By: Blake Proctor
The Bladen County Board of Commissioners held a called meeting for two public hearings to receive comments on the proposed Fiscal Year of 2020-2021 General Fund and Economic Development budgets.
Dr. Amanda Lee from Bladen Community College was in attendance along with the Chairman of the BCC Board of Trustees, Dennis Troy, and BCC’s Chief Financial Officer, Jay Stanley. They were preset to again request the $67,000 for capital improvements that were considered but not approved at the June 1st meeting. This second time around, the request was approved on a unanimous vote.
County Computer Operations Director Robin Hewitt appeared before the Commission to discuss the new telephone system for the County. While Requests for Proposals have not yet been prepared by the Department, it is estimated that the full cost of this project will be approximately $250,000. The Board approved the concept of this changeout but will await the results of the RFP before giving any approval to proceed.
Dr. Robert Taylor, Superintendent of Bladen County Schools came before the Board to request that the County reinstate the automatic monthly allocation of Capital Outlay funds to the Board of Education, and to also ask the Board’s financial support for a $5,000 safety assessment for the School System.
The Board took no immediate action on the request for the automatic Capital Outlay allocation, but, on a split vote with Commissioners Peterson and Dowless dissenting, approved the request for the funds to provide the assessment
The second public hearing, regarding the County’s Economic Development budget for the upcoming fiscal year, received no comments.
The Special Meeting was closed at 7:37 p.m. The adoption of the budget is scheduled for the Regular Board meeting of Monday, June 15th.
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