MINUTES
STATE
OF NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS
COUNTY
OF HENDERSON SEPTEMBER 20, 2004
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a regularly scheduled meeting at 6:00 p.m. in
the Commissioners' Conference Room of the Henderson County Office Building.
Those present were: Chairman Grady Hawkins, Vice-Chairman Larry
Young, Commissioner Bill Moyer, Commissioner Shannon Baldwin, County Manager David E. Nicholson, Assistant
County Manager Justin Hembree, County Attorney Angela S. Beeker, and Clerk to
the Board Elizabeth W. Corn.
Also present were:
Planning Director Karen C. Smith, Budget and Management Director Selena Coffey,
Paralegal Connie Rayfield, Public Information Officer Chris S. Coulson, Fire
Marshal/Emergency Management Coordinator Rocky Hyder, Finance Director J. Carey
McLelland, and Assistant County Attorney Russell Burrell. Deputy Clerk to the
Board Amy Brantley was present through nominations.
Absent was: Commissioner Charlie Messer.
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Hawkins called
the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Commissioner Moyer led
the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
INVOCATION
David Nicholson gave the
invocation.
STORM UPDATE
David Nicholson updated
the Board on some things that happened over the week-end. “We left here
Thursday with looking at the projections for the hurricane which seemed to be
going west of us and we said well maybe we’re gonna miss the worst part of this
event and then I guess late in the evening the Sheriff’s Department called
Rocky and said you need to open up the emergency operations center which we did
that evening and ran it until today. Just
to let the Board know that they actually contacted me about 1:00 on Friday
morning. I took the call from Rocky and
Terry Layne who were already at the emergency operations center and said ‘We
need to be in a position probably to declare a State of Emergency in Henderson
County’. I came in, I read the Code real
quick to see what I needed to do. Rocky
actually already had the forms all ready for me to look at and at 2:00 on
Friday morning we declared a ‘State of Emergency’. That was due to clearly the widespread danger
that we were having in our community as well as planning for the future as we
deal with getting some federal assistance in the community. We approached this storm I guess from two
standpoints, one is an operational standpoint and I’ll let Rocky talk a little
bit about that from a management standpoint and then we really did feel like
this was a good opportunity to really get out a considerable amount of public
information about this event which I and Chris Coulson took a strong lead on in
the process. We actually started issuing
Press Releases as early as 1:25 that morning and up through and including
today, trying to keep the public informed of what was happening in the
events. There was a substantial amount
of road closings, the operation of the shelter, those type of issues across the
community. I’ll remind you very quickly
that we had roughly half of Henderson County who was at least a minimum was
without power because of this event, if not a higher percentage. We had some flooding, not a lot of flooding,
but we had some flooding in areas that we would have expected to have flooding
in there but because of the substantial wind sheers that were associated with
this event, we had a lot of road coverage with trees and then we learned as we
went through the morning that more and more we were having damage to people’s
homes and of course the Board knows that this was a very tragic storm including
the loss of life. The folks of course
came in and we got the shelters up and operating, trying to give people a place
to go if their homes were damaged and we operated of course a shelter initially
at First Baptist Church with the hope that we could get their power turned on
very quickly. Unfortunately we were told
by Duke Power that was not going to happen and we eventually moved that shelter
to, working with the school system, to Upward Elementary School. We kept the shelter opened here across the street at the American Red Cross
Chapter for a considerable amount of time trying to deal with issues associated
with any kind of special needs but most of those folks were able to take care
of themselves. We were complicated
ourselves with all of a sudden with the lack of water pumping in the
Hendersonville system. We were having to
deal with trying to help Hendersonville get out information about boiling
water. We were dealing with food safety
issues, trying to get out information about food safety and dealing with the
fact that the power had been off for several days. We were pleased to be able to host Senator
Dole for a few hours, who came to the shelter at Upward Elementary School and
then we were able to take her out to show her some damage and at that point in
time we had not been declared a Federal Disaster Area and so we … to her to ask
her to ensure that that was what happened and it did the very next day.
I would say to you, come yesterday we were in
a position of really trying to deal with reassuring the community that people
were out there working. We were starting
to hear from folks ‘Well no one’s out there and my power’s not on. What do I do?’ those type of issues so we
kinda went into a reassuring mode, trying to deal with getting information from
Duke Power and Progress Energy to get out to the community to let people know
that there was a substantial amount of effort going on to do and then kind of
change into how are we going to handle the debris that is substantial across
our community and in talking with FEMA as of yesterday. I did want to mention, although I would say
to the Board, there were too numerous groups of people than really to mention
across the community who stepped up and helped with the issue. One of the things I was very impressed on is
I heard over and over where their own communities, neighborhoods put together
debris teams, people with chainsaws would help each other. They would help each other get debris off their
houses. It’s just good to live in a
community where that happened but from the standpoint of the shelter, the Red
Cross assisted of course with that process.
Some of the fire departments, just by natural right operated shelters
although Bat Cave had a formal shelter but many of the fire departments took
people in during the process. I
mentioned the First Baptist Church to you.
When we have a shelter like this we rely upon those folks from the Red
Cross but we also rely on our own staff.
The Board needs to recognize the fact that both Social Services and the
Health Department staffed those shelters on a 24 hour basis to assist, to give
people assistance in need so we appreciate the work of Public Health and Social
Services. There were also
representatives from the Sheriff’s VIP, a group who also helped with
those. We couldn’t appreciate more what
the school system did, they besides feeding folks at the shelter, they fed just
general people in the community who just needed a hot meal and then I think we
eventually fed a number of the workers in the process. Of course, a lot of folks responded from the
standpoint of emergency, Bell South, Duke Power brought in well over 1,000
extra folks to work in the community. If
you were that morning listening to, you know one or two o’clock in the morning
listening to radio and listening to the fine work that our Fire Departments and
the Rescue Squad was doing in the community.
We are just absolutely blessed to have those folks out there working on
a daily basis but you really take notice of them as part of this process. Of course EMS, the Sheriff’s Department and
those folks. The public works departments in the cities were just great to work
with. I will tell the Board we were able to, working with what used to be the
State Forest Service, I guess the Forest Resources now I believe, they
coordinated a number of DOC and Department of Corrections inmates to come in
and help with debris removal yesterday, trying to get and Duke Power assigned a
person to go with each one of those crews so they could see if a line was hot,
to be able to start cutting down the road which was pretty substantial so. I’ll let Rocky from a standpoint of what he
did and what he saw and operational standpoint, Rocky, and where we’re going,
where we are now and where we’re going in the future Rocky.”
Rocky Hyder, Emergency
Management Coordinator, “Certainly I can’t say enough about the efforts by all
involved, our emergency services, our county staff, clearly the business
community really came through for us in helping us resolve some logistical
problems, especially with feeding people, housing people. We set up several distribution points for
water and things like that to help people that are out of power, maybe on wells
and things like that. Cason Companies
came through to help us deliver that water because when you receive shipments
and palletized bulk shipments you gotta have a way to handle that and the
schools helped us with unloading those vehicles at their facility and then they
really chipped in to help us deliver that because they’ve got the equipment to
do that with. So that was an outstanding
effort there as well as our State resources that came in and helped us. We, as late as today, we actually had the
last crew working in the Town of Laurel Park trying to restore some type of
transportation system and power to that particular area. They were tremendously hard hit just because
of their geographical challenges they have.
You know they’ve got this mountain that kinda juts up right out of the
middle of the City and they certainly took the brunt of a lot of the winds that
were associated with this so I certainly want to say a big thank you to all of
those people.
As far as where we’re
going – we are entering what we refer to as the recovery stage so that people
are trying to get their lives back together as power consistently is restored
throughout the county. People are assessing
the damage and trying to deal with the issues that affected them personally or
their community. So tomorrow morning
we’re gonna have an applicant’s briefing for all the public assistant agencies,
that would be the county and all the municipalities within those counties and
we’ve already started efforts to make sure that people are aware of the 800
number to call for individual assistance so if your home has been damaged or
you’ve received some type of damage as a result of either Hurricane Frances or
Ivan, you can call 1-800-621-FEMA and start the application process there. I am currently trying to have a disaster
assistance center as well established in Hendersonville for those people;
however, that will not forego the necessity of calling the 1-800 number to
begin the application process so right now the word to me is because of the
three disasterous storms that have hit Florida and worked up through this area,
they’re kinda short on staff to open these disaster assistance centers and
they’re trying to do as much as they can electronically. So that’s what we’re working on at this point
as far as individual and recovery from the public perspective. We anticipate working through that for quite
some time.”
David Nicholson – “We’ll
be, as Rocky said, tomorrow getting up with FEMA and having a discussion about some
of those issues of particularly some of the debris clean-up. One of the things that I wish to ask the
Board tonight is from a standpoint of debris, NCDOT will pick up the debris
that is along the highways and they will bring it to our facility where we will
eventually – we’ll bring a tub grinder in but we’re gonna have a lot of
individuals who will – who are going to be coming to our solid waste facility
over the next couple of weeks and would – one of the things that we’ve talked
about is whether or not it would be appropriate for us to – not to charge those
people for the next – at least for a two-week time frame and then re-look at it
again. We’ll be in a position, we hope,
after tomorrow’s conversation to tell you that we think we can get reimbursed
for solid waste fees for that through FEMA but we don’t know that today. To be perfectly honest with you. That’s a question we’ll answer tomorrow but
we – our community has already started asking ‘how do we get these materials
out of our place, where can we take them to’ and I’d like to see us be
proactive on this issue and go ahead and – for what is clearly storm debris,
not other C & D landfill stuff that needs to be dealt with in the C & D
landfill, but for the brush clearly coming from the storm, is not to charge
individuals. We’ll track it and we’ll
know what it is and hope that FEMA will reimburse that cost to us but at this
point in time I’d ask the Board to allow us for a period of two weeks to – and
then we can update you at your next Commissioners’ Meeting about what the
status of that is and whether or not we need to continue it past a two-week
time frame, if that’s the Board – the Board agrees to that, we’ll certainly get
out that information as quickly as we possibly can and hopefully even as early
as tomorrow’s paper to let people know that they can bring it to the landfill –
if that’s – if you allow us to do that.
It’s the same thing we did when we had the ice storm, we had a
substantial amount of brush and damage and we did that and I think the
community accepted it very well so.”
Commissioner Baldwin
asked Mr. Nicholson to go into more detail as to what he means by materials as
a result of the flood.
Mr. Nicholson answered
that he meant brush and limbs. We grind
those and will have mulch available. We
will have to continue to charge for C & D (construction and demolition)
materials because we will have to either bury them or haul them off.
Chairman Hawkins made the motion to accept brush and debris
associated with wood debris (limbs, trees, tree trunks, and brush) at no
charge, for a period of two weeks and asked the County Manager to pursue
reimbursements from FEMA on that. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
The above motion is for
private individuals that bring these items into the landfill in a
non-commercial vehicle. Mr. Nicholson
stated that they would have to word this very carefully in the newspaper.
CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS
Chairman Hawkins
commended everyone for the action they took in a timely manner. He stressed that under the County Manager
form of government, when there is an emergency to be declared that is a
function of the County Manager. Some
different organization structures may have the Board of Commissioners involved
to a certain extent but that’s not the way our system is set up.
The County has a plan
which was executed very well. Chairman
Hawkins reminded everyone that the Board was presented a Hazardous Mitigation
Plan in December of 2003. Part of that Plan was the Floodplain Insurance. He stated that there are about 14,000 acres in
Henderson County that are in the 100 year floodplain. Of that 14,000 acres, about 5,000 of it is in
the municipalities, leaving about 9,000 acres in the county. We have about 626 residential dwellings in
the floodplain and about 76 commercial areas.
Henderson County does not have current floodplain maps, they are more
than 20 years old. We’ve been trying to
work with the State to update our floodplain map. The State starting redoing the floodplain
maps in the eastern part of the State and are now working in the Piedmont part
of the State.
Chairman Hawkins
informed those present that Commissioner Messer would not be present at the
meeting this evening as he is dealing with a weather-related death in the
family.
DISCUSSION/ADJUSTMENT OF AGENDA
Chairman Hawkins asked
what the pleasure of the Board was regarding closed session. Some members had expressed desire to have
that discussion when we have a full Board present.
Following some discussion,
Chairman Hawkins made the motion to
accept the agenda except delete the closed session. A vote was taken which passed three to one
with Commissioner Baldwin voting nay.
CONSENT AGENDA
Chairman Hawkins made the motion to approve the consent agenda
except for “B – Tax Collector’s Report”.
We have not received the
Tax Collector’s Report. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Minutes
Draft minutes were
presented for the Board’s review and approval of the following meeting(s):
August 18, 2004, regular meeting
Tax Collector’s Report
The report had not been
received.
Tax Releases
Stan Duncan, County
Assessor, had presented a list of forty (40) tax release requests for the
Board’s approval.
CDBG – Fair Housing Plan
Staff had presented
documentation for the Board’s approval for the Howard Gap Waterline CDBG
(community development block grant).
These were updates for the County’s Fair Housing Plan as approved in
recent years.
The County Manager
requested that the Board authorize the Chairman to execute the prepared
documents.
Water Line Extension for Edneyville Fire & Rescue
Department, Inc.
The City of
Hendersonville had requested County comments on a proposed water line extension
to serve the Edneyville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department on US 64
East. The project would extend a water
line from the existing water line on US 64 East into the fire station
property. A fire hydrant will be
installed near the fire station building.
The City of
Hendersonville’s Project Summary sheet and a County review sheet with staff
comments for the project were included for review and action.
NOMINATIONS
Notification of Vacancies
The Board was notified
of the following vacancies which will appear on the next agenda for
nominations:
1.
Blue
Ridge Community College Board of Trustees – 1 vac.
2.
Community
Child Protection Team – 6 vac.
3.
Environmental
Advisory Committee – 1 vac.
4.
Henderson
County Planning Board – 1 vac.
5.
Juvenile
Crime Prevention Council – 1 vac.
6.
Library
Board of Trustees – 1 vac.
7.
Western
Highlands LME – 1 vac.
Nominations
Chairman Hawkins
reminded the Board of the following vacancies and opened the floor to
nominations:
1.
Environmental Advisory
Committee – 1 vac.
There
were no nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
2.
Hendersonville Board of
Adjustment – 1 vac.
There
were no nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
3.
Juvenile Crime
Prevention Council – 4 vac.
There
were no nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
4.
Mountain Area Workforce
Development Board – 4 vac.
Chairman
Hawkins nominated Phil Webb for position #3, Paul Keating for position #1, and
Richard Raube for position #5. There
were no other nominations. Chairman Hawkins made the motion to accept
these nominees by acclamation. All voted
in favor and the motion carried.
5.
Planning for Older
Adults Block Grant Advisory Committee – 3 vac.
The
County Manager requested that the Board consider appointing William (Bill) Crisp
who is the Director of Apple Country Transportation.
Chairman
Hawkins placed Mr. Crisp’s name in nomination for position #14. There were no other nominees. Chairman Hawkins made the motion to accept
Mr. Crisp by acclamation. All voted in
favor and the motion carried.
6.
Senior Volunteer Services
Advisory Council – 1 vac.
There
were no nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
7.
Solid Waste Advisory
Committee – 1 vac.
There
were no nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
Cable Franchise Renewal Advisory Committee Charter
The franchise with
Mediacom will expire in September of 2006.
In March of this year, Mediacom and the Board of Commissioners agreed to
proceed with negotiations concerning the franchise on an informal basis, with
the understanding that either party could invoke the formal process at any
time.
Included for the Board’s
review was a proposed charter outlining the responsibilities of a cable
franchise renewal advisory committee, and a proposed informal renewal process.
Henderson County and
each of the municipalities (with the exception of Mills River for the time
being) has its own, stand-alone franchise with Mediacom. Henderson County’s franchise only governs
provision of cable television to persons residing within the unincorporated
areas of Henderson County (again with the exception of Mills River). Each municipality will negotiate their own
franchise with Mediacom. For this reason
the prepared charter has the committee
working with those municipalities requesting assistance with their public
education campaign and public input related to the needs of the stakeholders
within their municipalities, but not with the renegotiation of their
franchises.
The Board should be
aware that the proposed charter contains no directive to the committee to
investigate rates or programming, as these are two areas over which the County
has little to no authority over.
The County Manager
recommended that the Board approve the prepared charter and process.
Discussion included
members feeling that the Board of Commissioners should appoint six members
instead of five to the Advisory Committee. Chairman
Hawkins made the motion to accept the Charter and the process and that the
Board appoint six members from the un-incorporated area of the county. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
PARDEE HOSPITAL – Annual Report
Bob Goodwin, CEO of
Pardee, came forward. He echoed the
comments about the expertise and training of Mr. Rocky Hyder and many others in
the community and how incredibly the hospital benefited by them. He also praised the staff at Pardee for
handling their jobs in healthcare while dealing with personal storm
problems. There was a huge increase in
the number of persons coming through the emergency room, with both storm related
injuries as well as chronic medical conditions who were without power and
without support.
He presented the “2004
Hospital Annual Report”. The Board had
actually received the notebooks about a week ago for their review.
Mr. Goodwin touched on
some of the highlights of progress made in the past year:
Opened the helideck on top of the new ER construction
They have submitted and been approved for four additional
operating rooms
They became a smoke-free campus last year
They celebrated the 50th anniversary of Pardee
(1953-2003)
They opened the new Urgent Care Center in the old
Wal-Mart shopping center
They moved the outpatient rehabilitation services to the
new Urgent Care Center
They opened a new Urgent Care Center in Fletcher
They had their cancer services program reaccredited and
added computerized technologies
They began a valet parking system
Are working on a move for the main EMS station from
Pardee
Mr. Goodwin also
mentioned a few challenges facing Pardee (and other healthcare facilities):
A continued increase in population with a particular
emphysis on upper age patients
Mental
Health Reform (behavioral health) – this is probably the number one challenge
for 2004 and beyond
He stated that Pardee
continues to remain one of the strongest hospitals in Western North
Carolina. They have a very positive
relationship with their tertiary referral source at Mission. The hospital continues to be a successful entity.
Mr. Goodwin introduced
Pam Boer, Vice-President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Pardee, to
discuss numbers. She briefly reviewed some items in the September 2003
Audit. Due to GAZBY 14 the Auxiliary had
to be considered as a blended component unit of the hospital. That changed the
net assets and increased them by $316,000.
She stated that the Hospital Foundation is a blended component unit, as
they were last year.
The hospital and its
units generate over $104,500,000 in net revenues but due to the increased
expenses in benefits, employee expenses, malpractice insurance, and the cost of
the uninsured patients, net assets this year only increased by $1,600,000. Bad debt and charity care increased by 43%
from one fiscal year to the next, from $8,300,000 to $11,900,000. The debt from the 2001 revenue bond that was
floated of $15,300,000 has come down to about $14,800,000 and they are still
experiencing an excellent variable interest rate of 1.1% as of September 30,
2003.
Ms. Boer then addressed
the budget for fiscal year 2005. In the
budget their gross revenue is $234,000,000 with a net revenue of
$117,900,000. That’s a 5% price increase
and a 3% volume increase expected. The SNF or Skilled Nursing Facility revenue
went down by $2,900,000. She explained that is not really a decrease in the
revenue but rather the Pardee Care Center Lane Wing at the hospital is going to
move out to the Pardee Care Center this year.
The budget reflects the change, a reallocation from one line item to the
next. Bad debt and charity care is
expected to increase again to essentially $14,100,000 from the $13,200,000 they
expect this year. The payer mix
continues to change, Medicare patients increase and that is not as lucrative of
a payer mix as the commercial. Also the
self pay or private pay patients continue to increase. They continue to maintain a good financial
position with low debt with no financial contribution from the county. Their mission is excellence close to home and
they are abiding by that.
Both Mr. Goodwin and Ms.
Boer were present to answer questions.
INFORMAL PUBLIC COMMENTS
1.Mary Singleton – Ms. Singleton stated that she experienced going to Pardee
Hospital today and having valet parking which she felt was wonderful.
She is a retired
educator with the Henderson County Public School system. She spoke about school policy for children in
the special needs programs and how the programs relate to the “No Child Left
Behind” federal guidelines. She felt a
need for the Board of Public Education to amend their policies regarding these
children. She felt that some children in
the Henderson County Public Schools are being treated unfairly. Ms. Singleton
stated that Dr. Stephen Page, new School Superintendent, inherited this problem
and is in no way part of it.
PARTNERSHIP FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – Report
Scott Hamilton, from the
Chamber of Commerce, presented this report to the Board by Power Point
Presentation but also distributed a hard copy to each Commissioner. The Partnership for Economic Development is
the Economic Development Division of the
Greater Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce.
He recognized Chip
Gould, Immediate Past Chair of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic
Development; Bob Williford, President of the Greater Hendersonville Chamber of
Commerce; and Kyle Edney, Project Coordinator for Economic Development. They were all in attendance.
He broke this down
through some of the components identified through the Lockwood Green Report and
how they are responding.
They
have continued to be very proactive in North Carolina Economic Developers
Association (NCEDA) He serves on the statewide board and co-chairs the
legislative committee.
They
have participated in the Legislative Reception where they invited all the
members of the General Assembly to a reception through NCEDA in Raleigh.
EDAC
is the Economic Developers Advisory Council through Advantage West (the
Regional
Economic
Development Commission). They have
instituted a Planning Retreat. Two were
held over the past 2 years where the local developers provide information and
ideas for their plan of work for each of their fiscal years.
EDAC
Mission to Raleigh. They travel to
Raleigh once or twice a year, host meetings with the Western North Carolina
Legislative delegation, the North Carolina Department of Commerce and have
professional development seminars while in Raleigh.
They
have continued to work with the commercial Realtors in Henderson County and
regionally in Buncombe County regarding available buildings/sites.
This
was an important issue within the Lockwood Green Study. The challenges we faced were a lack of
product, lack of industrial buildings, available industrial sites. Currently we have 29 industrial buildings on
our available building inventory on our website and we have 23 sites. In the last six months they added 11
buildings but have removed 7 of those (7 buildings taken out of service, either
they had been filled or sold or they were no longer available). They added two sites and also removed one
because of someone purchasing the site.
Continued
work to identify appropriate and available industrial sites and buildings.
Aerial
Marketing Photographs – they have taken aerial photos of available industrial
buildings and sites in the county. They
are working with the Division of Community Assistance and the North Carolina
Department of Commerce on developing them into marketing material.
They
continue to make update on their websites.
They
are working on doing an upcoming building tour for partnership members and the
Board of Commissioners to tour and see what buildings are available in
Henderson County.
Another
main component, along with recruiting new industry, is working with the
existing industry.
They
have visited with 13 existing manufacturers in Henderson County this year.
(They operate on a calendar year). They visited with Continental Teves, Skyline
Plastics, G.E. Lighting, Kimberly Clark, Wilson Arts, Selee, PorVair.
When
Mills River was looking at their zoning, the change in zoning was going to impact
a couple of industries. They worked with
them to make sure that they were not negatively impacted on potential growth or
if the facility was sold that it could continue to operate as a manufacturing
concern.
They
have worked with another existing business – Immaculate Baking – on being sure
that they had a correct SIC or Standardized Industrial Classification Code for
them to be eligible to receive tax credits through the State for their growth
and investment in machinery and equipment and the potential for adding jobs.
This
year Chairman Leonard initiated moving their Board Meetings around to different
manufacturers. Their Board meets every
other month and so far this year they’ve held Board Meetings at Wilson Art,
General Electric, and Arvin Meritor. The
October Board Meeting will be at Continental Teves. This has proved to be very positive, both
with manufacturing and the Board, to be able to get them into these concerns to
see what is going on or how these industries impact our community and the positive
affect that they have.
He
compared 2003 totals to 2004 totals:
In
2003 they had 103 inquiries and have had 110 this year already. This does not include web inquiries.
In
2003 they worked with 9 projects and have already worked with 11 this year.
In
2003 The Warm Company was announced with a $3,000,000 investment, 16 jobs saved
and 6 new jobs. This year the Spearman
Furniture/Foods announced with a $1,000,000 investment, 1 jobs saved and 4 new
jobs. Pepsi has decided to locate their
new warehouse and distribution center in Henderson County with $6,000,000
investment and a transfer of 115 jobs.
Continued
follow-ups – are continuing to work with 39 companies.
They
have done targets Direct Mail Pieces.
They
have developed a Buildings/Sites publication.
They
will be contacting 985 companies in three different states in Medical Device
Manufacturing and Automotive Component Manufacturing to find out their interest
level of a new project, expansion, or relocation.
They’ve
worked with the State Chamber of Commerce (NCCBI) on an insert and community
profile of Henderson County and the development of a couple more marketing
brochures and their award winning series of marketing brochures.
They
have attended a number of different trade shows in partnership and
collaboration with their allies AdvantageWest.
They
have attended a Medical Device Manufacturing Show in the East and the West (2
different shows).
He
participated with NC Dept. of Commerce on a European Mission Trip. During that mission he called on a client
that is currently considering Henderson County as a location.
Carolina
West, a sub-regional organization in marketing that works in partnership with
the bigger region Advantage West, have done a number of different call missions
to the Detroit area. He leaves this week-end
to go to Toronto to follow-up on a number of calls they made last year.
They
will also attend the Canadian Manufacturing Week Trade Show and have set
appointments with exhibitors at that Trade Show.
Kyle
will be participating in early October with Advantage West at the Interbike
Trade Show (International Bicycle Expo.).
One of their target markets is the outdoor recreational equipment
manufacturer.
Mr.
Hamilton briefly discussed their website and the continued growth of it. As of October 2003 they experienced about
3,000 hits. As of July of 2004 they have
experienced about 5,500 hits.
Mr.
Hamilton briefly reviewed a graph on unemployment in Henderson County. In 1999 at the height of good productivity we
had an unemployment rate of 2.3%. In
2000 as we started going into a recession it dropped down to 2.1%. In 2001 it jumped to 3.3%. In 2002 it jumped up to 4.2%. In 2003 it
dropped down to 3.8%. In July of 2004,
for the month it was 2.9%. The 2004
average year to date unemployment rate was 3.3%. The unemployment rate on an average basis is
beginning to fall and come back down to numbers we are more used to seeing.
Commissioner Baldwin
questioned how the State averages compare to ours. Mr. Hamilton stated for the past two or three
months the State has fallen below the national unemployment average. For the three years of the economic downturn
or recession North Carolina’s unemployment rate exceeded the national
average. The past two or three months it
has been below the national average and it held steady at the same rate it was
last month. He explained that Henderson
County has continued to be below the State average. Our unemployment rate never exceeded the
state unemployment rate. Henderson County’s rate historically has always been
low compared to the state and it continues to be.
As of July 2004 the
available labor force in Henderson County was 44,784 total. The average annual manufacturing wage is
$40,924 yearly and $19.68 hourly. Mr.
Hamilton explained that the total number of NC unemployed workers in July 2004
were 211,068 and this number was down from 231,162 in June 2004.
He reviewed the number
of Henderson County manufacturing jobs (yearly):
1999
8,030
2000
7,979
2001
7,541
2002
7,181
2003
6,954
2004
Data
Not Yet Available
The amount of
unemployment insurance paid out in NC yearly was:
2001
944
million
2002
1.21
billion
2003
1.20
billion
The total unemployment
insurance collected over the last 12 months was $803 million but $1.05 billion
was paid out.
Mr. Hamilton explained
that they have a main domain for their web site which is
gohendersoncountync.org and then they have numerous other domain names. They can put the different domain names in
their advertisements and be able to track which ones people are visiting.
Mr. Hamilton thanked the
Board for their support of the Chamber’s efforts through the Lockwood Greene
Study, getting that going, the implementation of that, and the funding of
that. The Chamber has made significant
strides and are a very proactive organization.
The private sector has stepped up and been very gracious to help offset
the costs so the county itself doesn’t have to pick up all that cost.
There was some
discussion about the Board getting really serious about trying to recruit and
taking a more proactive role in having a partnership where we end up
controlling some of the sites.
DSS – Request for Positions
At a budget workshop
earlier this year, Social Services presented a request for additional staff and
legal services to the Board of Commissioners.
Since no funds were appropriated for these needs, the DSS Director
stated he would review the budget allocation to determine if funds could be
moved within the allocation to fund these important needs.
DSS Director, Liston
Smith, was present and informed the Board that he had made a recommendation to
the DSS Board, who approved the funding plan, which will enable establishing
8.5 child protective social work positions and provide for additional legal
services.
New State funds have been
allocated to Henderson County to fully cover the costs of four positions.
No additional County
funds were requested to cover the other 4.5 positions. These funds are within the Work First Block
Grant and made available by reallocating funds from Work First to Child
Protective Services.
Since the implementation
of Work First, the level of service demand for Work First has decreased 69%
while the level of service demand for child protective services has increased
103%. By statute, child protective services
are a “total agency responsibility” and the number one agency mandate. A significant growth in level of service
demand is evidenced by a 20% increase in community referrals and 113% increase
in the number of children in foster care.
This trend, primarily due to parent use of methamphetamine, is
anticipated to continue. This increased
legal demand would necessitate an additional staff person in the Henderson
County Legal Department.
The County Manager
supported the request from the Department of Social Services (DSS) and
recommended that the Board approve this request.
Following some
discussion, Chairman Hawkins made the
motion to approve these positions as requested.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
AMENDMENT – Animal Services Ordinance – First
Reading
Tom Bridges, Director of
Public Health, was requesting authority to respond to injured animal
calls. Several years ago, the Animal
Control Department responded to these calls; however, they have not provided
this service for the past few years. The
Public Health Department wishes to again respond to these animals.
A local non-profit
provided these services in the interim.
Staff had provided a
prepared amendment to Chapter 66A of the Henderson County Code which provides
for a change in our regulations. They
also provided a copy of the former internal procedures for handling these
calls. Mr. Nicholson reviewed these documents with the Board.
The County Manager
recommended that the Board approve this amendment. Since this is a “police power” ordinance, it
can be approved this evening with a unanimous vote. If not, it will again be presented at a
future meeting.
Mr. Bridges was not in
attendance. The Board had some question
for Mr. Bridges concerning the internal policies. This item will be placed back on the agenda
for the next meeting for the second reading and action.
Following discussion,
Commissioner Moyer requested the Board get something in writing from Mr.
Bridges with respect to the impact on the budget regarding this issue.
COUNTY SERVICES BUILDING
At the Board of
Commissioners meeting of September 7, 2004, the Board discussed concerns from
several departments over the lack of growth within the facility and parking.
Mr. Nicholson presented
a chart that staff developed that showed the number of parking spaces needed
for the facility. The chart shows the
current positions and the number of already planned growth positions (these are
for future staff but we have already designed office spaces). The chart then subtracts 80% of the time for
employees that are primarily in the field and fully subtracts employees that
are out-posted at other facilities. The
net number of staff spaces, including the planned growth, is 238. According to the parking plan, there is a
minimum of 373 spaces with the possibility of going to 390 spaces. This means
that at a minimum there would be 135 spaces for customers throughout the day.
The Board also requested
that representatives from Calloway, Johnson, Moore & West (CJMW) review the
project schedule. The Board was given a
letter from CJMW concerning this issue.
It appears that they believe that the schedule that they presented to
the Board in April can only be slightly altered.
Mr. Nicholson reminded
the Board that this building will need to be financed in 2005 since we have no
additional funds budgeted for debt service.
He recommended that we need to develop a larger financing package that
includes the other projects included in the Capital Improvement Plan. This financing package would include Dana
Elementary – Phase 1, Hillandale Elementary, land for a new elementary school
and the County Services Building. By
combining these projects into one financing effort, we will save on the
issuance cost.
There was considerable
discussion concerning parking with Mr. Nicholson reviewing a position analysis
for the departments that will be located in the new building broken down into:
Current positions
Planned
growth
Field positions
Out-posted positions
Mr. Nicholson, Carey
McLelland, and Angela Beeker plan to go to an LGC (Local Government Commission)
meeting to discuss financing on September 28.
They plan to talk to them about how to put this financing package
together because the school projects are multi-year projects.
Commissioner Baldwin
asked potential incoming Commissioner Chuck McGrady to come to the podium and
give his opinion of the issue.
Commissioner Baldwin –
“Chuck, based on what you’ve heard here this evening, what are your thoughts on
the numbers with respect to this facility?”
Chuck McGrady – “I share
Mr. Moyer’s concerns generally about the parking. I understand the math but I share those
concerns and with respect to the expansion issue, I haven’t looked at all the
departments. I do serve on the DSS Board
and you’ve just approved a number of new positions in DSS which will fill in
some of the places that are – some place holders in DSS and again assuming that
the building takes another year or two to complete. My understanding from the discussion we had
at the DSS Board meeting was that we would anticipate that pretty much all the
space that is present in the present plan would be filled up to that point in
time . Now there is a large unallocated
slot that my guess we ought to go ahead and build out a little bit more and I
think DSS in a letter before your last meeting asked for a designation of some
of that unallocated spot to DSS. I can’t
speak to the – you know I haven’t spoken to the Health Department Board or any
of the others and know whether they are in the same position that DSS is but I
would suggest that at the very least when they put together the plans with
respect to the Social Services Department that they in fact add more space
there for expansion. I have talked to one
or two of the Health Department Board members and they raise the same issue but
you’ve got a mixture of Health Department Board, some new people, and it’s unclear to me you know where
the Health Department Board is at this time.
They have told me they had not seen the plans so I don’t know – you know
I don’t know if they’re in a position to judge that. We have, that is the Social Services Board.”
Break
Chairman Hawkins called
a short technical break to change videotapes.
Chairman Hawkins called
the meeting back to order.
There continued to be
some discussion regarding the site plan and the parking issue as well as
planned growth space.
Commissioner Young
raised the question of what the cost would be to raise another floor on this
building just as an open space to be developed at a future date.
Alan McGuinn, one of the
architects on the project, stated that
he didn’t have the figure but could approximate that it would cost about half
the cost you would normally spend in upbidding or about $50 a square foot.
Commissioner Young
stated that there could be additional parking across the Old Spartanburg
Highway. He stated he would like to
think we’re building a building with the space we will need to have for the
next 50 years.
IMPORTANT DATES
The Board reviewed their
calendar.
The County Manager
informed the Board that the LGCCA meeting scheduled for tomorrow, has been
canceled. There were no additions or
changes to the calendar.
CANE CREEK WATER & SEWER DISTRICT – no
business
ADJOURN
There being no further
business to come before the Board, Chairman Hawkins adjourned the meeting.
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk
to the Board Grady Hawkins, Chairman