MINUTES

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

COUNTY OF HENDERSON FEBRUARY 8, 2007

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners met for a special called meeting at 9:00 a.m. in the Commissioners' Conference Room of the Henderson County Office Building. The purpose of the meeting was the annual NC DOT Public Hearing on Secondary Roads.

Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman Charlie Messer, Commissioner Larry Young, Commissioner Chuck McGrady, Commissioner Mark Williams, and Clerk to the Board Elizabeth W. Corn.

Also present were: Planners Autumn Radcliff and Anthony Printz.

CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME

Chairman Moyer called the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance. Chairman Moyer introduced our Board representative, Conrad Burrell.

PUBLIC HEARING – NC DOT Secondary Roads

Conrad Burrell addressed the Board and thanked them for allowing NCDOT to come and present their Secondary Road Program for the next fiscal year as well as receive comments from the public and the Board of Commissioners and answer any questions that they can. The program includes paving of unpaved roads and improvements of paved secondary roads. He introduced the NCDOT representatives in attendance as:

Joel Setzer, Division Engineer

Brian Burch, Division Maintenance Engineer

Mark Gibbs, District Engineer

Steve Cannon, County Maintenance Engineer

Mr. Burrell explained that Henderson County’s share of the secondary road construction and secondary trust money is $4,234,000 for the fiscal year of 2007. The proposed plan is based on the amount of DOT cash availability for this year. Following the presentation, the NCDOT representatives would like for the Board of County Commissioners to pass a resolution approving the proposed plan. Mr. Burrell recognized Joel Setzer to present the plan program.

Secondary Road Program – Calendar Year 2007

Joel Setzer stated that this is an annual event. He stated that a few years ago they started getting towards the end of the list of gravel roads in Henderson County that needed paved. The program is in the transition stage, having both unpaved roads to pave and paved roads that need improvements. As they began to get near the end of the list of unpaved roads needing paved, some folks have changed their mind and have agreed to donate right-of-way so that roads can be paved.

Mr. Setzer introduced a few more NCDOT folks:

Teddy Green, Head of right-of-way

Dale Davis, Right-of-way agent

Mr. Setzer stated that their office is in Sylva and they go out and get the right-of-ways for these projects.

Jabo Pressley, Supervisor in Henderson County, Maintenance

Mr. Setzer stated that they have a fairly ambitious year slated for the calendar year 2007. He stated that they plan on spending about $8.5 million in Henderson County this calendar year. Over the past couple of years NCDOT has been in a cash management situation where allocations have been on the books but if they had paid out all those allocations, they would not have been able to make payroll, pay contractors, pay vendors, and keep things going. They would have gotten into a no-cash situation. They have had to develop a cash management plan a couple of years ago and slowed things down a bit. The allocations were still on the books but the allocations were not there to match all those allocations. He was happy to say that they have eaten into some of that backlog of allocations in the past year and now have a pretty big year planned for Henderson County. He invited Mr. Gibbs forward to go into more detail about the program.

Mark Gibbs reviewed the 2-sheet hand-out, explaining that there is a balance carried forward from prior fiscal years of $6,434,969.00. This is down dramatically from previous years, having been as high as $12 million. They have expended quite a bit of that backlog money and plan on cutting into it significantly more in the up-coming year.

Gravel roads that are planned for paving, are in the process of paving, or were paved but have some minor things yet to be done as well as some that are just getting started:

SR#1572, Kyles Creek

SR#1734, Stepp Mill Road

SR#1703, Hog Rock Road

SR#1100, Gap Creek Road

SR#1816A, Mapleton Drive

SR#1836B, Pot Shoals Road & Camp Creek

SR#1114A, Pinnacle Mountain Road

SR#1114C, Pinnacle Mountain Road

Paved Roads that are scheduled for improvements:

SR#1722, Upward Road (Utility Relocations)

SR#1803, Crest Road

SR#1789, Allen Street

SR#1789, Allen Street (two different sections of the road)

SR#1726, Pace Road

SR#1417, Rugby Road

SR#1622, N. Clear Creek

SR#1807, Oak Grove Road

SR#1328, Turnpike Road

SR#1331, Banner Farm Road

SR#1314, Banner Farm Road (two different sections of the road)

SR#1426, School House Road

Little River Rd/Crab Creek Road Int.

SR#1133, Jeter Mtn./Crab Creek

SR#1793, Tracy Grove Road

1006, Howard Gap Road

1171, Cummings Road

$225,000 was taken from the pot of money for spot stabilization and used to cover some over-drafts for a couple of small construction projects that were worked on this past year. The two projects were the realignment of Erkwood Road (the curve near Mud Creek Baptist Church) and the extension of Fanning Bridge Road in Fletcher (to try to tie in with their overall development plan). A total of $4,950,000.00 of backlog monies are planned to be spent in this coming year.

Mr. Gibbs also reviewed the expenditures planned for this year’s money which is $4,234,683.00:

SR#1357, Rockwood Road

SR#1249, Glassy Mtn. Road

SR#1123, Little River Road

SR#1705, Blythe Stepp Road

SR#2161, Lloyd Drive

These are all unpaved roads, except for Little River Road, scheduled for paving. Little River Road is an enhancement project for the Village of Flat Rock. Howard Gap Road and Cummings Road are scheduled for paved road improvements. They are currently in the process of right-of-way acquisition on both projects. Some monies are planned for spot stabilization and for surveys. This year’s monies that are not programmed are $645,260.00 with $2,130,229.00 being deferred to future years.

Commissioners had some questions regarding when certain roads would be improved and how. DOT representatives up-dated the Board on those projects in question. Some were scheduled 10-15 years into the future.

Public Input

There was none.

Conrad Burrell, again, thanked the Board for the opportunity to come this morning. He reminded the Board that they handle ten counties. They do their best to try to get the monies needed to best help each of those counties.

Commissioner Chuck McGrady made the motion to approve the prepared resolution and attached program, as presented today. All voted in favor and the motion carried. Copies are attached as part of this set of minutes.

ADJOURN

Commissioner Charlie Messer made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:36 a.m. All voted in favor and the motion carried.

Attest:

Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer, Chairman