Board of County Commissioners | Regular Meeting | July 14, 2025

001I now call the July 14th, 2025 regular meeting of the Union County Board of Commissioners to order. Chair Merryill is unable to attend the meeting this evening. So, in accordance with the board's rules of procedure, I am acting chair in her absence. At this time, we'll take a moment for the invocation. Please join me if you're so inclined. Dear heavenly father, Lord, we just want to thank you Lord for all the blessings um on our families, on our county, on our state, and also on our nation. Lord, we want to thank you for the opportunity to uh to gather here today to conduct the county's business. Lord, we also ask for your wisdom and your guidance uh during this meeting. Lord, allow us to make wise decisions on behalf of the residents. For it's in

002Jesus name we do pray. Amen. >> Amen. Please join me for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The next item on our agenda is informal comments from the community and our first speaker. Well, hang on one second here. Madam chair, is anyone signed up for informal comments? >> Thank you. Okay. Um, so we'll recognize the speakers that have signed up for informal comments. Um, just as a reminder, each speaker must address the board from the lectern and begin their remarks by giving their name, stating whether they are residents of Union County, indicating the municipality within which they reside, if any. Each speaker will have three minutes to make remarks.

003A tone may sound at the conclusion of your remarks. A speaker may not yield any of his or her time to another speaker. Speakers may discuss matters which are the subject of public hearings uh or I'm sorry may not discuss matters which are the subject of public hearings. They must be courteous in their language and presentation. Restatements or repetitive comments by the same speaker whether uh at the same or separate meetings may be ruled out of order and terminated by the chair. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Speakers may leave written comments and/or supporting documents, if any, with the clerk to the board. Our first speaker tonight is Ashika Allen. >> Hello, my name is Ashika Allen. I am a sorry, my name is Ashika Allen. I am a um resident of Union County. I've

004been here about four years. Um I am here today to address the issue that we have on Stack Road. I moved there about four years ago. We have whales, but my whale is very low producing. Um I either have low water or no water. I'm also unable to run my filtration system that is set up in my home because I do not have adequate water to supply my house and run the system. When my whale was initially tested back in 2021, the arsenic level was well over the allowable limit that can be there. But I now am showering along with my children in chlorinated water because we had to replace our pump and wiring in the well over the weekend that cost me well over $7,000. >> Um, and the water is chlorinated because they

005did that and I don't have the water supply to clear the issue. Um my neighbor is also here um who has also put in um drums in his garage to even supply to be able to try to take showers on a daily basis flushing toilets. My other neighbors are also experiencing the same issue. There is a line on Stack Road, but it stops at the two houses at the end of our street. the five houses after we have whales that are not producing enough for us to be able to do anything in our homes. So, I am pleading with the county to extend this line that we may be able to live and have water in our houses because we do not have that. And I do have a letter here for my other neighbor

006who is unable to be here. We have all signed and are on board with getting county water if that is something that is able to be done. >> Can I give this to just >> Yes, ma'am. You can give that to staff. >> Thank you. Our next speaker tonight is Kelly O'Neal. My name is Kelly O'Neal. I'm a former um resident of Stallings. Um I stand before you today not just as a concerned citizen, but as a grieving mother of a 10-year-old daughter who has not been allowed any contact with her mother for 624 days now. At the heart of every child welfare system lies a sacred principle, best interest of the child. This isn't just a legal phrase. It's a very promise we make to our most vulnerable. A promise that their safety, stability,

007and well-being will be the paramount consideration in every decision a parent makes about their lives. For my daughter, that promise wasn't just broken, it was shattered by the very institution sworn to uphold it. In my own case, stemming from Union County DSS and currently under review in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, I've witnessed a profound beta betrayal of the best interest principle. Despite an initial recommendation for inhome services, my case was questionably escalated to court. Why? Because I'm a parent with a diagnosed mental health condition. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with mental health conditions are protected class. Yet I was subjected to prejudice and a presumption of incapac incapacity based solely on my diagnosis, not on any objective evidence or harm to my child. This is a clear violation of federal law

008designed to protect me and families like me. The relentless focus on my diagnosis wasn't just scrutiny. It was dehumanization. It reduced me from a loving, capable mother to a label, stripping away my parental rights, my home, my property, and my life savings. It established a dangerous precedent that a diagnosis rather than an actual risk or parenting ability can be used to tear families apart. The courts and social services made serious civil right violations. My constitutional rights, including my right to a fair trial and effective assistance of counsel, were denied. The very foundation of our justice system, ensuring every individual is treated equitably under the law, was broken. The state of North Carolina through its agents removing a child from a home without just cause based on prejudice. The best interest of a child was completely

009inverted. Instead of protecting my daughter Morris stability and primary attachment, the system actively disrupted it, placing her in a potentially less stable environment while dismantling a secure one. This is not how we protect our children. This is how we traumatize them. I'm here today to demand accountability and an investigation of my case. Let us recommmit to the true best interest of the child, ensuring no family suffers such injustice again. Thank you. Okay, our next speaker, and I apologize if I get this wrong, um, but Teresa, is it Clawson by chance? >> Good evening. My name is Teresa Clawson. I live in the little town of Nunville, North Carolina. And I'm here because in December 2021, I went through the short water line water extension program and I'm still waiting patiently for water. Uh most of

010you probably don't know. I know you don't know me because every one of you are new on this board from the time I first came here. I've been trying to get county water for 42 years. I've lived in this county. all my life and paid county taxes for 42 years. And how would you like to be standing in a shower fully soaked down and you run out of water and you have to jump out of the shower, cut your water off, grab your towel, probably too much information, and you have to run. You have to run because you have to buy water to the kitchen to get water. And it ain't going to take one gallon of water to wash this body off. It takes several gallons. So, I run out of water. I've been

011told not to drink my water, not to bathe in my water. I don't even cook in my water. If I make anything to take anybody, I have to buy purified water and distilled water. A lot of my neighbors are in the same predicament I am. They run out of water. It seems like since it's developed in our neighborhood, the water's got worse over the years. It runs I can't do two loads of clothes a day and I'm out of water. Um, my husband, my poor husband, the great man, has to go out to the well every three weeks, clean the water filters. We're buying water filters. Uh, I've gone through four well pumps, five hot water heaters. We've replaced the pipe from the whale to the house, which was astronomical. We've had to replace the

012pipe going up to the well because the water ate the pipe. I've been told and I had our water tested and I've been told that we had one person holding us up on our road for a ride away, but I think that matter may been resolved. But all I'm asking is don't forget us people on Sykes Mill Road that's been waiting patiently for 42 years for water that's been promised by sorry I'm not trying to talk bad about the previous commissioners but I'm talking about from the time I've been up coming up this place since 1985 and I moved in my house on August the 17th 1984 and our water is you can't stand to smell mail it. You know exactly when you got to change the filter. And all I'm asking is, plus my

013sister's house burnt down two years ago. If we had had county water on that road like we were promised, she could have might have been able to save some. She lost everything, but the shirts, whatever they had on their back and their two dogs, they were able to get out and one vehicle. They lost everything. And if the trucks ran out of water, they had to go two miles to get water, a mile and a half, they went to two different they drained the water out trying to put the fire out. The house burned down in less than 30 minutes, everything. But the rest I'm speaking here on the behalf of we've had I think 26 applicants. They all have paid, most of them have, I'm pretty sure at least probably 90% of them have

014paid the fees that they told to pay to be able to connect to the county water. And here it is, what is today? July 15th, 2025, and we turned this in December 13, 2021. So all I'm asking is when you come up for the next year's budget, don't forget us on Sight Mill Road because we are desperately needing water. I am pleading for water. I been told by a previous commissioner, why don't you sell your home? Well, my dad gave me my land and I honor family land and I could put my house up for sale. Ain't nobody going to buy my house. Not with the bad water I got. But not only that, when I went and built that home, my husband and I had all intentions of living there till the day we

015die. And so all I'm asking you is please don't cut us out of getting county water. >> Thank you, Miss Clawson. We we do have an a business item, a business agenda item tonight regarding the short waterline extension program. So that may that may be of interest for you to stick around and and uh take a part in that. >> Thank you ma'am. I appreciate it. >> Okay. So are there any other speakers who have not signed up who wish to speak tonight? >> Yes, sir. Come up to the podium. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to speak now or when reszoning. >> Okay. So, yes, if you've got some comments regarding a um conditional resoning that's on our agenda for tonight, then you need to reserve those comments for those items. >> Okay. So,

016I will get to speak then. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> May I speak? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> My name is Fred Hurl. I am Mishha's neighbor. Um I lived three houses down from her. Uh moved in about the same time and live on Stack Road just south of Lansford. Uh in the four years we've been there, the first two years were fine. No water problems. Took a tub when you wanted to, did the wash when you wanted to. Uh but now since uh the last year we've had three water outages. Um where the oil just ran dry. And that's the first after the first one, I put in the extra tanks that uh were supposed to store uh 150 gallons of extra water. Uh fill up when

017the when the opportunity arose. Uh we ran out of water last Thanksgiving. We ran out of water on Easter. Um today, my wife and I went to the laundromat in Monroe and did five loads of wash because we don't dare do our wash at home. Uh the bathroom smell because we don't flush all the time because we don't have enough water. Um there's three adults in our house. It's a four bedroomedroom house which should be zoned for water usage for at least three adults with no problems. Um and the bottom line is just like the previous speaker, we want to get access to uh short lines if that's possible. I know it's not in the budget this year, but um apparently we're not the only ones with water problems, but it's there. And um anything

018uh I've spent, by the way, $7,000 out of pocket, $7,500 out of pocket for a new pump, uh for water testing because somebody told me we probably had a water leak and that was the reason for the the the outage and the water test proved we didn't have a leak. Um, and my wife and I, uh, you lady talked about selling the house. Realistically speaking, if I sell my house, I have to tell the pro anybody online disclosures, I got a water problem. You'll be lucky to get water. So, I'm not going to be able to sell my house. So, I guess my question is since I didn't even know we had arsenic until 7 days after we moved in and we're drinking the water, all right, for seven days, my wife, my daughter, myself,

019my dogs drinking that water with arsenic in it. Now, obviously that need a long-term exposure to arsenic, so it's probably not bad. But nobody told us there was no there was a problem with it. And I have four filters in my house right now. two for arsenic, one for soft water, and one for the horrific odor. And on average, I give up 93 gallons of water a day to cleaning the the what they call it, a back uh uh water uh clean or regeneration. So, the filters will continue to work. So, I lose 93 gallons of water a day on average. Last night, one of my arsenic filters regenerated. I'm sorry. and it took me an extra 80 gallons. So, we couldn't do the dishes last night and I couldn't shower last night after working

020outside all day in the yard. So, anything you can do to help would be much appreciated. Thank you. >> Thanks, sir. >> Are there any additional folks out there that want to speak tonight? >> Good evening. My name is Karen Green. I'm from town of Unionville. Um I'm also here about water. Um my house is the house that burned up. Honestly, I don't know that if there was water close by that it would have helped because it started from the attic down. I'm not looking for sympathy or anything like that. I just know that we've paid and we paid over three years ago going on four and our money is tied up. We have water one mile on each side of us. Why can't it be extended down to us? I know my sister's put

021over 50 grand so far in her system. I've bought two water systems. Um, I was able to salvage my second one because it was under the house and I'm able to use it. I don't have it as bad as her. I do have decent well water. I'm able to wash clothes and continue to go about my normaly of life. A lot of the neighbors aren't. And um, we just don't want to be forgot. We'd like when the guy there was a guy I don't know what his name was. My husband talked to him out doing the surveying for the waterline and he told my husband that we should start seeing some action by June. That was over a year ago. Um so we we just don't want to be forgot. um been a lifelong residence

022of Unionville and um worked hard all my life, lost everything in 30 minutes and I'm trying to build my life back and I would like to have some decent water. So, thank you for your time and um y'all have a good evening and God bless you all. >> Thank you, ma'am. Okay. So, the next four items on on our agenda are public hearings. Three for proposed resonings and one for a proposed economic development incentive. Before opening the public the first public hearing, I will read the rules that will apply uh to members of the public for all of these public hearings. Each speaker must address the board from the lectern and begin their remarks by giving their name stating whether they are residents of Union County indicating the municipality within which they reside if any.

023Each speaker will have three minutes to make remarks. A tone may sound at the conclusion of your remarks. A speaker may not yield any of his or her time to another speaker. Speakers shall limit their remarks to the subject of the public hearing. Speakers may leave written comments and or support supporting uh documents if any with the clerk to the board. The first public hearing is item 25409 for reszoning petition uh 2025-RZ-006 needm. I will open the public hearing and recognize Bujorn Hansen, senior planner for brief comments from county staff. I think we'll go without the big screen even Mr. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Manager Matthews, this is uh 2025-RZ-006, the Nem resoning. I want to note that this is a a straight reszoning. There are no conditions associated with it. It's to

024reszone a overall a 42 acre parcel in the New Salem Township, but only approximately 1 acre of it is actually being reszoned. It's a combination of RA40 and light industrial. And uh because of this there's no conditions associated with it. So this is um in the northeastern part of the county. The area on the upper left is what was originally a grain facility for um selling crops and it was zoned light industrial when zoning was initiated. Uh you can see an agricultural area north of the site. Opposite of the site is a a gas station that's 218. Then looking west, more agricultural land. So this one acre parcel was uh discovered by the owners a few months ago when they tried to um subdivide this 1acre parcel and sell it and uh deter found out

025that it the property was split zoned which didn't allow the subdivision. So they're going through this process in order to allow them to um split off the portion with the house and then um keep the remainder. So now you can see the parcel. This is the intersection with the um gas station here. There's a lake on site. Otherwise, it's large lot residential and agriculture in the area. You can see the farmland here on site. There's a stream paralleling 218 with a a pond. Terms of zoning the area. This is where you can see the light industrial portion of the overall site. So if this were approved by the board, this light blue area would go away and it all be zoned RA40 and they could subdivide that portion of the parcel. Terms of transportation, very

026low volumes in the area, approximately 2100 vehicles per day on 218, not even 200 on Jerusalem Church, and there's no funded project in the vicinity. Terms of the land use map, the area is recommended for rural residential. So this resoning would be consistent with that and because it's only one acre, the school system was not consulted and uh water and sewer are not available. They would utilize well and septic service for any subsequent development. Community meeting was not required. We haven't received any comments from anyone and because of the distance to the nearest municipality, Fair View was not consulted. We'll note that there is there is a lack of industrial zone property in the county. So eliminating that is a negative. Um and it does give flexibility for the property to have industrial zoning. However,

027the positives are it's consistent with the plan. It's not going to create a significant traffic impact. is going to help the property owners with their immediate plans and it helps complexity for future development by eliminating split zonings which is something we used to allow and tried to get away from that. So, we recommend approval and the planning board um unanimously recommended approval. I'm here to answer any questions they may have. The applicant is also here to answer any questions that you may have. >> Thank you, Bejorn. Um, if the applicant is here, does the applicant want to provide any kind of comments? >> My name is Carl Nadam. I've lived in Union County a little over 30 years. Lived 21 years in Unionville. Been at current address on Highway 218, Olive Branch for 9 and

028a half years. We bought the property 9 and a half years ago. the farm consisting of 42 1/2 acres. We had the house sold with approximately 2 and 1/2 acres and found out May 28th when we were supposed to get a closure, we couldn't sell the house because the house is built on a third of the light industrial lot. Same surveyor, same everything's nine and a half years ago. I asked him, I said, "Why was it not a problem then?" He said, "Well, there wasn't a lender involved. We paid cash for the property and moved in and that was the end of that. So, I'd like to get uh approximately one acre of land zoned residential so we can go ahead and sell a house and move to the beach. And the young lady, you

029know, just thank the Lord that she's still interested in a house. She's here tonight if she'd like to speak and was able to continue living where she's living for two months. and still wants to bite. >> Thanks, sir. Okay. Uh um has anyone signed up to speak at this public hearing for this matter? I don't have any. >> I didn't get to sign up, but I would like to >> Sure. Absolutely. Come forward. Hi. Um, my name is Amanda Nelson. I am currently a resident of Meckllinmberg County. I am attempting to become a resident of Union County. Um, I didn't trust myself to say what I wanted to say on the spot. It's highly emotional, right? Um, so I I wrote something last week. It's super quick. Um, but to just kind of encompass everything

030that I wanted to say. Um, so my name's Amanda Nelson. I'm the buyer. My son's name is Jack and he's 10 years old. We are very much looking forward to being a part of this community. This house is perfect for us in every way. Over the last couple of months, we've cultivated a close friendship with the buyers, Carl and Cindy. Carl, who you just spoke with. Um, my son became fast friends with their grandson, who will be our next door neighbor. Um, we originally were supposed to close on May 29th, but discovered the zoning issue on May 19th, which obviously severely delayed our ability to get moved in and settled. Given that we're in mid July, and I could have facts not straight, still learning this process. Um, but the next meeting isn't until August

03111th. I'm deeply worried about having enough time to get moved in, settled, and my son enrolled in school. I'm also trying to be sensitive to the fact that this is a big change for him and I want him to have a chance to catch his breath and acclimate to his new environment before being thrust into a new school with all new people. Um, this is without consideration for other things I need to establish for him such as doctors, dentists, and all the other things. Um, if for any reason you decided not to approve, I have very little to no time to figure out where we're going to live before this school year commences. Um, we're not able to continue renting the home that we currently live in, nor do we have any family nearby. Our

032family is about four four and a half hours away. Um, I can't begin to describe how much this possibility terrifies me. Um, as a parent, it's my job to provide stability among many other things. Um, and as a single parent, that responsibility falls squarely on my shoulders. Um, I'm not sure if our dreams are about to come true or if I am about to fail him in a way that I never could have imagined. Um, so for all these reasons, I wanted to ask if you would please consider making a decision tonight so that I at least have a little bit of time to make alternate plans if this is not going to work out. Um, that's it. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for allowing me to speak. >> Thank

033you. Are there any other speakers that would like to comment on this public hearing? Can Can I finish set up? I forgot that uh we're not leaving Union County. We're only selling the house in two and 3/4 acres. So, we need we need that one acre reszone to be able to sell the house. We'll still own 40 acres. My wife's son lives right across the pond with the grandkids and everything. We plan on building a house back there, too. So, we're not leaving Union County. We still going to be here with you. >> All right. Thanks, sir. Commissioner Helms. >> Yes. >> Uh, pursuant to rule 29, I move that we move on this item for business for action for business for action tonight. >> Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Helms. >> Do do you need

034a vote on that to move it to the business agenda? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, Commissioner Helms, I'd like to make a motion that we move this item um 24-49, the public hearing for reszoning petition 25 RZ00006 needm to the business section of the agenda tonight, sir. >> I'll second. >> All right. So, we've got a motion. Any discussion on that motion? >> All those in favor? >> I >> All right. So, we will move that to the business section. >> Okay. Yeah, we'll we'll move that to the first business item under the business business agenda. Thank you, Commissioner Helms. >> Okay. Um I will no now close this public hearing. The next public hearing on our agenda is item 25-410 for reszoning petition 2024-CZ-0104 Rivers. I will open the public hearing and again recognize

035Bjorn Hansen for brief comments from county staff. >> Good evening again. This is the four rivers resoning named for the applicant. This is a conditional resoning. So there are uh site plan and list of uses associated with this. This takes two parcels totaling approximately 4 and a half acres. Um right at 485 I think it's at lawyers road at the interchange. Um from R20 to B4 with conditions it's for interior um storage facility totaling approximately 80,000 square feet. I will note that when you see the map, there's going to be a sliver of land on the west side of Allen Black Road that's not part of this resoning. Gives them flexibility in the future if that wants to be consolidated with another property and that this can meet all of our requirements of the unified

036development ordinance. So, this is the site plan. Here's here's um Lawyers Road 485 is like right here. This is Allen Black. This is Pleasant Run entrance into a recently built age restricted development. So this property actually has frontage on three roads. This parcel on the corner is a residence. It's not a part of the reasonzoning and uh the access would be from Allen Black Road and this is a funded widening project on Lawyers Road. It already has adequate rightway so no additional rightway was requested as a part of this. But the good thing is the building is far enough away so that even if the project gets complicated um this resoning won't impact the viability of that project. So existing conditions um wooded the house on site see Allen Black two-lane road the neighborhood recently

037built and then Lawyers Road with a lot of traffic 485 in the distance. Terms of development status, a lot of uh residential single family development nearby. Commercial node down here with a shopping center. And then the the county line is right here. Terms of environmental features, there's a man-made pond on site that's going to be used as part of their storm water facility. Otherwise, there's no flood planes or streams on the site. And I failed to mention this black area over here. This would be the halfacre. That's not going to be a part of the reasoning. So give them flexibility in the future if there's other development that could occur. Terms of zoning, the grayed out areas is inside the town of Stallings. This is all zoned um R20. And then to the north, we

038had a a conditional zoning that was done several years ago as a part of this um development. So this is actually still an unincorporated Union County. Terms of transportation, there's a lot going on. You have the widening of Lawyers Road down to Stevens Mill right here. This is actually one of our critical intersections. Says 2030, you know how schedules are. So, it's it's funded for improvement to widen it to four lanes. Um Allen Black carries approximately 1300 vehicles per day and uh the lawyers road segment is about 17,000 vehicles per day. So, it's in need of widening. Terms of the land use map. I want to note that this dot for the um neighborhood center commercial node, it's kind of arbitrary. When you're talking about a county of over 600 square miles, 100 or 200

039yards might not mean a lot. But when you're talking about the precision of this specific intersection, whether this um circle encompasses these particular parcels being reszoned or not, you have to apply some judgment. And part of our recommendation and justification for recommending approval is we think that because of the proximity to 485, this commercial center does apply to this intersection and these parcels. So otherwise it's it's identified as rural residential, which is a recognition of um not having utilities, but they're able to access because this property actually got access from from Meckllinmberg County, which made it much more viable. terms of schools and utilities, uh this is commercial, so the school system was not consulted and in terms of utilities, public water and sewer are available to the site. So a community meeting was required

040and held in May. Uh seven members of the public attended. They asked questions about um cleaning up some of the adjacent properties that weren't a part of this development, so couldn't be addressed through that. But they asked about lighting, the storm water pond feature, whether it was going to be a fountain, for example, and signage. Um, no changes were made as a result of that site plan. No one spoke for or against at the land use board meeting. Stallings was consulted for comments. Um, their town council didn't support this resoning, wanted it to be left uh either residential or undeveloped. Didn't want commercial adjacent to that residential development. their land use plan doesn't make a a recommendation for this area because it's outside the town limits. So, they don't necessarily have something to point to

041to say what they would recommend it to be. terms of the positives and negatives from the staff perspective. Um the land use plan strictly interpreting the map recommends is rural residential with a neighborhood center 1,000 ft away and the commercial technically doesn't encompass this uh parcel or these two parcels. So therefore shouldn't be reszoned to commercial. How as well as the um Allen Black Road corridor transitions to rural residential fairly quickly away from Lawyers Road. So this could incentivize further commercial development up that road. However, we identified quite a few positives that the the neighborhood center should be interpreted as covering these properties that it's within a thousand feet of an interchange to 45. So rural residential is not necessarily appropriate. uh the parcels front on three roads which again makes residential especially large lot

042residential not really uh viable long term. It can meet our development standards. It is similar in use to other commercial um developments nearby and it provides a use that is um supportive for residential development. A lot of times you find people struggling for storage uh when they are live in a a more dense residential area. So, we recommended approval and the planning board unanimously recommended approval at their meeting. I'm happy to answer any questions and the applicant is also up here. >> Would the applicant like to come up and say some comments? >> Good evening, vice chair, commissioners. Britney Linds with the law firm of Alexander Ricks, um resident of Mecklberg County. I do have a presentation slides. I can be very brief with them. Um, is it loaded on here? >> I'll let you

043do it. I don't want to. >> And I'll skip through to some of the pretty pictures. Bejorn did a great job of kind of orienting you to the site and um talking through the land use plan. So, if it's okay with you guys, I'm happy to answer questions, but I'll I'll skip through some of the intro slides for you. Um, oh, and I meant to mention with me tonight is Brick Bryant with Four Rivers Property Group. Um, so he's also happy to help answer questions especially specific to the Four Rivers group. Um, zooming in on the property location, we're outside of Stallings. Um, don't need annexation into Stallings, don't need their utilities, anything like that. So, we feel confident in um, keeping this as a Union County project. Um, two parcels as um, Mr. Hansen

044outlined. Um, that shows kind of a good outline of the site. We're happy to have staff support. We're happy that the land use policy map there is justification for this commercial use. Um here is our site plan. This is just kind of the the two-dimensional version where you can see that our only access point is off of Allen Black. So keeping a strong streetscape along Lawyers Road. It's um pushed back from the road. There'll be a streetcape. There'll be um significant landscaping and buffering and then along Pleasant Run as well. Um keeping the building really contained in the middle of the site. This kind of shows it more as an aerial. Um, again, the neighborhood to the back here, this is that newer senior living um, community or I guess um, age restricted community. We've

045met with them multiple times um, and have been really uh, had a good working relationship with them. I think that it speaks numbers that there weren't any it wasn't any opposition at the land use board. Um, we I think I have a slide the dates that we went and met with them, but we've been engaging with the community beyond just the required community meeting. Um, a couple highlights. We're over 600 feet from the nearest home. So, really kind of keeping this condensed. Um, there's the dense landscape bumper buffer as I mentioned, so you're really not going to see much of the building. Um, the great thing about self- storage facilities that are these kind of newer self- storage is you can make them look like just about anything. So they can look like um you

046know a really attractive brick building. Um the projected traffic impacts um the the traffic numbers actually they make me laugh because no one goes and visits their storage unit every day, right? So 7 a.m. peak hour trips, 12 p um pm trips. That's pretty insignificant. It's probably even less than that. Um and then projected impacts of another retail use that could be on the site. Um over 50 in the AM and 160 in the evening. So comparatively, we're not bringing traffic to the site. We can bring an attractive building to the site um and engage the site, kind of bring the streetscape up to um a higher aesthetic standard. This facility would not be open 24 hours a day. It's not going to have the old rollup windows. It's not, you know, those the old

047orange ones that you'd see in industrial zoning districts. This is a nicel looking building um with class A glass up front, professionally managed um and some strict standards of what can be there. No hazardous materials. So, um, here's some concept elevations. You can see the the changing of building materials, the brick on the bottom, the building articulation, and then the elevation, that east elevation is the one that you look at from Lawyers Road. So, you see kind of the glass front that looks like a retail building, but again, doesn't have the traffic of a retail building. >> Could Could I inter interrupt you along the way to expedite things? Oh, sure. >> So, to my understand the newer concept of a climate controlled That's right. storage. We're not going to see a bunch of RVs

048parked out front, big semiis parked out front with only rivers, that kind of thing. Okay. >> Yes, exactly. Um, so here's a picture of the building. It doesn't represent the landscaping, but just the building itself. >> Um, and this kind of shows you from the elevation from Lawyers Road. Again, the glass in the front and hides most of the building from the back. Um, it would be climate controlled. It is those newer buildings that, you know, people even store their wine in it sometimes. So um this is an example of what Four Rivers has done uh nearby. So again this is national tenant that um has the security and the ability to manage it. Um and then the building articulation. Uh I'll skip through again. Brick Brian is here from Four Rivers. Happy to talk

049through um their track record of of doing these types of uses and these types of um developments. But um I'll wrap up just by saying we we'd had a lot of community outreach um and we um are excited about this project and hope that you are too. >> Some of these spaces besides storage offer small business uh office type uh rentals. Is that envisioned as part of the the project? >> It's not for this one. And part of the reason is access. So keeping the access off Allen Brack rather than having curb cuts on Lawyers Road. Kind of being conscious of that. And then also just you know the traffic concerns. Okay, that makes sense. >> Any other questions for the applicant? >> How many actual uh uh storage units will you have available? >>

050You know, I don't know that it's an 80,000 foot building. I don't know if they've parcelled it out enough to know >> 7 to 800 units. >> So, really more smaller scale units. You're not you're not storing huge items in there. >> Any additional questions? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Thank you, ma'am. >> Um, I do not have anyone signed up to speak on this public hearing. I'll open it up to the public. So, if there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this public hearing, u please approach the podium. Seeing none, um if there's no speakers for this public hearing, then I will now close the public hearing. The third public hearing on our agenda is item 25-411 for reszoning petition 2025-CZ-003 TKC land. I will open the public hearing and

051once again recognize Bjorn Hansen for brief comments from county staff. All yours be warned. >> Thank you again. This will be the the third hearing. This is a called the TKC land resoning for the applicant's name. Again, this is a conditional resoning. One parcel on 601 south of Monroe. Uh requesting reszoning from RA40 to B4 with conditions. It's to put in a 12,000 give or take square foot um discount retail store. They would construct improvements to 601 as required by the NC DOT 5-year vesting and they could meet all requirements of our UDO. This is the site plan. This is 601 Monroe's several miles to the north target road uh immediately to the north. There's a truck stop Kitty Corner to this intersection. So, they would have access on 601. see the modifications to the

052um U-turn that's allowed or the left turn that's allowed on 601. It would be too difficult to be able to cross over and get into that lane. So DOT has asked for that to be extended to preclude that. So you have to travel to the north approximately a half mile to make your U-turn if you need to go south towards South Carolina. But this is the the layout. You have parking. um you have a septic field um because they don't have access to sewer. Detention pond required and that's the overall site plan. So in terms of existing conditions um the driveway would be just immediately to the north of this barrier. Um ideally it would be further to the south but you can see the topography is extremely challenging. So they asked for the driveway

053to be a little bit further to the north. You can see the truck stop on the opposite side of 601 uh on target road. This is the closest residence right there. And then opposite is large lot residential as well. Terms of development status uh you can see that this area is forested. There's a lot of agricultural land nearby. Large lot residential. Terms of environmental features, there's nothing on site. The the nearest stream is immediately to the south. Otherwise, it's a forested property. And you can see the U-turn to the north that they would use to be able to travel to the south. Terms of zoning, it's all RA40 with the exception of the the truck stop on the other side of the road. And transportation, there's no funded projects in the area. It's about 14,000

054vehicles a day on 601 and less than a thousand on target road. And the only access would be on 601. the land use map. You see a little bit of green off to the east and that's because the purple is an employment corridor overlay. So that overlays rural residential. So if you have access to 601, you're in a good position to request some some sort of commercial or or industrial use. Um it radiates away from 601 as you don't have access to that corridor and then it becomes rural residential as you're away from there because it's commercial request. school system was not installed or it was not consulted. Public waters available but they would utilize septic service. Community meeting was held in May. One resident attended. They were supportive of it. We haven't received any

055other comments for or against. Um no one spoke at the land use board meeting last month and because of the several mile distance to Monroe, Monroe was not consulted for comments. So um terms of the negative this is an employment corridor which means office industrial aggra business things like that if if the corridor became all retail and and um restaurants and things like that that would undermine the intent. Uh US 601 doesn't exist to be a retail strip mall. that exists for employment uses, but residential as a limited use along the corridor would be appropriate and obviously it's going to add traffic. So if you have too many that could undermine the usefulness of 601, but there are several positives um that limited retail as a part of the employment corridor is appropriate. This fronts

056two roads, meaning that um residential uses aren't as aren't as appropriate as commercial considering buffering and and traffic. uh there's already commercial at the adjacent um side of this intersection makes it more appropriate and they can meet our development standards. So we recommend approval and the planning board also recommended approval on a unanimous vote and the applicant is also here to answer any questions that you may have as well as I >> thank you Bjorn. Um if the applicant is here and would like to provide comments please come forward. Hi there, Beth Godfrey and I am a um resident of Union County thankfully. Um just a couple quick notes. I um am with the Keith Corporation. We we are out of Charlotte um but we've developed quite a bit in Union County over the years.

057Um couple notes on this application. We did go through the controlled access um process with DOT and they have approved it condition on us buying the property. So we shifted the driveway. Currently it's a little closer to target road. It exists today. We're moving it a bit further south um because DOT requested us to do that. Um but they have approved that. The other thing I wanted to note is this Dollar General is going to be their new market concept. It's going to provide fresh um vegetables and meats closer to the residents um versus having to go into Monroe and congest Monroe more. So just wanted to point that out. But if you guys have any questions, let me know. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions for the applicant or Bejorn? Is this a

058um larger footprint than a standard Dollar General since it's offering the additional product? >> It's one of their prototypes. Um they have three um and this is their larger one. It's technically 12,480, but this is for a little bit more. I think it's outside walls. So, >> all right. Thank you, ma'am. >> Um I do not have anybody signed up to speak for this public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to provide comments? Yes, sir. >> My name is Tim Kazaya. I reside in Unionville and uh my brother Zayn and I uh own property that adjoins this site and uh we 100% support uh their effort to bring a Dollar General fresh market to southern Union County. And I would like to ask y'all to be smarter than Unionville and please

059approve this project. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kazayiah. Anyone else in the audience would like to provide comments on this public hearing. Okay, seeing none, then we will I will close this public hearing. >> Thank you, Bujorn. busy night for you this this evening. >> Okay. So, our final public hearing for on on the agenda is item 25-424 for a step four economic development incentive grant request to a confidential company project 7. I will open the public hearing and recognize Ron May, economic development director for brief comments from county staff. Thank you, Ron. >> Chairman Helms, commissioners, manager Matthews. Thank you very much. Um, it's my pleasure to bring before you this evening an economic development incentive grant request for a confidential company referred to as project 7. While we typically disclose the

060company name uh at this stage, confidentiality remains necessary as the project is still under review for state level incentives. If awarded by the state, the governor's office will make the initial public announcement, which we do expect to occur soon. We began discussions with Project 7 this past spring and has spent the last few months working closely with the company to understand the scope and potential impact of this opportunity. At this point, I'd like to share some of the key details that we've confirmed. First, Project 7 is an existing employer in Union County with a corporate parent headquartered in another state. The company produces advanced high-tech products that are shipped to customers around the world. Rising global demand has outpaced its current production cap capacity. The parent company is considering locations in two other states in

061addition to Union County for this expansion. The proposed project involves constructing a new 100,000 square foot facility on land the company already owns in unincorporated Union County. The facility would house highly sophisticated processing equipment. In fact, the most advanced of its kind. Total capital investment is projected at $200 million. I'll say that again. Total capital investment is projected at $200 million. marking the largest single manufacturing investment in Union County's history. The expansion would also create 70 new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $75,000 plus full benefits. And that adds over $5 million in new payroll. And of special note here is we have confirmed with the company that currently 44% of the company's workforce lives in Union County. So that would ensure that these new wages will have a direct and meaningful impact

062on our community. To support Union County's competitiveness for this project, we are requesting a step four economic development incentive grant up to $4,860,000 paid over seven years beginning in fiscal year 2028. This extended term rather than the typical five years reflects the scale and the quality of the proposed investment. In return, the project is is expected to generate $6,80,000 in advorum taxes uh during the grant period. And of course, actual tax revenue will depend on the current tax rate applied to the assessed value of the investment each year with the consideration to annual depreciation. So given the historic nature of this investment and its strong economic impact, the Union County Economic Development Department recommends approval of this grant to help secure Project 7's $200 million expansion here in Union County. And at this time, I'd

063be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you, >> Commissioner SS. >> Uh Ron, do you can you disclose anything about the u uh decision time frame? how quickly this might uh we might see this come to fruition. >> We anticipate within the next really four to six weeks. >> So fast >> fairly fairly quick. >> Mr. M. I have I have a question. Um once this is approved and the state announces the grant, how soon will um project 7 be able to start moving from the ground up? Do we have any ETA on what the company is saying how quick they can start? >> Yes. Yes. Um company has shared with me that no later than fourth quarter of this year if not sooner. >> So yeah, >> any other questions?

064>> I I would just say thank thank you Ron. Uh thank you for bringing this. I mean, obviously this is a huge opportunity um for Union County and um and certainly appreciate, you know, your efforts as well as your team's efforts on doing this. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. So, I don't have anyone signed up to speak on this public hearing. Um I'll address the audience and ask if there's anyone out in the audience that would like to speak. Commissioner SS, >> I'm sorry for I forgot to ask this, Ron. If this this particular project is approved and moved forward, will the applicant then be landlocked and or is there a possibility of future expansion upon expansion at this current at this particular site? >> This particular site would still have I

065would say 70 to 80 acres on which they could expand. So, they're definitely not landlocked. Okay. Thank you. So this might be this might not be the last we see today. >> That is that's a very high possibility of that. >> Thank you. >> All right. So once again, I'll open the uh the public hearing to anyone that that may want to speak in the audience. Is there anyone out in the audience that would like to speak or make comments? Seeing none, then I'll close the public hearing. Um so for our next item it would be staff recognition I believe but if there's no object object objection uh staff has requested that we move item 25-449 related to public communications department awards to a future meeting uh for recognition of public communication staff at that

066time. >> Any objections? >> No objection. >> All right. So now it's time for consideration of the agenda, the consent agenda. Are there any motions regarding requested revisions or amendments to either the consent agenda or the business agenda? And I will remind the board that we did move that one item um our first res resoning, the need resoning to the first business item. >> I'll make the motion that we approve the agenda and the consent agenda as amended. >> Thank you, Commissioner Helms. >> Second. >> All right, so we've got a motion. All those in favor? >> I. >> Commissioner Helms, your motion was intended to approve the items on the consent agenda. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> Are we good, Mr. K? Do we need a revote there? >> No,

067I think I think we're good. Okay. >> Thanks, sir. >> All right. So, we are now at the business portion of our agenda. The first item of business is item 25. Oh, hang on. Sorry. We've got a revision. So, the first item is actually going to be >> Yep. Item 25-49. That is the need reszoning. >> Commissioner Helms. >> Yes, Commissioner Helms. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the reszoning 24-49 uh RZ-00006. Um let me read this correctly. Hold on. Um I make a motion that we adopt the ordinance approve revision of the official zoning map of Union County, North Carolina and adoption of the consist consistency and reasonable statement for approval. >> All right. Thank you, Commissioner Helms. We have a motion. Any discussion on that motion? >> I second. >>

068Seeing no discussion. Um, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you. >> That good. >> It did. >> All right. Um, the next item on our agenda is item 25-42. Uh, conditional resoning 20 2025-CZ-002 Gordon. I will recognize Bjornne Hansen once again, Mr. Hansen, um, senior planner for brief comments concerning this item. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is >> something that you saw last month. I'll do a a short refresher, but we're asking for a decision on this resoning for approximate 3 acre parcel portion of a parcel up of Mary Elizabeth Church uh south of Waxaw. This is for Light Industrial to support an automotive repair operation. the remainder of the parcel would remain with the house which is off the property to the north. Um some of the property

069is legal non-conforming and so it's already being used for storing vehicles and equipment otherwise large lot residential forested area. And again this from an aerial perspective this is what it did look like. This is to address a zoning compliance issue that was identified uh when it was a larger disturbed area for the uh vehicle equipment storage. And so um staff recommended denial, planning board recommended denial on a 4 to3 vote. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. The applicant is also here. >> Thank you, Bujorn. Any questions for view on this item or the applicant? >> Any questions? >> Um, no questions, but I would like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the ordinance approving revision in the official zoning map of Union County,

070North Carolina, and adopt a consistency and reasonleness statement for approval. Thank you, Commissioner Balkcom. So, we have a motion. Any discussion on the motion? Um, I'll just say that, you know, I did over the weekend um go out to this site and um I I got to see the the site firsthand and I am of the opinion that um that this reszoning will actually um you know, better that property. It's going to offer some improvements to that property. And so I'll be in support of the motion. If there's no discussion from the board, then you know we'll go ahead and call the vote. All those in favor? >> Thank you. All right. So, our next agenda item is item 25-425, consideration of a step 4 economic development incentive grant request for a confidential company project

0717. I will again recognize Ron Male, economic development director for this item. >> Chairman Helms, commissioners, I'd be happy to answer any further questions that you have. Thank you, Ron. Any additional questions for Ron? So, um, so Ron, I've just got some comments here. Um, obviously, you know, again, this is a great opportunity for Union County. Um, I think to your point earlier, this is the largest opportunity that we've had. So, >> yes. >> Um, so again, you know, great job. I you know obviously this is this is huge and and we certainly appreciate the efforts that you and your team make. Um I would actually make a request from staff regarding somewhat regarding this. I would like to um you know possibly hear more about the economic development team's um you know progress you

072know the things that you guys are working on maybe at a future meeting um where you guys could just come in and maybe update the board on you know what you've achieved at this point. >> Yes. >> And I will leave that at the county manager's discretion. But I think that that would be beneficial not only for the board but for the public as well. >> We would welcome that. Thank you, sir. >> Are there any motions regarding this item? >> Do you just need to approve it? >> Okay. So, Commissioner, >> you can make a motion to approve the action requested in that item. >> Okay. >> Yes, Commissioner Helms. Um, I make a motion that we approve agenda item 24 or excuse me 25-425 um to um award step 4 economic development incentive

073grant to a confidential company project 7 in the amount not to exceed 4,860,000 over a 7-year period and to authorize a county manager to negotiate and execute and agree substantially consistent with this agenda item and exercise and renew any extens ention terms options set forth in the agreement and terminate the agreement if deemed in the best interest of the county at the county manager's discretion. >> Thank you, Commissioner Elms. >> Got it all in there. >> Appreciate you. >> All right. Thank you. All right. So, we have a motion. All those in favor or any discussion on that motion? >> Commissioner, >> I'm in favor. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I >> Thank you. >> All right. The next item of business is item 25-381, presentation on the short waterline extension program,

074FY22 and FY23 projects. Um, I will recognize Thomas Man, uh, CIP program manager concerning this item. >> Thank you, commissioners. Uh Ron's got a given me a tough act to follow. I don't have a $200 million investment to discuss tonight, so uh but bear with me. Um so again, thank you for your time this evening. Uh here to provide an update on the FY22 and FY23 uh short waterline extension program. Uh and and needing some some future direction from the board, not necessarily asking for direction uh tonight. Recognize you guys probably need some time to discuss and think on things. Uh but just want to kind of tee that up that that there are a couple of items at the end that we will need some future direction on. So as far as the agenda

075goes, going to quickly give an update or overview of the the 22 and 23 programs. Uh some may not be as familiar um with those projects uh since they were approved a couple of boards ago. Uh then we'll talk a little bit about the uh easement acquisition for the FY22 projects. uh we'll dive into some funding uh things on 22 and 23. Uh kind of wrap up with a a overall summary of the the entire program funding and then again I'll we'll talk about the the items that we're going to need some future direction on. So the overview of the program. So the map you're looking at here is the FY22 projects. Uh all the color you see in blue is where we have existing water lines throughout the county. Uh the lines you see

076in red were all of the applicants for the FY22 program. Uh we had quite a few applicants as part of that application period. And then the dots that you see, the pink, green, orange, and blue are the selected projects with the colors of the dots corresponding to to the the phase of the FY22 program that they were a part of. uh with them kind of divvied up uh based on geography as well as the the overall project footage where each phase comp uh comprises about three miles of of water line. So that's kind of the rationale on how those projects were divided up as far as some statistics on the program. So we ultimately ended up with 85 applicants that confirmed their participation in the program by paying the the pertinent fees that were required

077to move forward. We did divide it up into four phases. I won't run through all the roads uh as part of each of the phases, but I will highlight that we do have a couple of locations that there are some easements that still need to be acquired. That's the Sykes Mill Road project on phase A and then the Morgan Mill Road, Zebulon Williams Road, and Hegler Road on phase B. That's a mouthful. Um so we'll talk a little bit more about those easements uh here in a in a few more slides. So I'll pause there. Any any questions on the overview for the 22 program? All right. So, the project timeline uh we did receive applications in the fall of 2021. Uh all of these applications were were scored and evaluated. Uh we did receive

078over a 100 applications as part of that period. So, it took quite a bit of time for staff to evaluate each of those applications and and score them uh to bring to the board for recommendation of approval. Uh as part of that approval process, the the next step after the board gave preliminary approval was that the applicants had to pay fees to confirm their participation in the program. So we got that done in the summer of 22. Not everyone unfortunately chose to pay fees to participate to move forward. So, we brought back the updated revised projects uh to show kind of some of the changes that had been made where folks did chose not to move forward and we brought that to the board for approval in the fall of 2022. Uh the next step

079would be to move forward with the the design of the projects. We did have to pause that for a period of time uh as the the board was overall discussions on the the capital program funding uh which direction was given as part of the budget approval for the um FY24 uh capital program which would have been in the summer of 2023. Uh so with the funding approved to move forward with the design of the projects uh we we got the engineering task orders approved by the board uh late summer of 2023 and and started the design process. Uh current status of the projects are um as I mentioned earlier phase A and phase B we're still working to wrap up some easements. Uh phase C and phase D the bids have been awarded for those

080projects and we're moving into construction on those projects. to uh say all that to say it does take a little bit of time uh to get projects from the application period to when we're actually installing water lines in the ground. The FY23 program uh again the maps similar to to what we've previously looked at. We did receive quite a few less applications. Uh well testing was required as part of the FY23 application period which is why we think we saw a pretty significant drop in applications though the county did pay for uh the well testing for those applicants. So again you have two phases phase A and phase B. Those are split up fairly equally in terms of total total overall footage and tried to to split them up as well in a geographical way

081that made sense. Um, so those are the selected applicants that we've been working on. Um, for FY23, uh, the 23 23 program, as I said, it was a bit reduced from the 22 program. Uh, we ultimately ended up with 34 applicants. They comprise two phases. Uh, I've got the project locations listed here. I won't run through each of them. Uh, but I'll make note that we are still uh, in the final stages of design for those projects, and we'll look at the timeline here in just a second. So again, uh we received applications in the fall of 2022 for those projects. Uh we did not move forward with any evaluations of those projects until uh the same board discussions were had as it revolved around the the capital program and funding was committed to to

082move those projects forward in the summer of 2023. We brought those projects to the board in the fall of 23 for approval and to start the the payment period for applicants to confirm their participation. Uh we received payments for those applicants in the spring of 24 and again u not everyone chose to move forward with their project. So projects were revised accordingly. We brought the revised projects back to the board in the summer of 24 for approval and then moved forward with the design task orders late summer of 2024. And as I said, we're a little over 12 months in and we're we're wrapping up the design of the projects and we'll be looking to move forward with the permitting and any easement needs that may be needed for the project. So, I'll pause there

083for any questions on the overall project timelines for FY22 and FY23. We're good. All right. So, as I mentioned, we do have some easement acquisition that we're still working on as part of the FY22 program. Um, so in phase A, we've got the Sykes Mill Road project, and that's the the Pink Dodcon in the northern part of the county. And then actually fairly nearby, you've also got the the Morgan Mill Road project that still uh needs several easements before we can move forward with with bidding those projects. So that's just to give you a layout of kind of where those projects are located in the county. As far as our easement process goes, the the county does have a a property acquisition policy that we do follow uh in order to acquire these easements. Um,

084so the first step in that process is to mail an initial notice to the affected property owners to let them know that we are moving forward with this project and we will need an easement from them. Just a very brief introduction to what the project is and what its purpose is. We did that in October of 24 after the design was wrapped up and we we had identified what easements would be needed. The second mail out in November of 24 is to make them aware of a upcoming public meeting that they can participate in uh to answer any questions they may have and and allow us to kind of explain the details of the acquisition process, kind of what the next steps would be. Uh also November 24, we did have the the public meeting.

085uh that was a virtual meeting which has become typical for our way of handling these meetings uh to make it more convenient for property owners to be able to attend instead of having to come say here to the government center uh where may be a little bit more of an inconvenience for them. Uh we completed the appraisals and sent out the uh acquisition packages to each of the property owners um so they would have that information on what the the appraised value of the easement was with next step instructions on how if they were agreeable to granting the easement for for the appraised value uh on the next steps on executing those easements uh so that the county can move forward with having those easements recorded. Uh in instances where we weren't able to or

086did not get a response from a property owner after we mailed them the packages, there was a third mail out with the same information again just in case it got lost in the mail or someone was unable to um have time to to take a look at it. Uh if we still didn't receive a response from folks, then we followed up with one final courtesy call to see if they uh received the package and were would be willing to meet with us to to go over that. Ironically, um, mobile phones make that step in the process more cumbersome than it was 25 years ago, right? They they make us accessible almost any in anything else in in today's world, but it makes it actually more difficult uh for us to get a hold of property

087owners if we've not made contact because very few folks have landlines where you can just look their phone number up in the uh in the phone book. So, if you don't catch them at their property or they or they don't respond to the mailouts, it does make it quite challenging to to get a hold of them. Um, at any rate, uh, for the easements that we were not able to acquire through our normal process, the next step is refer them to the attorney, uh, which those were, uh, ready for attorney referral in April of 2025. At that point, the decision was made, uh, to present this information to the board for some some future direction on how we move forward. uh because once the attorneys are involved that the next step in that process would

088be uh condemnation approval request if the attorney is not able to negotiate a settlement ahead of that. So, any questions on the easement acquisition process? All right. So, uh the impacted projects, this is the Sykesville Road project. The image on the left shows the the entire layout of the project. The parcels highlighted in blue are the applicant parcels. Uh the one parcel in red is the one parcel we have not been able to obtain an easement from. Uh the blown up image on the right shows kind of zoomed in on that location based on where that easement falls at uh at the intersection of of Sykes Mill and Cla Long, it really only impacts the one applicant there uh circled in yellow. Um the the issue that we've had with that easement is is to

089date we had not received any response from uh the property owner. I know there may have been some attempts uh some miscommunication maybe where they did reach out to our easement agent. I I do not have record of that. Not saying it didn't happen, but the information we were provided at the time that the packet was handed over to us did not include that. Yes, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> I did speak with the gentleman today and um he expressed to me that he had some questions. >> Yes. >> And that he he never got feedback from the body he was questioning and that his word to me was he wants what's best for the community and he may even want to tap on himself. He probably will tap on himself. >> That would be

090that would be great. come. So, unfortunately, sometimes we're trying to track property owners down that there there ends up being a break in communication, I guess. So, certainly if if he's willing to discuss, we would we would love to sit down with him and answer any questions he may have and hopefully uh acquire the easement. So, >> Thomas, I've got a question before you move on. >> So, looking at this phase A here at Sykes Mill, >> how many properties here would be in this group? So there were 16 applicants. So 15 of the 16 would not be impacted by this easement. But you know, obviously typically we wait to have all the easements so we can do the entire project. So we've got the one applicant there that's impacted by this easement. Um if

091and if and when we're able to acquire it, then then all 16 would be able to be served by the project. So, so assuming that we've got a verbal commitment from um from this one property owner regarding that easement, we would be able to service all 16 of these properties. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. >> That's good. Okay. Thank you. >> I have one quick question. Um at Miss U Green's property, um parcel I think it's 24, there's a house just beyond that. Would that house be able to be serviced as well? cuz I believe that's part of their f and I just know this just from living out in this area. >> So just so I understand it would be more further along clong away from Sykes Mill. >> So no it would

092not because the the short water line program we stop at the last parcel along a segment of a project that someone applied for. Okay. Now, it would make it, you know, having the water line up to that parcel would make it easier for it to be extended in the future. Um, either through our new development process or if we were to have a future waterline extension program. Um, but it would not serve that parcel. We do have to put I guess boundaries on on the project uh at a certain point. So >> I I just have one uh this is more an observation before joining this board as part of the short line program I noticed people have given their agreement to easement even paid fees but in the end some 25% of applicants never

093actually tapped on. So, I'm I'm assuming we have um increased uh or intensified the robust uh confirmation that if we're going through all this, you're going to tap on, right? You're going to uh get it get with the program. >> Yes, sir. So, historically, prior to the the FY22 and FY23 programs, the fees were fairly nominal. um they had to pay a a nominal tap fee that was not say a couple hundred bucks to somebody's not a sign amount of money but not the type of fees that folks are paying now >> they can walk away from >> that that is correct so I I can't say that that is the case or why that was u but I do think uh the the way the new process works folks do have to put a

094lot of leg work in upfront and so they make that commitment they they pay a fairly significant amount of money uh to confirm their participation so I wouldn't anticipate that being the case going forward but Obviously, I don't know until we >> the water lines are constructed and and folks have connected. So, >> one other thing we did change, >> so it used to be uh we would extend the water lines and then folks would pay their meter fee to have their meter installed in order to make the process a little more administrator friendly. All of the fees are paid up front as part of their commitment. And so when the water line's installed, the meters will go in. >> Okay. >> And and we will we will that person at that point will be

095considered a customer. So that is one of the things we did do to address that partially. >> That that help that helps my question because so you basically doubled their commitment by saying >> that's right. >> You not only have you paid your fees, we're bringing your meter out tomorrow. >> That's right. >> Great. Thank you. Just a question. Are we at a point where I can make a motion? >> I would recommend we wait till we get through the um presentation for all of it if you don't mind. >> I'm a little antsy, so I'll wait. All right. Well, I I will try to move move a little quickly for you. Okay. >> All right. Uh moving on to the the Morgan Mills section. So, again, lots of parcels in blue. We ultimately ended

096up with 12 applicants that paid fees and and chose to remain a part of the program. There were a few applicants that ultimately when it came time to pay fees chose not to participate. Completely understandable. Uh the the four parcels in red identify and the fourth one is a very small parcel. So it's kind of hard to see up there at Hegler Road. Uh but those are the locations that we still have outstanding easement needs for. In each of those instances, those are temporary bore pit easements where we need to bore a the water man underneath the road. Um the reasons we have not been able to acquire those easements kind of run the gamut. Uh we do have one parcel that has been non-responsive to all communication attempts. We do have two parcels actually

097owned by the same family uh that just had some concerns about some of the language in the easement document at the staff level. We do not have the authority to change that document. uh that could be changed by council, but but we do not have that authority. And and then one parcel had some overall concerns about the the project and and was not agreeable to move forward at this point. Thank you, Thomas. I think we're all good. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Uh, one other thing I wanted to to go back to about when we install the meters. So, the county's responsibility stops at the meter. So, once the meters are installed, the the individual property owner will have to install their service line from their meter to connect to their home. So, I did

098want to clarify that since I left that out a minute ago. So, >> so, can we go back here? So we've got essentially four easements here and how many properties are >> so all tw all 12 of the applicants would be impacted because the the parcel at the intersection of Watson Church and Morgan Mill basically if you can't get that easement it stops the rest of the project and and all of the applicants are beyond that point. >> Okay. So, so essentially none of this can be served until we get the easement situation taken care of >> and and then you could still be in an instance where if you get that easement, you can do a portion of the project, but if you don't get the easements further north along Morgan Mill, then that

099impacts some of those applicants. So, um, you know, our typical approach is we get all of the easements and then we move forward with construction. >> Sure. Thank you. >> So, just an overall summary, we kind of talked about this, so I'll run through this real quick, but on the Sykes Mill, one of the applicants is impacted. Uh we're not proposing to cut that from the project, but if the easement was not acquired, which it sounds like that's not going to be the case, uh it would result in a a reduction of the overall cost estimate of the project of a little over $100,000. On the Morgan Mill, as we just noted, uh if we can't get those easements, that impacts all of the applicants, which would result in in the that entire project location

100not moving forward, which is about $3.26 million uh in reduction of the overall program cost. So just did want to point that out that those are the potential implications if those projects were not to move forward. So uh that's kind of a nice segue to funding. Uh so this table here uh is an overall listing of all of the projects. I'm not going to go through all the details of this. It's more just for documentation if you had specific questions that you wanted to hone in uh on on your own or or we can certainly here. But basically want to point out at the very bottom uh the summary totals. So the the links and cost estimate in black were the original links and estimates uh when the final confirmation for the projects were made

101to move forward uh several years ago. uh subsequently where we find ourselves today uh we've seen a significant increase in costs and we can talk more about that in a in a future slide that what those reasons are there's several factors that contribute to that uh but I did want to point out uh that is a a big thing that we're seeing uh the estimates for phase A and phase B are truly that they're estimates based on some recent numbers we have from other projects phases C and D are actual bid costs that we have seen So, and I will I will make a note in your packet the numbers at the bottom on the total links may be slightly different. And that was simply a little bit of a math error where we've had

102multiple iterations from the original application period to the confirmed participants to the green which is where we're at now in the the detailed 100% design. So, in case anybody came across that was wondering what that discrepancy was. Uh real quick in summary, uh so for the FY22, we had uh nine projects uh selected, excuse me. Uh the total applicants ended up ultimately being 85. Right now, we're looking at a little over or not quite 11 and a half miles of pipeline. Uh the estimated cost is shade under $13 million, which comes out to an updated cost per applicant of a little over $150,000 per applicant. an average cost per foot of $213. So, um, significantly more than what was originally anticipated and and significantly more than what the market was showing uh when these projects

103were selected. So, um, jumping on to FY23, kind of a a similar setup there. Uh, we we do have kind of the final design on that, the 90% design. The footage has not changed, but again, we've seen uh the price basically double based on the the updated cost that we've put together based on the recent bid prices that we had for a couple of the FY22 projects. Uh again, the uh I guess the big takeaway the the cost per applicant has has basically doubled and and the cost per foot has also doubled. I will note uh for FY23 the the cost per foot is actually a little bit less than what we saw for FY22. The reason for that being is in general the projects for FY23 are a little shorter in nature and so

104we didn't end up with any 12-in diameter piping. We ended up with 6 and 8 inch diameter piping. So that's why you see a little bit of a difference in cost between 22 and 23. If you're wondering well why isn't the cost per foot the same across both projects? uh because these are based on detailed est broken down estimates. >> Are you seeing that the is it the cost of the pipe or the cost to put it in the ground that's go that's going up the worst? >> So that's a great question. Um some of the cost is immaterial certainly but by and large it is in the labor. uh we we get the invoices on on every pay application and and looking at it the cost of the material has gone up a little

105bit but by and large it is the labor that has gone up significantly. >> So and I think that it might be fair to say too that by the time you know we were able to to start work with FY23 that we're most likely going to see increases for the numbers that we're seeing here >> going down and So, kind of overall wrap up of the funding of kind of how FY22 and FY23 come together for the overall shortwater line program budget. Uh, right now we've got just under $1 million in funding available. Um, and that's shown in the the table at the top. The table at the bottom has kind of a breakdown of what the original estimates were, which was about 8.4 million for 22 and 23 combined. Uh the middle column, excuse

106me, shows that uh the current estimates are about 17.7 million. So we have about a $7 million deficit in available funding versus what we're estimating the funding need to be in order to do all of the projects. Uh the columns on the right hand side uh cover what the I don't want to call it savings, but what the reduction in cost would be if we were not able to acquire those easements that we previously talked about. Obviously those projects would reduce and and that deficit becomes 3.3 million. So sorry does someone have a question? Do I need to go? Okay. >> So kind of as we were talking a minute ago about the cost increase factors. So obviously we've seen just general escalation in cost in construction and a lot of it being labor. uh

107there's a lot of competition out there uh for the contractors and a lot of work out there that that drives those those overall costs. Uh one thing that we did run into on the FY22 project that wasn't necessarily anticipated with some of the projects being quite lengthy uh where they were estimated as part of the scoring process as a six or eight inch water man. We ended up having to put 12in water manes in in order to get the necessary pressure and fire flow because these are really long deadend lines. uh if they were run in a in a location where we could loop them then we would have been able to go with the smaller pipe size. So that obviously impacted the cost because that wasn't necessarily factored in at a a very high

108level uh in the evaluation of the program. Uh we also have had the easement costs uh historically prior to several years ago applicants were required to work with their neighbors to get the easements that were needed. Uh when we revamped the program, the county took a little more ownership of that process. Uh and so we have to follow our policy which requires an easement agent appraisals and then compensating the non-applicants uh for their easements that that we're acquiring from them. And the other thing that's out there uh is is with what what all has gone on this spring with tariffs. Not that we've seen the act tariffs actually implemented, but just the uncertainty that it creates in the market obviously drives up prices because contractors are not sure what is going to happen and so

109they have to factor that into their bid and and cover that risk accordingly. So, um those are probably the the four big takeaways of why we've seen such significant increase in costs over a two or three year period. So, um, kind of the two big items that we are going to need some direction on, not necessarily looking for it tonight. Certainly, if you feel so moved, then then that's great. Uh but we're not that's not our expectation is we do need some direction on the FY22 easement acquisition process whether to move forward with the attorneys which would then potentially lead to a future action request for condemnation if any of them could not be worked out um with our with our outside counsel and then obviously the the budget deficit that we're showing to complete

110these projects and and what direction we want to take uh on that at this point. >> Thomas, can you stay there? Can you do me a favor and flip to the slide that actually has the um the combined? Yeah, that one there. So, I I want to first off um I want to make sure the public understands exactly what the short line water program is. Um first off, this is not a taxpayerf funded program. There are no tax dollars that anyone pays that goes towards these water lines. And I I need to be very clear about that because there's been a misunderstanding that tax dollars pay for this. What pays for this are people who are customers and their rates have to pay for this. So the customers who are already with Union County pay

111more so that water lines can be run to people who aren't customers. Um as you can see this is extremely expensive. Um, the estimate right now is $151,000 per customer. These applicants aren't paying $151,000 to get water. Someone else is paying for that. Um, it's a great program. Uh, unfortunately, the board has recognized that funding is is is a struggle. And that's why you see that there's there was only funding set aside for FY22 and FY23 because of the fact that it is very expensive and you're asking the rateayers to make up that difference. What you're faced with tonight is the fact that there's not enough funding in the current program or the budget to do FY22 and FY23. You look at the number there, the total funding that's available is just shy of $11

112million. Um, I would recommend that the board focus our FY22 and 23 funds, which adds up to a little less than 11 million, and use that to do as much of the FY22 program as possible. Um, we probably will not be able to finish the entire FY22 program for various reasons. Some of it is we don't have enough money and other is easement issues, but we can get most of FY22 completed with the funds that we have available. That of course means that FY23 would be put on hold. We'd have to notify those applicants and those property owners that that's what we're faced with and then we'd have to come up with a solution or a strategy for what do we do in the future. Um, and there's not an easy strategy for this. So,

113if you wouldn't mind, um, Thomas, if you'd go back to where, um, phase A, I want to talk about phase A a little bit. >> You want to look at the map? >> Uh, no, just the the one that actually lists the the project. >> Okay, gotcha. >> So, um, phase A, if you see, um, Sykes Mill is one listed that has a potential easement issue. I I believe we actually have some resolution on that. Um, it would be my recommendation that the board uh if if they're so inclined to to make a decision on allowing phase A as exists, which would be Old Dutch Road, Jack Jack Connell, Deep Wood Place, Sharon Lane, and Sykes Mill to move forward. Um, and and that would be for going out for construction bids and ultimately, you

114know, doing this project. We would um wait on phase B which would be both Morgan Mill Road, Zebulun um Williams roads and Hagler Road as well as East Lawyers to get some additional information on that as well as explore the easement issues that we have with that. And then we would notify those um applicants for FY23 that we would be on a on a basically a delay for some period of time until we can develop a strategy. So, that would be my current recommendation for the board to consider. You certainly don't have to take any action tonight unless you're you're willing to do that. Um, understanding that we we do have a funding limitation, but there is enough funding to do phase A as it is shown. >> Go ahead. >> Well, I was going

115to make the motion. I'm excited. >> So, you go ahead. You go ahead, Gary. >> I I just have a quick question. Um, so I understand the process. If we approve like Clancyy's going to do in a minute, U, is he itching to do, you're going to go out and get bids and then you're going to come back for final approval? >> Well, the the contracts um have to be approved by the board anyway. So come back if there is they're going to exceed um the the level the authority of the manager anyway. So those contracts have to come back to the board for an approval. And so as as how long long or short of my question is how long will it take assuming approval both tonight a and the bids come back within

116where we want them. How long is it going to take to finish phase A? >> Oh to finish it or okay >> this this time next year. >> Yeah >> to start it. >> No for it to be in service. Everything to be finished. >> Sorry I should have clarified. Yes. No. uh by the time we work through the bid process, the contract award, have the contracts executed, they order the materials, it's next summer before everything >> will be running in by July, next July if all goes right. >> Right. And and and understand we we want to move as quickly as possible. There are there are laws that we have to follow that make government inefficient and that's just the way it is unfortunately. >> And the bids could go haywire on this for

117>> they could hopefully not, but it could. >> Yeah. I'm sorry to hold you. Commissioner Balkan, before you before you do that, >> um I breaks. >> Well, I' I've got just a couple of comments. Um because well, at least tonight I'm I appear to be the more senior member of this board. >> Um and so the the comment I'll make is is that this this program has been existence for for quite some time. And Mr. Matthews, you correct me if I'm wrong here, but um but obviously this has been a very good program for our county. Um it's been a very good program because it's supplying well one of the most basic of of all needs and that's water. And um and you know over the years we've seen our cost increase because a

118lot of that lowhanging fruit from the initial onset of this program has has already been been done. It's been completed. Um, and so, you know, now we find ourselves into, you know, a situation to our county manager's point where we're making harder decisions >> because >> a number of factors. Um, I mean, for example, when you're when you're installing a 6-in pipe, it's a it's a completely different situation than when you're installing a 12-in pipe. With a 12-in pipe, you're going to need, you know, bigger equipment. you're going to need a a bigger trench, you know, and so things get bigger and that costs more. Um, so yeah, I'm not surprised at all by the installation cost going up. Uh, material cost is going to be escalating as well, but I I'm reluctant to completely

119phase out FY23. Um, you know, we we have to live within our means and that's what we're looking at here. Um, just like anything else, you know, the countyy's on a budget, too. Um, so I agree. I I think that what we need to do is we need to focus in on what we can do, you know, with the funds that we have budgeted for this. Um, but as funds become available, then I would like to revisit these other phases and also not completely scrap FY23. Um, do have a question for staff though. um at how soon could we potentially pick up um more discussion on phase B and as I I also want confirmation on this but as I understand that phase C and phase D are already underway correct >> correct >> yeah

120contracts are being executed for phase fe phase C and phase D board's already approved those contract awards >> okay so can we pick up disc if we don't take any action on phase B tonight can we pick up discussion on that item within a couple months you I think I we could probably pick up on it at the August meeting. There's just some just just a few little things that we need to iron out before we bring it back to you. >> Sure. Okay. I I would like if at all possible for us to discuss that at the August meeting. >> Very good. Yes, sir. >> Commissioner Balk. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, okay. First off, I want to interrupt for a for apologize for interrupting your presentation and it was a very good

121presentation, Thomas. Um, and having said that, I appreciate your words, Commissioner Helms. We don't want to appear that we're throwing the rest phase B, C, D in the dump. We're just pushing it back just a little bit as so we can discuss further. Correct. >> Correct. >> Yes, sir. All right. So, having said that, I would like to make a motion that we approve for construction all of the 2022 shortline projects listed in phase A. I'm not addressing the projects listed in phase B. >> Okay. So, we have a motion. Uh, any discussion on the motion? No discussion. Okay. So, um I I'll say this. Obviously, I'm supporting the motion. Um, you know, looking at the properties or the the roads there that are included in phase A. Um, you know, this is this is

122property and and and residents that have been waiting a really long time for water. Um, and so I understand Commissioner Balkam's excitement there. Um, I think we're all a little bit excited, you know, that we're we're knocking a a big chunk off of that list here. Um, and so, you know, I'll be be in support of the motion. Again, I just want to reiterate that I would like to tackle phase B and redisuss that at in our August meeting. >> Okay. So, we've got a got a motion. Any more discussion? >> Hold this up. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you'all. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. So, our next agenda item is item 25440, the sheriff's office request for pay increases. I will recognize county manager Brian Matthews for this

123item. All right. Where is the All right. Thank you very very much, Mr. Vice Chair and board. So, at the previous meeting, um obviously the board had adopted the budget, but there were some questions and concerns about uh compensation and how we can be more competitive with our sheriff's office, especially the more entry level deputy and um detention officer positions. Uh previously over time the um the county has been and the board has been gracious enough to allow for compensation adjustments for all of our departments. And I'll talk about that in just a minute. But there was a strategy for how we're going to try to get our employees to a level of where they were closer to what the market bears for those those particular positions. And and that took a lot of time.

124That was not something that was done overnight because it was expensive, took a whole lot of time. So, just to give you, you know, some history here, specifically for the sheriff's office, and that's that's who we're here talking about tonight, we did the first phase of salary adjustments for them back in January of 2024. There was an initial $3.50 per hour for their staff. And what that did is that helped them to get the the sheriff's um deputy sheriff's and detention officer salaries from 44,000 a little over 44,000 to 517. Move forward phase two July 2024 and March of 2025. There were two actual um implementations there. Total of $3. Um you did a $150 in July and then you did another $150 in March. And that was goal was to then bring that starting

125salary for those sheriff's deputies and detention officers up to 57612. Now we had hoped that that would be competitive at that time. The market's changed. The sheriff is he's dealing with a region where um law enforcement is um I I would say it is a struggle to hire people at that rate. And it's unfortunate, but for us to be competitive, we have to be able to try and and adjust our markets, adjust our salaries. So, the sheriff came to us and said, you know, what can we do different? Originally, the plan was that we were going to compensate all of our uh our employees based on their time in their position. So, we're trying to get them to that what's called midpoint. And basically midpoint is, you know, you've been at your job for five

126or so years. That means you've got enough experience, you should be at the mid level for your job. Um, there were a lot of individuals that were below that. And there were some that were above that. And what we were trying to do is is fairly compensate everybody in the organization. Not just fund those folks at the entry level, but those in the middle and at the end because you don't want salary compression. you want people to have that room to to spread out. So again, um that that was phase three and that was planned to be started in July of this year. July one that was supposed to start and the sheriff said, "Listen guys, I'm not competitive. What can we do within the budget that we have to be able to make our

127entry- levelvel positions more competitive but still give some uh compensation, some adjustment to our our rest of our our our salaried employees, the rest of our our staff. And so what we came up with and we talked to the sheriff and his staff and and you know we came up with what we think is reasonable and and that is that phase three would actually take effect in December of 2025. So the sheriff's office would not get a a pay adjustment in July. And and the reason for that is we have to be able to pay for this. It it costs more than what we really have budgeted for it. So, we've got to adjust to be able to make up for that. And so, to be able to do that, it takes effect in December

128of 2025. We would raise detention officers and your de deputy salaries. These are more of your entry level positions from 57612 to 61068. That would be then a 6% increase at all levels for sheriff, deputies, and detention officers. So, those folks that have been with us for several years, they're going to get a 6% pay increase. Your lieutenants, your sergeants, and your corporals, they would get a 4% pay increase. And then your civilian staff, your your your chief deputies, and your captains, they would get a 3% increase. In order to to make that work, a couple things would have to happen. first, those those employees would not receive the what we're calling the cost of living adjustment in January of 2026. We have to fold that money into that. We also have to shift the

129funding from our cadet positions, which we had put in this year's budget. Originally, cadet positions were the ability for the sheriff's office to hire um young individuals who didn't necessarily want to go into the jail. they could put them straight into BL and then they could come out and they would be ready to be road deputies. Um rather than have that program in place right now, we would shift that funding and put it into these adjustments. Um we can fit all of the adjustments for the sheriff's office by doing those things. Um I recognize that those employees are going to have to wait a little while. they're going to have to wait till December before they get those adjustments. And I and I understand that that is going to be, you know, while other folks

130have gotten their adjustments, they're going to be behind, but the goal really is to make it up as as best we can. And I think the sheriff and his staff recognize that this gets him in a better position to be competitive. And if I'm not mistaken, I think here recently Cabaris has already offered, you know, an amount that may be close or or more than that. We're going to be chasing this forever. Uh this is just our attempt to try and stay at least not too far behind. So, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. The sheriff and his staff is here if you have questions for them as well. >> Mr. S. >> Yes, sir. Uh if I could I'm assuming then in order to keep these adjustments on the current

131time frame that would require an additional resources and adjustment there adjustment in the already uh agreed upon tax rate. >> That is correct. We have to find revenue source somewhere else. >> Right. Do do you um have an estimation of what additional resources or what impact impact that would have not to delay what would be required to make it happen now? >> To make it happen now. I I don't have that off the top of my head. I can certainly get that for you. I I don't know that number. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> No, I I understand that's that's fine. Um because I uh I completely agree with your statement about the market is it's it's a buyer market in this and we are losing positions to municipalities in our own county >> certainly

132>> as well as surrounding areas plus not being in a competitive position to steal some of their folks for a change which we all know if you can hire someone who's already certified trained and ready to go day one. All you got to do is get him a car and his equipment and off you go. We're ahead of the game versus having to uh train uh promote and then backfill and start from scratch, if you will. So, I would be very interested in that number. >> Okay. and and also u I realize we have the agenda in order already approved but frankly and I have stated my reservations previously. The next item that we have on the presentation for strategy and innovation. Um, I have a lot of questions and that may be a I

133may be uh after reviewing that information want to revisit u the potential availability of additional funding to expedite um these increases. So, um, uh, it's a little too late to change the order of the agenda, but I would like to after we go through that item additional consideration which may impact your answer as far as a change in the time frame if that's okay to do. >> Mr. Go ahead. >> Okay. So obviously looking for head nods that the board is supportive of this because otherwise we were going to find our original plan of compensating the sheriff's office based on the phase three starting in J in in July. Um as long as you guys are okay with this, this is our strategy. Um be happy to answer any more questions you might have. >>

134Well, I I guess I should I'm sorry. I should ask this. Will you be able to come back with the answer for the necessary enhanced uh funding at the next meeting? >> Certainly. >> Which would not be too late to make any adjustments. Tax bills haven't gone out yet. >> Well, you can't you certainly can't change your taxes. Your your tax rate can only be adopted once. >> Okay. >> This is about the board wants to move resources that you already have. That's a different story. But >> the tax rate can only be established one time. That's already been voted on by the board. But budget amendments are >> budget amendments about resources can be made, >> right? So my point is we're not locked into I I support moving forward however long it it

135what I would I would like to h have it happen yesterday, but unfortunately that's not going to happen. But it's still possible to make an adjustment if the board so agrees at when you do have that information available of what the need would be to expedite. >> It is. And I understand that, you know, I think the sheriff and his staff would like to be able to communicate to his employees, this is the path we're moving forward. >> Right. Right. But if you can come back at a at a future a near future meeting and say, you know what, I got even better news. You're not going to have to wait. >> That's at the board's pleasure. Okay. Happy to >> That's all I want to know that we're not locked. We still have, of

136course, with with the full board agreement >> certainly >> options that could expedite this this time frame. But as as a fallback or as the best option we have before us now, I I support this. Commissioner Helms. >> Okay. So, I've got a couple of questions. Um, Brian, and this may actually be be better asked for the sheriff. Um, but how many vacancies do we currently have right now? >> I don't know, sheriff. >> 19 is what I heard. >> All right. Thank you, sheriff. Um, so we've got 19 current vacancies and um, you know, I appreciate the clarification there that that we're still, you know, essentially playing with the same same sandbox here. Um, that we are, you know, moving some things around and and probably, >> you know, doing without some things there

137in the budget. Yes, sir. >> To make this occur. Um my my my question is and and maybe Sheriff Kathy if you want to um address this. Um do do we feel like this sort of you know restruct this phase three uh restructuring of our compensation. Do we feel pretty confident this is going to make us more competitive? >> Certainly it's going to make us more competitive. But you got to realize that we're losing to Concord. We're losing to Waxaw. We're losing to Stalins. We're still behind. So, we're still a training ground. We just lost one to Waxaw. They offered him 8 to10,000 more to come to work for Wax Off doing patrol. >> That's a that's shocking. And uh and we have trained him, got all his certifications through him, sent him to school,

138certified. He don't want to leave, but he's got to provide for his family. you know, what do you say? >> Yeah. It's it's funny because I I watched some of Waxaw's meetings, too, and and I hear their chief over there saying that they're losing folks to the county and and so I you know, I get it. I understand that folks are >> they just got a 21% pay increase. >> Yeah. Okay. >> 21. Commissioner Helms. >> Um Sheriff Kathy, when you train and um pay for the education of trainees, cadetses, do they not sign a contract that they have to stay with the county for x amount of years? >> We have never done that. We've talked about it and maybe some we do in the future, but we've never we've never done that. >>

139Okay. And um I I hope uh most of your staff has learned about this. Um, if so, has anybody indicated that they are going to remain instead of leaving if we do this increase? >> I don't think they're aware of this increase other than rumors rumors. But, uh, we'll put it out probably once you once if you pass it, we'll put it out tomorrow and then we'll see. But I don't Our staff is pretty loyal to be honest with you. >> They are. >> They're happy. there. But you know, you've got we've got to stay competitive. Yeah. >> With this, >> and we surveyed and now it's two years later and we're just now putting it in place. So, >> okay. Any other questions for sheriff or staff? Commissioner, >> I I would think to

140address Miss Helm's question, I would think it would be pretty hard to project if you're you're going to get this pay increase in December. And somebody like X county or municipality jumps up and says, "Well, guess what? You're not going to have to wait till December. We're going to give you seven grand tomorrow if you sign here." Sure. So, it makes it kind of hard to predict the impact of uh agreed upon future gain versus what somebody puts in writing tomorrow that you could earn. So, I I would think that would be a pretty hard question to answer. Hopefully, it would have an impact because they see it's going to happen on a date certain. Sure. >> But if somebody pops up tomorrow with a big number, >> hey, sorry, I'm not going to wait.

141Even if I got December today, you wouldn't be in the game. and and we face that with all of our positions. I mean, we we lost a we lost an engineer that's been working for us for a number of years because we really just cannot compete with the salary that was offered for that individual. It's we're going to face that for a number of departments. The goal here, I I think is to make sure that the sheriff's department is competitive and and try to be at the top if not close as as we can be. Um, I do want to point some things out because, you know, the this this board has been very supportive of not just the compensation, but the other benefits that we offer that make us a great place to work.

142Longevity pay. We this board supported that. And so around November, if you've got service with the county, depending on how long you've worked with us, you will get a longevity bonus. We've recently changed where we now allow you to have a health insurance if you work 20 years with the county. That would recently had been taken away. We've now offered that. So, we're doing things to make us more attractive, but people have to understand it's a long game. It's not a short game. >> And and that's sometimes difficult to do with those folks that are younger because they don't see the long game. They just see the short game. And I'd like to make a comment. And also having a really good boss because I've worked places that I've had atrocious bosses but I was

143paid a lot. And then I've had a really good boss where I was not paid as much. It makes all the difference in the world. >> Yeah. >> It makes all the difference in the world. And >> I think the sheriff's correct. He's got a lot of loyalty there. So it that that should say they got a good boss. So, you know, it's about making sure that we're able to bring in those folks that want to stay and be part of this organization. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Any other questions for him? >> No. >> Um, >> Commissioner Helms, I'd like to make a motion that we approve agenda item 25-440 to uh approve the sheriff office request for a pay increase. >> All right, we got a motion. Any discussion on that item?

144All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate your um approval of that. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Um so, next on our agenda is item 25426, presentation on strategy and innovation. I will again recognize our county manager, Brian Matthews, concerning this item. >> Thank you very much. Um, this was an item that Commissioner Sides had asked that we bring to the board so you can get an update on this. Um, I I do want to I I feel like I I I need to um address a comment that Commissioner Sides made and and I and I want to impress upon the board that um your comments do have an impact on our employees, positive and negative. And when you say things like I look forward to you defending

145position, you are sending a signal that employees are um they're having to justify their job and their livelihood. And that can have a negative impact on our staff. And I I I understand our job is to sort of guide you guide our employees, guide our operations to meet your goals and your objectives, but I I do want the board to understand that things that you say can have an impact on our staff and not always a good impact. So just be aware of those things when you're when you're making your your you know your decisions and your comments. I just want to I want to put that out there. So strategy and innovation. Let's let's let's talk about that. It's not new. Uh it didn't it didn't just start yesterday. It is um a department

146that actually started back in 2021. And it really was a department of one person. That's that's all it was when it first started. And that individual was really more focused on sort of a special projects. Uh his goal was really to start our legislative agenda um system. um he was involved in the ARPA funding. So when we got all of those funds in there, someone had to manage that. Someone had to work to make sure we were meeting all those requirements, which we still have a lot of stuff that we have to do on that. Uh working in our grants and our or our grants and our management system, security and risk management. Um and also CDBG. And these are all things that we are attempting to do by taking funds from other sources and

147us utilizing those for projects and programs in the county. Um for the longest time CDBG was actually managed by the COG. We took it back from the COG. We felt like we could manage it better, which we are managing it better. Um security and risk management that was one person for the longest time. we've had to expand that because our operations do require a lot more in our in how we handle security and risk management. So that person was quite busy and it was a one-man shop. And so when the board um decided to to offer me the position of county manager, um I worked with the staff to come up with the manager's goals. And one of my goals was how can I help this organization, how can we help this organization be more

148efficient and more effective? Um, this board as well as past boards have been very clear that you want government to be not you don't want it to grow for the sake of growing. You want government to be efficient and effective. And the only way for us to do that is to make sure that our prop our processes, our people, and our performance is aligned to give us that efficiency. Now, I I' I've got a slide in here later that talks about um our leanness. I'll get back to that in just a minute, but we are a lean organization, very lean. But you can't be lean and still be efficient. You got to work on them together. You can't just have a few people doing the work. You got to how can I get the work

149done and be the level of service I want it to be. So I talked about my management priorities here that that I developed with my team. As you can see at the top, employee pay and benefits, general fund operational capital and countywide economic development. Those were more short-term goals. We've accomplished most of those goals already. We're always going to be chasing employee pay and benefits, but we've done a lot already on those goals. The two right below that efficient and effective government and leadership and success succession planning those are the long game that's a marathon not a sprint you've got to have a strategy in place to work on that so what I did is I said well this is where I talk about the staffing operations you again we're lean if you look at

150our organization from uh the counties in the state we have one of the lowest number of employees per capita that you have statewide and that is because we do a lot with a little. All right. Well, the only way to continue to do that is find ways to be more efficient and effective. So my goal in trying to do that was to say, well, sometimes our departments are so busy with doing their work that they don't always think about how can I be more efficient and effective. It's not that they don't want to be, they're just busy with the dayto-day operations. And what do we do to sort of help them? Well, sometimes it takes someone coming in and say, "Why do you do this this way? Why is this process this way? Why is

151this procedure this way?" Uh, and and then they have to think about it. And sometimes the answer is, well, that's the way we've always done it. That's not the right answer. The right answer is, hey, I don't know why we do it that way. Let's look at it. And so I decided that I put together a team of existing employees. That's the key I want y'all to all understand. We did not hire new employees to come in and serve this uh this new this department. We took existing employees and existing positions throughout the county and put them together in what was called our now uh strategy and innovation department. They were doing similar functions just in different ways within the organization. So what what we thought was it would be better if we put them

152together. We had a unified vision for what we wanted to do with those employees. Training is still a big uh part of that. um finding those efficiencies, going through with our u our departments and identifying processes that need to be updated, procedures that we need to do differently and and looking at our performance evaluations. So, we didn't add any new positions. We simply put together what we have and this is the structure that exists today. Now, you see it's under the county manager's office and that's important. The reason why it's under the county manager's office is because this is my strategy. This is my way of making this a priority. So when these folks go into our departments, they have the full weight of the manager's office to say, "Look guys, this is important. We

153want you to think differently about how we do things in this organization. We want you to look at your processes. We want you to look at what you do." Now, this organ, this uh department, it is not a hatchet department. Its job is not to go in and find a way to fire people. It's to find a way to use our resources best as we can. If I've got uh if I've got too many people doing one function, well, maybe we re redirect them to do something different. Um, so it's not about firing people. It is about being more efficient and more effective. I've talked about the focus areas, people, process, performance. Um, and that is that that is what we're doing. Are the people in the right place? Are our processes meaning are they

154efficient? Is our performance good? Um, one of the things that that I want us to do is when we do recommend new staff, and we will recommend new staff, it's because we can show you that in order to meet the service level that we have, we've got to add people to meet that service level. Otherwise, if we don't add them, our service level is going to go down. The board can take a position that you're okay with your service level going down, and that's fine. But if we want to maintain the service level levels we have, there going to be some times where we're going to recommend staffing. But we need to show you that we don't just need to say I need more people. We need to say why do you need more people?

155What is driving it? And performance is really part of that. And that that that's what we want to get at. Um just going to give you a few examples of some of the things that this group is working on, has worked on, continues to work on. Um there have been some cost savings that we've identified. Um so just working on the people's side, we've identified some $47,000 in cost savings annually on that. Not every uh pro project that this group works on will yield a direct cost savings. Over time it will. If we do things quicker, we do things better, we use our staff more efficiently, yeah, we'll see some cost savings. But we're fortunate. We've seen some direct cost savings. These are just some items that uh that we've been able to put together

156that's helped with our our people side of it. Process. We've saved a little over $36,000 in our process changing. Um we're looking at different things to do with how how we take home vehicles. That is another one of our uh for all of our departments that that is a benefit. We have a lot of staff that live all over the county and some of them take vehicles home. We have to have a policy so that we're clear on how that works and we're consistent. They're working on that. How do we offer bonuses? We do have bonuses depending on what level you are. Different departments you get bonuses. Overtime utilization. Um we that is another source of how can we do it better and that's across the organization. we need to evaluate that. What are we

157doing? And one of the other things is our onboarding and our our our hiring process. Um, this group actually did a a an an actual event where they got stakeholders together. They met with all of our HR folks, our different departments, and said, you know, it takes a long time to hire someone. I think we actually have that example in here. There's a case study. It was taken us on average of almost 75 days to hire someone. You lose people when it takes that long to hire someone. And so we went go went through this whole process and figured out a way to whittle that down to under 50 days. That doesn't sound like a lot, but honestly, that's less than two months for us to go through a full hiring process. And that was

158all this team's efforts and going, why do we do it this way? Is there a better way to do it? Is there a faster way to do it? And just by going through that process, we identified more efficiencies. And that's just a case study on that. Um performance. One of the things that I talked about is how important it is for us to show when we need new positions. We are working on evaluating our performance um measures for all of our departments. Um people are used to doing what are called lead and lag measures. They're more used to the uh lead measures. Am I saying that lag? I'm sorry. I'm my expert over there. We're more used to saying, you know, here here's what here's what I want the end result to be instead of

159what do I need to do to get to the end result. So, what we're trying to do is get people in the mindset of what things do I need to do and how do I measure those things to ultimately get to the end result that I want. rather than just measuring the end result, which is still good, what do I need to do to get to the end result? And we're we're working on getting our departments and our directors and our staff to think about that differently. So that builds that performance measurement that builds that confidence in when we tell you we need a position, we know we need it. Here's what's going on with it. Just to recap, uh, honestly, uh, this is a department that, you know, I have put my faith into

160to try and help us, uh, stay lean and stay efficient. We've identified a little over $80,000 in some cost savings. We've completed a number of projects that um that that we've already done and we have more that we continue to work on. every day there's a list that they can't accomplish in a year. They've got quite a bit of of time that they're going to have to put into all of the things we've identified we want this group to do. Um so ultimately, you know, this board has given me um a directive of be efficient, don't grow government the sake of growing government. And my mission and my recommendation is that this department is a is the face of how do we find those efficiencies? How do we accomplish that and make sure that Union

161County stays lean but still provides the level of service that that we want to provide our residents and our our our our citizens. So, I I I don't really have anything else to go over. I'm happy to answer any questions. Um I I know I didn't go into a lot of detail. That's because there's a whole lot of detail on each one of those that we can go into. I'm happy to meet with you individually or if you want a more in-depth presentation, we can bring you more detail. This is really just a highlevel. This is what they do. These are the projects they're working on. Uh and then I'll answer any questions you might have. And if they're specific, then I don't have the answer. I've got the staff here that can help answer

162those questions. Do you have any questions for him? >> Or any questions for >> I don't have to go first. >> I do. >> Commissioner Sides. >> Um Brian, if I could refer back to your opening comments. U if I h I have been asking about to learn more about this department since day one. And if my approach has seemed to be uh challenging of individuals and their individual performance, I apologize because that is not my intention by any means. That's not my job. What? And actually I do support you and other staff continuing to look for better ways to do their job and if it's comes in the form of a of a a department and as you said may come to additional employees I support that continue to look for better ways to

163do their job. My challenge is to make sure that we are getting a return on that investment in time and and funds. And that's a a challenge for me coming from the business worlds. It's often easy to say, okay, if I do this, how much in dollars will I make? But as you mentioned, the challenge is also how do we increase service which is often hard to put a dollar value on. So that's part of the challenge that I face. How do I justify the investment in staffing and whatever resources are dedicated to this initiative? So that's my challenge. You kind of have to help me with >> Sure. >> on on how how do I see beyond just the dollars you mentioned how this comes back to benefit the taxpayers, the other employees and

164the people of the county, which I agree should be our end end goal. So that's really where I struggle with because there is a cost to doing this in in staffing and other resources. And so how do we put measurables to the output of this work that justifies all of this activity? And as I've said, I've I've challenged that and I will continue to challenge in the proper fashion. >> Sure. >> Why are we doing this? Why are we not doing this? And uh how much is this hard cost in doing this? which there is hard cost with doing everything. You mentioned people better use of vehicles. Well, there's a cost in that. People coming from different departments to this. Does that does that mean we have to backfill in that department? Well, that's uh

165an added cost of uh another employee. So um those are the best ways that I can think that to challenge the operation of the initiative not the individuals involved in the operation. >> Sure. >> So if I don't do a good job of communicating that to you, please correct me. Certainly >> because that is not that is my intention. It is not to personally or individually challenge that you're not doing your job. Again, I I do not think that is an appropriate role for frankly anyone on the board, but it is I think appropriate to hold ultimately you responsible for why are we doing this and show me the return both tangible and intangible we are getting because if if frankly if I just look at this from plain numbers >> from what you've told

166me previously in the hard cost i.e. salaries. It doesn't compute be because if you just look at it from that one direction, correct me if I'm wrong, the saving the hard savings you've mentioned do not jive as a from a hard dollar return to the investment. Is that is that fair to say if you look at it just from that point of view? >> Yes. I I I don't disagree with you, but I I'd also want the board to understand that in order to yield more savings, you actually would have had to eliminate six positions. You'd have to fire six people because I I didn't hire six people. I found them within the organization to create this division. We didn't hire additional people to backfill those. This is six FTEEs and it's only six FTEEs.

167So if you're strictly looking at it from a savings perspective, the only way you're saving it is you fire six people. I I And so that's why I'm saying I I I don't know that that yields you what you Yeah, it gets you money, but all it does is fire six people, >> but they came from a different position or a different department into this one. Correct. >> That's correct. >> So those positions where they came from had to be somehow covered. We didn't backfill them. >> You didn't backfill. So there were there was basically >> we found ways for those employees to continue to offer that as well as find other ways to do those jobs within our existing infrastructure. >> Okay. >> That's what we did. Okay. And again we identified the same

168thing efficiencies. You you made an excellent point. You want to understand the value of this, >> right? Well, that's we want to understand the value of the programs and the things that we are doing at the county level. Are we getting the bang for the buck of the programs and the things that we actually do? And we may find that there are programs that we're not getting the bang for the buck out of and the board then needs to decide, do we want to continue to offer that program, offer what we do for them. >> And how do you measure those intangibles >> that are not associated with a hard cost? like you say, not firing somebody, but an initiative that's an intangible. How do you put your arms around figuring the value of that?

169That that's where I struggle. >> It we're going to all struggle with that. Um I I don't have a I don't have a good answer for you. Um I think it takes a cultural change in how we view things. Um, we're so used to, and as I said this before, what's the end outcome that I want and not instead of looking at how do I get to the end outcome? We're so used to that that we haven't thought about, well, am I really doing the right thing to just get to the end outcome? And that takes a cultural shift. We have to look at things differently. I don't have a good answer for you because like I said, I can't tangibly tell you how much it's going to save us by taking 46 days to

170hire someone versus 75 days. We can eventually get to a cost savings for it. But I can't tell you today that it save us $100 or $100,000. Don't know the answer to that. But I can tell you that we lose people because we were taking 75 days. we were losing really good candidates because it took us a long time to hire. So that has a that how do you measure that value? I don't know the answer to that. >> I I think you see where I'm coming from because for John Q citizen it would be very easy to say okay you're spending X number of dollars on salary for these uh what six >> six positions. Okay, why don't you cut three of those out and save x number of dollars? And so you you

171know someone putting a hard dollar cost to this without looking at the picture of what you're trying to accomplish that we lose by doing taking a a meetax to this program which could save you hard dollars. Yeah, you could look you could see where it drops down the budget. You don't have that payroll anymore. But what do we lose? >> Right. >> That's what I need your help with being able to, pardon my language, sell the program. >> Sure. >> And and make it compute for me. How how do I show and again it may not be tomorrow. It may be a year from now. It may be five years from now. >> The endgame we have achieved by this investment. This to me is an investment in in this. >> You're absolutely right. >>

172staff. And so again, I go back to measuring and defending this investment in as as we say more than just hard dollars and justifying the payroll of those folks to be on the county payroll, but because of the end result of what tangible and intangible results we see. Now, would I love to see them develop a program that saves that hard cost saves us three quarters of the outgoing salary? Wouldn't we all? May never happen. But like you say, what's the intangible cost of losing a good candidate in a certain department that we need to fill to provide a a vital service? I I don't know. And maybe nobody does. >> Yeah. Yeah, but but that's that's again where I struggle. But I want to encourage you personally to consider initiatives such as this and

173that the department to stretch to don't be afraid like you say to look at something just because we've done it this way, why aren't we doing it this way? and and other counties, other municipalities, whatever. If they do it, hey, we can steal their ideas, too. Absolutely. Right. >> Absolutely. >> So, I hope that any comments that I have made is not taken as a personal challenge, but a challenge to we all need to show value in what we're trying to accomplish. and it's very easy to put hard dollars to it when you don't have a you're not looking at the long game. So, uh any help that we can do there especially for me. >> Very good. But I will I will try and be more in the future if the uh again I

174apologize if my uh any previous comments meant as a challenge to justification for the overall initiative have been taken as a personal challenge that why in the heck we hire this person because I don't see you know we're saving 40 grand and it's costing us >> sure >> x plus y >> sure >> is is me looking at it in a very narrow construct. >> Sure. >> Yes, sir. >> Um Brian, first of all, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Uh thank you for the information that you shared. you know, I think um you know, when you when you see a a department or a team called strategy and innovation, I think it it naturally it has some questions and and so um but I think that these are I think that these are

175good questions and and I think that that you know what we're seeing and what you know you put together with the information that you shared um number one your priorities. So the manager's priorities here >> um where you know you've got uh five priorities there. We we've heard already from economic development tonight. Um you know we've been discussing employee pay and benefits um you know so I I think that having dedication to things like efficiency um and looking for additional effic efficiencies is exactly what Union County does. Um, and we don't want to lose that, you know. So, we have to make that investment and we have to keep looking for those opportunities. And um, and I'd like to, you know, first commend your your team, you know, for for taking on that challenge because,

176you know, if you look at page five here to your point earlier, I mean, we've got again one of the lowest uh, ratios there of full-time employees per 10,00 residents. >> We do. And so, you know, when when when folks, you know, question the efficiency of government, um I I think that that's one of the first things that they point to is, you know, gosh, look at all the employees, >> right? But I think it's also very easy to to forget the amount of residents that we've that we've got in this county. >> 265,000 and growing >> and growing, you know, especially with all the approvals that we've had outside of Union County's jurisdiction. So I want to stress that 159 since January 1, 2023. Um so uh so and I think this is a

177credit this is a credit obviously you know to the team that you've built and to the team that you have built as well and so uh so again I'd like to commend you and I like to my challenge is is simple let's keep doing this okay let's keep this ball rolling let's you know let's keep trying to find efficiencies wherever we can >> we can well thank you very much and I you know again I know that you know this is This this is different for a lot of our departments. They're they're not used to having someone come in and say, "Why why are you doing it that way?" And how how do we do it? And and and it can be a little unnerving for those folks. But it's not meant to be, you

178know, a negative. It's meant to say, "Listen, we all have to find ways to do things better." And um you know I I commend my my staff uh my my folks out there my directors have have certainly em embrace the fact that we need to be more efficient and I appreciate that. So and and I appreciate the confidence in the board to let us do things differently. Um and Gary made a very good point. I'm sorry commissioner sides. Uh you know this is a long game. It is a long game. It's it's not something we're going to do overnight. Uh it takes time to put these things in place. Takes time to identify how we can do things differently and better. And then you have to change the culture of people doing things differently because

179they're used to doing it the way they're used to doing it. And you have to change that mindset. So this is not going to be something that's going to be quick. We will have some some wins right up front, but it will take us time to show bigger um improvements. Okay, >> just a thought perhaps if you could develop some means of uh rather than you know you do a presentation every six months on on this. Is there a Okay, I'll give I'll give your innovation team a challenge. How do we better communicate these successes both hard dollars and and processes? Uh how do here here's a challenge for your team. communicate to us better your successes. Okay. I think there's there's an opportunity to educate u what your successes are hard and soft >>

180and and early work communicate communicate that I'll ask for it particularly you know >> teach me better more about what you're you're doing and your hard and soft successes and what roadblocks you're facing as well that perhaps is something the board need to address. You you talked about additional staff or processes or policies or pro procedures that have to reach the board level. So, how does your group communicate and educate better this board to help you and this team do their job? >> Very good. Yes, sir. >> Any other questions for our county manager? Okay. All right. All right. Well, then we'll move to the next item of business. >> Thank you, um, County Manager Matthews. We'll move to the next item of business, and that is item 25-470, the government center entrance improvements. I'll

181recognize Assistant Manager Clayton Voyager concerning the item. We're in the home stretch here. >> Home stretch. >> 15 minutes to get my We might make it. Might. No pressure, Clayton. >> Yep. I'm going to go real quickly. >> Um I'm trying to pull up the view here, but it's not really working for me. >> So, we we'll just go I'll I'll just slide through this um with the cursor over here. Um last week, uh the county manager provided you some information via email about some government center lobby improvements that we're going to be doing, um that are upcoming. Um, I'm just going to be going over that information very briefly. Um, this is an opportunity for the board to ask questions as well as the public to kind of hear some of this information. Um,

182throughout this project, I want the board to know that operations will be functioning normally throughout the project. There's going to be some slight modifications for entry and exit to the building, but um, all public facing operations will continue as planned. So, um, a summary of the project. Um, the goal really for this project is to enhance customer service, improve access to the building for visitors, um, better organized visitors, visitor flow through the lobby, as well as more up-to-date finishes. Believe the last time we made any improvements to the government center lobby was in 2006. Um, so that gives you an idea of how long it's been. Um, some of the planned improvements, we're going to have a new visitor desk. Um, and you'll see in a moment a visual about that. We'll have turn styles

183for entry and exit uh through the lobby and that'll be for staff as well as visitors as well. We're also going to add automated double sliding doors for the main entrance. Um that's going to help folks with um wheelchairs as well as strollers, which is currently a struggle for them to get through at times. Uh currently through the main entrance, we're also going to have a single door for exit with push plate. Um and that'll again be for that wheelchair as well as stroller access exiting through the building. We're going to be replacing carpet and tile in the lobby, uh, first floor corridor, the board meeting room, and the Stony Rushing conference room. We're also going to be doing some repainting work. Um, other than the lobby, those other areas are probably going to be

184very, um, limited to by one or two day jobs during the duration of the project. So, we're going to do those um, during times where there is um, little foot traffic through those areas. So, that those won't be impacted. Um, the time frame is uh, approximately six months. Next Monday is when construction is going to start. Um this is just a visual um representation of kind of what I just um showed you. This is the entry for uh the double doors here. Um that'll be automated. Um visitors will come in through uh this area here. Uh this will be the situated new uh visitor desk and then they'll enter through the turn styles here. upon exit of the of the building, they'll come out through the exit turnstyle and then through this single exit here.

185So, what are the impacts of this? Um, during regular business hours Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., the main entrance to the government center off the main street plaza will be closed. Um, all visitors and staff will enter and exit through the ground floor entrance off of Church Street across the street from the public parking lot. Um and the visitor desk is going to be temporarily relocated to the ground floor entrance by the main elevators to assist visitors as they come in the building. Uh visitors will be able to use the main elevators to access floors two and up. Um and they can access the tax office on the first floor by using the alternate elevator on the ground floor um near building code enforcement which is right over here. Uh we are

186going to include some wayfinding signage that will help direct visitors on the ground floor. Um and so uh visitors can't expect that. the public can expect that as they come in. So, we're going to help them get through the building. Um, we're also going to be adding an additional ADA accessible parking space that will be added to added to the rear uh parking lot adjacent to the government center. We're essentially sliding down commissioner spot, just one space to allow for that ADA access. Um, during board meetings, again, visitors can access uh the board meeting chambers by using the alternate elevator on the ground floor by building code enforcement. Again, we'll have wayfinding signage. We're also working to provide a second secure check-in for visitors just outside the board meeting room, which is currently an employee

187only um entry and exit um back here. And then um that hopefully can help minimize impact on visitors during board meetings. Um and then board members, you can use your county ID badge to enter at the employee only entrance. Um so just to give you a visual of what that looks like, this is this temporary main entry here. Um this is the ground floor and this is Church Street. So, um, visitors will come in, um, through this entrance right here. They'll stop at the security desk just like they normally do for regular check-in. Uh, then they can head to the main elevators here for floors two and up. And then they can walk down the hall uh to access the first floor um through this elevator here. This will be an employee only entrance. It

188will remain that way. And again, staff can come in through um this entrance here. Board members can come in through this entrance for um board meetings. This will be the uh sort of the layown area for the contractor out front. We'll have it roped or fenced off. Uh and we'll have signage there directing um the public to the ground floor entrance. And then this is just an example of some signage that we're going to have up. Um the public can go to this uh website address here to learn more about the project or use the QR code, but this is just an example of some of the the signage that we're going to have up throughout um not only the exterior of the building, but within the building as well. So, I'm happy to answer

189any questions you have about the project. >> Any questions? >> All right. Thank you, Clayton. Appreciate that. So, uh, I think the public just needs to be aware that there'll be some changes, um, if they're visiting the government center or attending our meetings over the next few months. Okay. Um, final item on our agenda tonight, and that is item 25466, uh, appointments to boards and committees. There is one board with an appointment for consideration this evening. Uh the vacancy is on the consolidated human the consolidated human services board for a consumer of human services position. Uh this vacancy was advertised in accordance with the board's rules of procedure uh pursuant to GS153A-77. This board fills vacancies on the Consolidated Human Services Board from nominees presented from the Consolidated Human Services Board. At its May 12th,

1902025 meeting, the Consolidated Human Services Board reviewed applications and nominated Mr. Earl Ford to be reappointed to this position. Um, I'll now entertain a motion for a vote on the recommended nomination to this board. >> So, do you need a motion first? >> Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we reappoint Mr. Earl Ford Jr. to the Consolidated Human Services Board. >> Thank you, Commissioner Helms. Any discussion? >> All right. All those in favor? >> All right. So, that brings us to county manager comments. Right. >> I have no comments. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, Mr. Sides, >> uh, my comments are more of a, uh, Q&A. I wonder if I could ask where we are on the, uh, design of the, uh, uh, regional autopsy center when we anticipate having

191the u, what the latest time frame is to have the final design and ready to move forward. and as well as for the uh food innovation center. We can kind of get an update where we are and I believe both are in the design process and if we have an updated time frame when that will be uh completed and when we're able to move on to the permitting and uh bidding and start moving dirt on those two projects. >> I can give you an update on the um the autopsy center. Um last week we did our first programming session. and it went very well and and quickly and we've been moving through uh programming very quickly. Um we're having our next meeting in a couple of weeks. Um we expect um uh a full design

192actually to be done by the end of this fiscal year. That's our anticipated hope >> fiscal fiscal year. >> Yes. Before then. Yes. >> Oh, let me ask full design by the end of June 2026. That's correct. >> Okay. And then we'll go out to the the bid process. Okay. >> That's correct. >> How about the Can you Are you prepared to speak about the food innovation center as well? >> Patrick is the one who >> Yeah, he's not here. >> I don't see him. Okay. >> So, we can give we can get you. >> Yeah. Just Yeah. >> Thank you, Commissioner Sides. We'll start back over here with Commissioner Balkam. >> Okay. >> I'll make it short and sweet. Um I feel like it's been a good night. We've been able to help a

193mechanic stay in business on a piece of property that I think loans itself very well to what he does. And as my dad always says, those men with grease under their fingernails are very valuable in a community. And I believe that I help a young able to help a young lady, a single mom, hopefully move into her forever home. >> She seemed to be quite excited and I couldn't help but feel a little bit of that excitement myself. Um, Miss Clawson, I've known her for a long time and the family over there and they have they have dealt with bad water for forever. Just forever. So, I'm just happy for them. Um, and throw a little bit extra money over to our very worthy sheriff's department. So, I think it's been a been a good

194night. A long night, but it's been a good night. >> Commissioner Helms tonight. >> Thank you. Well, you know, I've got several comments to make. Um, I I'll keep it brief. Um, maybe >> maybe >> u first of all, let let me say this. Uh, once again, thank you to all of our speakers that came and and spoke during uh public comment and also in the public hearings. you know, we had a lot of agenda items on on this agenda and and uh I certainly appreciate the engagement from the public. Uh that means a lot to to all of us that sit here. Um obviously, Commissioner Merrill couldn't be here for this meeting. I appreciate my colleagues bearing with me, you know, through this meeting uh and supporting me um as I attempted to uh

195to to chair this board tonight. So, um I agree with with Commissioner Balkam. I think we've done some good things tonight. Uh, I was very, you know, glad to support um, you know, a a growing business, a growing small business here in our in our county. Um, and uh, and I look forward to um to, you know, seeing what our economic development team can can uh, can bring back to us. We've got some great opportunities, you know, ahead of us here in Union County. Uh, the one that was discussed tonight is is just tremendous. is tremendous for for a county, you know, like ours that is currently sitting at 90%, you know, residential and 10% everything else. So, to have an opportunity like that, you know, with a a company that's already in our county

196that u that's willing to make that kind of investment, you know, not only for themselves, but to our county, to to all of us, to the residents here is a tremendous tremendous thing. So, I'd like to commend um our economic development team, all of our staff uh for a job well done and uh and say thank you and good night. >> I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll accept that motion. All in favor? >> I meeting is adjourned. One minute. One minute. One minute.