Board of County Commissioners | Regular Meeting | April 7, 2025

001Everyone, um, welcome to the April 7th, 2025 regular meeting of the Union County Board of Commissioners. I'd like to call this meeting to order. And at this time, I would like to recognize Commissioner Gary Sides for the invocation. If you would please bow your head. Dear Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to live in a country such as the United States and a county such as Union County. Tonight, we ask as we do the people's business that we not only do what is right, but that we know what is right. Please bless all our members of law enforcement that keep us safe. our first responders, our educators, the good employees of Union County that keep us functioning. And may you continue to bless Union County. Amen. If everyone will please stand. I pledge allegiance

002to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next on the agenda is informal comments from the community. We have a couple of people that have signed up. The first person we have is Martha Grace Haney. Good evening. Um, I hope everyone's doing well tonight. U, my name is Martha Grace Haney. I am a 35-y year resident of Union County. I live in downtown Monroe, North Carolina. I am a Union County school teacher for over 26 years. I am also a daughter. I'm a mom and probably my most loved role is I'm also a grandma. Um, but I come today to talk to you guys or you you commissioners about um an incident that I had

003with our local DSS that has been going on now for several years. And one of my friends has told me that you are the folks that I need to talk to and let them know what's going on. So, I'm going to start the story and it's about my grand um son. He was actually taken into DSS custody when he was born. Um I got a call from them. I was at work asking if I could go pick up my grandson. And I said, "Yes, I'm on my way. I'll go get him." So, on my way to go pick up my grandson, um, I get a call from Jackie Griggnon, who's one of the social workers at DSS, and she tells me, "Oh, Miss Grace Haney, we already found another family for your grandson." I said,

004"No, no, no. I thought maybe I was taking too long to find someone to cover my class." You know, I said, "No, no, no. Took a while to get someone here, but they're here. They're on their way. Um, and I'm on my way. And she said to me, "Miss Grace Haney, you do not have a car seat for that baby." And I said, "No, yes, I do." And she says, "Your car is not big enough." And I said, "No, my car is plenty big." Then she told me something that really bothered me. She said, "Miss Christaney, if we give you your grandbaby, we are not going to pay you for that grandbaby." Now, that really bothered me. So then I called up to to the CPS worker that called me about this and I told

005her I said, "Hey, I thought you said for me to go get my grandbaby." And she says, "Yes, I have absolutely no problem with you getting your grandbaby." Jackie Griggnon called down here and said that she had already found another family for that baby. Okay. So I called Jackie Griggnon to beg her to give me my grandson. And I said, I I don't have a criminal record. I've been a school teacher now for, you know, over 20 years. I, you know, I I am a pillar of the community. Why would you not give me my grandson? I'm not understanding this. And she goes, "We're just not going to pay you for him." And we've already found another family. Well, I I'm not I never asked her to pay me for my grandson. Not even once

006did I ask her that. So then I started to research what was going on, what is actually going on that they would deny someone like me that qualifies to get their grandchild, their grandchild. Well, Jackie Griggnon not only worked for Union County adoption and she was a head of adoption, she was she also worked for a private adoption agency at that time. And then I started to investigate more like why is it that she's not giving me my son? What is the thing about the money? Where what where is the money coming from? I'm a business major and as a business major, we were always taught you follow the money and you can nine times out of 10 find your problems. Well, it's because when I started to look at that, I said, "Wow, I

007didn't realize DSS gets title four money for placing children with families that are not their biological family. They get more money for placing t more title four money for placing that child with strangers than they do with placing that child with family. I hate to interrupt you, but your time has um expired. Okay. So, um, can I just I just am asking you to do what is right for the families in our county and stop not allowing parents and grandparents to actually have their own grandb babies in their homes when they qualify. Because when you do that and you're going after the money, you're not looking out for the best interest of the children. You're looking out for the pocket strings of the county. And that is wrong, no matter how you put it. Thank

008you for being here tonight. We have one more speaker. Um, Robbie Cohen and I will um, and you have Chief Wilson. Wilson. Wilson. Thank you for being here tonight. Hey, commissioners. My name is Robbie Co and I reside at 224 Clearwater Court, Norwood, North Carolina. Uh, I'm here tonight. I'm a commissioner in Norwood, North Carolina, and I'm here tonight to speak to y'all about letting us house a police boat in the existing structure that I've got you pictures of to police till on the Norwood property on the Norwood uh side. I uh I have spoken with the powers that be for Duke Energy. Uh we had a contractor's meeting last week, ironically, and I was able to speak to them in person. Uh the regional director was there and I told him what I was

009wanting to do and uh because this was a FK permit that was obtained by your water department and the county. It will have to be brought up to Union County. However, a permit may or may not have to be obtained. And if one has to be obtained, it will be at the sole responsibility of the town of Norwood. There would be no changes to the structure other than the uh touchless cover that you see. I think it's towards the back. Um that's just to protect the boat and then not let the public know if the boat's in there or out of there. Uh I would love to answer questions if if you guys had any. I uh I've personally written four FK permits on Lake Tiller. I'm a developer of Lake Tillery for 30 years.

010I've lived there all 55 years. I uh I I know what I'm doing. Of course, it will take some engineers if drawings and surveys are needed, but I don't foresee that. But again, that would be at our sole cost. But we and and I've read the agreement between Union County and Norwood. I have not found anything in agreement that would speak for or against it or allow or not allow it. I've read the lease with Duke Energy and again I've not read anything that would allow it or disallow it. Uh so this is kind of unchartered waters and and like Mr. Reagan, who is the regional director for Duke Energy, said to me, "We just have to run it up the flag pole, but I would like a letter from y'all saying that you support

011it." Uh, we we need that there. We've had some instances where people were tied up to your structures that you see in the picture floating out and ask the police to come and, you know, have them removed and they have to yell at them from the bank. That's one thing that if they could easily access the boat, idled out there and asked them to leave. Uh I would like the chief to tell you a little bit about the some more uh I think positives. By the way, Chief, we got to get one of these. I like that. I like that a lot. I'm sitting up there with one at the end and when it buzzes, I have to hold it up. Uh anyway, I'll let the chief speak. Thank you, Madam Chair, and commissioners for

012allowing us to to speak tonight. Uh, simply, we just need access to this for for our boat. Um, there's really no other reasons for us to be down there. It just provides us um a quick access to the water. Right now, we have to hook the boat up, which is stored at behind one of our buildings behind our our museum in Norwood. So, it's it's about a 30-minute process to be able to hook the boat up, trailer it down to the ramp, unload, park, and so forth. Um, having access to this would would allow us to be on the water within about 5 minutes. And that's uh, you know, very important when we have emergencies, boat wrecks, drownings, those kind of things that we need to get quick access to. Um, our wildlife officers are

013ecstatic that we're out there helping them. And, uh, again, it's just, uh, it's much needed for the for the traffic that we have out on the lake. I don't know if anybody's been on Lake Tillery lately, but uh, it's pretty packed out there, especially in the summertime. Um, so again, that that's the only reason we need access to this. um just to be able to get onto the water quickly and safely and and provide a service for our citizens. So, thank you and and we we both realize in public comments this is not the time for you to ask questions, but if we're going to leave otherwise unless you have questions for us, we'll hang around otherwise we're going to head back to Norwood. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Appreciate you. item on

014the agenda is item 25-19 sustain professional purchasing award. I will recognize procurement. Good evening, commissioners, madame chair, county manager Matthews, leadership, and everyone. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here this evening to announce the the award that procurement has won. What I'd like to do first though is ask the procurement team to come up so that uh they could be introduced because it takes a team to do great work. Could you all come up? Oh, there you are. So, we have with us this evening um we have Miss Vicky Watts and she's our senior procurement specialist. We have Corey Brooks, he's our senior procurement specialist. Uh David Cifford, he's our procurement and contract coordinator. And Mr. Kyle Hodgej, he's our procurement specialist. So again, um I'm I'm thankful to this great team

015and we are also thankful to our departments for collaborating with us all year to make sure we provide great services, purchasing services to the county. With that said, I am proud to announce that the procurement and contract management department met some rigorous requirements to receive the North Carolina governmental association purchasing award, also known as the 2024 sustained profess professional purchasing award known as SPA. This is our ninth year receiving this award and it is not an easy feat. It takes a lot of work but we do it as a team. The SPA award was presented during the March 19th NCAGP Association's banquet and awards presentation ceremony. We answered questions and requirements by again providing a lot of documentation in order to receive this award. We were one of 17 organizations in North Carolina to receive

016the award. A and we received this award by demonstrating our excellence in what we do to provide great purchasing services to our organization. So I would ask that you please join me in congrat congratulating the procurement team for their [Applause] work. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. Now, I've noticed other departments when they win award, the head of the department buys lunch for everybody. Our next agenda item is item 25-166, annual caught in the act award. I will recognize Deputy County Manager Patrick Nyl for this item. Thank you, Madam Chair. Every day our employees go above and beyond what is required of them and uh the caught in the act caught in the act award was developed to recognize some of those employees for those actions. Um tonight we are recognizing the annual caught in the act

017award. So every quarter we select one and from those four quarterly awardees we um select a an annual winner. Now we were hoping this would be a surprise but unfortunately uh he received a small bonus in his last paycheck and that spoiled the surprise tonight. So uh uh so we are we are here to recognize uh school resource officer deputy Jonathan Carter. He is a uh resource officer at Prospect Elementary. He was nominated for demonstrating exceptional commitment to school safety and engagement. His innovative efforts to involve staff and teachers in proactive and comprehensive safety discussions have strengthened the partnership between law enforcement and the school community. Through his leadership, he has initiated engaging programs that promote awareness, preparedness, and collaboration, ensuring that schools remain safe and supportive environments for students and staff alike. This was

018not one instance that he received this award. This was his body of work that he does every day, and he was overwhelmingly voted uh the annual caught in the act award. So, I'd like to invite Sheriff Eddie Cathy up to say a few words, and then we'll invite uh Deputy Carter up. Thank you. Yes, sir. You know, I know that this is an award that's important to the citizens and the county. Jonathan, let me tell you a little about Jonathan. I coached Jonathan in middle school football. He's a shriner. He works in the prospect community. He's raised in the prospect community and now he gives back to the prospect community. He's the probably the best te-ball coach in the southeast region cuz my young my grand young but he thinks a lot of that community.

019They think a lot of him and he works to give back to that prospect community and which entitles him to the citizens of Union County to be honored to take this. I appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity. Jonathan [Applause] The next item on the agenda is item 25-202 annual caught in the act awards. I will again recognize Deputy County Manager Patrick Nylan for this item. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm back. Um, a lot of time these awards involve multiple employees. So, we developed this team award to recognize um groups that went above and beyond as as a group to uh support the community and and recognize their efforts. So, I'm going to read through um our two Cot annual award winners for the team event and then I'll invite them up to to get a picture.

020Um Justin Les, Becky Hatley, Casey De's, Mary Chery, and Susie Caukins received the award for their outstanding efforts in organizing a fundraiser to benefit the behavioral health collaborative. A partnership between Union County Social Services and Union County Public School that supports the social, emotional, and mental health well-being of students across Union County. School resource officer Les Frerance led the charge in developing and marketing a disc golf events, successfully raising nearly a thousand dollars to support mental health services for local students. The event which highlighted the importance of suicide awareness and mental health re resources would not have been possible without the dedication and collaboration of human services business operations and building code enforcement. Their innovative problem solving ensured proper proper handling of registration fees and internal fund transfers making the event a resounding success and

021we are great truly grateful for their effort on on that. Um our second team award the child health support team Dorothy Tran Cara Keith Jackie Deacon Cindy Sprat and Alexis Sable um sorry I was practicing that one. uh were honored for their compassionate response to critical family need. After a mother reached out for help following her son's hospital discharge due to severe motor vehicle accident, Dr. Tran assembled a team to address immediate medical and supply needs. The group ensured the patient received essential medication, medical supplies, and fresh food. Going beyond their professional duties, Dr. Tran and Jackie Degan personally purchased supplies on their lunch breaks. Cara Keith adjusted schedules to facilitate a same day home visit while Cindy Sprat and Alexis Sable took food and various medical items and school supplies to the family's home.

022Their quick and coordinated actions provided vital relief to the family facing immense challenges. Um it's an honor to be able to recognize these employees. This is some of the best things we get to do in public is to recognize our employees for going above and beyond. So um please help me in congratulating extremely grateful community for what they've done. You all want to come up and get a picture. You want to do them separate? Every one, two, three. [Applause] Thank you. It is now Time for consideration of the agenda and the consent agenda. Are there any motions regarding requested revisions or amendments to either the consent agenda or the business agenda? Madam Chair, I would ask that item 25-205 authorized expenditures for autopsy services be pulled off consent to the added to the business agenda.

023Okay. at the location of your choosing. Is there a motion to approve the amended consent agenda? Madam Chair, I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda as amended. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Um I'll have to take a look and see. Let's see. Get over here to business. Let's go ahead and do that first, Mr. Sides. Certainly. Let's go ahead and um look at what what was on consent 25-205 and I'll turn it over to Mr. Sides. I have some questions but in general I'd just like an update on the SPRA uh which is our see if I get it right. Southern Piedmont Regional Autopsy Center and I just like to uh we're uh asked here to start paying and I just wanted some information about where we stand currently

024uh on providing autopsy services, toxicology services and construction of the new facility. So uh I'll just fire away and whoever Clayton if this is you Brian um do you know to date how many we're currently performing the autopsies in the opaces of the hospital correct that's correct and do you know to date how many we've uh been able to perform? Uh it's at least it's over 15 which is why this contract is actually on the agenda because we have reached the amount of where we're at with the number of autopsies. So we've done at least 15. Okay. Do you know what uh can you tell me what counties we are currently serving? I know that eventually it will be several, but currently um I don't recall the number of autopsies we've done for each county

025off the top of my head. Just in general who we're what counties we're servicing. Um Cavaris, US and what's the other one? Stanley County. That's the current ones, but we do plan to expand that um to the full nine county region once um there's more development and once we obviously move into being able to do more auto more autopsies in the new facility. Yes. Okay. U the toxicology part of the autopsy, is that still being sent to Raleigh or is that are we able to handle that locally now? So, um I'm I can't I'm not sure on those particular autopsies what toxicology has been done on those. Okay. I don't believe there has been any need to send any. There's been no requests. Uh these I don't believe these have been um law enforcement related

026autopsies. So, I don't believe that there has been a need yet, but I would have to confirm that. Okay. And if there was a need, would that mean we would have to send it off? That's correct. To Mechwinberg. Can we use Meckwinberg's facilities or will we have to send it off to Raleigh? That's correct. We'd have to send it off to Raleigh. Okay. And can you u give us a status and a timeline for the construction of the standalone facility? Yeah. So currently we are negotiating um for the uh the contracts um for design as well as um the CMA risk and um so I think approximately about um nine to 15 months would be for design and then about two years for construction. Okay. So we're uh a little over three years away from

027about three years. Okay. Um when the new facility is built, I assume it will also handle the toxicology needs in that facility. Correct. We there'll be a lab in it and there will be some labs in there. Yes. Okay. All right. Um, do we know uh since we're working uh soon to be working on design, do we have a site plan? Because I understand this will be in the general proximity of uh potential new jail. So, do we have a feel for the site plan where everything is going to fit together at this point? So because we knew that that was a um going to be a consideration, we are doing some um initial work with a civil engineer to get a better site plan developed. Okay. Um upfront before we actually go into um

028the design phase. So there'll be some initial site planning that we want to do because we know there's going to be some considerations with that proximity to potentially a new jail if that were something that the board wanted to do. Okay. Uh, and since this obviously involves law enforcement on some of these, do who um who with the sheriff's department is either liaison or consulting or working with staff on on the process. Um, so those are details we are still working out as we move into um a more regional approach. Okay. Um that will be something we'll have to deal with with each of the counties that we work with and how they who we liaison with. Um but currently we haven't had that that issue come up yet. But those are details that we're

029working through. We have hired a staff person, a new business manager um to that is helping us um develop those plans and what those um relationships look like. Okay. So where do the business managers re where do your responsibilities end and his begin before up until operation? So currently we still have um Michelle Lancaster on contract who is um um still managing some of the relationships with the state. Um she is working with our new business manager um to get her up to speed on all of those relationships as well as um what those um uh plans and procedures would be for the new um as we you know, work towards a new autopsy center. Um, so those those have just happened. We just hired them within the last couple of weeks. Okay. Um, so

030we're still working on through some of those details. Okay. Are we I I know we're not in the design phase yet, but we have a fixed amount of funding we've been provided by the state. Are we confident that we can build a facility that will meet all the needs of all the counties we'll be servicing and within that budget? Yes, we are. Okay. Considering the extra time frame of we could be looking at two two to three years or a year and a half at least before construction begins, we feel like we can factor in whatever price increase from initial. We feel that the comparable ones that we have looked at in other states and other counties uh are actually under the budgeted amount that we have. So we do feel like that would be

031we'd be able to handle any cost increases that might come as a result of um just inflation. Okay. Other than Raleigh and Mechanburg County, are there other similar facilities somewhere around in North Carolina? Yes. um Winston Salem has one, I believe, and there's one in um Asheville. Okay. But we we've also looked at um uh southeastern um centers as well in Jacksonville uh and Georgia. Okay. So, we've looked at um multiple ones. I I think that's good that you've uh been able to see actual facilities in operation know either what to or not to do. So, I I think that's a good move. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. That's all that's all the questions I had. If uh you wanted to address the the item that needs approval, board members, obviously you have

032an item in there for authorized expenditures for the autopsy service. I would just ask if you would be to consider that. Sure. I'll make a motion we approve the expenditures for the autopsy services as proposed. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you very much. That puts us back on track with item 25-182, presentation concerning the Union County Water New Development website. I will recognize our county manager, Brian Matthews, to introduce this item. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, uh, last fall, um, the, uh, the county went through some website updates and one of the things that we also did is is we we updated and added a website, um, for Union County Waters, Union County Water.org. And in that is a component which is uh, specific to new development and how

033the process works for new development. We receive a ton of phone calls, ton of um requests for information for how our process works, what are the forms, what are the timelines, and and so the staff work diligently to develop a a a comprehensive website with all of that information available so that builders and developers would have a resource to go to. And and our and our chair actually made found out about it and saw it and and said, "You know what? I'd love to be able to talk more about that in public, let everyone see more about it. And we thought that was a great idea. So, we have Crystal Panico who is our new program, new development program manager. She actually sort of handles that whole process, her and her team. And so, I'm

034going to turn it over to her and let her go through the process and the website and and and let you answer ask any questions you might have. But we're very pleased about this resource and and we think that it's going to help our developers and builders move a lot quickly through the process. We have Crystal. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Crystal Pedico, new development program manager for Union County Water. First, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about our website and the and the online resources that we have for our developers and builders. But first, I want to before we get into the website, I kind of want to give you a brief overview of what new development is and what we do. New development is one side of

035the engineering division in Union County Water. Do I need to Is it not coming up? Did I get it from the beginning? I think we have to slide it over to the other screen. Nope. Go back. You got it. No. No. Go back. Hang on. You good? Good. Okay. Sorry. Okay. One second here. Okay. So, new development is one of two programs of the engineering division in Union County Water. The other division is our capital improvement projects. The capital improvement projects oversees the publicly built infrastructure uh and reinvestment in our system. The new development side handles the privately installed infrastructure or is sometimes uh known as donated projects. We review the plans for new development throughout the Union County water service area that you'll see here on the map in blue. Uh and we also

036inspect the water and sewer infrastructure installed throughout our service area as part of the new development. Here's a picture of our team. almost all of our team. We're missing one here. Um, we're a small team, but we get a lot done. I think we do some great work. We have an awesome group. We have four professional engineers uh that review our plans. We have an inspection supervisor, four inspectors, a data analyst, and administrative assistant. So, we get a lot of work done with a limited amount of people. Our current workload uh we average about 120 to 130 plan reviews per month. So that can be uh new submittals, resubmitts, it can be a single family home, it can be a 500 lot subdivision, it can be a school campus, medical facility. It encompasses all of

037these reviews um that we review the water and sewer plants for. What we don't do as septic systems, wells and private treatment, we don't review those. Why do we um why do we do this? So, we ensure that we are protecting our uh water and sewer infrastructure. We want to make sure that we're continuing to provide um reliable service to our customers and we're protecting his infrastructure as new development occurs. We want to make sure that we protect um we're being good stewards of our system and protecting from future mistakes. Um paying for those mistakes. So we want to make sure that we're ensuring good quality product that's going to last for generations. We also want to make sure that we're and we're fair that we're treating each project fair. Um all of our regulations

038in new development is under our water sewer extension ordinance. So each project from that single family home to that 500 lot subdivision to the commercial, they all have the same rules and regulations and everyone's treated the same. Before I get to the website, I do want to show what's not changed. So our Evolve portal um is on the county's website. This is something that's been in place for years where it streamlined the permitting process for this um is where projects submit their um projects in our review portal. Uh they also submit their building permit submittals, their building permit applications, zoning permits, um fire permits. It's a kind of a one-stop shop here for that. They take their review fees, everything goes through the system. So that's not changed in our site. And here is our

039new website, union countywwater.org. Um, previously our water information was housed under the Union County website. We um it was kind of difficult to find. All the other departments was there. So it was kind of hidden there. And if you see from our homepage here, we have a lot of information to share. So it made sense um to make it a separate page. and and we worked with public communications team in creating this website. We think um it's easier to navigate. We've had a lot of great um input from it. Like we've we've had a lot of compliments from this from that. Uh I want to focus tonight on the development and builder section. So, here's a snapshot of the development review process that was linked under there and then I'll come back and share the

040website with you. But just so you can see here, this is we want to make sure they're they're understanding there's links to our ordinance where everything's uh all of our regulations are housed. We link them to our specs, our details, that evolve system portal that I showed you before. Um, and then we're also highlighting here will serve letters. um this is something that we do not provide and so we want to be transparent in that and upfront in our process. Other jurisdictions provide these letters. They are a capacity commitment um oftent times upfront. Um other jurisdictions are able to provide those and allocate that capacity which we are unable to until further along in our process. So we let the development community know that this isn't something that we provide. if you and then we'll

041scroll down. Um we have a 10-step process. This 10-step process was again derived from our ordinance, but we've tried to make it easier to uh navigate and be helpful for the community. Um the first step here is our sketch plan submitt. We list um helpful things that they need like the evolved portal, the ordinance. Uh and we provide checklist and items here that are helpful for each of these phases. Um so here for the sketch plan checklist, our plan reviewers use that sketch plan checklist to review it. So we give that to them to help them submit their project completed. Another item like to highlight is the construction plan submitt. So if you see here, we've also provided those helpful resources again, the same checklist for them to be able to use. Uh we also

042let them know not to submit their construction plans until the sketch plans approved back in step in phase one so that they are understanding that that that sketch plan has to be approved first. Also, I've not shown here, um, we've started implementing the past couple of years. We have a plan review meeting after our first construction plan review. We have a meeting with the developer and his engineer to go over our comments and let them ask questions of us and staff to ask questions of them so that we're under the same understanding and we move forward in the same direction. Uh, step five, capacity allocation. That's that's our most asked question is when can I have capacity allocated for my project and how do I get it? So here it outlines what's needed to have

043the capacity reservation and what happens and when it happens and how we send that to them. So we've taken a lot of time and and creating these resources for the developers and builders that we do business with. We understand you know our process is different than others jurisdictions. it can be tricky. So, we we're hoping that with the website and outlining those steps that we we help facilitate um them to navigate it a little bit easier and help answer their questions. And while we're being transparent um with it and what what's required of their development, um public communications team tracks the website. Um and this particular page has been I think it's had a thousand views since October. So, we've had some really good feedback. Um, so we appreciate your interest in the resource and

044if you have any questions, I'll take them. I'll go see if I can get that link to pull up. So, thank you very much for being here tonight. Um, we get, well, I'll speak for myself. We get I get phone calls quite often um people wanting to know um do we have capacity? Why do I have to submit a sketch plan if if the answer is going to be no? Um so so h how have you advertised this new website so that builders and developers know to go to this new website? How would that how would we know to go there? So if it's not on the Union County government website, Liz, do you want to take a stab at that communications? So typically, um, anytime anybody would have previously gone to the Union County

045website and gone within the water web page, they're still going to go to navigate like they used to, but when they click water, it just redirects. So the user experience has only improved because now customers, developers, the various audiences looking for water content can find it much easier on the water website. The search engine optimization has vastly improved. Like Crystal said, we can track the analytics so we know the site traffic and what people are going for. um it really helps us to better communicate um directly with water customers and developers. Typically that um audience in terms of developers, they either know where to go when they're looking for information that now is only easier to find than it was or it has served as a tool for Crystal and her team to just let

046people know, hey, all of this information is right here. and then she's able to point people there where it's a lot u better laid out than it used to be. Do you know about how long it takes um to go through all 10 steps to to finally get to a an approval? Do you know about how many days or months that takes it to go through it as quick as you could? It would typically be about eight months. Okay. So that would be if they had everything correct on their first submittals that sketch plan, construction plan or permitting that timeline. It would take about eight months to get through that process. I'll say on average though for larger developments it could be much longer. It could be 12 to 18 months when you're having significant

047reviews in there. Right. And and I want to point out that Crystal said this, but I want to clarify from the very beginning from sketch plan all the way until you get to the development agreement. A lot of folks like to complain that they're in the second phase which is the engineering review and they're not considering that. Well, you know, part of that time was in sketch plan. The sketch plan is the preliminary stuff you do. then you get to your full engineering design before you even get to the actual um agreement. And so there is still significant time in going through that sketch plan. And and a lot of folks sometimes forget that is also part of the time that goes through. Are there any other questions or I I have not really a

048question, it's a uh comment, but you may be way ahead of me, so pardon me. Um I don't know how many emails the people in your department if they find you and go, "Well, where do I go to do this?" But I would just suggest if anybody hasn't thought of this already to add a link to this page in your signature, your email signature. It's already in there, right? Um it's it's not in the signature. Okay. Um but I I do we we pass it out with each of our correspondence. We do provide this link to it. Okay. All right. Yes, the Union County Water.org site is, but for the developers and builder section, we specifically link it to this one. Okay. Thank you. Looks real. Even a a non- construction person could navigate this.

049Thank you. Well, I think this is a a wonderful um process and a a great website that's been put together that we can direct um callers and builders and developers to. So, I I just want to thank your team um for this is a great tool, right? So, thank you. I'd like to say thank you again to Crystal and her team. They really have worked very hard on this. Um and and I want to tell you that we do um we do make changes when we get feedback from members of the engineering and building community. You know that there are times where they give us information that helps us better our processes. And so we certainly take those uh to heart and we try to make uh improvements where we can. And I know the

050time is obviously something that's always on everyone's mind how long it takes. Um, so we're we're constantly looking for ways to try and trim that, make it easier. Um, but part of it is also due on the development community. We have our review time, but they also have the time it takes for them to resubmit and go through the process. So, our goal is to help them as much as possible. I really do appreciate our chair actually asking to have this brought up because it it is important to be able to let folks know that this is a resource that's available. Thank you. The other resource that I I send out all the time, um, you know, people in the in the community or in the Charlotte region, you know, are under the impression that

051we're out of sewer. We have no more sewer. No more sewer. Um so I think it's important to also communicate that we do get in our board packet once a month um the water and sewer capacity um each month and depending on rainfall you know that may um fluctuate you know a small amount each month I think this past month we were around 70 or 72% capacity um with actual flow at 12 mile for for example le um but it's a really great great report that people you know um that are in the construction industry and concerned about water and sewer um that report is in our packet once a month and um and if you want that it's readily and easily available and I think this is a a great tool too. One of

052the conversations that has come up in the past month is um not only the water capacity but the conveyance. You know, depending on where the project is or isn't in the county, you know, we have to verify, you know, if the pipes are going to be sufficient in that particular location of the county, whether they're going to have flow or not. Um, so that's another thing that, you know, we're learning in answering the questions um that, you know, people in the building industry are having and trying to understand if Union County um is still building or not. And yes, we are. But, um, you know, if you don't ask, you don't get. If you don't submit your paperwork and follow these steps that have been outlined tonight, the answer is always going to be no.

053if you don't um if you don't put in the paperwork, but if you put in the proper paperwork um and follow the steps and work with the team, you just might get the answer you're looking for. So um you know, I think this is a wonderful tool. We had a great meeting with the town of Stallings um back or I should say Stallings, I'm sorry. um back in December or January and I think that was a very very productive meeting and that's when I saw this wonderful website. So um are there any other comments or questions tonight? Madam Chair, thank you Madam Chair. U Crystal, thank you. Really appreciate you being here and presenting this information. Um I do think this is a good tool for uh for the building community out there in our

054county. So uh so again, thank you very much for that. I just have one question though and just to sort of piggyback on um Chair Merryill's comments. Um sorry, I'll give you just a second. It'll only be a quick one, I promise. How many projects have we turned down due to lack of sewer capacity to date? None. Thank you, ma'am. I don't think she said it loud enough. Zero. Zero. Great question. Thank you again for being here tonight. Thank you. Next on our agenda is item 25-194, system development fee study. I want to recognize Amy Macascal, Union County Water Business Operations Director. Boy, that's a long title. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Madame Chair and commissioners. Um if you'll recall in 2024 we received direction from the board to do an updated system development fee

055study based on some additional capital uh projects that the board um approved as after the master plan presentation. So tonight we have our consultant uh uh Stantech Consulting uh who is here to present the updated system development development fee study to you all. Um on on the call we have um Andy Burnham and Kevin Cook. Um Andy's the vice president of the management and technology consulting group with Stantech and Kevin is the manager there. So I am going to turn it over to them. Don't use everything set up in the room. Okay, we're getting there. I think they I think Jordan set it set it up as a dual screen. Yeah. So, hold on. Let me So, you can't look at your screen. You got to look at this one. Thanks. Huh? There you go.

056That's why he's my boss. You keep him around for something, right, Amy? That's right. So, well, good evening board members. My name is Andrew Burnham, vice president for management technology consulting at Stanac. With me today is Kevin Cook. He'll be kind of driving the slides for us. Both of us were extensively involved in updating your system development fees uh per the the context that that Evie gave you. So we just have a short presentation that we'd like to go over that kind of you know gives you some orientation and highlights the outcomes and then ultimately um seeks your direction. So Kevin, if you'll advance us. Um it seems like a a really robust agenda, but there's just a couple of slides on each of these items. In some instances, just one. So, we'll move pretty

057quickly through it, but I did want to spend a little bit of time about um just some background system development fees at the county um and the last study that was done in 2013. Um as well as some foundational aspects just around um law that we have to follow, notably the public water and sewer system development fee act. It's rather prescriptive. So, it gives us a lot of great guidance to use in conducting these studies on your behalf. You want to talk about just some methodologies and practices we're seeing in North Carolina, you know, and give you kind of all that full information and context as we get into the update for 2025 and the updated calculations. Um, show you the results. Um, give you some benchmarking against other agencies and then ultimately, you know,

058look for some direction from you. Um, and certainly we'll be here to answer questions um as well. But before I get into it, just um for for your benefit, um you know, we do this work um extensively, not just throughout North Carolina, but across the country. Uh we're very much focused on utility rates, fees, and charges. Um we've got about 50 folks that focus on this um full-time. So, we have an extensive amount of utilities in our database, uh over 600, and we work with um over 400 communities across the country that represent about a third of the US population. Um but perhaps most important is we've been working with the county um myself and as well as Kevin lately um for the past 10 years doing bond feasibility reports to support the issuance of

059debt cost of service rate studies um as well as this will be our third now system development fee study and a few things in between to just help the county be proactive and really balance providing the highest level of service at the lowest possible cost for its water and sewer system. Uh but with that let's get into the the system development charges. So, um just a little bit of of legal, um you know, items that we have to consider. Um these fees are in North Carolina governed by um state statutes. The the Water and Sewer Development Fee Act was enacted a few years ago and amended a couple times. Um, and some of the notable requirements, I'm not going to go through each of these, are that the um, the fee does have to include

060a credit to at least 25% of the capital improvements that we include recognizing grants, developer contributions, things that are funded with other sources or debt financed. Um, when we look at these fees and we look forward, we have to make sure that we're covering a period of no less than 5 years, but no more than 20 years in terms of the types of capital improvements and growth that we're looking at. And as we get towards the end of the study, uh there is a public notice or public comment period uh where 45 days of public comments will be received and we will consider those. Um and ultimately, you know, that needs to be done before any sort of a public hearing um addressing any formal action. Um the state the state statute does also say

061that the fees have to be updated at least every five years. Um so in Union County, um what we've been doing is the last update was done in 2023. You go to the next slide, Kevin. Um, that was actually about two years ago to to this point in time. Um, the studies at that point were still governed by these same state statutes. And for the water system, u, the system development fee or SDF, if you will, was based on our existing system costs. Um, that included the new Yadkin plant that we' recently invested in. Um, but it also included a significant deduction um, for the offsetting principal amount because that was largely debt financed. on the sewer side that was based really on incremental cost or additional capacity being added. Kind of picking up on

062the the last bit of question and answers. And that fee that was um analyzed at that time was based entirely on the 12mi Creek plant expansion from 7 12 to 9 MGD that 1 and a half um million gallon a day expansion. And so that um study resulted in the current fees you have in place today. So for a new 3/4 inch meter, these are onetime fees for new development. um that fee for water would be $1,678 and for sewer it's $6,412 as we sit here today. Uh if you go to the next slide, Kevin, um in terms of the the way these fees are calculated, it's it's pretty straightforward algebra. We have to take the value of the system or the improvements. Um deduct any credits for any outstanding debt, grants, developer contributions, making

063sure that we hit the minimum credit requirements in the the state statutes. and then we divide that by our capacity um expressed in a number of equivalent residential units. So it's it's very much algebra driven. And so what really you know goes into this methodology or in this approach is a consideration of the right methodology that would be used. And so uh there's really three different types of methodologies that are generally accepted and outlined in the state statutes to do this. One is to really look at the cost that you've incurred previously. That's called the buyin method. And that makes sense when you have a system that has a significant amount of additional capacity that's going to be used to serve growth over that next 5 10 even 20-year time period. Uh however, some utility

064systems don't find themselves in that situation. And so there's an alternative approach uh that would be the incremental cost method where it looks at capital costs that are going to be incurred in the future that will provide the capacity for new growth. And so this is often time used for systems that have limited capacity to sell or they're incurring significantly higher cost capacity expansions to serve growth than what they have today. And the third approach is really a hybrid where you really combine your existing cost plus planned improvements in your capital improvement program because you're going to be really relying upon a combination of capacity from existing assets and new ones that you build to serve growth over that next 5year 10ear horizon. And so, um, if you look around the state, you know, there's

065some snapshots taken in time about what methods are used for calculating fees across North Carolina. There's a good number of systems that use the buyin method, a fair number that use that combined or hybrid approach, and some that use the incremental method. You can see this for both water and wastewater. Um, this is a bit dated. We looked at the Environmental Finance Center to see if they had an updated survey um, across the state, but there's not one out there yet, but I expect an update's probably coming soon. And again for Union County, we used the buyin method in the 2023 study for water as we had the Yadkin plant included. And for the wastewater side, we included the incremental method or utilize that method accounting for again the expansion of our 12mi Creek wastewater

066treatment plant. But what's also interesting to note about the system development fees is that you do not have to necessarily adopt the full cost results that come out of the studies. You just can't adopt fees in excess of those. So while twothirds of the systems in the survey that the environmental finance center did did adopt fees at the maximum level, about a third of utilities chose not to go all the way up to their full cost recovery. And so this is ultimately where you as a board once you've received the information, you know, can certainly exercise policy considerations and look at less than full cost recovery amounts. Um it would just be not a scenario where you can really go higher than the amounts that we've calculated in the study for you. And so with

067that, let's just talk a little bit about the updates. So as part of this analysis, we grab the most current information about your existing assets plus construction work in progress. Um we've worked with the the county water team to identify the expansion related capital projects um over the next um 7-year time period. We also gathered information about the amount of outstanding debt that we have and made sure that we were including proper credits in all the calculation methodologies for those three approaches that I described. And in terms of kind of the divisor, we included the different capacities for our existing assets for the Katawa River and Yatkin treatment plants for water about 32 million gallons a day. um and also look towards the future in the expansion of the Kataba River plant for an additional

0688 million gallons of capacity that's in the capital improvement program. And for the sewer system, you know, we did recognize that we have our existing water reclamation facilities and 12mi Creek doing a little bit over 11.2 million gallons a day, but that we do have the incremental expansion in progress for an additional 1 and a.5 million gallons a day uh at the 12mile Creek facility. So when we kind of run the numbers through that formula that I showed and using the three approaches um as reflected in state statutes, you kind of are able to boil the outcomes here to a rather simple table at the top. So the first row shows the water system development fee for a 3/4 in meter and the second row shows the sewer fee um both currently and the the

069second column, but then the results under each of those three approaches I mentioned earlier. So, the water fee today is $1,678. As I mentioned, under the buyin method with the updated information, that would go to a little over $2,000 under that approach. If we use the hybrid approach, which recognizes our existing assets plus our plan growth in the capital improvement program, that would be a little over $2,400. And then, if we just base the fee on the expansion related projects in our capital improvement program over that next 7-year time period, it would be $4,669. For the sewer system, our current fee is based on the incremental approach 6,412 done a couple of years ago. We look at the buyin approach, the fee would actually be lower than what it is today because we're looking at

070our existing assets that have a lower unit cost than what that 1 and a half MGD expansion does. Um, the hybrid fee would be about $4,936. Um, so it would still be a reduction over the current fee today, but slightly higher than the buyin results. in the incremental approach. Again, factoring in the one and a half MGD expansion that's in progress, uh, plus some additional cost for conveyance infrastructure for, uh, force mains and and large gravity interceptors, that would actually be $10,800. And I mentioned those um, interceptors in particular for sewer because our current incremental fee was just based on treatment cost only for the one and a half MGD expansion. If we include expansion of force mains and upsizing of those mains and interceptors, it's actually $10,800 in today's today's costs. So, to help

071kind of give you some some context, we also did some uh local system development fee survey. So, the bar on the left in blue uh represents the amount of the water system development fee for a typical 3/4 inch meter. The green represents the resulting fee for the sewer system um for many entities. And you can see where we stand today currently is the first highlighted orange box. Um, so we're towards the the higher end of the the list. And if we went to the incremental method for both water and sewer, uh, that would move us towards the the top of the chart in terms of combined water and sewer impact fees or system development fees, I should say. Um, lots of things to note when you look at these charts. You know, as I mentioned

072before, um, some communities don't adopt full cost recovery. Others may not have updated their fees recently and others may not looking be looking at the the order of magnitude of expansion cost for growth that we're looking at here in Union County. And they may have different types of facilities associated with serving their customers than what we need relative to uh meeting our environmental requirements for wastewater treatment and discharge as well as what we have to do to treat our our water supply to drinking water standards. So number of factors to to keep in mind when you look at this. So, we often see a pretty big range on these system development fee charts when we look at them. And so, lastly, you know, at this point, just to kind of summarize and and hopefully um

073answer any questions that you might have, um the current fees in in 2023, we've updated them consistent with the state statutes, the three methodologies that are reflected therein, and your current data. And we've looked at all three methods, but based on what we're seeing for your system in terms of the need for additional capacity as identified in your capital improvement program or what's in progress and in your CIP for the wastewater side, the incremental method seems to be where you know we would be focused on for recommendation if we were asked in terms of the methodology based on your current circumstances. You really need the additional capacity and what's in progress and what's in the CIP to be able to serve growth over the next several years. And so, you know, at this point, what

074we're looking for is, you know, really some some board approval and a recommended methodology to determine the final calculations that we would include in our report that then, as I mentioned, would be published for 45 days for public comment and that would be brought back as part of a public hearing after that time period for consideration for formal adoption. So, no specific action is needed today in terms of adopting new fees. It's more direction as to which methodologies and what level of cost recovery uh the board would like reflected in that report that we would then be publishing for public comment. And so with that, I'd be happy to open it up for um you know any questions and discussion and and answers as might be appropriate. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um so per per

075usual uh Andrew and also to our staff I've got questions regarding water water and sewer. Um so so first of all um if you can go back to slide 13. I I had a question regarding the scope of the jurisdictions that were presented here. So it it looks like we've got you know a variety of of different um jurisdictions. So we've got Shelby, we've got Favville um and then we've even got some of our neighbors here. We've got Wilmington. Uh what's the what's the scope here, Andrew? Can you um was there any like rhyme or reason as to, you know, why we're being presented this information here and why these jurisdictions were chosen for reference? Sure. Just trying to give you as as broad of a snapshot as we really could, Commissioner, about the range

076of fees that we're we're seeing in the state. um we don't have as an extensive amount of data set as the environmental finance center does um through their data collection but it wasn't necessarily based on you know consistency of you know treatment technologies or size or location. Um we did try to generally factor in as as many local agencies as we could because that's you know maybe relevant for development sighting considerations. Tried to grab some that would be of somewhat similar size but getting truly apples to apples would be a very hard thing to do. And so we went by being more inclusive than exclusive and trying to show you as as big a a section as we could of what the current fees are in that landscape to give a good reflection of the

077range of fees that we see. And this is a pretty good reflection of that. Okay. Thank you, Andrew. Um, you're welcome. So, this next question I've got might be better addressed from our staff. Uh, but as commissioners here, we get questions all the time from residents. Um, so residents will contact us and and one of the things that they want us to to to do or they want to see done is they want this board to adopt um impact fees. Um, and so I I would I would appreciate if maybe staff could can maybe speak to that. Um, and so so that we can possibly educate everybody at home or here at the meeting about the differences in what we're looking at here for system development fees versus say impact fees where um a governmental

078organization may charge a certain fee for say like school improvements or something like that. Sure. And so I want to and Andy certainly you can you can chime in if you want to. Um impact fees or the the imposition of them is governed by the general assembly. Um local governments do not have the authority to implement a impact fee unless it is specifically stated by the general statutes that we're allowed to actually collect it. Um to my knowledge there are only really two. A system development fee is essentially kind of like an impact fee. Um and that is uh statutoily allowed through the state. And there is another which is called fee in le of parklands where local jurisdictions can call uh can charge residential developments for um either land or for a payment to

079help with um park improvements or park um purchases. Those are only two that I'm aware of. Um, if any jurisdiction wanted an actual impact fee, they'd have to go to the general assembly. They'd have to vote on it. They'd have to put it in the general statutes, and all jurisdictions would be allowed to collect that. Um, that is not something that our general assembly has been very um interested in approving. Uh, so again, we're not allowed uh to actually implement those. Now other states uh those local jurisdictions have the authority to implement as they wish. South Carolina is one of those. They have the authority where they can implement local impact fees. They don't require any state uh approvals whatsoever. Thank you, Brian. I I think that that's sort of helpful for for folks to

080understand that um you know even though it may be something like that may be beneficial um it's not something that's within this board's control to do. Um la last but last question for now. Uh so the funds that we collect from system development fees um is it also correct to say that these would be funds that we would essentially put right back into water and sewer projects, infrastructure u uh projects such as uh capital cost um for you know water and sewer projects or even RNR um repair work for existing utilities or or facilities. Is that correct, Brian? And Andy, do you mind talk to that? Sure, I'd be happy to. Yeah, Commissioner, it really depends on the methodology that we select in terms of what the fees can be used for. So, under the

081incremental methodology Oh, you're going to the right spot there, Kevin. So, that under the incremental method, we can use the revenues from those fees to cover the cost of new capital. So, that would be things that we're going to construct. We could cash fund those projects. or if we issue debt to finance those capital projects, the expansion projects, we can use the revenues to pay for that debt. If we don't have any new expansion related projects or new debt on expansion related projects in the next 5 years, you can then use those incremental costbased fees if you use that method to pay for debt service for other expansion projects that you may have already incurred. So under the incremental method, we're really looking at forward-looking capital projects or debt for those or in the absence

082of those, we could then use them also to pay for existing debt that we've undertaken for expansion related projects. If you were to use the buyin methodology, that method would allow you to use the funds really for um almost all types of capital projects because you're effectively reimbursing yourself for the assets that you've already paid for and constructed. So you could use those revenues for rehabilitation projects or new capital improvements. And similarly under the hybrid method, if you went with that approach, you could also um expend the funds in addition for new projects, you could also expend them for previously completed projects that have capacity and for rehabilitation projects. So under the buyin and hybrid method, if you were to base your fees on those, you could use some of the revenues for future projects

083and or renewal and replacement or rehabilitation. But under the incremental method, it's really focused on expansion related projects going forward or any existing debt service that you have for expansion projects. But all of these under all these methods, just given your um public utility or your water systems cost requirements, you will derive a significant amount of benefit because you have a lot of expansion related debt. You have a lot of expansion related capital projects in your CIP. So, you know, I think for for you, the highest and best use of these fees is likely going to be to address those expansion related costs and continue to use rates and other mechanisms for your renewal and replacement costs. Um, thank you, Andrew. I I really appreciate that explanation. And so, you know, just to put this

084in perspective, you know, as we look at the methodologies here, um, you know, Union County sits currently in a situation where, you know, we've got 420 million or so, um, is that, uh, debt service for say like the Yadkin. Yes. For debt service. Yes. Debt service of 420 million for the Yadkin project. So, it's for all of our outstanding debt, not just Okay. Thank you, Beverly. So, Beverly just uh just corrected me. So that's for um for a variety of different projects. But bottom line is is that we could use those fees to pay down that debt service. And uh as we continue to look forward where you know we're planning a Kitaba expansion, these fees would come in handy for something like that where where we tr we we really really need additional water

085capacity um not only to service our customers but but for basic um you know pressures for fire suppression. So um so okay, thank you Andrew. I appreciate that. and and you know just just my opinion is I think at this point we're probably better served in in looking at the incremental cost method. Um now as far as what you need from us tonight, uh Brian, do you need then a formal vote then to adopt the public comment period? Um so if the board would and I think Andy mentioned this first off um give a recommendation on the methodology. So if it that's incremental and it's incremental if it's a very you know eat one or the other um or or or whether you choose buyin on one and incremental on the other we need to

086know that and then essentially that you recognize we're going to start the 45day comment period after they complete the rest of the the document because they they're taking what you say tonight they're finishing the document then they'll put it out for a 45day comment. has a question. Yes. Could you go back to the slide on incremental uh the the u actual results of the three different methods there? So the money so going back to uh the comments about impact fee. If someone's going to build a house and they're going to have a well and they're going to have a septic tank, basically no no fee. Okay. So, the incremental appears to give us the greatest flexibility. We do not according to your comments, we do not have to charge the full amount that the formula

087shows on this chart. Correct. That's correct. Okay. And if we uh the the fees that we collect, do they have to be segregated towards what they're used say for debt service? In other words, the the water amounts that we collect under the incremental fee structure have to only go towards say debt service on water projects or do they go in one big pot? No, they're separate. We have to separate them by water and sewer. You them and use them on the projects in the um so like 12 mile project I mean 12 mile if if the projects are in 12 mile we would use that in the 12mi basin. Okay. So by type water sewer and basin. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's that's all I had. So I would also um com support

088Commissioner Helms. I think the incremental gives us the greatest flexibility. Um I I don't know about the amount and that's that could be further discussion but I think that methodology gives us the greatest flexibility moving forward. Are there any other questions comments? Okay. Thank you very much. I I will just say that we're planning to once with the board's direction have the final draft by the 14th of April. put it on the website for the 45day period of public comment and then bring it to the board in June for public hearing and rate adoption. Thank you Andy and Kevin for being with us. You're very welcome. Thanks for the opportunity. All right. Bye everyone. Thank you. So u just looking for the board to make a decision. I I we can do this clean and

089we can just make a u make a motion and take a vote on it. That would be my suggestion. Um so I I'll make the motion that u that this board adopt the um incremental methodology. Um and also open up the 45day public comment period. All those in favor of the motion say I. The next item on the agenda is item 25-203 a presentation on solid waste. I will recognize solid director. Thank you madam chair, vice chairman, commissioners and management team. Uh thank you for the time uh to share with you a few insights a little bit about our solid waste management in Union County. Uh my hope is that uh you'll take these insights u and and use them when you evaluate the management team's budget recommendations for FY26. Let's see. All right. First

090of all, a little overview of our programs. Many of you are already aware that the solid waste management in Union County is comprised of our municipal solid waste transfer station. That's the garbage collected by the garbage man. uh all across the county. Most of that comes to our transfer station on Austin Cheney Road. We load that material and ship that out to Hansen County to their landfill for disposal. We also have our construction demolition landfill there at the same facility where we operate a permitted landfill uh for construction demolition material only. waste deposited is on site and both of those operations are landfill enterprise fund driven um so not impact to the to the general fund. We also have our third element of our program which is our residential waste and recycling centers. We have

091five satellite centers throughout the county and then our primary facility uh public drop off area as well. These facilities uh the five residential uh satellites facilities um accept bagged household waste only and recycling materials. Um this has traditionally been funded via the enterprise fund through tipping fees uh from commercial uh customers at our landfill. Um, but since we've implemented our trash pass program, which is our free trash allowance for our residents, we do supplement that program a bit from the general fund. So, what other programs do we offer? These are sort of our ancillary programs that we're very very proud of. Uh, as much as we can without dedicated staff for the task, we do as much education and outreach as as we can. Uh this year we've uh had six engagements for outreach where

092we describe solid waste management for civic groups and schools and that sort of thing. Um we also have launched our litter mitigation program where we uh pull part-time staff when and where we can. We try to commit to a few hours a week at minimum to pull litter off the roadsides in Union County. Uh really the the idea here is that we want to send the message that u solid waste division cares uh about this issue and we want to do our part. So we're very proud of the effort that our staff provides um on the sides of the roads uh with respect to litter mitigation. We also have our household hazardous waste disposal program. Uh typically this is a annual event. You can see the picture in the top right corner there. Um, last

093September we collected more than 40,000 pounds of mixed household hazardous waste. And household hazardous waste, if you don't know already, is the stuff you would take pause putting in your garbage. It's the liquid waste, the pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, that sort of thing. And again, we have our trash patch program. There's a little uh plot of our facilities as they are located throughout the county for the convenience of our residents. I've mentioned a bit about our uh track our litter mitigation efforts. We have also launched just this year a new program where we uh loan gear and provide disposal for anyone who's willing to put together a a volunteer event to to pick up litter. So, what they'll do is they call our office. We provide litter grabbers, bags, and vests and disposal to try to

094just help facilitate um volunteer efforts. In addition to that, we've recently shared this information with our library friends and they had a great idea that maybe we could package some of these kits together that folks could check out through all of our five branches. So, we're going to launch that FY26. We're very proud of that. Um, this next slide shows you some of our website. This is our newest page of the Union County solid waste uh on the on the county website. This page uh thank we're thankful to our public communications folks for really helping us get the message out for our pro programs and services. This page was born from uh last year or this year. uh the board um created a a temporary litter task force if you remember and so every month

095I've been meeting with those folks along with uh the planning folks and through those discussions it was um communicated to to us that the litter issue is so dynamic and there's so many stakeholders that a one sort of stop place to sort of gather the information was needed and the public communications folks helped us put this page together. So, I would encourage you uh to tool around that site and you can sort of see all the resources that are available. I'm not going to attempt to play the video because you never know, you know, but uh public communications has also put together a number of PSAs uh that are really pretty awesome. So, we're proud of those commercials. Thanks for the commercial. uh what is the state of the solid waste uh sort of trend.

096Um you know since 2011 18 it says our average daily tonnage has increased totally by 167%ish. Um you know we've gone from 102 daily average tons of CD to 343 and our garbage has grown from 243 daily tons to 578. So we do this with the same number of operators as we had in 2018 and we're very proud of our team for uh continuing to safely manage that material in a sustainable way. Uh this slide really is just a highlight I think um this is just our commercial garbage right across the scales at the at the transfer station. If you'll notice the 23 24 bar are it's a little misleading but the it's tonnage seems to have plateaued. So the green bars indicate tonnage uh taken in. Um what we really feel is that the

097trash impleation implementation of trash paths caused that sort of dip there in 2024. So, it's not that we didn't receive that waste. It's just that it didn't come in on the garbage truck, which means that enough of our citizens did away with their curbside service in favor of the free uh program. So, again, just to highlight that it's a very popular program. This slide is very similar um but I just wanted to highlight uh inflationary impacts on Solway's program. So the gold bar is solely the cost uh for transporting and disposing our waste from the uh transfer station to Anson County. Uh if you'll see the trend was uh up to this year that the cost was about to surpass our ability to pay for it. And uh we did make a significant cost uh

098fee adjustment rate adjustment last year that put us in a very much favorable position moving forward. So uh it's a good it's a good story to tell. There is a very you know 50,000 view snapshot of our overall budget and uh to date it looks like we're on target to meet our benchmarks. uh looks like a you know our revenues will exceed 13 million and our expenses are right in line with that. So we're doing what we need to do. Let's talk about our capital improvement plan briefly. Um we just completed a project that has received rave reviews by the citizens. Um every day somebody tells me what a pleasant experience they had at the dump. So hallelujah, right? Um, we do have some. And there it is. That That's before we christened the first

099can with garbage. That was right after we uh completed the last piece. And so folks can get in and out of our facility over here at Austin Cheney. And it is working out very well for us. So, thank you for your support in that project. So, what do we want to do next? Uh, we want to build an operations center. That project is underway. Um, we want to build a second scale house. The idea is that we'll split the traffic and make things safer, quicker, faster, better. Um, and also, of course, our landfill phase expansion, which is what we always do. Uh, to describe for you the phase of expansion, check out the map on the left there. Uh, the green indicates landfill space used. The peach area in the center is where we are

100now. The yellow area is the expansion. So when I say expansion, I don't mean we're increasing the footprint. I mean we're utilizing the permitted space. So we uh that yellow area represents 20-ish years of future for that facility. What does the solid waste op center look like? There's just a quick bit of information. We're looking for a 6,000 ft facility to uh consolidate our admin folks with our boots on the ground folks and give them the space they need to work uh safely and efficiently. We're not uh going to build super fancy. We're looking at a an engineered metal structure on slab. So, we want to just make it utilitarian but useful. I do want to talk a little bit more about the trash patch program. It's a very successful program. The public uh are

101embracing it. Uh it's it makes life at our five satellite convenience centers a lot easier for our easier for our staff. Um we are handling very little cash these days. Um some of the u other impacts are that you know in our our overall volume trash tonnage has increased by 13% and we attribute that to the popularity of the free trash disposal program. Our our operating cost for these five satellite centers only is over a million bucks and uh the general fund graciously contributes uh 650,000 to that but does leave us with a deficit of 400,000 or so. So, we'd like to find ways to bridge that gap. Um, so here's a strategy for your consideration. What I would like to do, uh, is eliminate all cash from the five satellite centers. And we would

102do that by setting the volume limits per visitor to the trash pass parameters, which is 10 13 gallon bags per visit per person. So, uh, what we do now is if someone has say 12 bags, we charge a dollar a bag, you know, for the overage on those bags. We take in very little cash. I believe we could eat that, cap that to a 10 bag limit. And if anyone has more, what they do is they learn to shove it in 10 bags is really what happens. But, uh, they would have the option of taking that waste to our Austin chaining facility, which is open six days a week. Um, we could do that. Also, we would eliminate the $10 fee for television recycling. So, back in 2016ish, u the state of North Carolina said,

103"Thou shalt not throw televisions in landfills." And that bolstered or propped up electronics recycling programs across the state. Um, that was I I get it. It was a wonderful thing to sort of capture that material. However, uh these CRT televisions, uh the big glass heavy furniture pieces, the cost of processing those was astronomical. And so programs across the state had to pivot and begin to charge for those televisions. Televisions are now uh CRT televisions are out of the way stream pretty much. So what we're doing is we're charging 10 bucks for things like this sometimes and it just does seem fair and equitable to the public. So I do believe I feel very confident that we could do away with that charge. Make all recycling free. Uh put a cap on the limit of garbage

104you can bring to the satellite centers which also will help to make those facilities successful moving forward because as more and more people visit our centers at some point the popularity of the program could overwhelm our capacity to handle that material. So I believe it's a a smart play. And lastly um that we incrementally increase the general fund comp contribution to the trash pass program to fully fund that. Now I think when also just let me say when we eliminate the cash at the centers we will be able to eliminate some costs on the administrative side because there are lots of costs involved with making the deposits and all all the backend work. So there are some efficiencies to be to be gained. Caleb, before we move on, there there's also there's always been a

105security concern with those folks handling cash at these convenience sites. A lot of them are rural. Um you just you don't have good protection out there. So, if we are able to eliminate that cash handling, that is a big component of our security assessment, security risk assessment that we've done in the past, that would also be eliminated. Anyone that is looking to do harm would know there is no longer cash at that facility. So, I just wanted to point that out because that's another big aspect. We're looking at this. Good point. Can Can I ask a question while we're still on uh the strategies? Um, you said that there's a 10 bag limit and you said if there's 12, of course, they're going to be charged. So what's to prevent somebody coming back a couple

106hours later and go, "Oh, here's two more bags." You know, convenience is king, right? So practically speaking, we haven't seen that. Now, would they come back tomorrow? Possibly. Could they could they go to another center? Sure. Um it's difficult to police that. Um my feeling is that convenience is king and folks will cram that into 10 bags. And we really have very few folks that go beyond the trash pass program. Um, you know, free is always more fun, right? And and Caleb and his staff do a great job of working with customers that come in if it's their first time coming to a convenience site or they, you know, they've never used it before, but they lived in the county, they they won't turn them away. They'll work with them. They'll educate them. And if

107we were to implement something like this, it wouldn't be a July one, you know, you're you're cut off from anything beyond 10 bags. his staff would continue to work with those folks and over time people people learn what they're supposed to do. So, um I I do want to give a shout out to his folks because they are very customer uh focused when it comes to dealing with them. Madam Chair, since we're stopped, Caleb, I got to ask, I mean, how many old RCA TVs are you guys getting over there? Occasionally we'll see one, but let me tell you, I've been in the business a long time and I remember uh sort of the shock of the cost of processing these CRTs and it really crippled all recycling programs like even the things that were

108easy or now having to be supporting you know this and uh you know every year I thought I was watching the tons and watch you know 90% of the volume by weight was always the CRT televisions and monitors There's computer monitors. Uh finally, um we've seen that sort of go away. I Every Super Bowl we get a little closer, right? Because TV's getting cheaper. But um any other questions about that? So, moving on to our current rates. That's a slide of our current rates. Again, we adjusted those rates last year. We're in a much more favorable position uh to to meet our needs. We are going to propose a slight increase. Realize that we give discounts for larger tonnage volume customers. That's a per month uh breakdown there. We're going to ask for just the

109tier one, just the folks that bring a very small amount of waste to us. And what that's going to target really is these very small um dump trailer operations. We see so many dump trailers that we sort of have to throttle that traffic. Uh this brings us sort of more in line with um other landfills as well. So we're asking for a slight increase on the tier one only for MSW. When it comes to CN D, we're looking at a slight increase on both tier one and two. Uh well, but we shall preserve the uh tier three larger volume uh sort of breadandbut customers if you will. So those are and then and then yard waste that will see the most significant increase. Um that $60 a ton brings us in line um more with

110some privates out there. There are other options for yard waste and when I say yard waste I mean land clearing debris. This is not just sticks and limbs. Uh we are inundated with yard waste and it is an expensive operation. So we need to just you know make a little more progress um in that in that with that material proper. So Caleb, before you move on, just wanted to touch base on CND. Um, not this past retreat, but the previous one. We gave a similar presentation to the board and there was there was some concern about the amount of CND we were seeing and the volume of that and our rates were fairly low at the time. We did raise those rates. Part of this strategy is to continue to be um fair but not

111the cheapest game in town because 20 years is not a lot lot of time when you talk about CND uh waste. So we don't want to be the the game in town where everyone's coming because that 20 years could turn into 10 years real quick. So we always want to try to we don't want to be the highest, we don't want to be the lowest. And that's part of the strategy you continue to see this year. I'm sure Caleb, if uh if you can go back to yard waste for just a second. So um you made you just made a comment that we're not talking about like sticks and limbs here. So are we talking about like So yeah, I mean yes and no. It's it's everything from grubbing land clearing to the armfuls. Now,

112um armfuls generally come in on residential side, right? And that's super inexpensive and that's a sort of a different fee structure there. Um this is the over the scale yard waste fee primarily for commercial customers and that kind of thing. Thank you. Yep. So, that pretty much sums up the uh the presentation. Uh ultimately what we what we're aiming to do with uh no longer taking cash at our centers as Patrick said enhance safety for our staff. That's primary one. Uh also we want to streamline the ease of use for our patrons. It's already pretty easy but if we make things cashless um it gets again more fun for everybody. So and eliminate the high administrative costs associated with cash processes I do think I can make some uh efficiency gains. um pretty significant ones

113on the administrative side if we we eliminate cash. Sounds counterintuitive, but um you know, we're only taking in about 20 26,000 on the annual at the centers anymore. So, it's an easy it's an easy makeup. Um that's it. Thank you much. Any questions? I have one quick question. The proposed rate increases, you're not projecting that they will cover the deficit, the operating deficit. We're projecting about a $700,000 uh move the needle forward, but there are also many other costs associated with uh running the landfill business. So, yes, if you we could apply it there, but the free trash the free trash program to us, you know, if we're uh an enterprise fund operating responsibly, we want to cash flow all of our business and that's what we've been able to do. So now that we're

114giving away some of the store, it really only seems reasonable to really think about these five satellite sites as infrastructure for the free trash program and sort of cover that in my opinion. And and Gary, the the deficit was just on the convenience sites. It wasn't on solid waste as a whole. So, um, solid waste as a whole does cover make enough to cover its expenses, but the solid waste sites is where historically Yeah, that's that's the loss leader because it's free. Makes sense. But overall, the program is going to carry its own weight. That's correct. Gotcha. Madam Chair, so Madam Chair, if I could for just a moment, I don't often step out of my lane and do this, but just want to say thank you very much. And just as Patrick described, it

115was a wonderful experience coming down to see you all. I got rid of an Instagram project in my backyard that said it was going to take about 4 hours. It was about 480 hours. The best part of that was getting rid of it. I wanted to video it so I could go home and replay it and watch myself getting rid of the trash again. It was great. It was 10 bucks. Uh it was it was great. So, thank you very much. Thank you, sir, for that compliment. I'm glad I didn't ask you about GS120B or anything, man. I thought about offering you a carton of eggs in le of the $10, but you guys could only take cash, unfortunately. Any other questions? Uh ju just a comment. Um I I was going to say that

116I also had a great experience at the dump. Um so uh so I I recently went over there and um and to uh to to uh Mr. K's point there, folks out there are always so friendly. Um I I got to see, you know, the improvements that were made out there. Um and uh and obviously uh you guys do a do a great job. So thank you. Appreciate that. you know, folks get to come to see us and alleivate alleviate a literal burden and that's part of the psychological kung fu that we do. But we appreciate you guys. Yeah. And I just wanted to make a clarification. I know um Caleb talked about this, but just so the public does understand that we don't operate a municipal solid waste landfill. We operate a construction and

117demolition and debris landfill. we transfer our municipal solid waste outside the county to another facility. So when he's talking about the expansion, he means the expansion of our construction and demolition portion of the landfill. We don't operate that landfill. It's been closed for a long time. Uh so I don't want the public to think that we're expanding and taking in, you know, household garbage now. We take in plenty of it, but it's just transferred out of the county. So I I just wanted to make sure that that that was clear. Thank you. All right. Thanks, guys. Next on the agenda is item 25-27, Parks and Wreck Advisory Committee. I will recognize Vice Chair Brian Helms concerning this item. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was looking back behind me to see if staff had some kind

118of presentation I wasn't aware of back there. Um uh so thank you, Madam Chair. I I wanted to bring this item forward. Um, you know, obviously we we've got uh a great um uh board of of volunteers that currently serve on our parks and wreck advisory board. Um, but it's it's also come to my attention that, you know, perhaps maybe the purpose of the parks and wreck advisory board has has sort of changed from where it it was originally planned um to to serve the county. And so I I think it sort of behooves our board to um perhaps discuss this and maybe seek some additional information from our staff um regarding the formation uh the current purpose of this board um you know if we're if we're getting efficiency out of this board that

119the county needs to further the mission of parks and recreation. Um, and so I wanted to bring this up. I want for for again discussion amongst ourselves here. Um, but also with the understanding that, you know, maybe it's time that we look at potentially revising the charter for this board um, and uh, providing additional direction to our parks and rec advisory board so that we can get the most out of the beautiful parks that we have. And so, you know, with that, I don't know if if staff wants to chime in perhaps with uh with the history of this board or, you know, I welcome my colleagues comments as well. Sure. I I would just give a little bit of background. Now, this this board has been around for a long time and we we

120haven't gone back and seen how far. I know when when Jim Chaffen uh started uh that committee existed and it was back in '05 2005 I think he he started with the organization that com that committee that board existed at the time and and during um that period their primary responsibility was w um helping to determine a local grant program that the county had where we had county dollars that we put aside for local municipalities to apply for parks and recck grants. And that group actually evaluated those grant applications. They selected which ones were to receive that, made the official recommendation. Ultimately, the board then approved that the the commissioners, but they were responsible for that and they they was a large task. They spent a good bit of the year evaluating all of those

121applications. that went away in about 2012 2013. Um, and so when that grant program went away, most of their duties and responsibilities went away. Um, they they are involved whenever the the um parks and recck um group does an update or they do a brand new master plan. They certainly get involved in the master plan. They give recommendations to this board about that master plan, but those only happen every five years or more. So, it's it's not common or often that this board has a true defined purpose that they're working on. Um, it's my understanding that um they they they don't they had some difficulty uh during the COVID years. They actually discontinued meeting during CO. When we came out of COVID, we had difficulty filling vacancies for that board. And so there was a

122time frame where the board didn't meet. They either couldn't have a couldn't have a quorum or didn't have the vacancies filled to be able to meet. It's only been recently they've been able to to fill that board and then start meeting again. So again, some challenges that they faced over the years, not of any fault of their own, just for circumstances. Just some additional historical context. The parks and recck advisory committee was formed in uh March of 1988. I'm just wondering if anybody can think of any serious consequences of dissolving that board. Well, I I mean obviously you know what you want is you want your your volunteers to feel engaged, but you don't want them to feel that they don't have a purpose. So obviously if you were to dissolve this board, you may

123be telling your volunteers that, well, listen, we we we don't necessarily need your expertise. And I don't think that's what this board is trying to say. I think what you're trying to to look at is what can we use your expertise for because right now there isn't a real good purpose for you to meet regularly and give you know advice and give recommendations for um you know when the county does apply for federal and state grants. It is good to have a park and reex board that counts as points towards your application. That that's certainly important. Um that's not a deal killer. You don't have to have it. That's just something that helps. And so I think it's really more um can this board define what the purpose is of that committee and give them

124um a a challenge for them to feel like they are contributing? That's my opinion. H how engaged is this board in the uh budget request of our parks department? Do they review, approve, testify, help develop as far as on the budget, they're made aware of it. Um, but I would say they're not very involved and again through COVID and after we didn't have very many meetings. So, there were several budget years that there was no input just because we didn't have meetings. Um, again, Jim does make him aware of what he's asked for, what's been approved in the budget, but it's more informative. It's not as not a asking for support kind of thing. I will say that um on some of the grants we've gone after recently, we we have not been awarded and

125one of the main reasons is um most of our facilities are not new. Parks and wreck trust fund uh through the state of North Carolina, they look at wanting to build new facilities, not enhance existing facilities to give priority to it, I should say. Um so we have had the parks and wreck advisory board. We've done master plans, but it hasn't necessarily materialized into additional grant money at this time. If there were grants we wanted to go after or a master plan that we did want to do at some point in the future, this could always be reformulated into a a working group, a task force, something like that for that specific purpose. Um or it could be other purposes that the board deems um reasonable, right? And there was one um Lynn reminded me

126that um whenever the parks and wreck folks are trying to get accreditation um then that commit that board is also part of that review as well. Madam Chair, yes. Um, I sit on the park and wreck board and um, talking to Jim and David and Lindsay who are over park and wrecks and let me be the first to say what a fabulous job that they do and this is absolutely zero reflection on them at all. Again, they are incredible at what they do. um meeting that we had uh in March. Um I since again I serve on that board um along with uh Reverend Jimmy Benshin from the board of education. Um and then we have six volunteers from the community and all six members were present along with Mr. vention and myself and again

127the the park and recreck board did not meet for quite some time because again of co um but this last meeting and we will meet every other month was more of this is what we do since there's so many new board members on here this is more of an introduction type uh information was discussed about the Jesse Helms Park the new additions that were going there um update dates at Cane Creek, the the general store, if you will. So, there wasn't a lot of substance to this one particular meeting that we had in March besides information that the board needed to decide on, but sitting on that board previously with the board of education, there were things that were decided. Um, it is a useful board. I don't want to say that it's not um

128it a lot of times it's informational and give me your thoughts, your feedback and it does give staff information and a different perspective to look at to change to present to our ninth floor our um Mr. Matthews and and his staff. So it it does serve a purpose. Um, again, they only meet every other month. Um, one thing that, um, Mr. Helms, Commissioner Helms and I have talked about was, and even Mr. Balkam is making sure that they are used at full capacity as often as possible. Um, I personally didn't know that there was going to be event at the Jesse Helms or excuse me at the Simpson Event Center um, right behind the A Center in in Monroe by and um, it just is there's just not a lot of information out to the

129public that this is going on here on this weekend. We've got, you know, X, Y, and Z going on at this park. Um, so I I think that's where we kind of lack communication. Yeah. If we could improve that, I think that would help tremendously. And again, to um Mr. Helms and Mr. Balkam's points that we discussed earlier is we just don't think that it's used to it to its full advantage. Madam Chair, um yeah, I would agree with that. Listen, you know, I think that um our county manager had a great comment there. I think that everybody wants to get as much as what we possibly can from these facilities. Um we have got, you know, a wonderful park there at Cane Creek. Uh we've got a great facility there at Jesse Helms. Um

130you know, but but you're all the time hearing about events happening at say like municipal parks. um whether it's concerts, whether it's um you know, I mean, even Lake Park's got their balloon festival that they do every single year. Um uh one thing that uh has been mentioned is even a cornhole tournament, you know, and so I I think that you know what we're seeing is is that this board was originally um developed or founded, you know, to work on the grant side, which is great, but I think that right now our needs are changing and and I think that what we need is we need a a board here to, you know, focus on um community engagement, you know, uh community engagement events, um you know, other things that we can attract people there

131to our parks because I mean, if if you haven't seen Cane Creek, it's a it's a hidden gem in our county. I mean, it really is. Um me and Chair Merryill, we were out there what about a year ago? I think maybe a little over a year ago, maybe less. It kind of runs together. Well, yeah. So, a little less than a year. Yeah. And you know, we work. Yep. and we spent uh but we spent time specifically with Jim and uh and listen parks and recck folks I mean they they do a great job. Um but at the same time, you know, I think that where we're at is is that the charter for this board needs to change with the needs of the county, you know, and um and just to have a

132board to have a board is not what we want. We want to we want to get some efficiency out of this board and we want to make some positive changes that's going to attract people and let people enjoy our parks. Yeah. Um I I would like to say that I think that the U Parks and Wreck would benefit from a good board with a well-defined purpose. Yeah. Perhaps that maybe what's lacking is the well-defined purpose. When I when I go down to Can Creek especially, I think what a beautiful facility and I look at the amphitheater and think, are we using this to its full potential? Um, and I I dare say I don't think we are. So, I I do think that the board has value, but we need to be respectful of anyone

133who would volunteer to be on a board. We need to be respectful of their time if they're willing to to invest their time on this board and in the community and give them a well- definfined purpose and and just help to make parks and recre be as good as they can possibly be. Yes. Um, one thing I did talk to Jim about was the amphitheater today and, you know, have they thought about having concerts in the park? Even um, fireworks at the Fourth of July, you know, the Union Symphony, the Union County Symphony would be great in the amphitheater. Um, but the issue is parking. So, in order for us to have big events, we're going to have to change the structure to make sure we have adequate parking. The Monroe City pulls in what?

134Five plus thousand people for their fireworks. Well, if Waxaw did that, there's no way that we could fit, you know, a hund couple people cars in there along with all of the campsites and those are always booked up especially during the summer. So, if we want to really utilize the park, as great as it is, we're going to have to change possibly adding parking so we can increase the volume that's there. So, that's something I think that we probably need to take a look at as well. M and I I think that's a fair point. Um, I think that, you know, we're going to see challenges, you know, like parking or something's going to come up with anything that we try to do. Um, but I think that the onus becomes, uh, well, I think

135the onus comes back to this board, you know, to make the charge to our parks and rec board, you know, to change that charter and say, okay, you know, we we've got some very smart folks on this board. We've got some very capable pe cap capable people on this board. Um, and I think that, you know, they probably have that ability to navigate those challenges or at least come up with suggestions, you know, to us. But I think it starts with changing the the uh the scope, okay, and the direction and I'm in favor of that. I think every board should have a purpose. I don't think any board should meet just to have a meeting because personally, if I can go home after work and not have a meeting that can be sent in

136an email, I'm okay with that. So, I think that should actually go out as a challenge to all of our committees that, you know, let's redefine what each committee is doing because if we're not coming in there with a purpose and coming up with good solutions to any issues that that particular board's having, then there's no point in having a board for anything. So I think this needs to go beyond park and wreck and even look at every single committee that that we have. Yeah. I mean from the health department to library health and human services safety everything land use again every single board. I think that we need to go back and look again to make sure that we have a purpose and we're working toward that purpose in growing in the future. C

137can I ask is your board meeting in April or is this your off month? No, we meet every other month. Okay. So, we'll meet again in May. So why don't you put on your agenda for May charge the committee with coming up to recommend to this board how to change the charter or what the the charge of that committee could should be or to dissolve it. What what what does the committee think? Well, and I would like for for staff to as well be a part of this because staff if if I'm not please correct me if I'm wrong that y'all also attend these meetings as well that you also give directions to again all the committees because again if if each one is just meeting to meet I I mean again I would love

138to go home after work and if you can send me an email instead I'm good with that. Um, so I I think that should be a charge that goes out to every committee going forward is what's the purpose? Are we fulfilling that purpose? And go from there. Okay. Yeah, I I I think that we should probably start with um maybe just making a motion that um and maybe this would be better directed with with staff here to to help us solicit some input. Yeah. So, um just hearing what's being discussed, I think what we can do is compile a list of all the boards and committees we do have and go back and figure out what their charge is um as a starting point. That way you have the information to say that the a

139advisory board was formed for this reason and here's what they do. That way you have a baseline of what every board and committee does. Um specifically for the parks and recck advisory board. I mean you can do it both ways. We can we can request feedback from that group on what they think the charge of parks and recck advisory board should be or you all can come up with ideas which you what you think the charge of parks and recck advisory board should be. So, if if we have a little bit of time here, I'd give us a a little bit of um a little bit of time to do some research, come back with what all the boards do, what their charges are, and then you can look at them and we can decide

140what the next steps are from there because I think we got a little bit of time to And aren't some of our advisory boards required? Yes. Mandated? Yeah, they're they're they're statutoily mandated. That's correct. I um to to piggyback on what Patrick was saying, um I I actually think it is a good idea um specifically for park and wreck, the other boards will, you know, we'll get all the information we can, but I I think knowing that um there's some things that are just they don't necessarily have a true like definition of what they need to be working on. I think it actually would be a good idea for an exercise for the parks and recck board to talk about what things do they believe they should be doing as well as staff giving some

141input on that and we bring that back to this board. So I I would suggest that I think that was a good idea by by commissioner sides. We will develop um the list of all the rest of the boards and committees that we have and what their purpose is provide that at a future date for you. But in the meantime, park and wreck could maybe move in that direction of supplying this board with, hey, these are some things we think would be a good idea for us to work on. That's just a suggestion. Do um Mr. K, do we need an official motion on that? I think that's within the board's discretion. I think staff has offered up some action items. If the board wants to clarify that and give direction to staff, they can

142certainly do that. if they're satisfied with what they've heard, uh, that's fine as well. Yeah. Um, well, I I tell you what, we'll just go ahead and make a motion. I'll make the motion that we direct staff to, uh, bring us back information with all of our advisory boards and committees. Um, with the uh existing scope of those uh, committees and boards um, as well as uh, general information about those boards. um more specific to parks and wreck. Uh that we also advise um staff to um to communicate with parks and recck board um regarding a potential change of their charter, solicit feedback from our parks and recck board as well as staff members um for a potential scope change for parks and wreck and then report that back to this board. Yeah. 30 days,

14360 days. I'd say 60 days. That gives us enough time because the park and rec committee they don't meet anyway. So, well, I tell you what, how about 90? 90 would be great. Yes, sir. Yeah. All right. Within 90 days. That was long motion. Do we have it all? Would you repeat that? I I I can't repeat that one. It has been so recorded in the minutes. comments. All those in favor of the motion say. Next on our agenda is item 25170. Appointments to the boards and committees. There are two boards with vacancies for consideration this evening. The vacancies have been advertised in accordance with the board's rules and procedures. applications have been received and information regarding the vacant positions may be found in the background provided for this item. First, we have the child

144fatality prevention team and community child protection team. I will now entertain a motion for a nomination to these teams. Madam Chair, yes. Yes, ma'am. I'll make the motion that we appoint Eric Jay and I'm probably gonna mess this up, but Claylin with EMS to our child fatality prevention team and community child protection team. Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. I. Thank you. The second board with a vacancy for consideration this evening is the transportation advisory board. There are two total vacancies on their on this board and I will now entertain a motion for a nomination to this board. Madam Chair, yes. I'll nominate Tracy Kohley to the transportation advisory board. So nominate to appoint her to the transportation advisory board. Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. I.

145That brings us to the end of the meeting and I'll recognize the county manager for comments. I have no comments tonight. Thank you very much. Okay, that brings us to commissioner comments and I'll start with Commissioner Sides. No comments. Thank you. Have a good evening. Commissioner Brian Hams. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, first of all, I want to say thank you to uh to Deputy Carter who was with us uh tonight. Um, Deputy Carter um is is another fine example of of the SRO's that we have here in Union County, and we're fortunate to have them. Um, you know, I've said this numerous times, but um but our SRO's are an asset to our county. Um they uh they they do make a difference. So, I appreciate the efforts of Deputy Carter. uh they're at

146Prospect Elementary and all of our SRO's for that matter, all of our deputies, too. Um I I do want to extend my my thoughts and my prayers and my condolences um to the uh family of the uh the child who passed in the Fairview community uh this week. Um that is an extremely sad situation and um and again my my heart's broken for that family. My heart's broken for the Fair View community um and also our county and I just want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with them. Thank you. I will um offer my same condolences for the Fair View family who lost a child um last week. Um Fair View is part of my family. My children grew up and um went to Fair View Elementary. And so I just want

147to um wish our principal Kelly Thomas and all of our beloved teachers and staff, everyone at Fairview Elementary, you're in our thoughts and prayers um along with the family and the students um that had to witness so much law enforcement and EMS come into their their sweet school. Um, and I just want to thank the Union County Sheriff Office and um, and county management for um, sending chaplain and everyone over to the school to, you know, um, meet with the children and staff and the families to kind of um, deescalate um, the what they were going through. So, um, again, our thoughts and prayers are with Fair View and um, and Miss Kelly Thomas. uh we we just love her so much. Um and again, I do want to say our SRO um whether they're

148um with the local police departments or our sheriff department are just the best of the best in Union County and between the board of education and Union County government. um being able to bring the sixth largest school district in the state of North Carolina uh onetoone with SRO. Um something we work very hard on on the board of education. It took many years to get to that. Um but we love our SRO and it was so nice to be able to honor honor one tonight. Um Prospect Elementary. Um they they are heroes. And I've said this a hundred times, I'll say it again tonight. Um when those when those um students graduate and they cross the stage, the first person they want to hug when they come off that that stage is their SRO. Exactly.

149And um it it is a great thing to witness. They may not hug their mama or their daddy, but they will hug that SRO. So, um, we do, we are extremely grateful and I think we have the best of the best here in Union County. So, thank you, Miss Christina Hams. Thank you, ma'am. Um, I'd also um like to give my condolences for the Fairview community. Um, I don't think anybody should ever have to bury a child. I think that would be the worst thing ever. Um, but on a brighter note, I'd like to congratulate uh Chief Brian Gillard on his retirement even though he is a city employee. Um, they are still part of Union County. And Mr. Brian Gillard uh started serving in 93, I believe it was, as a dispatch here in

150Union County and worked his way up to chief. and he has been such an asset to Union County and we are very proud of all the work that he and his department has done and we got to hear Sheriff Kathy uh discuss all the the work they did together and it was such a great collab collaboration between the two departments and uh so I'd like to just congratulate uh Chief Gillard on his retirement and I hope he enjoys all the golf that he's going to play. Golf in the beach. Yes. Yeah. 32 years of service. Um um you know and worked his way up through the ranks I think the last 11 years as um chief of police. And um and I I saw something today where he still has a picture of the day

151he got um his badge and his grandmother um put the badge on his uniform and I thought that was extremely special. So yeah. Commissioner Balkam, thank you. Um, my condolences as well to the Fairview family and community. I would also like to say I appreciate all the efforts from the staff and my fellow commissioners. And with that, I just want to wish everyone a good night. Okay. I will accept a motion to adjurnn. So move. Okay. All those in favor say I. Ah okay. Good night everyone.