, slam up, and some of them are 1 or 2 years old. Light fixes in their homes are burning up. Um, and I did research on it, trying to pull it up. It's, uh, from what I've understood, doing research, uh, Soliforms cause harmonic issues on our solo on our power grid and uh we converting from D C to AC. It causes these issues and it causes it to have a overheating and transformers cables and motors. My friend that, uh, also lives on Ramsor Road just installed a brand new pool in that same amount of time it within 3 weeks, the wires had burned up in the ground. So my concern is more for the community in the area, putting the unregulated soli form on the system. What's it gonna do to Lord air conditioners, so we're

gonna be buying air conditioners every couple of years. That's my concern with it That's all Thank you, sir. Thanks for coming out tonight. Matt Nobles Mm, hey, I'm Matt Nobles. I'm representing Noble's logging and Noble's Farms LLC 680 Jordan Drive, um one of the big things we talked about at the planning board meeting was public interest. I do not see how this is in our public interests We are subsidizing this. $56,000 per acre in subsidies for these farms. They only pay 20% property tax on their equipment. I pay 100% property tax The farmers, they pay 100% property tax. How is that in our public interest? I just don't see how it is. Um. we have businesses here We pay our taxes. They're gonna come in with temporary workers to develop this and they're gonna leave and we're gonna be stuck without land to farm. to harvest timber and warehouser's trying to do this big uh development in our same area again, forestry products, uh, uh um, agricultural products are going away

and property values. I, I know the research is skewed, but I want y'all to think about if y'all sat from your front porch and looked out at out at a solar farm. You're telling me that that is what you would want We love our area. I'm, I'm from there. My family's been in the area for 250 years. We love our land and we love how it looks, and this is not what we want in our area, and I hope that my daughter can grow up out on our farm, going out there in the country and seeing how beautiful it is. I don't want her looking at a solar far. It's not efficient. There are much more efficient ways. We could use biomass. That would help logging, that would also help the landfield that's got all of this wood debris that they send to New Bern for a power plant there, ethanol helped farmers more efficient than solar. So again, I just want you to think about that. Thank you. Thank you, sir Jay Niemith I'm Jane Emith with Headwater Energy. Our offices are in Durham, North Carolina. Mr. Hill did a great job presenting all the details of our product, our project, so I won't go into those details. Uh, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, this project will provide over $37,000 in new property tax revenue in its first year, and it will do so without creating any additional demand on schools, emergency services, water, sewer, or roads . From the county's perspective, this is a consistent long-term revenue with no additional burden on taxpayers. Over the life of the

project, it is expected to provide over $600,000 in new tax revenue. Headwater Energ energy is not a speculative developer or developing just to flip the project. We develop, own operate , and remain responsible for our projects over the long term, and we've already made significant investment in this project because we believe it's the right site and a good fit for the community. This project will interconnect and deliver power onto Greenville Utility's existing distribution system that serves homes and businesses in Pitt County without the need for any new transmission or large substations. Pitt County has already made investment in attracting solar manufacturing, including the Beviette facility. Projects like this help support that industry and ensure that the economic benefits of the of that investment and new local jobs from that investment are realized here in the county. I also want to acknowledge something that we heard at the planning board meeting. Concerns were expressed by people who cared deeply about farming and the rural character of this county. We heard that tonight. That is absolutely something that we respect. Farming built this community and nothing about this project is meant to diminish that. Farmers and rural landowners have always adapted their land to changing markets, sometimes its crops, sometimes it's timber, sometimes it's leasing land. This is simply another way that the land could be productive while maintaining um an open and rural environment . The addition of a solar farm is also temporary and reversible Unlike residential or commercial development, the land remains open and can return to farming in the future. I'd like to emphasize how we've worked to address some concerns that may be associated with solar development. This is a 10 megawatt project, much smaller than others approved in this county. The project area is 152 acres within a 236 acre parcel, and it's a largely surrounded by existing forest. Where existing trees don't exist around the perimeter, the ordinance requires a vegetative buffer

In addition to the vegetative buffer, we've doubled the required setback along Oakley Road to 100 ft, so the facility will be further obscured from view. Modern solar facilities are quiet, fenced, and built using standard electrical equipment similar to what exists throughout the utility system. As detailed in our application, the project beats or exceeds all kinds of requirements, and it's consistent with envisioned Pitt County 2045. Comprehensive land use plan In Pitt County, landowners have long relied on their land for income, whether through farming, timber harvesting, or leasing this project follows that same tradition, a productive low impact use of private property that strengthen strengthens the county's tax base while preserving the rural character of the area. For these reasons, we respectfully ask for your approval with the conditions described by Mr. Hill. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you coming out. Doctor Gnasa Patel. Good evening, I'm Reba My name is Doctor Dignasa Patel. I'm a doctor of Internal medicine and I have lived in eastern North Carolina for over three decades. I have had the pleasure of treating members of this community for over 30 years in my medical practice. My family and I are the landowner of the property on which stone would be located? I have maintained this land for over 25 years. I believe in personal property right, and the right use of my land in beneficial manner. This solo project will allow me to provide consistent, sustainable income which will allow me to keep the land in my family for future generation while having a minimal impact on my neighbors. Only a portion of the land will be used for solar and a large portion will remain undisturbed. Solar will also benefit my neighbors in the community in the form of increased tax payments from the solar project.

Solar will not increase the traffic or strain county resources like other more intensive forms of the development, such as subdivisions. There will be minimal disturbance to neighboring properties The setback, as well as buffers will screen the project and the project will not emit odors or the discernible noise. Unlike other more permanent developments, the land can be used for agriculture in the future. At the end of the lease, the solar facility components will be remote. The land will be restored to its condition prior to the development. The reversible land use of this solar project is my preferred way of maximizing the value of this land and gives me the option to lease it for farming in the future. But at present, I'm not, or I do not plan to continue farming the land. If the solar project does not materialize, I would look for other ways to maximize the use and the value of this land, including through other development. I humbly request the board. to grant the rezoning request. Thank you. Thank you for coming out Jennifer Lester Good evening. Uh, my name is Jen Lester. I'm a licensed professionalal Engineer with Kimberly Horn and Associates, that's located at 421 Fayetteville Street in Raleigh. Uh, I've been with Kimberly Horn for over 9 years. Uh, my background is in civil engineering that covers early stage projects, design, uh, for sites including erosion and sediment control, stormwater grading, um, that sort of thing, and then support through construction. A lot of what I have done has been solar sites similar to this across North Carolina and, and other parts of the Southeast.

So Kimmlyhorn prepared the site plan, the vegetative buffer, and the decommissioning plan that you'll find in your packet. Uh, I think staff support did an excellent job going over the site plan. I'll just note that, you know, that increased setback , uh from the road, and then how much mature vegetation there is around a, a huge portion of the project, which we don't see on all projects. Again, you know , having seen many of these across the state. Um, so all of that will be preserved where possible. Uh, the decommissioning plan, uh , that you have details, uh, a number of requirements, and then what's proposed for the project. So Pitt County's ordinance does require removal of any unused, obsolete, uh, systems, and that that will be removed within 90 days after the receipt of notice from the county after operations have ceased. Um, so what is proposed in the plan is, is in accordance with that, um, outside of the county ordinance, the state requirements from North Carolina also requires that the project is register ed that the fee is paid, and that uh financial assurances given for the cost of decommissioning for the project. So, uh, before the project can start construction, that has to be registered with uh NCDEQ. Uh, and then outside of those two things with the county and the state, uh, there is also an agreement, uh, within the lease for the landowner, uh, that that project would be decommissioned and restored to uh whatever is is is agreed to as part of that. So, um, within the decommissioning plan, you'll see that all of the weight and excess material from the site needs to be disposed of , you know, at that local or state level, um, and then once it's decommissioned, the plan would be that it's restored to either that previous use or to a state that's agreed to with, with the landowner. Um um, the panels themselves, the materials, I know there's been a little bit of talk about that, but, uh, 95% of the weight of those panels is glass and aluminum, which are extremely common materials that you'll find in other types of construction and in residential homes and in commercial uh

construction as well. So, uh, tempered glass and um a little bit of plastic. So that glass is similar to what you see in like car windshields and um hurricane windows where it doesn't shatter , you know, it crumples so that it um includes an added benefit of safety. Run out of time. Um, there is a little bit of solder that typically connects the panel itself, which is that silicon base that uh is in the center, so that is an extremely small amount across that, um, a study that was done by NC State um, states that it's anywhere between only 1.6 to 24 g of lead within that solder. So if you take that average number at about 13 g per panel, that's only half of what you would find in in a typical 12 gauge shotgun shell. So within that panel, so it's a very small amount. Um. If you have any other questions, uh, I'm here. Feel free to ask. Thank you so much. Thank you. Nick Kirkland Good evening. My name is Nick Kirkland, uh, with Kirkland Appraisals. I'm a state certified general appraiser out of Raleigh, and I'm I'm a general appraiser in North Carolina as well as 7 other states. I've spoken before this board in the past. Uh, what we were asked to do was to determine whether or not the proposed uh solar facility would have an impact on nearby or adjoining property values. So to that end we've done a, uh, property value impact study and to be clear, this is the same type of analysis and methodology that would be used for any sort of proposed development anything from a sub subdivision to substation to town homes to a solar facility. So the methodology that is utilized is comparing a home next to the proposed use with other nearby uses in order to see whether or not the home next to the proposed use was selling for more, less, or about the same. If you've ever had your house or your land appraised, you'll know that the appraiser looks at your property, finds several comparables, and from those comparables provides an indication of what your property is worth. We're doing a very

similar thing. We identify a a home that is sold next to excuse me, an existing solar facility. We find several nearby comparables that provides an indication of how much the home next to the solar facility should have sold for. And we have, um, within the impact study several dozen examples of this type of analysis. Uh, additionally, we also have sale resale analysis where we've looked at a home that's sold next to vacant land. A solar facility is developed right next door and then that home sells again and provides an indication of impact or lack thereof. Uh, we have reached out to Tax assessors, um, across 10 different states, including here in Pitt County of all the tax assessors we've reached out to, none make any adjustments to the adjoining or nearby property values for being adjacent to such a solar facility up or down . Uh, additionally, there are several university studies that have been done They show a range of impacts from, uh, like -7% to property values to positive 19% to property values, uh, but the, the overwhelming majority of the , the, uh, findings are within typical market variation, uh, and there's certain, um qualities to a number of these studies that make them very difficult to use, such as not considering, um, vegetative buffers or setbacks like is being proposed here, uh, and therefore it's my professional opinion that the proposed development would not have a negative impact on adjoining or nearby property values. Uh, I know that the, um, impact study that we provided was fairly long . I'd be happy to answer any questions about that or the methodology or anything of that nature. So thank you. Thank you for coming up. Debbie Bunn Hi, I'm Debbie Bunn. I'm part of Agribusiness Incorporated and we live in Stokes, North Carolina at 1435 Stokes Elementary School Road. I am part of two generations

that have leased and farmed this land since the 1990s. Uh, first of all, I do want to state that I have no ill will toward the landowners. I'm disappointed, yes, but what it means for us, but you know, we'll know, uh, uh, no. The Patels have a right as landowners to invest with their best interests in mind, and we do support this because we are landowners nearby within eyesight of where this solar farm will be. My concern is really more for a broader issue. We will be losing 17% of our cultivated acres with this farm loss. This means we lose 17% on average of our revenue off the top. Can you withstand a 17% decrease in your personal revenue stream, be that business income, job, Social Security, whatever, can you handle that? You can't run down to the farmland store and pick up some more acres. There's no sunbelt rentals on the corner for us to, uh, pick up some more land. When this is done, it's done for us. Our suppliers lose as well. We, uh, purchase fertilizer and chemicals. That's 25% of our cost last year. There's gas, diesel, crop insurance, capital purchases. We will have less revenue from the beginning to even purchase anything new or or different. And then they're fixed costs that don't go away. We have property liability insurance. You folks like us to pay our property taxes, Waste Management. So far, we still keep the dump dumpster, but we may have to depart with that. Uh , nor the, uh, cash flow will remain to uh make loan payments for the current land and, uh, equipment payments that we have. So our loss to the farm and uh maybe a drop in the bucket compared to all of Pitt County. But we see this as part of a greater movement to reduce farming and agricultural here. And contrary to the uh Project 2045, agricultural and Farmland, if I read it right, it was listed as like a #2 priority and to say prime farmland. The top land use for the next 5 years and, and that was what came out of that particular survey. It

was only beat out by parks and recreation. So Pitt County does stand to gain the tax base and taxes. This does affect, um, our offset , our economic loss to Big County, but there is that trickle effect. So it's not just us alone, it's all the other suppliers that support us and keep us in business as well. Uh, there's the Southeast Farm Press had an article recently. Michael Flatters, I think, mentioned this, uh, that North Carolina is on track to lose 1.2 million acres of farmland by 2040. North Carolina ranks number one in the nation for farmland loss to low-density residential development. Now, while this particular instance is not low residential, it has the same outcome. You lose that farmland. It does not come back. So my uh I guess my uh point to you all is this a good use of our project 45 objectives and planning and zoning of goals? Do we want to look back 2040 years from now and say maybe we should have done something different. Thank you. Thank you for coming out this evening. Merrick Parrott Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you for your time this evening. Um, Merrick Parrott with Parker Poem, A Land Use and Zoning Attorney. My address is 301 Fayetteville Street in Raleigh. Um, just I'm here on behalf of the project, um, and just want to address a few of the things we've heard tonight. Um, we've heard a lot about farmland, right? And the loss of farmland and understand that that farmland is incredibly vital to North Carolina and especially to Pitt County. Um, a few points on this particular project. Um, this project is a fraction of the size of projects you have seen recently, Solar projects you have seen recently. This is a 10 megawatt project, I believe the last one you saw was an 80 megawatt project, so about 1/8 of the size, um, you know, hear

a lot about, um, the amount of farmland across the state that's being converted, um, or coming out of agricultural, um, there have been studies about the amount of farmland impacts from solar. Um, there's a white paper that came out from the North Carolina Clean Tech Center just a couple weeks ago. Um, that included an analysis of percentage of farmland, um, currently solar is on only 0.13% of North Carolina land. If you only look at farmland, it is 0.42% of farmland in North Carolina. So while I know every project can feel large in the grand scheme of things, there is still a ton of agricultural land in the state, and this project is not, um, a risk of that. um. I want to talk about taxes a little bit. You heard about 20%, we only pay 20% in taxes. I want to make it clear. So there are two buckets of taxes. There's real property tax on the underlying land. That is taxed at 100%. That will continue to be taxed. The 20%, um, is a statewide exemption for solar business personal property. Currently on the site, they're $0 of Solar business personal property, right? So you're getting 100% of $0 for the solar project, even though it's only 2 0 % taxed based on state statute . Um, it's 20% of millions of dollars of equipment is still a large amount of money to the, um , county you heard from Mr. Niemith that the average, um, the first year is 37,000 new tax dollars to the county and over the lifetime of the project, it would be over 600,000 to the, um , to the county. Um lastly, again, this is really about personal property rights. You've heard from our landowner who's here tonight, um she and her family have been in

this county for decades, um, they have owned this property for decades. Um, they do not desire to continue this parcel in agricultural production. I understand other farmers in the county do, and that's fantastic, but she does not intend to continue in farming, whether this project is approved or not, um. so really appreciate um the, the people in the county coming out tonight, but would respectfully request that you honor the landowners desires for her property and approve the rezoning tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming out. Last speaker signed up is Henry Bunn. Good evening Henry Bunn, 1435 Stokes Elementary School Road. I farmed the land. I have farmed the lamb longer than she has owned the land. We farm land next to it. We own land close to it, adjacent to it almost. Uh, the big thing about it is she has a right to do what she wants to with her land like anybody should. But as y'all talked about the tax base, the ownership, the loss of agriculture, there is no more land being made. The projects like this could go in industrial sites. that are parking lots, rooftops, all kinds of things that would not take away from agriculture where we are making hopefully a, a reliable food source, but the biggest thing breaks down to greed Give me the most money I can get out of anything and *** the difference. They don't care what's coming down the road as long as they get the money in their pocket today. The county wants their tax base as high as they can get it. I don't blame them. I want to pay as little as I can, but I pay, I owe millions and in investment in, in agriculture. So I know both sides of it but you cannot replace farmland once you take it out. Ask me how much I have spent to keep this

farmland since before she owned it up to the standards it is for lime fertilization, uh, erosion control, and wildlife Be. I've walked every acre of this land for over 25 years. I bear to say she's ever walked on it at all. The only people from the Solar institution or group had been the surveyors and the people who came to do the land testing which walked across our crops to do it. No problem, but that being said once they take it and do the improvements, they calling to do for the money. It will never go back to agriculture. It may go back to another purpose, but it won't go back to agriculture. You cannot replace this kind of land anywhere in this county without a fight because all of it's taken. and so while they're taking this land for other things and they say it's a zoning issue that that Solar Farms fall into it. It's agriculture-based, and agriculture is what we moved out there for. They keep talking about the, the buffers and all the years I've planted it never have I had anybody from the county come say this is an ugly crop. You need to put a buffer between our road and your crop my corn, my soybeans, now we have sage on it. I have turkeys, bear deer, multiple, I you know what I'm talking about. Never had anybody say you've got the plant a privacy fence out here of trees of a certain type of bushes of a certain type, because we don't like looking at your crop land. Nobody can tell you that you like looking at a solar panel. We moved out there long, long before this without solar panels in purse and we don't want them now. Nobody in the neighborhood, they said they talked to everybody in the neighborhood the community nobody addressed any adjusting landowners about what we would like to have. They just say they have talked to the community,

they have not done it. Thank you, sir Thank you. Appreciate you coming out this evening. That's all we have signed up to speak. OK. I will close the public hearing. What's the pleasure to board, Mr. Chairman. I wonder if I could bring up, uh , Mr. Niemoth, I believe it's Nemoth. I asked a couple of questions. I'm sorry if I didn't get your name right. Nemeth. You got it exactly. Li Na, you say when you were speaking that this right here was going to Greenville Utilities. Y'all gonna tie into it. How can y'all tie into it when Greenville purchases their electricity from, uh, Duke Power . We are interconnecting on Greenville's infrastructure. It's their distribution line. You're correct, they they do purchase, they are a wholesale customer through Nikempa from Duke Um, it still is, it still is locally produced electricity that will be consumed locally. All right, and the next question now, and I know this is just great. It seems like we put all these solo forms and everybody I talked to their utility rates keep going higher and higher and higher and higher. So how much, you said this is a small one. How much is the one that they passed that was 80 megawatts or whatever how many hertz watts it is. Dance's 10. How much is it going to lower the electricity rate because I've not seen anyone at Greenville Utility says it lowers it. It actually makes it higher because they have to do something to convert it. I don't know anything about it. I'd love for you to hear him answer that. I'd love to, Commissioner. I For solar, I actually was over Resource planning for the North Carolina Cooperatives, and before that I was a gas trader at Progress Energy. So I do have experience understanding how utility ratemaking works, how utility production costs work. So solar we know that solar is producing during the day. That's the on peak period. So when people are

awake and they're using electricity, solar is producing. There's high correlation between that. Solar is a zero fuel cost production resource. So that means that no matter what gas prices are doing, no matter what oil prices are doing. Solar will always be producing at close to zero variable costs. So the addition of solar into the entire portfolio of Greenville. of Nikempa, of Duke, having that zero volatility fuel resource on the system will keep energy prices, um mitigated from volatility and from, from spikes. how many houses would this Solo farm right here, Pal, I believe it's around 23,000 houses. 23,000 Hm, thank you Thanks, sir Any other questions? Any other Commissioner questions I, subject to, to check, sir. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. 23,000 homes located where? So I mean, practically speaking, the, the energy will be consumed locally. It's, it's like, it's like water flow. So as it's produced locally, it will, it will be consumed locally. and I apologize for my ignorance , is that is that guaranteed local? Like when you say local, is that the county, is that the road it's the theater where it is, um . I can't think of a, the only analogy I can think of is, is water, right? So if you're, if you are pouring water into a hose and that hose has feeders going off of it. Um-hum. I mean, think of a, of a soaker hose, for instance, where you pour the water in it's going to be used right there. Now the electricity grid, you know, we have power that's being produced all over down in, in Wilmington

and power's being produced in Raleigh. Power is being produced in Person County, you know, and all that power does via the bulk power system, you know, come all across the state, but physically and literally speaking, this power will be produced and consumed within the small area where it's located. Thank you. Any other Commissioner questions , Commissioner Nunnnley? I, I have 2 just as a follow-up. So it would, um, and this is for, um, um, Mr. Namath, is that correct? Um, so it would be your assessment having had a background in utilities that having this in addition to the grid just provides um provides more redundancy, um, a greater ability, uh, I guess it's redundancy and stability, stability, redundancy, reliability, reliability and I'll add that we have, we do have battery on this facility. Um. the inclusion of the battery allows us to dispatch during winter mornings when the sun's not shining, but when the system needs it the most. I shared at the planning board meeting because it was just a few weeks earlier than that that I was getting text messages and emails from Progress Energy from Duke Progress telling me that the next day was going to be a high load event day because of the cold temperatures, and it asked me to use a little power as possible. So we know that there is a need for power in winter mornings just because of the demand that happens at that time, including batteries on this facility will allow us to take the solar that's being produced, store it in the batteries so that it can be used for reliability purposes . The winter mornings when it's needed. Mr. Chair, I won, one other question, um, and this is really related to, I guess, the future, um, use of the parcel, um, and

you know, it's interesting. I feel like in this country we're so far behind how the rest of the world operates in solar. Um, we're still kind of a monoculture as it relates to if we're going to use a agricultural um term, we really only treat solar farms as as solar only, right? Um but it it's clear that there are a lot of models that involve integrated agriculture in and around, um, solar facilities, um , and that's, that's a whole another bag. We don't have a, a farming infrastructure that's set up to do that yet in this country, so I understand that that that's, that's not a today fix for this type of development . Um, what what I guess I wanted to get on is, is the um the breakdown and what, what having a solar facility on this type of land, um, that it, it is in fact reversible, um, and that it does not degrade the land by having it that way, um, and with this type of development in your view, um, preclude any, say the farming community does develop. say, you know, in state, the State College and, and other people that are in the know and writing about this right now, um , through education, you have farmers that maybe want to take advantage of, of, of parcels that are actively producing solar power. Is that something that projects like this could be, I guess you could have integrated agriculture at some point. I'm glad you asked that question. Um, there is an organic farmer out of Washington , out of Little Washington, and one of his crops is blueberries, and we've already spoken to him, and he is interested and would like to sort of as a demonstration of Arovoltaics. Try to grow organic blueberries on our facility. So the question

will be, is it more effective? Beside the panels, between the panels, under the panels. So, you know, this will to some extent be a science experiment, but we do hope to learn more ways to incorporate the ongoing agricultural nature and production from this solar farm for this specific project, you will have integration with because of where he is in Washington. This is close enough that this is the projects where he's going to try that. OK. Good. Any other Commissioner questions. OK? What's the pleasure of the board? I have a Thank you sorry. for sure. I heard them say, uh, that when the solar is over, they can turn it back into farmland. How many farmlands have been that you know of have been returned to farming. Yes ma'am. Tell me how many, what were you talking about? Washington state or Washington, North Carolina. So the farmer is in Little Washington. OK, now how many farms that you know that had solar panels and it went back to farming. Yes, ma'am . And how was the crop, Commissioner? The um the time when solar in North Carolina really became cost effective. and it was due to the falling prices of the equipment. It was also due to a state requirement, um, what we call the REPS, the renewable energy, uh, portfolio standard, um, was around 2012. and that's when we first started seeing solar farms. They were small. half of megawatt, a megawatt, 2 megawatts. So the early solar generation in North Carolina has a vintage of around 2012, 2013,

2014, and the, the life of these solar farms is 25 years. So we're not at a point where the farms have, have come to the end of the useful life of the equipment or the end of the, the lease terms, um, but I can share with you that the way that we construct the solar farms is if you think about an I-beam it's a steel I beam. Those are you know, pill drive into the ground. and then the rackings attached to those and then the panels are screwed on to those and they're connected. So whenever we talk about at the end of life, taking the equipment up. It, it's not been an invasive construction project. It's literally driving piles into the ground and when it's done, you unscrew the panels, you remove the racking, you pull them up from the ground and we recycle all of that material. So I don't have anecdotal information for you just because the life cycle is still midway for even the earliest North Carolina solar farms. I thought you'd come up here and say, we don't know That's what I was expecting, but I heard all of that to say that you don't know. Thank you. OK, thank you. What's a pleasure to board. Chair. I'd like to move that we, um, adopt the consistency statement as outlined in our agenda packet and approve the re um and then second approve the request by Stone, um, Stonewood Solar LLC to rezone the 235.89 acres, um. for the solar farm. OK, we have a motion on the floor, uh, including the consistency statement. Do I hear a second? A second OK, we have a motion in a second . Please vote. I think we're missing one. Who

isn't? There we go OK, that motion failed. All right, thank you all for coming out. Uh, we're gonna move on to, uh, items, Mr. Chair, we would actually need, we we have to move forward if we, we would need a motion to reject it, and then we'll be needing a consistency statement saying that it is not consistent or that it's consistent and not reasonable. OK. So we would need to follow through with a second motion. OK, thank you, Matt. All right. Do I hear a motion for that? no OK, we got a motion over here a 2nd. 2nd. OK. I did not Mr. Chair um, we need a, we need a reason, uh, a reason. for that motion. OK. We're gonna get to that. So you're, you're making a motion And sorry to interrupt. May I clarify with the County Attorney , is it also a possibility to table it to the next meeting, if possible. That that would not be my goal. Is it, is it legally permissible though? Is that an option they have? You can leave it at this point, yes, OK, thank you. OK. Go ahead, Commissioner. The answer was none to my question. That was reasonable enough for me They do not know what will happen to the land after it's done. And I, and I like farming. I visited the area today, and I enjoyed what I saw. And that for that reason I work with the farmers. Right, so the, the county Commissioner needs you to restate your, to, to make a motion for that and tell me again, Matt, what do you need in the consistency statement. So she, I believe she's saying, and , and I don't want to put words in Commissioner Perkins's mouth, but I believe she's saying that the request is consistent, but it's not reasonable. So we need to be a motion that the, um, resigning request is consistent with the land use plan, but it's unreasonable due to the factors that she stated, and due to that , she is making a motion, um, to deny the rezoning request Commissioner Perkins-Williams, is that, is, that, on the head.

He, he hit it on the head for you? Yes, he did. He said it properly. OK. I think, and just for clarification, so I'm not putting words in Commissioner Perkins William's mouth. If she could say why it's not reasonable in her motion that would, that would be great. I said uh he couldn't answer the que he couldn't tell guarantee that the land will be good for farming after it's over. And that's my concern. that does that say what you just said? is? is that consistent. What I'm hearing for the minutes is the motion is the, um, resigning request is consistent with the land use plan, but it's unreasonable due to the um lack of care or neglect that will cause the farmland. OK. And for that, she's asking for the motion to deny the rezoning request. That's why I voted we have a motion to deny the request. We think it's consistent but not reasonable. Anyway, here a second 2, OK, we're gonna have a motion in a second. Please vote. Discussed him, Mr. Chair. OK, I'd just like to state for the record that um that um there's a doubtful legal basis to reject this claim. OK. A motion and a second, please vote. I'm wait a minute. OK. I voted with my motion, yes. OK. Did it come out like that? Yeah. We, we still are missing one. I'm trying to read the machine. Oh There we go. We got the other one in now. OK. That motion passed. Thank you so much. All right, we'll move on to items for report, um. Madame Manager, I'm gonna turn that over to you. Yes, and if the, um, board wants to take a deep breath, your next report is, um, uh, one you've

been waiting for for some time to hear about the fire feasibility survey report. Um, just to sort of tee up the process for this, um, tonight's session is intended to be a listening session. The Board of Commissioners have received a copy of the PowerPoint and the uh executive summary of the report this evening. It's at each of your place settings, um, and tonight is to Li. Tomorrow morning um, this report will be available for any member of the public, um, Randy Gentry will place it on the Emergency Management website, um, and it is, and copies will be available from the clerk's Office. Um, if needed, easiest to forward a link. Um, so that's sort of tonight's phase one. Once you've listened tonight, there's no expectation of decisions this evening. This is a report only. The next time we get together will be an opportunity to discuss the recommendations and the content of the report, where you'll be able to hear feedb ack from community members who've had an opportunity to digest it. and this board will have had an opportunity to think about it, and that will be your discussion phase. And then I anticipate if the board needs additional time to consider that discussion that we would come back almost in a phase 3, which would be your determination of action plan and the recommendations that you choose to implement. So for tonight, um, I would welcome Chief Greg Grayson and Chief Scott Burnett, who are with us from NC Fire Chiefs, um, consulting who have worked very closely with many stakeholders in our team, um, led by Randy Gentry, our Emergency Management Director. I'll turn it to them for a uh to walk us through, um, what they've done and their findings and recommendations. Very good. Thank you so very much. Uh, we appreciate the opportunity to come speak to you tonight. My name is Greg Grayson with NC Fire Chief Consulting, and with me is, uh, Chief Scott Burnett, also with our, our team who worked on this project and, and initiative. And so we thank you for your dedicated, uh,

public service serving as decisionmakers and policy makers . Our role will be to give you an overview, a high-level overview of the findings of our team in working with, uh, in your County and with your staff and with your fire chiefs here for a number of months. And so we want to, uh, to share a little bit about what we did, and also, um, share some, uh, observations and recommendations for you as well. We'll tell you a little bit about our, our group here as we start, uh, today as well. We have worked with a number of counties across North Carolina and similar initiatives. We serve as the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, fire Consulting Provider. Uh, we also have had a , a long history with North Carolina League of Municipalities. We work with municipalities as well. But, uh, we specifically work with the, uh, Association of County Commissioners on these types of initiatives throughout the state . Everything that we do is about continuous improvement. What are we doing today? What are the options that, uh, we can take moving forward, Implement that option, reevaluate and determine if that has been successful and what adjustments might be needed. We really assist counties and municipalities with all types of , of needs and issues. And in the fire service today, those are, are very prevalent. The, the challenges facing you in Pitt County are very similar in other counties. Our other 99 counties in the state. Uh, that's primarily driven with changes in volunteer volunteerism. If I had to say one thing, that's, that's really the number one issue. But very close behind that is changes significantly, uh, dynamic changes with cost of equipment, um, cost of fire apparatus, cost of necessary gear, uh, and, and other local governments trying to determine how to address that. So on one side, the, the staffing piece and the, the loss of volunteers throughout our state and how we, we fund that moving forward and the significant cost post-COVID, significant cost of, of equipment and apparatus. So those are really the, the two

primary things, and those we heard from your fire Chiefs as well. But when we look at the services, we're trying to, to try to assist counties with, we seek best best practices and being able to share with you, you know, what does work, what doesn't work in other places and give you information to make decisions on what you feel like is right for Pitt County. We have a great team of folks. This is just some of the folks that, uh, served in, in your, uh, project. Uh, we're located throughout North Carolina and, um, and have a, a great team. Our entire team, uh, of this group is made up of retired fire Chiefs. Our retired fire Chief in city of Greensboro. Uh, Chief Burnett retires fire Chief for City of Asheville, but , uh, we have about 25 of our, our folks that are retired fire Chiefs. We also have some specialists such as GIS specialists and HR specialists and those types of, of folks on our team as well. But our strength is our team and the, the level of experience all of us have 30 to 40 years of, of experience. When we come to, to look at, at Pitt County's needs. We, we are very independent group, Chief Burnett, uh, is currently also now a combination fire Chief near, uh, Hendersonville, uh, and so, you know, he continues to serve. Uh, I continue to be involved in this when we, I, I live in Burlington. When we come to Pitt County, we're not from this county. We're really just looking very much at what does the data say? What does the information say? What do the stakeholders say? And then we, we mesh that in North Carolina with what other counties are doing and hopefully be able to give you guidance in being able to move forward. We really like this um framework . When we see the, the leader in the state and best in the East. Uh, that just really stood out when, when I started seeing this . And I think it's indicative of you looking at this information, and you asking for this level of information. Uh, it's quite impressive because you're desiring to be the best in the state. You're desiring to be, you know, a very, very strong local government and do the

right things. The challenges that I mentioned to you, quite a few counties are, are working on that, but there's many that are not You're sincerely to be commended for looking at this, uh, looking at these options and being able to make informed decisions. So are your staff who have been excellent to work with in this process. And so for your fire Chief, because they, they, we ask a lot of them in this process. And so, uh, you know, this is really a collaborative effort. And, uh, when you look at leader in the state and Best in the East, I think that exemplifies uh very well this particular initiative. Let me talk through some of the components of what we did in this, in this work for you. It is extensive. And so when you, you get your large report, it's, it's a 700 page plus document. And one reason is we looked at every single department. We looked at every single, uh, service provider you have in depth in many of these areas. And that's, that's simply why the link. It's because we, we provide information with each of your providers. But I do want to take a moment to make sure you understand what we did for Pitt t County in this endeavor and what our team worked on. And we, we worked on this very collectively as a group. Stakeholder communication is very important. We talked to your fire chiefs early on. Uh, we, we've learned that from experience. That's important to do. They were very uh collaborative and, and worked with us, gave us good feedback. Uh, we came and talked with those Chiefs one on one. Chief Burnett was one of the folks that came here and met with each Chief and spent time with them listening to what they're, their concerns and issues were, and they were pretty consistent across the county as well. We went further than that. We, we went out to your firefighters who were answering calls day to day and hearing from the Chiefs is important, but we want to hear from the folks answering the calls. And so we did a survey with your firefighters throughout the county. And we had a, a large number of, of responses. And that's important. It's important for us to understand where your firefighters are coming from as well. We talked with you as selected officials. Uh, and we also talked to your municipal fire departments as

well, because they're also part of the system in a, in a different way, but also part of the system. So we reached out to them. So all of those stakeholders are, are important. They all had great information to provide, and it's a priority for our group to be able to do that. We harnessed GIS information, the geographical Information System. We partner and collaborated with your county to get data and information. We have a GIS analyst on our team. Uh, we looked at a number of aspects in where are the incidents occurring? Was is the district, what do the districts look like? What is the closest station response look like. Um, looking at, at future development, what might this look like in future years. Look at the demand currently, what might, what that look like in future years. None of us have a crystal ball, but we really try to look at trends and what's the trend lines. If nothing changes, where's that trend line going? And so our GIS systems really, really powerful to be able to do that. Um, in addition, we looked at a number of incidents that your department's responded to. We took all the incidents and we had to filter them to really look at the, uh, the emergency incidents, those that had clean data, uh, and being able to look at what level of performance do your departments, uh, operate at today. And then as you grow and you change, what could that be in the future as well? So both the GIS and the statistical piece, very important. We looked at the financial, that's, that is, uh, really paramount with, with staffing and with, with apparatus and capital equipment. And so, uh, that's what we ask really the most of your, your fire departments with is help share with us all this information. Help us understand your financial picture. Uh, what does your debt look like in your organization? What is your, what are your needs? What are your unmet needs? Uh, what is your staffing? What is your staffing numbers? What type of, of assignments do you have? Uh, we ask for past fiscal year budgets. We ask for, for audit

information. We looked at federal 990, uh, data from, uh, as a private nonprofit organization that they had submitted. So many aspects we tried to look at what, where are your departments financially, because that really starts to paint a picture of where you are and it's a great predictor for where you're going as you move ahead. We looked at your fire apparatus . We physically came to every station. We have a mechanical expert on our team, uh, and we have one of our chiefs that has a, a specialty in that area and they, they look at all of your fire apparatus over it, under it , crawled under it, looked, looked at it, really from a mechanical perspective, uh, what kind of condition is it mechanically? Just because a truck is, is 20 years old, may or may not indicate its condition. And so we looked at it, what kind of condition is some of this equipment in? And so um, beyond that, we also took that equipment and determined, well, this is what you have, and then we compared it to what the insurance rating system says this is what you need. So we looked at a have and need, uh, comparison there as well. Uh, we also looked at your facilities. Uh, one of our, our team members is a specialist with, with safety and OSHA requirements. And we looked at your stations and determined, uh , were there any significant safety concerns, needs, issues throughout the county. And then what opportunity might there be to expand those stations as we look to the future, and there may be more need for having people during more hours of the day. Is that capable or not? And so one whole section is looking at your, your current capital. uh, facilities throughout the, the county. Again, not a, not from an architectural engineer perspective, but really from a safety and operations perspective with those We looked at your current contract, and, uh, Amatic aid agreements that you have. Uh, we've made some recommendations there that you may want to consider, uh, as best practice in North Carolina and later in your report, we show you, uh, exact illustrative examples from

a smaller county, one from a larger county, so you can look at that and have a good, good landscape as to, uh, what is out there in our state. We looked at service District analysis for you. What are you doing today? You're using Ru fire Tax Districts. What are the legislature say you could do? And so we look at that. Well, what other options are out there that you could choose to look at. And what really would be applicable for, for Pitt County. And we could go beyond that in the report to not only, uh, evaluate it, but we also prepare materials if you choose to move one of those directions, you really have a template of what that should look like, uh, moving forward, if that's a direction you choose to go into. Hazard risk analysis. What are the hazards and risks, uh, throughout Pitt County. And so we have, uh, one of our chiefs really specializes in this. He, he does this in across the entire country. He lives in Wilmington, but he, he works, uh , extensively, but one part of your report looks at what's different about Pitt County than any other county. What makes some of these, the differences that we need to consider that might be, uh, age of housing as an example. It might be some of the age of your population. Uh, it might be, uh some of the socioeconomic information that you need to be aware of. We compared in contrasted with North Carolina state averages. And so we presented that to you as, you know, understanding your county better and, and we specifically focused, uh, on the unincorporated areas, even though some of the, the demographic information obviously includes the entire county. But as we look at this, that's a part of the puzzle. And then the last piece is strategic plan. So what we've done is take all these pieces and begin to form that for a strategic plan for Pitt County. Is it complete? Is it everything that needs to be there? No, but we've given a, a, a structure for you to be able to have a strategic plan moving forward if that's something you choose and your Fier chooses. We don't want to leave you to having to create that. We give you that template with the issues specific to Pitt

County, uh, for you to be able to take that and move the system forward So those are really the eight key pieces that we wanted to make sure you understood those are the, those are the work components that, that our team provided. We have some takeaways and, um, we're going to limit this again, we're doing this as a high-level for you today. But some takeaways that we think US elected officials should know about, about your fire service. So there's many, uh, that we could, could, uh, look at. So I've just narrowed that to a dozen, uh, here for tonight. One is that, you know, you have many positives in your system today. Uh, our team was impressed with many aspects of your service delivery system, what many of your fire departments are doing. I think when you read the firefighter's comments and the feedback they give, you have got some dedicated, um, you know, dedicated vested firefighters who are really committed to this community. Uh, we heard the same thing in the Chiefs, uh, meetings. You know, you have some, some leadership throughout the, the county that, that wants the best for, for Pitt County. And the amount of dedication that they're giving is significant. So we think that , that is important that you hear, um, it's very strong. You have a strong system today, uh, in Pitt County. Uh, Are there opportunities? Certainly, but you shouldn't lose fact that, that what you're doing today is strong and it, you have benefited from many dedicated volunteers from, for many years. You're benefiting from dedicated volunteers today. And when we look to the future, we would suggest to you do everything you can do to keep dedicated volunteers into the future, even though the dynamics are changing , you have had volunteers, you have volunteers today. Keep volunteers as long as you can. But be realist to know we don't have to make some system changes , but have the goal of, uh, recruiting and retaining as many volunteers as possible. Your workload is increasing. So we looked at all of the, the

incidents over the time period we evaluate these incidents. You've had about a 38% increase in demand or call volume. We think that's significant and you need to know that. So when we look at a six-year period, your call volume is increasing, uh, and that's not unlike other areas of the state. So when we look at those years, that, that captured pre-COVID, COVID, post-COVID. Almost universally across the state post COVID, we see significant increases. So yes, you have that. but we see that in, in every other county that we're seeing. When we came back in like 2022, those numbers have increased and every year they're continuing to increase. So, you know, we, it's just one of those, one of the many effects of COVID, but you are continuing to have, uh, increases. When we look at the level of service, the data says that, that you're volunteers and you're part-time and career folks within the county are providing, um, you're hitting a, a benchmark of that uh 44 minutes to, uh, of response time to assemble 6 firefighters, 80% of the time. Now, that's not our law. That's not a requirement, but it is a, a industry consensus standard. But when we look at, well, how is Pitt County comparing to that? And that particular standard is for volunteer and combination fire departments in rural areas. And that's the way we classify this. So we look at your density of population. We look at the, the calls you responded to the data that we can use, and we determined that, that you're, uh, a rural area and the standard would say, the industry standard that, um, you'd have a 14-minute response time to assemble 6 firefighters 80% of the time. The part we are challenged with many times is getting the number of people, but for this, for this illustration, that was the standard and you're able to do that, uh, here in Pitt County, uh, 10 minutes, 29 seconds or less at the 80th percentile. So the long, long and short of that is that you're

meeting that industry standard today with the time of, of response. You're doing that though with departments helping one another, which is a best practice and exactly what we would, would like to see. You're responding as a system because it takes that to make that amount of time and to get the necessary firefighters. We'll go on to talk a little bit tonight. You are responding as a system, um, but there will be opportunities to improve when you're beginning to, to work as a system with terms of financial measures and funding. So you're, you're functioning as a system today. The, uh, the financial piece is one that, uh, has some opportunity Your station distribution and, and coverage is good. Within the entire county, our GIS analysts worked through this and showed that, that you can reach all the areas of, of Pitt County within 8 minutes of travel time. Almost all the areas. That's really good. We, we're not seeing that you have a significant deficit. And then where there is overlaps not a uh not a necessarily a negative because multiple departments respond to incidents , structure fire incidents, especially. either way You're volunteer at Im has declined. Um, when we look at the, the six-year period for volunteerism, or excuse me, seven year period, you're volunteerism has declined an average of about 2.1%, uh, per year. So your, your're averaging lose a net loss of 2.1%. That means you have some new volunteers coming in, but you're losing more than there's coming in by about 2.1. Um, statewide, and I got this update just today. Uh, statewide , it's still staying at about the same number of 3%. So you're below the state average in loss of volunteers. But that doesn't mean that 2% loss should be neglected because 2% loss over five years quickly turns into 10%, right? So for a very labor-intensive, very difficult job that takes a lot of people to be able to do. And so, uh, one of the, the

areas that you are most strained in, uh, is weekdays. And, and we , that's very typical of what we hear from other counties and other fire departments, but, you know, when, when, when you have folks that are willing to volunteer, that's great, but they're away working somewhere else and they're not there, they can't, they can't respond to a call. People can't give you what they don't have. So if they're not available, then, you know, they're not available to respond as a volunteer. Dance slide, please. Yes. Thank you Thank you Um, so, yes, you know, I think, uh, I think that's, that's an important consideration to kind of keep in mind, uh, as well as you are losing volunteers and it's something you should be aware of as, as policymakers. Your tax rates and property valuations across all your districts varied dramatically. Um, so, you know, you're looking at revenues between $71,000 and approximately a million dollars. It's a wide, wide variety of, of ranges. You have a wide variety of rates that, uh, also go along with that. One of the pieces that really stood out for Pitt County. We hope that you have a takeaway for, uh, here tonight is the, the capital equipment, the fire apparatus. So back when I retired right before COVID, uh, fire apparatus, City of Greensboro was buying fire engines around 6, I'll say 600 to $700,000 at the time. That same truck today is going to cost 1.2 $1.3 million. So that, that's what has happened with cost of equipment in the few short years. Um, Chief Bernick's experienced the same thing. And so, um, and you different departments, you know, had that type of, of cost is significant. Not only is the cost significant, but the time to obtain a fire engine is now 2 to 3 years. So, you know, not only does it cost enormously more than it used to, but it takes a, an extended period of time So beyond that, though, it's not

just fire apparatus. It's, it's the type and, and use of equipment that your firefighters essentially need. These are not the nice to have things. These are, uh, self-contained breathing apparatus that allow them to go into dangerous structures. It's personal protective clothing. It's, uh, Hirsch tools for extrication. It's gloves, helmets, everything that, that has been used fire service has increased so dramatically in the last few years. One of the things that ' s happening in your county is that your departments, as these costs have gone up, still need gear and equipment and air packs . These are not optional things. Uh, and, and many still need fire apparatus, but when doing that, there's a significant increase in the, the debt service or debt that is occurring. You've got about $9.9 million of debt across the system. And when we look to deep , we have one of our folks that's a financial specialist with this. And when we look deep at your, your debt, we know that the current system under its current structure can't continue to sustain that type of expense and debt. So you have a, a demand of personnel, but you also have a demand of equipment. Also, um, you know, the several departments are operating apparatuss beyond their, their feasible life So if our apparatus is ideally, um, I'm gonna operate about 20 years, maybe 25, if, if it's, if you're fortunate, um, but I think the, the your fire chiefs would also tell you that there's some, some cons to that while the equipment may operate. It gets very expensive to maintain. Be able to get parts and pieces to make it work. So that's a, a challenge and we note the age of your apparatus overall in Pitt County, uh, was, was older and, and more years old than we had anticipated coming into this. So this middle paragraph really kind of states that summarizes this, that the financial

disparities between the districts create uneven risk profiles in many departments that are stable today, face foreseeable future pressures related to capital replacement and staffing sustainability. That's the best way we could say it in, in one sentence. So those are the, the kind of the pressure points that we feel like are, are important. We looked at 135 of those vehicles for mechanical condition. And we looked at the current condition, and we know that, uh, moving ahead, uh, we wish we had a different message to send. But moving ahead, there'll be a need for more, uh, expense and, and demand for equipment, uh, as well as fire apparatus. Chief Burnett will talk with you a little bit about the fire Chief's response. Good evening. Um, I had the, the privilege of, of meeting with your fire chiefs here in Pitt County and, uh, Manager Gallagher, I'll, I'll tell you that, uh, your staff, that facilitated that, uh, they gave up two of their weekends and, uh , top-notch. I, uh, done this in many counties and, and Pitt County, uh, your staff is, is at the top. So thank you for, for them being so hospitable and, and accommodating. The the opportunity to meet with your fire chiefs was very valuable. I was able to, uh, meet them in their fire stations and that was valuable because I was able to, uh, see firsthand their, uh, fire stations, their apparatus, but more importantly, I was able to uh hear firsthand from the fire Chiefs what their concerns are, what their needs are, and, um, overall, um, as a whole here in Pitt County, your, your fire chiefs are, are most concerned about, um, staffing, about providing adequate and safe staffing levels. Um, the rising cost of apparatus that was just discussed, turnout gear, radios, SCBA facilities, maintenance. All of these are outpacing revenues here in Pitt County and your fire Chiefs are, are genuinely concerned about

the long term sustainability of that with the apparatus aging, um, equipment not being compatible from department to department in, in some types of things. Um, some of the stations are, are out outdated, flood prone, um, Water systems unreliable in some areas . Uh, communications and and dispatch protocol issues. And so , uh, what, what's your fire Chief's, uh, put forward as some solutions were an increased in in more equitable funding support um, some county-level CIP planning, enhanced recruitment and retention initiatives, so important, um, as volunteerism, uh, decreases, uh, so important to enhance that recruitment and retention of volunteers to uh have a robust volunteer system. Assistance with grant writing and administration, uh, greater collaboration with uh E 911 leadership. Um, overall, significant concerns about the sustainability of the current service delivery system here in Pitt County, um, due to the things that we've discussed, um, if structural changes aren't made, we're concerns from your fire Chiefs. So we've grouped 12 recommendations to you. And again, we're giving this at a very high level. There's significant detail in, in your report. But number one, we would say to you is look at the look at considering changes to your funding structure. In North Carolina, you can continue to do what you're doing today. Your funding structure is allowed by statute, and it's where you are, are, uh, having, uh, individual rule fire tax districts at different rates. Um , that's, that's a, a viable method. Uh, many counties are have moved to or looking though to move to either a single tax district rate so that fire service functions a little bit more like other components of government. There's others that when they really have a strong capital need like we see that you have. Some are also opting for what we call

an overlay district. Uh, also permitted by, um, North Carolina state statute. So, uh, overlay District basically is the same thing except it's designated for a particular purpose. One is putting all the funding in, in one system. One is putting, for example, capital funding or capital funding in personnel into one system. So there are a couple options that are provided , uh, in your report, we list the pros and cons. and examples of those, but we think that, uh, looking at those , uh, will, will be beneficial for you in giving considerations to other options that you have to change the trajectory, uh, of where you are here currently. We also, um, encourage you to consider a fire commission for the county. Many counties find this very helpful. The Fire Commission's made up of some fireer representatives, but then , uh, public ent public consumers, people who are using those services make up the other portion of the fire commission and the most successful ones we see from across the state are when you have a Commissioner who is also a liaison back to you the entire board that they're, they're part of that. They attend, they understand, they're involved with that. They understand those issues. Fire Commission helps to look at the, the budget requests, financial request, the priority needs, uh, working with staff and being able to come back to you as, uh, the, the decision-making, uh, board with a recommendation. So it's, it's really a subset that you designate, uh, and you're able to engage these folks to help you to make those decisions. And so we see that the, the Fire Commission, uh, opportunity for Pitt County seems very, very strong. We believe due to the size and complexity of your county, uh, the geographic size, the number of departments you have, the challenges and issues that you have that Pitt County would be optimal for considering a, a fire Administrator position, somebody who focuses on working with all of the departments,

working with their budgets and their funding and the capital needs, the personnel needs, and that's not just during budget time, that's throughout the entire year that focuses on helping with grants, gra n t funding. Uh, it's, it's that type of model, um, Brunswick County as an example, uses that, that particular model, Wake County does. Others do. I've given examples within your report, um, of what I would say is best practice. When we look at Pitt County and the size and complexity and how many departments you have and the steps that, that you inevitably will need to go through in the coming years. We think that that is, uh, valuable to give consideration to. Um, in addition to that, looking at, at the funding models that you have. We have presented in, in the analysis what we call call share models. So when you have, um, a municipality that may not be part of that rural fire District. Well, what's the municipalities cost share? What's the county's cost share? There's a little visual here that helps to show that. So we give illustrations of what that would look like. And we look at things such as population, uh, address points, the, um, the, either the land mass or square miles that they cover in that area. But you look at different dynamics of where you had good data in the past, you've got good data today, and you'll have good data in the future. And it's all data-driven . And then you look at a rolling three-year average of that data so that when you have a COVID come along, it doesn't throw your funding in a, in a SUU. And so, uh, that's really a best practice model. We think that looking at your cost share with your municipalities, uh, would be, uh, a great, a great model to follow, and this is the m un ic ip al ity ' s part. This is the unincorporated part because without a model, then you always have one that thinks that the others not paying their fair share. And, and I see that. I, I, I served as a county Fire Services Director in my, in my career, and I know that that's always a challenge. And so, um, we think that that is, is something that's valuable for you to consider. And we give an example of what some of the

models might look like. For you, the, the areas we looked at for Pitt County that were, were viable would be population address points, the evaluation and the to tal square miles covered. Those are very valid for Pitt County. Every county's a little different because they may not track everything in the, in the same ways. But we looked at your data and said these are very credible ways to track some of the costs and needs. Number 5, we, we would say look at your capital plan. Pitt County has a capital plan in, in all aspects, we think that capital plan, uh, should also apply in the fire service. You might have a different, uh, compartment for that, but being able to say this is in a five-year or in today's world, a seven-year CIP or capital Improvement plan. Here's what we have, here's what's needed, and project that. The cost of the of apparatus has become so significant that, uh, without that, it's really difficult to, to predict moving forward. And hopefully, you'd be able to do that in a way that you could, you could maximize the, um, the, any loans or debt on that equipment to be able to to minimize that cost as much as possible as well. That's part of that, that piece. We also think it's valuable to, for you to strengthen efforts, uh, for both volunteer retention and recruitment. And we give some examples of ways to do that. Your fire Administrator position may be one of those ways to help , but we give others as well Um, there are some programs, there are some programs out there, but it takes time. It takes people to get involved. The state has one. It's grant funded, uh, that, that quite a few communities are participating in. I wish I could come and give you the, the golden key to what that is. But knowing what, you know, your different communities have. One thing I can say is that having a central person to focus retention and recruitment efforts is effective. Uh, I even , I did that on the municipal side as well. But having a central person to look at, at retention and recruitment of your volunteers, we believe

will be a very valuable for you moving forward. Uh, when someone leaves, why do they leave? What is the exit interview say? When someone says, hey, I have an interest, getting with them and connecting them. Uh, we experienced that on the municipal side as well. If somebody has an interest, but we're not hiring until July, if you don't stay connected with that person, then you, you don't get there, they, they move on to something else. And so we think that that is, is really valuable and that is a best practice that we know will help. We can't give you a tangible projection, but we know that it's positive, uh, to benefit you. So we talked to, talked to you about some of the, the reduction in volunteer numbers. We said you're down about 2%, uh, per year, uh, here in, in Pitt County, 3% of the state. But when we think about the, um, the , the need, we, we look at your rosters and those are reflective of the people on the rosters But inevitably when we talk to the fire chiefs and we say to them today, there's a couple of things happening in 2025, 2026. And that is that we say, you have 2 people on your roster. We'll ask individual Chiefs, how many people can you really count on? You got 20 people on your roster. How many people can you really count on? And inevitably, Chief will pull up one hand and maybe a few fingers of another hand. That's the people who he or she is really counting on. And I think it, it gets even accentuated harder during week da y s Weekdays is a, is a weak link because people aren't here and your volunteers that you have can't respond when they're not here and available. So one of the options we outlined for you in the report is, uh, a, a model of supplementing weekday staffing. And, uh, what some other counties are, are doing with that, that, uh, is working for them. And so we give you some examples and illustrative models to consider and say this is, this is your weakest point of service delivery. Here's some things you could consider doing. But it, it really is weekdays because you, you, the data will reflect that

you're picking up volunteers nights and weekends. It's really the weekdays that is your, your weakest link. And so, uh, other counties are having that challenge too, and they're, they're finding some ways to creatively overcome that. We do have a number of recommendations, uh, with your service agreement, uh, with the private nonprofit agencies and, and municipalities for that matter, that you also have. Much is around financial, uh, pieces, things that, uh, uh, would be best practice in North Carolina today. Uh, we really try to say, look at your contract or agreement or service agreement about every, at least every 3 years, no more than every 5. some counties do it every year. We, we think that may be a little overkill, but 3 to 5 is very appropriate because dynamics are changing that fast in the fire service. So we do think looking at your, your agreement will be valuable for you and we try to give you some things to work on there that hopefully will be helpful. We think, um, uh, a part of the future of the fire service, uh, in North Carolina and in Pitt County, particularly with the number of departments you have will be some mergers. We, we don't identify those for you because we, we work with mergers , we help municipal and nonprofits merge. We help nonprofit and nonprofit merge. We just say to you that, that looking ahead, we recommend you look at opportunities for merger . Mergers are successful when the people involved want to do it. Now what I said earlier was you're responding together on calls where you have departments that are responding together training together, already working together where there's a good working relationship. when they're willing to look at that, we say to you as policymakers and decision makers support that. That might be doing some feasibility work with them. What might that look like? They're, if they pursue with it, there's some legal pieces each organization has to have legal as policymakers and decision maker for Pitt County, supporting departments that

voluntarily want to merge. Uh, we, we think will be wise for you in the future. We see that as a, an important piece of the Fire Service moving forward, uh, and joining forces uh, with two private nonprofits merging together or maybe a municipal and nonprofit, whatever that might look like. But where people are willing and able to do it, we'd encourage you to, um, assist them in any way possible. That being said, there are some opportunities for realignment. We are big advocates for closest fire station response and the GIS maps in the report will, will illustrate where those opportunities lie. There's, they're not significant, uh, compared to uh some other counties. Uh, but we would say there are opportunities for improvement. Always trying to get the closest station responding, but then remember that you are responding today as a system because you have multiple, uh, departments or multiple stations responding. So looking at those and seeing where those might be, and, uh, getting those on your radar, we think are important as well. Chief So the, the 11th 1 is to uh periodically update the strategic plan, um, that's very important so that it, it stays current and relevant to the needs of Pitt County that all of these recommendations, all 12 of these recommendations, the success of these recommendations is, um, critical that recommendation number 12 is, is followed and that is to collaborate with your fire chiefs to address and implement these recommendations within this analysis. Your fire chiefs are incredibly engaged. They're incredibly interested in moving the fire service in Pitt County Ford and so engaging with those fire chiefs about all of these items is going to be critical to any any kind of implementation or uh establishing any of these recommendations and So we talked about 12 takeaways. We have 12, uh, core

recommendations, and we're going to leave you with 6 pieces for some next steps. Now, if we may. So for US elected officials, number one is, is look at the data. There, there's a lot of information. We encourage you to really look and, and study the data. The executive summary kind of covers it, uh, pretty well, but the, the backup to that is in your report. So make yourself aware and look at the information that's available. We think that the, the Manage assembling, uh, a, a collective group of, of fire chiefs that are willing to, to have good, uh, reasonable discussion and look at options, particularly the funding option. Get the, some of the Chiefs as Chief Burnett just said, involved in that. Look at what's best for Pitt County. We've, we've given the data, we've given the information and the modeling for that. But what's best for Pitt County? Eenngagging some of your Chiefs and going through that discussion and bringing back to you a recommendation for which of those alternatives would be best for 2026 or 2027, whatever the schedule you wanted to, to work upon so we think that is a, a great next step for you to consider. I'd call it a task team that, you know, look at this, what, what's going to be most feasible? When we met with the fire Chiefs, some were very much in favor of, of a single tax rate, some were not. And so it, that was not unanimous, uh, across your county. And so looking for compromise, looking for what would work best, what the models , look at the models we have created and see which of those models will be best overall for Pitt County Then once that decision's made upon the, the funding moving forward with the fire commission , we think is, is valuable for you to consider. Again, some fireer representatives, citizen representatives and staff and being able to work on that regularly. That is, is really working well for quite a few North Carolina counties, and we would encourage that. The fire Administrator position. We, we believe that's very important for you, where you are at this time with looking at the, the options and having a, a person

very focused on your service delivery , uh, on your funding for the departments, the needs because you have lots of needs, uh, helping to prioritize those and, and then at the ground floor of that, that firecom Commission effort. We think the timing is, is optimal to be able to do that . Also, the, uh, the volunteer retention and recruitment. We, we don't think that that should wait. We, we think that is important moving forward and, and making some concerted efforts, you know, just being able to harness the, the county's website on that. Be involved whenever the, your other departments are recruiting , having, having people out helping recruit. All those aspects, there's many layers to it, but, but engaging and evolving and and spending effort and energy for volunteer retention, retaining the vol un te ers you have and working on recruiting new volunteers. We think that's very worthwhile and will help sustain your volunteer system as long as possible. Our charge to you is, do everything you can do to sustain the system you have. Uh, we know that, that realistically dynamics are changing, but do all you can to sustain that system. And we think as soon as possible would be valuable there. And then looking again at that uh fire apparatus in the Capital Improvement Plan, uh, and getting a, a good handle on that because those are gonna to continue to be, uh, significant costs for you moving forward. So with that, those are the, the top 6 items that we leave you with, and we know we'll leave you with a lot of information, but our, our role today is simply to give you a very high level, uh, overview, uh, but we, we also say appreciation to you, appreciation to your staff, appreciation to your fire chiefs . Most of all, I just want to say thank you for, for being willing to look at this. You know, it's not, it's not always easy or comfortable to have a, a whole group of people come in and turn everything over and look literally look under everything and over everything, uh, and whether it be financial, uh, documents or the apparatus, but, but we've done that here in Pitt County.

And I applaud you for that progressiveness. You truly are, as you said, being a, a leader in the state and the best in the East. Any questions? Commissioners? Do you have any questions? I know you got a lot to, to look at and dive into and this is just kind of the, the beginning to, do you have any questions? I do. I love to ask them. Hey, Chief, thanks for coming here. Yes, sir. Um one question about recruitment and retention. Um, I hear from a lot of fire chiefs I've talked to. I'm on it that when it used to be the volunteers. We didn't have to go through um 5000 hours of school. You said, I believe you said you were from Greensboro. I retired as fire Chief in Greensboro. I started as a volunteer, but, but the problem I have with the retention of us out here in Eastern North Carolina is somebody in Gardnersville has to go through the same classes in school as your fireman in Greensboro when you are. So you got to volunteer that has to go through 2 years of school to get it where you're paying your guy to go through every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday What can we do to help loosen that, and I believe it is under y'all, y'all's preview that y'all vote to at certain requirements for the state fire. Well, there's there's a fire and rescue Commission that, that is correct. And, and those training hours are there. Uh, I think you , you know, your point is you're , you're spot on because you have this person who says, well, I'm interested in volunteering. Uh, I wanna, I wanna get back to my community. I want to be a volunteer, but when they, when they want to do that, then, well, OK, we need, need you to go to these classes and these classes and these classes, and before you can ever go into a, a structure, you've got to, to meet the, this training requirement. And so, um, being able to do that is, is, is really tough. You know, you're looking, hey, I'd like to do this, but in order to do it, takes a tremendous amount of, of effort and energy and and excuse me for

interrupt, the Community College is a lot of them only teach it at night. So if you can't go and if you miss one day, if you've been for 3 months and you missed one day, you're out. Let me ask Chi Berettt to help answer some of that too, because he also serves as the, uh, uh, Executive Director of the North Carolina State Association of Fire Chiefs Yeah, thank you. So excellent question because a very, very important topic in the fire service in North Carolina. In North Carolina, the, the fire Chief is the one that decides what training a firefighter must have to respond to calls that the state to be a, a member of the, the North Carolina State Firefighters Association, which is important because a lot of benefits are tied to that. Uh, then, then a firefighter must have a minimum of 36 hours per year. That, that's the only requirement. Uh, Man fire chiefs require their firefighters to be certified firefighters 12. Yes sir, which, which is, is incredibly valuable and important certifications, but those are not requirements in North Carolina. Those are all determined by the fire Chief. And so that 36 hours is that minimum requirement. Where, where I serve as a, as a interim fire Chief right now for a combination department. We have 55 volunteers in, in Henderson County, and we don't require our firefighters to be certified. We encourage them. We do everything that we can so that those firefighters are certified, but what we do, we, we follow the Office of the State Fire Marshals. They got a program that's called uh 580G and, and in essence it's a, a firefighter , whatever they can give, we're going to take. And so if a firefighter can be trained on, um, vehicle extrication. Then we're going to make sure that they're trained and they're equipped to safely do that before they perform that task, but a certification is not, not required, but it, but it puts liability on the fire Chief because he has to sign off on it when you do that, correct? Absolutely. So even with the state certification that, that liability occurs. And so the more training, the more certification certainly would, would limit that, but, um, that,

that is, is a, a, a very important topic in the fire service in North Carolina right now. I'm just trying to get some help for these volunteers out here because that I know the state and I don't mean to talk, but everybody's from the West and it seems like once you cross I-95, we get the rear end of it and not the head of it. But thank you very much. Have a blessed day, sir. Any other Commissioner questions ? I will just follow up quickly, say that you hit a nail on the head though of a, a disincentive for people who want to volunteer and we appreciate you, uh, understanding and acknowledging that, but it does go back to the department. Well, we want to thank, uh, your team for doing this. We're, we're excited about diving in and, and seeing all the details of what you've come up with. We, we certainly want to be able to help our, fire districts and fire departments. They do a great job, but we know they're struggling, and some of them need help and, uh, we're looking forward to, to diving in the distance seeing what we can do. Thank you all very much. We appreciate you. Thank you. you OK, Madame Manager, I think we still got several more items for report. We do. Next up would be Dave Peterson with Trillium Health Resources for his annual report. Thank you, Dave, for your patience that we knew it was a long meeting. I'm used to it. Thank you all. Thanks for having me, Dave Peterson, senior Regional VP at Trillium just up the road from y'all. Um, I first want to just thank Commissioner McLawhhorn, who's on our Real Advisory Board . I know he's not here tonight, but I also want to recognize Deborah Haring, who you all appointed almost 10 years ago, I think, to our regional Advisory Board who is also our co-chair of the board. Um, but I also want to recognize Commissioner Perkins-Williams, who ' s been on our board before and Commissioner Huggins, who's also been on our board. So thank you. Um, also in the audience, Sean Kenny, some of you may know Sean

, sitting in a corner where he belongs sometimes, OK, but that being said, he's our head of DSS engagement for, for Trillium, so . um all right the So, we oversee the mental developmental disabilities, and substance use services, um, in, in Pitt County, but we want to make sure our mission is being served by assisting folks to access services. That's one of the biggest issues. We want to get folks into services, um, and that's, uh, through partnerships , um, with a lot of other folks. And when we talk about mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance use services. We serve the very highest need individuals. OK. We serve the very highest need individuals, not someone that may just need some medication or someone that may just need an outpatient service once a month, but these are folks that are very high risk individuals. So here's the map, um, when I started many, many 43 years ago doing this stuff, there was actually 42 of us in the state. Look at the map now. There's 4 of us The state continues to ask us to consolidate. to bring the counties together. um, just so that you do know, uh , our corporate office is right here in Pitt County and has been for many, many, many years. So we do appreciate that too, that our corporate office is here and we are now, um, as, uh, two other entities decided to consolidate the states said no, you can't consolidate, and there was 21 counties total in that. And the state said

to 18 counties, you're going over with Trillium because they do a fantastic job. The other three entities on this map each got one county apiece We got 18 Now that was a huge lift This is why I'm in front of you tonight and I have been for the past 12 years in front of you trying to make sure that you're seeing that we're keeping things local. OK. Sean lives right here in Pitt County and those everything about Pitt County more than I do, OK? But these are the four, managed care organizations, Trillium being one of them This is kind of our, um, what we decided in back in 2011. keeping things local, um, having these five regions, um, we have Real Advisory Boards just like I said, Commissioner McLawhorn, uh , and Deborah Herring are on our regional Advisory Board. Um, we have 5 consumer and Family Advisory committees, and these are people with lived experience that give us advice. They sit on our regional board and on our governing board. Five Real vice presidents. I oversee the the Vice presidents. I've been around so long they've said, yeah, take them on also, but I'm also um am said to the CEO many, many years ago. I don't just want to oversee people that, uh, staff, I want to be out in the community. So I also oversee the North Central region, which Pit County is in. We also have community engagement, uh, specialists, um, so, uh, we, we want to make sure that we are keeping engaged. So I said this on Commissioners and Deborah and myself and some of you may know Tiffany Herring lives right here in Pitt County, um, and she's active with about

25 to 30 meetings a month. Um, that she's, she attends. Now to get to some numbers, um, what we, what we cover is, uh, last, um, uh, year was 103,556 unique individuals, OK? Keep in mind these are the individuals with very high mental health needs, very high substance use needs and very high developmental disabilities, OK? So total dollar spent that's $1.7 billion. OK It's a lot of money But if you think about these individuals that need almost 24/7 care. That's why OK So that's the breakout of the diagnosis there. Now, just for Pitt County all right Last fiscal year we served 6,817 individuals, and you'll see the breakout of the three diagnoses on there with mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities and substance use, and we always say Dave could have a mental health issue and a substance abuse issue. So if you add those numbers up, they don't always equal 6,817. OK? But you see the majority of the folks have a primary diagnosis of mental health. You all are probably very familiar with the child, uh, children and family specialty plan that just started this past December. We've been managing the foster care system, and that's why you all were a little bit mad at us about 5 years ago when we stole Shan from Pitt County DSS to come over to us, but now DSS is happy that he's

over with us cause they talk the same language, OK? But that being said, um, the state decided statewide to have one entity take over all of the foster kids . And that, um, so that went over to, uh, Healthy Blue Care, um, together, uh back in December, and so they're now under their purview, so we lost that population over to Healthy Blue, OK? This, I wanted to make sure that you see, um, because, uh, prior to 2021, we trillium served all the individuals on Medicaid. But the state in 2021 moved the low to moderate risk, not the high risk. They kept us, those with us, a low to moderate risk over to these other health plans, OK? We are called a tailored plan. We also serve some of the Medicaid Di direct population, but you'll see the breakout of Healthy Blu, United, WellCare, AmeriHealth, and Carolina Complete Health on them serving the low to moderate risk individuals. Now this is the chart for just Pitt County. Like I said, 6000 members that we serve. We also serve a little bit of the Medicaid Di direct population, about 400 of those we also serve , but then the breakout just for Pitt County. OK. I won't go into a lot of these projects, um, but these are all really good projects that, you know, we use with our savings, um, but if you weren't there, um , just about 56 months ago, we opened up that behavioral health , um, unit, uh, right down at the end of, um, 64 and the other

end of Bee's Barbecue, um, that's an urgent care, um, behavioral health, urgent care run by Integrated Family Services that will keep people out of your emergency room. That's the intent of that. OK We do have some, uh, substance use projects, um, but I won't go through all these. What I will say at that bottom one, every year I call Janni and say, we have Narcan kits. Um, how would you like them distributed? Sometimes I deliver them to her office and sometimes she said, bring them over here, here and here. And so, um, probably in the next month and a half, that order should be coming in, and I'll be giving you a call, OK? So we do that every year It's a really good way to make sure folks are not overdosing, which I actually witnessed one, about 3 or 4 years ago, driving right down the road here and EMS and, uh, fire department were there in a half a second and brought the guy back to life right there. right on the street, so that was really good. Um, this is just our accessing services lines, um, that we have . I will say we are moving our corporate office, as some of you may know, we have 2 offices in in Greenville. We're moving our corporate office over the 1019, um, WH Smith Road. and that should be happening in late August, early September. OK? And then lastly, um, I just wanted to say , I've been in front of you for 12 years. I'm getting ready to retire, and that being said, I'm going to be trying to get, um, someone in my shoes quickly. Although, you know how state government works. Sometimes it doesn't move quickly, but I'm pushing for that. I want it, uh, as commissioners, I want you to know.

and I know you already know this that Janis has been a really, really good partner with us. Everything that she has done, she helps me out, I help her out . It goes both ways. You, you all, um, I know you know this, but she is fantastic County Manager. So I'll just end on that. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those. Any Commissioner questions today? OK. Thank you so much for your report. Appreciate you coming out. Yep. OK, I think we've got the tax collection report, Russell. Good evening, Chairman Smith, Commissioners, Manager Gallagher . This evening I present to you the February Tax collection report. The fiscal year combined Tax collection rate through February 28th for real and personal property was 997.91%. The combined rate one year ago for real and personal property was 97.29%. Pitt County Tax Administration continues to pursue all outstanding taxes using the necessary remedies available through the North Carolina General Statutes. If there are any questions, I'm happy to answer them. If not, it's my recommendation to approve the February Tax collection report as presented. OK, I hear a motion So I've got a motion here second OK. All right, please vote Thank you, Russell. Thank you. I'll invite, uh, Michael up for the Financial report. Good evening to the board. Uh, tonight you have before you the February uhanci report. You'll see on this report that we're currently right at uh 66.67% of the fiscal year. So when you get to that point in the year, you're almost 3 quarters of the year. You're looking at 33 real items with the actual budget. One being where the revenues are sitting to where the expenditures are, and then 3, how the revenues relate to the expenditures. So looking at the

report, you'll see first with the general fund, uh, the general fund's right at 73.4% in revenues, while the uh actual expenditures at 59.4%. So you can see those revenues are exceeding the expenditures currently in the giro phone, which is a positive trend going into the uh year-end . Same thing with Solid Waste, you can see, uh, currently 87.5% , uh, you know, we're 66.7% per year. So you can see uh far far exceeding, uh, current months. Then you'll see the year to date column of uh 61.2% for the expenditure side. So once again, you can see that 87%, 87.5% over the 61.2%, which is your revenues over expensers in your solid waste bond, which is a positive. Then looking at the EMS fund, you'll see that actually the revenues are 73.4%. uh, year to date, while the EMS fund year-day expensers are 68.9%. So once again, you can see that the revenues are exceeding, uh, the year they spent. Once again, though, there was the back uh back bill was, that was occurred last year. So when looking at prior year to this year, you can see that revenue differential be uh slightly decreased, uh, percentage-wise. Are there any questions with this report? Any questions OK. I hear a motion to approve his report. Motion approved. So, our motion in a second, please vote. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate you, your report. Um, Madame Manager, you are next. Yes, a few items to report this evening to the board. Your, uh, next meeting date, April 13th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in this room, and that is your only meeting for the month of April. A reminder that on Friday we have our legislative delegation luncheon at the Alice Keen District Park Community Center from noon until 2 if it lasts, uh, if it takes the full time.

Uh, on the following week on March 26th, we'll do our capital improvement plan, workshop that had been delayed previously due to the weather at 8:30 in the morning in this room. Also, a reminder that county offices will be closed on April 3rd in observance of Good Friday . on April 6th, is the opening of the Pitt County Senior Games. Um , so please join if you can from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, um, at the Alice Keene, uh, at the Pitt County Uultural Arts Cultural Arts and Recreation Community Center. And then item F as a reminder if you haven't contacted the Clerk, please let her know if you are planning to attend the National Association of Annual Counties Conference July 17th to 20th, um , this summer. I have two additional items, Mr. Chairman, if you'll allow. One is to do, uh, allow an opportunity for a report out if anybody would like to or just to share um that on March 11th in Halifax County at the Community College, um, several of us went to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners District meeting, Ann Huggins, um, led that meeting in a breakout session and then reported back um as a District Director, um, from Pitt County, so we were proud of her present ations and efforts there for us. Um, Mac Manning joined Ann Huggins, um, Mary Perkins Williams, Matt, and I, if anyone else has anything they wanted to share. It was a very successful day. OK? And then finally, um, uh, at the request of Commissioner Weaver, I wanted to share, um, an update. Man of you on the board had received some communication, um, from various individuals about concerns with school nurses and I just wanted to provide some information and if there's anything further in follow up, you need me to bring back, I can do that. But there was some concern within the community expressed about school nurses um being

reduced due to cuts in funding and a concern about um how many nurses, whose funding cuts, and where that all came from. And so , um, worked with the um County Attorney. We did some research. I spoke with, um, Doctor Lassiter at length, and um gathered some documents and just wanted to make clear for the board and those who may be concerned, um. that there are 22 nursing positions within Pitt County schools. 21 nurse nurses and one manager. and they are, um, and there will continue to be that number of nurses in Pitt County schools going forward. Um, as part of our transfer agreement with ECU Health Medical Center. They fund 8 nurses and one nurse Manage, 9 nursing physicians, um, over the course of the, um, last year they are spending and investing over $2 million annually to fund that group of nurses. In addition, through our public health department, we passed through $250,000 of what they call sniffy funds, school nurse funds. That funds an additional 5 nurses. There has been no change, only increases in funding from ECU Health maintaining those nurses in place. There has no no change on our public health department funding with the pass through for those additional 5 nurses. Pitt County schools also has funded through our um annual appropriation, um, 8 additional nurse positions, and they have funded those consistently, um, uh, 3 since 2014 and 5 additional since 2023. There's no proposed change to those nurses bringing that total um up to the same number where we were . What's different is that during the COVID fun

ding time, the schools received ESA funds, and in that period of time they had to spend those funds, and they had to spend them on eligible activities and in, and otherwise send them back . And so during this period of time, they added by contract temporary nurses to supplement the system, and that was in a contract that ran from 2021 to 2024. Um, and then the ER funds ended. The contract though did not end right then, um, for various reasons, it continued and it continued, although the funding was neither requested nor allocated, um, that contract continued. So when it came to Doctor Lassiter's attention, um, he, um, in an effort to be fiscally responsible, funding supplemental positions for a finite contract period of time, looked at that contract, reached out, and provided notice that that contract had ex pir ed because the funds associated with it had expired, and then there's 3 supplemental positions above the 22, um, would go away for that period of time. And um Doctor Lassitter Knott has never um asked for those positions from us or asked us to fund those positions. Um, we're continuing on the status quo, um, that we have. And so the, the cut, if there is a cut, is the natural expiration of a contract that fun d ed 3 supplemental nurses for a temporary period of time as he anticipated at the beginning of that contract. Um, I could not, um, praise the schools enough when I reached out. the level of transparency and numbers and charts that they gave me to explain exactly what's going on. Um, and, uh, and I'll read to you as well, um , uh, Doctor Par of the Doctor Lassitter's um email to me which is um the above-mentioned

nursing contract that we're just talking about was ended as a responsible measure to ensure that our school district remains fiscally sound for the 2627 school year as there are no Eer funds to pay for those positions . And so I appreciate the school's effort in providing this to us, um, as well, we have uh great transparency every year in your hospital compliance letter so I can uh show the continued investment by ECU Health in the positions that are remaining, and I hope that that answers the concerns, um, that anyone may have had about school nurses. Any questions for Jannis No? Thank you, Madame Manager. Appreciate you breaking that down for that good information. And that concludes my report. OK . Thank you so much. Um consent agenda, do I hear a motion to approve that? Motion to approve a motion I hear a 2nd . 2nd. OK. Please vote. And by a Manage back to you for the one and only item for decision for tonight. Yes, it's been a long evening. Um, it is recommended that this board nominate Melissa Ward as the mental health designee representative on the, um, juvenile crime Prevention Council. She would fill a partial term that is due to expire December 31st, 2026. OK, we'll hear a motion for that Motion to approve sec, a motion in a 2nd, please vote. OK. I think that's it. Madame Manager, we're down to Commissioner comments. I'll start with my left, uh, Commissioner Manning. Uh, no comment, sir. OK, Commissioner Nunnley. No comment. Commissioner Huggins, I will say , um, thanks to the voters in District 14 their vote and Confidence in me and re-elected me for another 4 years. Thank you.

Commissioner Weaver Yes, thank you. I'd like to, um Commissioner Manning, um, prayed about the soldiers, uh American soldiers, and I would just ask for y'all to keep those American soldiers that are over there in harm's way in your prayers. Thank you, Commissioner, Commissioner Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to echo, um, prayers to our military as well. Um, also, I would just like to say congratulations to the dental mobile unit tonight as well as uh Kelly for her, um, for her, um, achievement. Um, I also would like to say thank you to everyone involved in the feasibility study for, uh, what got presented tonight, um, all of the stakeholders, the fire chiefs, the municipalities, the staff, the volunteers, um, who I just provided that knowledge that was really help ful and I'm really looking forward to diving into that. Um, all in all, congratulations to all of those, um, that have, um had the blessing to now move forward to potentially represent Pitt County, and I would just like to say happy Easter to everyone. So thank you so much. Thank you, Commissioner Berkins Williams. I'd like to a lot about it. Don't I like to say thank you to each and every one of you who uh supported the campaign that I just sent me back to the seat for another 4 years. I appreciate your care, I appreciate your concerns and please forgive me for not being able to keep my voice message open cause it's overrun. I like to also say to you that don't forget how we present ourselves, uh, to people who come to visit there are a lot of trash about and uh I like YouTube. I, I have to mention it every time that

says a lot for who we are. It's in messages. So please be mindful of your trash. Keep it in your car until you get to a service station or until you get home. and remember that if you don't love yourself, and what you do for yourself and others, then we're not the Christian, we should be. Um, I'm sorry for the, um, the the trees that laid across the highway, and I am so delighted that there was no report of um injuries cause there was a lot of big trees down in my district. Keep your yard um cultured Keep it cut, keep the trees maintained and then the houses will not get squished by the trees. Thank you so much and I love all of you. Mr Hollman. No comment other than motion to adjourn. I'd just like to thank our Pitt County staff, our Pit County team fought a great work you do each and every day. Tas a lot to run county operations. Second, have a motion in a second too. adjourn. Please vote Have a good evening. just for me and y'all want to run me out