Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the August 25th, 26th regular meeting of the Gasson County Board of Commissioners. My name is Chad Brown. I serve as chairman of the board as well as commissioner for the Riverbend Township. I would like to welcome our viewers and thank Spectrum Cable and AT&T for making it possible for our citizens. For our television and livestream audience, I would like to present our Gasson County Commissioners, beginning on my far right.

Good evening, Scott Sheehan, Gastonia Township.

Good afternoon, Jim Bailey, South Palm Township.

Good evening, Kathy Cloninger, Dallas Township.

At this time, I will have the invocation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The invocation will be given by Commissioner Hovis and the Pledge of Allegiance given by Commissioner Sheehan. If you'll please stand.

Please bow with me. Gracious Father, we're here tonight to take care of the business of the county. Give us your graceful knowledge, understanding, and wisdom Help us to continue to provide a safe, thriving community for all of our citizens. Help us to be leaders in our community. Help us make the right decisions, and we ask that in your name. Amen.

First item on the agenda tonight is public hearings. Commission will now take citizens' comments for three public hearings. Comments will be taken on the following issue. Zoning map change REZ-246. Conditional district REZ-249. EDC incentive grant for Project Alliance Gastonia 85. EDC incentive grant for Project Atlas. Access permission to apply for the NCDOT PTD FY28 community transportation grant program. Before we begin, let me outline the rules and procedures of the hearing. Citizens wishing to make comment will be recognized by the chair, then requested to step to the microphone for their

Thank you, ma'am. Are there any comments from the applicant at this time?

You just have a seat, Mr. Probst, right there. Any citizen wishing to comment on this matter at this time? Seeing none, any questions from the Board of Commissioners? Seeing none and well, there are no additional comments. I will now declare the public hearing closed. Just to recap, the Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval by a seven to zero vote, finding it reasonable to the public interest and interest consistent with the goals of the Comp Plan and as keep with the parcel residential and nature and advisement of Envision by the Rural Future Land Use Designation. Rural areas and res

Thank you, ma'am. Are there any comments from the applicant at this time?

Mr. Carpenter, Tyler, if you just have a seat right there, then we'll come back to you. Are there any citizens wishing to comment on this matter at this time? Yes, ma'am.

Any other citizens wishing to make comment at this time? Seeing none, any questions for the Board of Commissioners? Mr. Sheehan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you tell me, this type of industry, what kind of product material do you manufacture or use? What kind of potential waste is there from that product?

Has there been any kind of environmental study on the contaminants in the ground or anything like that?

I want to add, I've been out to this many times to the facility. We also asked you to jump through a lot of hoops the last time when you came through and exemplary on everything that had happened out there. I know we asked for the retaining pond, and you did a lot of different things for the fire suppression. And I'm going to support this measure just for the simple fact. I know you've done it before. I look forward to seeing what you can bring to this as well. Any other comments from the Board of Commissioners? Seeing none, if there are no additional comments, I will declare this public heari

Any citizens wishing to comment on this at this time?

If there are no additional comments, I will declare the public hearing closed. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Commissioner Hovis, seconded by Commissioner Keegar. All in favor? It was unanimous, Madam Clerk. The Commission will now take citizens' comments on public hearing to approve Gaston County Level 2 incentive grant for the authorization of Gaston County to enter into an economic development agreement with Project Atlas. Mr. Donnie Hicks, Executive Director of EDC, will provide a brief overview. Once he has completed his comments, citizens' comments will be taken.

Any citizens wishing to comment on this matter at this time? Seeing none, any questions from the Board of Commissioners? If there are no additional comments, I will declare the public hearing closed. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Commissioner Sheehan, seconded by Commissioner Bailey. All in favor? It is unanimous.

Please, one second. Yes, sir. I want to let you know something while we're in public hearing as well. You're one of the finest economic development people I've ever met in my life. Being around you for the time that I have, I'm proud that you work for Gaston County. I will tell anybody that and anybody who wants to listen You're a great man, and you know what you're doing in your job. You brought more economic development to this county than we could ever deserve of what's going on here. And I want to say I appreciate you for being a part of it. If we can do anything on this board, you please

Thank you. The County Commission will now take citizens' comments on public hearing and request permission to apply for the NCDOT PTD FY28 Community Transportation Program F311. grant to provide rural transportation services enter into agreement with the North Carolina DOT and provide unnecessary assurances and required local match. Ms. Tawana Littlejohn, Supportive Services Administrator, will provide a brief overview. Once she has completed her comments, citizen's comments will be taken. Ms. Littlejohn.

Thank you, ma'am. Any citizens wishing to comment on this matter at this time? Seeing none, any questions from the Board of Commissioners? Mr. Bailey.

a while back about phasing out access. Where are we at at that point?

How many does this serve as far as service rides that in providing the transportation?

Yes. How many of those were actually were in Gastonia City?

Would you say the majority are in townships or in the county?

OK. All right. And you had mentioned something about the majority of the money was going to administrative.

OK, so most of this doesn't support the vehicles and the drivers. This actually doesn't work?

Mr. Hovis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. From numbers that I remember from the past, Ms. Littlejohn, it appeared that somewhere greater than 75% of your trips were outside of municipalities. Access provides transportation to our most impacted, and since we have no other formal transportation mode in Gaston County for those, it really does serve us portion of our citizenry that would go unserved without it. Just for the public's knowledge.

Thank you. I just want to ask a question. Is this not one of these we have dedicated for veterans, correct?

Seeing none, since there are no additional comments, I will now declare the public hearing closed. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? Motion made by Commissioner Hovis, seconded by Commissioner Sheehan. All in favor? All opposed? It is 5-1, Madam Clerk. Thank you. This concludes tonight's public hearing. The approval of the business agenda. Any revisions to the business agenda or any items that need to be pulled? Commissioner Sheehan.

Mr. Chair, I need to pull item AA, please.

Any other revisions to the agenda? Do I hear a motion to approve the business agenda with items AA being pulled from the consent agenda? Motion made by Commissioner Hovis, seconded by Commissioner Keager. All in favor? It is unanimous, Madam Clerk. Approval of the minutes. You're provided draft minutes for the special meeting of July 14, 2026, regular meeting of July 28, 2026. Are there any revisions? Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes as presented? Motion made by Commissioner Sheehan, seconded by... Mr. Hovis, is there any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, Madam Clerk. Our nex

The next item is the approval of the consent agenda. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda with items AA being pulled? Motion made by Commissioner Keeger, seconded by Commissioner Hovis. All in favor? It is unanimous, Madam Clerk. The next item is pulled, AA from the consent agenda. Do I hear a motion? Go ahead, Commissioner Sheehan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Tarbus, where did you get to? Would you mind, please?

Good. Good. Thank you. Thank you for the book. I appreciate that. Give me kind of a brief little rundown. Let's talk about what's changed, what's different, how we arrived. Just kind of give me some highlight bullet points. I'm going to be going through this page by page. I'm sure everybody else, but kind of give me a brief synopsis of it.

Just want to note that this has to be received 21 days before we can actually vote on this for the schedule of value. So tonight is just the receiving. Correct. Go ahead.

Mr. Tanner, would you mind? Good evening, commissioners. Good evening, sir. How are you? Would you mind giving me your take on commercial and industrial? I know that's been a hot topic from the last to the upcoming one. So kind of give me a rundown of what you've seen, what you found. How's it trended? What's changed?

Can you go into a little bit of detail about those steps that you do have in place? Sir? Can you go into some detail about what you're saying, the safeguards that are in place that might not have been in place the last time? What are the differences?

Thank you, sir. Mr. Tarbush, how long has Mr. Tanner been involved on a contract basis, or how long has he been helping through this process?

About a year and a half. And you think that'll be wrapped up approximately when?

Is that another year renewal, or can it be a month renewal, or how does that work?

What's the rate of that contract that we're paying for those services?

Could you give me that number when you have a chance?

One question on the market data for the commercial side. What's the percent of businesses that don't send that information back?

So in that situation, what do we do to get that data?

So to formulate that data, y'all were doing that in-house?

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make sure I'm right. That is state law. That's not something guessing County.

Yes. This is more on the residential side. Over the past year, I've been looking at numerous properties on MLS and their appraised value. And over the past year, the appraised values are well below the MLS. Everything has went down compared to their schedule of values, I guess, what the county had appraised them at. So is that something that The residents of Gaston County will be able to see their properties lowering for residential values.

right on the commercial uh i spoke with you when we first first got into office and you were talking about you know the the last appraisals with commercial properties were were lower because of covet so we should see a substantial increase now because we've got a lot of companies moving into gaston county wanting property

All right, thank you. Mr. Oates. Mr. Chair, Ms. Tarbush. Talking about the residential side of the 23 appraisal, my property, which is over in Bessemer City, had 113% increase in valuation. And I kind of questioned that. So I went back, and of course, this is after the time lag from the data that you used to come up with that number. I went back, and I pulled up the comps. Real estate people understand what comps are. I pulled up the comps for 14 homes sold in the last six months, and this was about a year after the completion of your data because there's a time lag. Like you said, it's a livi

I guess one of the things that we want to talk about, because I know you had some things that you wanted to relay, so we'll go into that after this, but we were talking about a good sale. That's also the state of North Carolina deems what is a good sale and what is not, correct?

Can you give the public the notice of what they can expect in looking at this document? Where they can go if they want to talk about something inside of it, how they would get in touch with someone, whether it be your office or some, ever how, and I know you want to talk about several things if there's something you guys want to discuss that talk to the public, because the one thing I want to make sure is, which we've been back and forth over this is making sure the public is well identified in what's happening. We've always talked about that. So tell me a little bit about what the state says

We also, just so everybody understands, if there's any aerial data that we find from the last evaluation to now someone has added something to what I think your part it puts a little red yes issue around it shows what's different also the commission is just judged on a different not by it so we all feel the same heat that everybody else feels it's not like we're getting special deeds because we have someone else come to do our appraisal so And then it's valued off of that how we kind of get our numbers. Can you talk a little bit about what goes on and what criteria that you use to pull any new

It happens. Talking about the little red swatches.

This time, I would like to also have something when we send out these. I know that, Adam, I think we did the step-by-step online last time. I'd like to find a way we can get something that puts the public into being able to see so not just that they got this bill, how they can go through the process of if they want to appeal or whatever that may be early on. And that way we can educate. Also, you're giving tutorials right now throughout the community. What does that look like?

I've asked Adam to put up the public hearing schedule online that way everybody could see that through our social media pages and whatnot with that. I'd like to kind of after that's over, maybe if y'all could get together and do one-on-one from the questions that have been asked throughout, you know, kind of just give the presentation so people can see it, just so they're not feeling bad. And we can film one from someplace we can go do and figure that out. But I want to make sure that the public has every necessary piece to this to where we're is open a book about this because I think sometime

Any other questions from the Board of Commissioners? Thank you very much for your presentation.

Oh, sorry, what? If we couldn't vote on that.

We're here in motion to approve the presentation of the schedule of values. Motion made by Commissioner Hogan, seconded by Commissioner Keeger. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous. Madam Clerk. Appointments. Mr. Sheehan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two. Economic Development Commission, application received from Mr. Johnny Denton. Health and Human Services Board, application received from Ms. Kimberly Jones.

Second. Seconded by Commissioner Hovis. All in favor? It is unanimous, Madam Clerk. Commissioner Bailey.

Commissioner Hovis. I have none, sir. Mr. Keiger. No, sir. And I have none as well. Reports. Commissioner Sheehan.

Thank you for doing that, sir. County Manager's report. No report. County Attorney's report. Nothing to report, Mr. Chairman. Any other matters need to come before the board at this time? Seeing none, this concludes our meeting for tonight. Our next work session is here in the Harley B. Gasson Public Forum. Courthouse, thank you for watching. If you have any questions, remit those to Donna S. Buffett, 704-866-3196. Good night, all.