MINUTES
STATE
OF
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a regularly scheduled meeting at
Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman Charlie
Messer, Commissioner Larry Young, Commissioner Shannon Baldwin, Commissioner
Chuck McGrady, Interim County Manager
Also present were:
Planning Director Judith Frances, Public Information Officer Chris S. Coulson,
Fire Marshal Rocky Hyder, Finance Director J. Carey McLelland, and Development
and Enforcement Director Toby Linville. Deputy Clerk to the Board Amy Brantley
was present through nominations.
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Moyer called
the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Chairman Moyer led the
Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
INVOCATION
Commissioner Shannon
Baldwin gave the invocation.
Chairman Comments – Chairman Moyer announced that it was
Commissioner Baldwin’s Birthday and wished him a happy birthday.
INFORMAL PUBLIC COMMENTS
Chairman Moyer asked
each person who had signed up for informal public comments to please limit
their time to about 3 minutes.
She
spoke as a private citizen in regards to the decisions about voting machines,
coming up on this agenda. The
legislature, this past year, passed the Public confidence in Elections Act 108
to 0. She stated that Catawba Commission Chair Kitty Barnes who is also
President of the NC Association of County Commissioners is trying to get the
public confidence and elections act repealed or delayed and also get permission
for
She
also asked the Commissioners to look at optical scan voting machines because 1)
they are considered the most accurate, and 2) they are the least expensive.
DISCUSSION/ADJUSTMENT OF AGENDA
Chairman Moyer added one
item under Update on Pending Issues as #5 “
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to adopt the agenda as
amended. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
CONSENT AGENDA
Chairman Moyer pulled
item “H – Rules Change for Quasi-Judicial Hearings” for some discussion.
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to adopt the consent
agenda with the exception of agenda item H.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Consent Agenda included
the following:
Minutes
Draft minutes were
presented of the following meetings for the Board’s review and approval:
Tax Collector’s Report
Terry F. Lyda, Henderson
County Tax Collector, presented the Tax Collectors’ Report dated
Financial Report – November 2005
Cash Balance Report – November 2005
These reports were
presented for information and consent approval.
Non-departmental
expenses are for Property/Liability and Workman’s Compensation Insurance
coverage that have been or will be allocated out to each department during the
fiscal year.
The YTD deficit in the
Emergency 911 Communications Fund is due to FY2006 approved appropriations for
the purchase of Emergency Medical Dispatch software, necessary replacement of
the 911 Center’s dated Un-interruptible Power Supply-Battery Backup System and
a GIS software application update that links GIS data with the Computer Aided
Dispatch (CAD) system in the 911 Center.
The YTD deficit in the Mills
River Watershed Protection Project, the Mud Creek Watershed Restoration Fund
and the Mills River Sewer Capital Project are all temporary due to timing
differences in the expenditure of funds and the subsequent requisition of
Federal and State grant funds or Cane Creek Water & Sewer District funds
for the Mills River Sewer Project to reimburse these expenditures.
Henderson County Public Schools Financial Report – November
2005
The Schools Report was
presented for information and consent approval.
E-911 Communications Fund-Request to Use Unreserved Fund
Balance for Capital Outlay Purchase
The Henderson County
Fire Marshal’s office in conjunction with the E911 Communications Center
requested proposals to replace 20-year old generators on each of the County’s
three mountaintop communication sites located on Jumpoff, Bearwallow, and
Corbin mountains. Three proposals were received with the lowest responsive bid
received being from Carolina Energy Systems for $42,775.
Staff proposed using
E911 Communications Fund–Unreserved Fund Balance for the purchase of these
generators. The E911 Communications
Fund–Unreserved Fund Balance is currently in excess of $209,000. A budget
amendment was presented for the Board’s consideration, requesting to use these
funds for the purchase of the new generators.
The
Register of Deeds – Request to use ROD Restricted Funds for
Automation, Enhancement and Document Preservation
The General Assembly
enacted legislation that required counties to place 10% of certain revenues
generated by the Register of Deeds Office into a fund to pay for automation
enhancements and document preservation beginning in January 2002. This fund which is a portion of the County’s
Restricted General Fund Balance has in excess of $160,000 currently. Only the Board of Commissioners may authorize
the use and release of these restricted funds.
A budget amendment was
submitted for the Board’s consideration, requesting to use the Register of
Deeds Restricted General Fund Balance for the purchase and installation of
software to continue upgrading their current system and database conversion
from their old vendor, Cott Systems, Inc.
Also included in this total cost is a support agreement for the new
software. The total proposed cost to
purchase and install the new software with support is $96,621.
The
Request for Pawnshop License
Bruce Gosnell has
applied, pursuant to Section 134-5 of the Henderson County Code, for a license
to conduct the business of pawnbroker within
Under our ordinance,
this is an annual process. Section 134-6
requires that such applications be brought “for the consideration by the Board
of Commissioners at a regular scheduled meeting”.
The
If the Board is so
inclined, the following Motion was suggested:
I move that the Board grant a renewal of a pawnshop license
to Bruce Gosnell, as applied for.
Set Public Hearing on Rezoning Application #R-2005-05
Rezoning Application
#R-2005-05, which was submitted on
The Henderson County
Planning Board considered rezoning application #R-2005-05 at its regularly
scheduled meeting on
Before taking action on
the rezoning application, the Board of Commissioners must hold a public
hearing. Staff proposed that the hearing
be scheduled for
The
Set Public Hearing for Quasi-Judicial Hearing on
Mr. Clement Feldmann of
33 Spring Blossom Lane, Horse Shoe, filed an appeal of the property address
assigned to his residence by the Henderson County Property Addressing
office. The original date for this
hearing was set at the
The
Discussion of pulled item – “H – Rules Change for
Quasi-Judicial Hearings”
Chairman Moyer stated
that Quasi-Judicial Hearings are cumbersome procedures to follow. They are intended to preserve everyone’s
legal rights. We now have some changes
which have been mandated to us with respect to Quasi-Judicial Hearings.
Russell Burrell reviewed
and discussed his memo with the Board which contained the following:
“The North Carolina
State Bar’s Authorized Practice Committee has issued an opinion letter finding
that it to be the unauthorized practice of law to represent another person or a
company in a quasi-judicial hearing. As
a result, the common practice of developers being represented by engineers or
surveyors, and of the County being represented by planning staff, is
illegal. Attached you will find a draft
amended rules which would temporarily solve this problem. These rules are proposed to be temporary in
nature, pending the response to the inquiry that your
The only changes to this
Board’s Rules for Quasi-Judicial Proceedings are as follows:
1)
A
new section 38.1 is added, as follows:
Rule 38.1
Representation.
Any party who is an individual may represent themselves in a quasi-judicial
hearing. Parties who are not individuals
(including all may only appear through an attorney licensed to practice law in
2)
A
new sentence is added to the preamble to the rules (just prior to Rule 34), as
follows:
Notwithstanding any
contrary provision of any rules or by-laws of other Board or body of
The
Much discussion
followed. It was determined that this
was a State Bar Association opinion only and it was the consensus of the
Board not to adopt this opinion nor agree with it.
NOMINATIONS
Notification of Vacancies
The Board was notified
of the following vacancies which will appear on the next agenda for
nominations:
1.
Animal
Services Committee – 3 vac.
2.
3. Industrial
Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority – 1 vac.
Nominations
Chairman Moyer reminded
the Board of the following vacancies and opened the floor to nominations:
1.
Child Fatality
Prevention Team – 1 vac.
There were no nominations
at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
2.
There were no
nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
3.
Juvenile Crime
Prevention Council – 3 vac.
There were no
nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
4. Nursing/Adult
Care Home Community Advisory Committee – 9 vac.
There were no
nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
MUD CREEK WATERSHED RESTORATION PROJECT UPDATE
Chairman Moyer
recognized Ms. Diane Silver who had requested to be allotted time during this
meeting to provide an update concerning the Mud Creek Watershed Restoration
Project.
Ms. Silver is the
watershed coordinator, working with the Cooperative Extension Service in the
county. She updated the Board on what they had been working on, and what they
will be working on in the future.
A new grant has been funded for the county to continue to support the Mud Creek
Project for the next three years, a federal grant through the EPA-319 Project
that supports surface water protection and is in the amount of $427,000 over
the next three years. The bulk of that funding is to provide materials and
labor to do on the ground projects within the watershed, specifically within a
sub-watershed of
Ms. Silver stated that
they are very pleased to have received this grant to continue the project and
they think that it is significant to be bringing a significant amount of money
into the county. Most of that funding is
going to be spent on local resources, hiring contractors, purchasing materials
locally, so it is a nice infusion of funding into the county.
She stated that they
have a second grant that will be coming in next year for what has been dubbed
the stream doctor project which is an effort to train local landscapers in the
best techniques for repairing eroding stream banks in order to take care of some
of the smaller problems that fall through the cracks, that are not candidates
for these larger state projects that we get funding for. That training program is bringing in another
$100,000 in grant money into the county.
Ms. Silver stated that
this past year they received grant support in the amount of $65,000 so for the
period of 2005 through 2008 they have brought in over $800,000 into the county
in support of the Mud Creek Watershed, most of which is spent locally on the
work that the Mud Creek Project is doing.
She thanked the Board
for their support in enabling this project to take place. It is administered through the county
offices. Her position is housed in the
Cooperative Extension office.
The Commissioners asked
to be kept updated on the measurable results for this project.
DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD RECOGNIZING
THE RETIREMENT OF DAVID E. NICHOLSON
Chairman Moyer stated
that at the end of December 2005, David Nicholson retired as
Commissioner Messer made the motion to adopt the award as
read. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
ELECTIONS EQUIPMENT UPDATE
The North Carolina
Association of County Commissioners has formally requested that Governor Easley
convene the General Assembly for a special session to discuss and take action
regarding the impacts on counties caused by the passage of Senate Bill 223.
This Bill created additional state mandates regarding the functionality of
voting equipment and established a procurement process that decertified all existing
elections equipment in the state on
In addition to asking
for more time to make decisions regarding voting equipment purchases, the
Association has also asked that the State Board of Elections certify additional
equipment vendors. This would give
counties more options and allow vendors to modify their existing equipment to
meet the paper trail mandate. This latest request from the Association comes on
the heels of learning that Diebold has pulled out of the process, leaving only
one company, ES&S (Election Systems and Services), from which counties may
obtain certified voting equipment under Senate Bill 223.
She also informed the
Board that the NC Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) has requested
that Governor Easley convene the General Assembly for a special session to
discuss and take action regarding the impacts on counties caused by the passage
of the Senate Bill. This formal request
also includes asking the State Board of Elections to certify additional vendors
in order to give counties more choices with regard to equipment. If the Board
wishes to do so, staff would recommend sending a letter stating the Board’s
position in this regard, if they want to join in the associations’ call for a
special session. Staff can certainly
draft a letter for authorization to go to the State Board as well as to
legislators.
Commissioner Messer
serves on the Board of Directors of the NCACC. He stated that the association
does not want to delay the primary in May but there is concern about the
timing, costs, etc. The funding for this is already in the State Board of
Elections’ hands and we just have to apply for those grants. He stated that if
the State General Assembly calls a special session and gives other carriers the
opportunity for the counties to purchase these voting machines, we might be able
to get everything up and running by the primary in May. Timing and costs are
the big factors.
Beverly Cunningham, the
County’s Elections Director, was present and answered some questions from the
Board. She stated that in early December the State Board started putting into
effect what the legislature passed in August. She explained that ES&S offer
two types of systems, a DRE (direct record equipment) and an optical scan. Her office and her Board are in the process
of reviewing the equipment and asking many questions. She stated that she had been told that we
would receive $464,090, a federal grant that came down to the state. The monies were based on the number of
precincts in your county and then the number of voters that voted in the last
presidential election. A public forum date has been set for January 13 from
The Board asked Carey
McLelland to circulate the numbers between now and the next meeting.
This item will be back
on the next meeting agenda, January 18, with recommendations from the State
Board of Elections.
Commissioner Messer read
a letter into the record from NCACC, to consider as a model letter, as follows:
“On behalf of the
Commissioner McGrady
stated that the whole last paragraph deals with the issue of second chance
certification. Based on what
Chairman Moyer made the motion to modify the model letter,
eliminating most of the final paragraph but stating our concern about the
timing and getting ready for the Primary in May and that we send the letter on
behalf of our county. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
UPDATE ON PENDING ISSUES
Tuxedo Library and Recreation Project
Staff will receive the
final report from HSM&M very soon. A working draft was e-mailed out
today. The plan is for HSM&M to be
at the January 18 meeting to present their final report of the inventory and
analysis of the
William Snyder, Library
Director, explained that in accordance with Board direction issues at a
Commissioners’ meeting in November the Library has sought more detailed input
as to possible use of the 1930
Their report was
included for the Board’s review.
The architects do not
believe that it is financially sound to attempt the renovation of the school as
a library, especially given the size of the school versus the needs of the library. Reuse of the newer, two-classroom building is
more feasible. Including an addition to
the existing building it appears that this can be done for $150 per square foot
plus professional services, site work, etc. Reuse of the older facility would
cost substantially more per square foot.
It was Mr. Snyder’s
recommendation that the County not attempt to reuse the 1930 facility but
rather to move forward with the smaller project.
Mr. Snyder had also
discovered that the owner of the old Mill Store or Community Store in the heart
of Tuxedo was interested in selling at
this time.
Much discussion
followed. Commissioner Messer asked to have figures on the usage of the Green
River Library at the Jan. 18 meeting.
It was time for the
public hearings. The Board will continue
on discussion items following the public hearings.
PUBLIC HEARING – on new roads
Commissioner McGrady made the motion for the Board to go
into public hearing. All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
Toby Linville informed
the Board that this public hearing is for the following new road names:
Spring
L Lyda Continental Divide
Mr. Linville stated that
Spring Hollow Lane is a private road which will run off
Public Input
There was none.
Commissioner Messer made the motion to approve these two new
road names as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Commissioner McGrady made the motion for the Board to go out
of public hearing. All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
PUBLIC HEARING – on new property address changes
Commissioner Messer made the motion for the Board to go into
public hearing. All voted in favor and
the motion carried.
Toby Linville stated
that this hearing is a requirement of NCGS 153A-239.1 which requires counties
to hold public hearings on new road names or new addresses. There are roughly 500 addresses that are
predominantly new lots that have been created.
There are some that were corrections. This is approximately 6 months
worth of property address changes.
Public Input
There was none.
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to approve the list of
new property addresses as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Commissioner McGrady made the motion for the Board to go out
of public hearing. All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
Solid Waste/Recycling
Chairman Moyer reminded
the Board of the number of discussions over the last few board meetings with
respect to access to the landfill site, the recycling program, charter. He asked County Engineer Gary Tweed to go
back to square one and talk about the membership of the committee, where we
stand with respect to the charter, what his recommendations are with respect to
the items the Board has been discussing.
Gary Tweed distributed a
several page hand-out and then reviewed it with the Board.
1.
The
Charter of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) was the first two pages.
2.
Page
three was a list of items that was presented to both the SWAC and to the Board
back in November from the Ad Hoc Committee for Recycling Reform – items that
they would like for the Solid Waste Advisory Committee to review and to study.
3.
The
third thing in the hand-out is a memo from Mr. Tweed to the County Manager
dated November 15, 2005 (4 pages) which addresses some of the previous issues
brought up about entrance, second scale, traffic, etc.
Gary Tweed stated that
there were a couple of issues with regard to the Charter that need to be
resolved. The current Charter was
developed a couple of years ago and set the membership of the committee at
seven. There are currently eleven
members on the committee which is what it was prior to the Charter. The thought had been that as folks rotate off
the committee, they’d work it back to seven.
That hasn’t happened yet. He
asked whether the Board wanted a committee of eleven members or seven. The other issue is the Chairmanship of that
committee is appointed by the Board. The
current Chairman, Bill Ramsey, is
scheduled to rotate off the committee April 1.
He has indicated to
Following discussion, it
was the consensus of the Board to wait and see how the committee members go as
we have some rotate off. The Board
favored diversity on the committee but preferred not to assign specific slots.
Recycling
The Board also wished to
make it clear in the Charter that we want recycling, and to separate it from
public education in the Charter.
Recycling Program updates that the Ad Hoc Committee for Recycling Reform
would like to see were:
Appoint
a Recycle Coordinator
Public
Education per SWAC Recommendation
Use
Channel 11 TV
South
– Flat Rock/Zirconia
East
- Edneyville/Dana
Facility
for Haulers
Promote
via Incentives
Aluminum
Cans
Plastic
Bottles
Gary Tweed felt that of
these items the SWAC could go through and review each of these and make a report
or recommendation to the Board of Commissioners as to what programs they might
want to expand into. He felt that they
should go on further and establish exactly what those programs are, how they
would be accomplished, what the cost would be and a recommendation on how to
cover those costs.
Break
Chairman Moyer called a
technical break, to change videotapes.
Exit Scale
Gary Tweed reminded the
Board that there had been some discussion in the past about installing an exit
scale. Gary Tweed has met with a consultant (CDM) and has come up with
short-term and long-term recommendations as to how to approach this.
In the mid-90’s we went
to a flat rate system for cars and pick-up trucks because by charging flat
rates for those vehicles, they did not have to be weighed. It was done to eliminate some of the traffic
issues at the time. He suggested expanding the flat rate system to include more
smaller type vehicles. By doing so, along
with the purchase of a hand-held computer system that can be operated out on
the line, they could process those flat rate folks and not have to put them on
the scale at all, reducing scale traffic by about half. By doing so, he felt he
could avoid building a second scale at this time. He also introduced a Proposed Fee Schedule for
flat rates. For a long-term solution
they are looking at the entire site to see if they can make changes to the
traffic flow, entrance lanes, a new convenience center, a new recycling center,
etc. to get all the flat rate folks away from the scale entrance.
Mr. Tweed recommended
the Board consider raising the current tip fee of $47.91/ton which was set in
1998 to $52/ton. He felt that the timing
is right to increase our fees, compared to fees in the area.
Gary Tweed expected the
Ad Hoc Committee for Recycling Reform would meet once a month and to complete
their recycling study by mid 2007. The
Board wished for that schedule to be condensed so the report would come back to
the Board of Commissioners this calendar year. The Board approved staffing the
Ad Hoc Committee so that they could meet more often and finish their report
sooner.
Chairman Moyer made the motion to adopt Gary Tweed’s
recommendation and direct the SWAC to study all these and come back to the
Board of Commissioners with a recycling plan that lists the pros and cons, the
costs, benefits, and other considerations. This did not include approval of the
Proposed Fee Schedule but would approve the proposal to help move more vehicles
through on a flat fee and get them off the scale and not do the recycling
center charge or the increase in the tipping fee. The bag for bag would stay. Discussion followed. All voted in favor and the motion carried
Chairman Moyer made the motion to charge the Solid Waste
Advisory Committee (SWAC) with coming up with a plan, based on the recycling
recommendations, as to how to deal with the recommendations, including the pros
and cons and the associated costs. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
These are issues in the
Strategic Plan.
Gary Tweed updated the
Board regarding the Mills River Sewer Project. The
Announcement
Gary Tweed informed the
Board that he received word just today that Jim Erwin, Utilities Director, has
announced his retirement effective January 1. They are in the process of
deciding what to do with that position.
Commissioner Young had
asked that this be put on the agenda. This was discussed at the last Public
Schools Joint Facilities Meeting and a diagram was distributed.
Chairman Moyer stated
that probably the most successful school design we’ve had has been the Clear
Creek design, which they are trying to use again whenever the site lends itself
to do so. They needed to go back this
far in the site to enable them to have the spread of the wings of the building
to make it work on the property. It also
gives a long enough access road to get school traffic off the main road and
onto school property.
Government Channel #11/WHKP
She called attention to
a document created by staff where each of these issues was listed on a table
with the current situation and alternatives.
She stressed that the number one issue seems to be emergency
broadcasting. Staff wished to assure the Board and the general public that the
county’s emergency operations plan (EOP) is an exceptional mechanism for
coordinating and disseminating emergency information. It is a good tool for us, with or without
WHKP’s audio broadcast on HCTV-11.
Staff requested no
action at this time but did want to get this information to the Commissioners
for review.
It was the consensus of
the Board to have staff draft a letter (formal RFP) based on prior discussions
about a proposal, send it to each of the two radio stations but allow the Board
to review it at the Jan. 18 meeting before it gets mailed. It will then be sent
to the radio stations to see what they are prepared to offer in the areas that
we want.
Carey McLelland hopes to
have some more detailed information for the Board at their Jan. 18 meeting but
today told them that things continue to improve. They are progressing and trying to get this
straightened out. It has been slow due
to the volume of patient calls. He
currently has two ladies on staff working on the Medicare and Medicaid
pass-through claims. They had a December
31 deadline. He estimated that they
filed or refilled somewhere between 1500 and 2000 Medicare/Medicaid claims by
the end of December. They got somewhere
between 98-99% of those pass-through claims filed by that deadline. There were
some they were still working on. They
had a
There was some
discussion of doing external audits of all our departments that handle any
cash, maybe every third year with internal audits yearly.
IMPORTANT DATES
Chairman Moyer stated
that the Board is set up and ready for the special called meeting on January 12
which will be a closed session for personnel reasons.
NCDOT now cannot meet on
January 19 so the Board needs to reschedule.
NCDOT would like to meet on the week of February 6. Chairman
Moyer made the motion to set a special called meeting for the
There was a need to set
a Public Hearing on Amendment to Special Use Permit Application#SUP-46-96-A3,
Four Seasons Hospice. Commissioner McGrady made the motion to set
the Public Hearing for February 6 (regularly scheduled meeting) at
CANE CREEK WATER & SEWER DISTRICT – no
business
CLOSED SESSION – none
ADJOURN
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to adjourn the meeting
at
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk
to the Board
William L. Moyer, Chairman