by Blake Proctor
The Bladen County Board of Commissioners met on Monday the 21st for its final regular meeting of Fiscal Year 2021 with a jam-packed agenda.
Commission Chairman Charles Ray Peterson called the meeting to order at 6 pm. The Reverend Sam Van Slyke of Bladenboro First Baptist Church provided the invocation, and County Manager Greg Martin again led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
Chairman Peterson requested that item 14B, the consideration of adopting a resolution to disengage from Eastpointe LME/MCO and realign with Trillium, be tabled; with a motion to that effect, Item 14B was removed from the agenda, and the 16-item consent agenda was quickly approved.
First up was Rusty Worley, Maintenance Director for Bladen County Schools; Mr. Worley requested after-the-fact approval for $24,009.41 in Capital Outlay expenses for the April 1st-to-May 31st period. This was unanimously granted.
County Planning Director Greg Elkins came before the Board to seek approval for a rezoning request; the public hearing on the request had occurred at the June 7th meeting.
The property proposed for rezoning is situated at the intersection of NC 87 and NC 41, at the traffic light southeast of Dublin; there were several neighboring residents at that hearing, all in opposition to having the property rezoned from Residential-Agricultural to Commercial.
The rezoning request had met all the prerequisites of the County Planning Board, and that Board had therefore recommended approval of request to the Commissioners.
However, a weakness in the long-standing Planning Board approval procedure was discovered: Currently, it is not required that owners of adjoining property be notified of the rezoning until the request – already determined by the Planning Board – is scheduled to be considered by the Commission.
Commissioners remarked on that deficiency, and perhaps the process will be amended.
Extensive discussion and comments from Commissioners followed; the fact that the petitioner for the rezoning request had no specific business type in mind for that property was highlighted.
A motion to deny the rezoning request was made by Commissioner Mark Gillespie and seconded by Commissioner Rodney Hester. The motion passed by a 6-to-3 margin, with Commissioners Michael Cogdell, Arthur Bullock, and Dr. Ophelia Munn-Goins voting nay.
The Commission then donned their bib overalls and straw hats to convene as the Bladen Water District Board. LKC engineer Logan Parsons was on hand to provide an update on the Phase IV Water System Expansion Project, consisting of three related construction phases.
A PowerPoint presentation was provided for the audience to view as the Water Board followed along on handouts. The following combined project status update was presented:
· About 90% of the 27.5 miles of new water mains has been laid, and is ongoing;
· The new well has been completed and is certified at 350 gallons per minute;
· All 6,400+ electronic-read water meters have been installed, and staff is being given read training.
Mr. Parsons also requested the Board consider several change orders, as follows:
· Add 3,810 feet of water main on Forest Drive and Lucy’s Drive;
· Replace old flow meters at nine existing well sites;
· An adjusting change order that lowered the water meter project cost.
The first two change orders would add $185,036 to the project’s cost; the third change order provided a $28,712 credit. Even with the additional expenses, there are still funds available in contingency.
The Water Board unanimously approved all three change-order requests and breathed a sigh of relief that this $6,514,000 project is nearing completion. Doffing their work duds, the Board retook their seats behind the Commission dais.
Finance Officer Lisa Coleman came before the Board to give the eleven-month County Financial Dashboard. In a nutshell, she proclaimed that as of the end of May, the General Fund was at 90.6% anticipated revenues and only 85.4% expended, providing a cushion of over five percent.
The Sanitation Department was even better, with 101.0% of budgeted revenues received, while only 83.0% had been expended, an 18.0% cushion. The Water System had achieved the best ratio, with 91.2% of revenues in and a mere 70.2% expended, a 21.0% spread.
Dr. Terri Duncan, Health and Human Services Director, began her report by stating that Covid19 was “alive and well in Bladen County.” She further stated that the county is “at a standstill” in ridding itself of the virus. In response to a question from the Board, Dr. Duncan affirmed that there were five Covid variants in the state.
Then, providing a thumbnail sketch of Bladen County’s Covid status, she bemoaned the fact that even this late in the pandemic, a mere 33% of the county has been completely vaccinated; worse still, 64% of Bladen County residents have not had even their first shot.
In closing, Dr. Duncan provided her twice-monthly county vs. statewide comparisons
POSITIVES DEATHS RATIO**
STATE 1,810,000 13,368 0.74%
BLADEN 3,337 42 1.26%
** RATIO is DEATHS as a percent of POSITIVE TESTS
In what was feared was going to be a marathon of advisory board appointments – 68 individual appointments to 20 boards – in actuality, it went quickly and smoothly, thanks to the Chairman keeping the Board focused.
The members of the following boards whose terms were expiring were all reappointed:
· The Ammon Fire Service District Committee; the Kelly Fire Service District Committee; the Tar Heel Fire Service District Committee; and the White Lake Fire Service District Commission
· The Bladen County Recreation Committee; and the Animal Control Board
· The Lumber River Workforce Development Board; and the Southeastern Community Action Partnership
· The Jury Commission; and the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council
Joe Allen Jr., was tapped to replace Ralph Carter on the Bladen County Planning Board; Wendy Merritt replaced Willis Ray Edge on the Hickory Grove Fire Service District Committee; and Larry Hammons replaced Dr. Frank Gemma.
There were several changes on the Keep Bladen Beautiful Committee:
· Terri Dennison replaced Cara Kinlaw
· Hannah Hester replaced Cora Beth Lewis
· Jennifer Beeger replaced Nick Norris
The appointment to the Eastpointe MCO was tabled until after a determination has been made regarding Trillium; and the appointment to the Division on Aging Advisory Committee was again tabled in an attempt to locate a feasible candidate.
County Manager Martin provided his Calendar Review for the remainder of June and the month of July. He then requested the Commission consider approving the Form of Agreement Regarding the Needs-based Public School Capital Fund for the construction of the Tar Heel Primary/Middle School. This was also approved.
In Matters of Interest to Commissioners, Mr. Bullock asked the Commission to approve a Resolution in support of NC House Bill 921 regarding Community Reinvestment in Tier 1 counties, which would include Bladen. In short order, the Board unanimously did just that.
With all but one vexing item concluded in regular business for FY 2020-2021, the Board recessed at 7:26 pm, with the meeting continuing at 4 pm, Wednesday, the 23rd to hear from Eastpointe.
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