Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to officially call this meeting to order. I appreciate everybody being here tonight, April 17th, 2023, and I look forward to having your input as we carry on our business here tonight. To start off with, I would like to ask the Ramp and assist the county manager. Mr. George Futel, if he would do an invocation and lead us in the pledge. Would everybody please stand? That's pretty good. Emily Baldwin, we thank you for the beauty and glory of another day of life and another day of opportunity. We've had to serve you in some way or manner. We thank you, Lord, that you bless us with the privilege to serve the citizens of Duke and County and even others that come our way. Lord that we are able to be what we're supposed to be to be kind and loving, consider it the passion of Lord and those that need our assistance. And so we pray your blessings upon our work, and we thank you for what we know that our work comes to you. Lord, we thank you for those that are elected, and those that are even volunteer, for those of us that have the privilege to work for the county. And we pray you continue to bless Duke County, bless our commissioners to not lower in all that they have to deliberate upon. We thank you for those who have come to present. We pray your blessings upon this gathering. We thank you again for the beautiful day that you give. Once we come towards the end of this giving praise and thanks of Jesus. Amen. to lead and to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Mr. Davis. Mr. Chairman, if I could, I need to add a closed session, pursuant to the North Planner General Statute 143-318-11-86 for personnel matters. Okay. Pleasure to board. To the second. Okay, I got a motion in a second for the night's agenda with the closed session for personal added any further discussion. Here and then all in favor say aye. All opposed same sign. Okay, carried. All right, that moves us to the approval of the minutes of our regular April to third meeting. So I got a motion. Go have a second. I got a motion and a second any further discussion Here in those all his papers say aye all opposed same-side Carry okay that moves me into the Minutes from our joint meeting with James front Community college board and trustees on April to 4th. Do I have a motion? I got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Here and none. All in favor approve those minutes. Say aye. All opposed. Same side. Carry. Okay. That moves us right right into the consent agenda. Pleasure to board. Motion to a present. I got a motion to a here second. I got a motion to a second. Any further discussion? Here and none. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Same sign. Carry. All right, that moves us into our first item on the agenda. Public comments. Mr. Chairman, no one has signed up for public comments. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I know that, you know, we have a sign-up sheet as you walk in the door, but in case somebody missed it, this is your chance. If anybody wants to speak, I'll give you three minutes at this point to come up to the podium and speak All right, thank you so much that moves us to item number two That's Melissa Kennedy Good evening Um, I'm here for three public hearings. The first one is for new beginnings construction The first one is for new beginnings construction. Their name and the lane on NET lane at the 245 Wagon 4 Road limestone township. All right, I'm going to open the floor for public hearing on this request. Any comments from the public. All right, here in the, I'll close it. We'll go back into open session. That's a good proof. I got a motion and a second. Any further comment? Here in the, I'll then favor say I. All opposed same sign. Carry. All opposed, same sign. Carry. All right, that loses to item number three. The next one is forever and Eric Averiz. They have chosen Averiz Drive at Rosemary Place off a Rosemary Road in Rose Hill Township. OK, I'm going to open it again to the public for any comments about naming this road Any comments from the public Here in the I'm going to close the public here and we go back into open session pleasure to board Moose to approve I got a motion now a second to approve any further comments Here in the all-'ll then favor say aye. All opposed, same side, carried. Out of number four. The next one is for Wilfredo or Teas Chacon. They have chosen Elksa de Rite Lane at the 200 block of Bennett's Bridge Road, listen township. Same thing, the open floor for the public have any discussions on this road. Road names name excuse me All right here in none we're close to public here and we're back into open session I got a motion to a hair second Got a second anymore comments Here none all the papers say aye all the others same side Carrie thank you so much All right that brings the item number five Dr. Edward We're moving right along sir I'm not going to let you do business. I don't know. I mean, it's good to be here with you today. I appreciate the invitation and excited to have two of my bosses here. George Futures was one of my boss. He prays for me a lot. And Bob Crenigee, who is a part of her trustee. It's great to be with you. And I have to go ahead and tell you, my former life, I was an actor, I was raised on the farm, I was an actor, dad was an actor, I was a high school principal, I was a school superintendent in Johnson County. My experience standing before a group of board of commissioners, I feel like I need to ask you for about 80 million dollars. So I actually did not do that before I leave, but it is good to be here and be a part of. It's actually good to stand for commissioners and not have to go through all the stuff I used to as a school superintendent. But I am from Wayne County, I am from the Nihanna Park from the Hunted area. I do live in Johnson County now, obviously because I was a school administrator there for so long. And don't ask me how I ended up at University of Maine Island. Other than it was just a God thing. You know, we've been an interesting ride there the last two or three years with COVID and what have you but I've been a regional free will back just all my life and proud of that heritage and my wife and I have supported the University had two sons and went off the NC State which is where I graduated from and our youngest graduated from University of Manala and it can put after supporting that University all of our lives it can put out support in that University of all of our lives. It really opened our eyes to exactly what that University has to offer. And I hope you know this, but I believe it is a really big hidden gem for Eastern North Carolina and for what it can do, not only for all kinds of disciplines, but especially ag. And a lot of great things happened in there. And I am really proud to be, I was only gonna stay for six months when I went, that was three years ago. And I've just signed on for a few more years, so I'm gonna be there a while. But if I've learned this end of Wayne County, I've learned this end of Dukeland County. And I hope that you're excited to know that part of our university rest in your district. And I called my son on the way over here, so Jonathan graduated in Ag from the University of Manolet and in 2000, he said in 2016, I'm assuming that each of you know where that farm is, right down from Butterball, Carnegie Farm. They had just donated that farm when he was there. And so he went through the process of having cleaned it up. It was an old house there that had to be removed and old well that had stuff thrown in, they cleaned up. And it's amazing listening to him talk when he come home to what that place is the day seven years later and it's really, really growing. So it's good to stand before you and share the good news at university. We are again at Christian University. It just happens to provide liberal arts education and we've had some, I know you know, there's some significant folks who've come through, we've got the Tillman School of Business and I guess you know who that was named after, right? Tillman, Bob Tillman, you're quite right here. After we're in the Bob, Bob years ago had an idea if they started a hardware store and adapting to it where people could go and just do what you're self, they do it pretty good. They call that loads today. Not good. And we've had Shane Smith, who had a Smithville food, just a graduate of University of Myolick. We're excited about that. I met with him a couple of times. And so a lot of good things that we feel like are not only going on but are really positioned to take place here in the future. I would share with you that we have just a couple of numbers. I think it should be exciting to you or interesting to you. We have, obviously we have 100 counties in the state. We have students from 81 of those 100 counties here at University of Manala. And we've got students that represent 29 different countries from the University of Manala. So we're a very diverse campus and we have a great opportunity not only to provide that education but to give them some spiritual growth as well, which we're very excited about. We'll say that for years, the university sold itself on having 100 different degrees that we get offered students. It said to be quite honest with you, we feel like we can't really afford 100 degrees. So we have narrowed that down to about 50. Some of that will be going to the board this week for approval on. But we feel like we need to hone our skills and get really good at what we're doing. Our a lot of universities are struggling with enrollment. We have in the past, but it looks like if God continues to bless us, that we could have one of the largest graduating classes with freshman company and developing that we've had in the meeting many, many years. So that's really good. And so we're really excited about where we are. We're gonna be focusing in three main areas. We've got our Ag Department, which I think right now, and they may correct me. But from my viewpoint, the Ag Department, which I think right now, and they may correct me. From my viewpoint, the Ag Department is probably one of our flagships. We have another form on the other side of Mount Olive that we're about to turn into a large animal farm. My vision, way on down the road, I'm a dreamer. I pull things off very well, but I'm a good dreamer. It's hopefully one day to be entertaining the notion of a bit school on that side of town, which I think would be instrumental for us in this part of the state. Case IH, I know we've got several ag folks in here. I don't know what fellow tractors you're running around on, but KSIH has formed a partnership with us. We have developed a four-year degree for them in Precision Ag, even looking at possibly getting a drone at some point in time to do some precision work with, but they have donated equipment, not only the row-proc form which is in Duper County, but also be providing all the equipment for us at the Ag Facility, I mean the Animal Science Facility as well. That's just a little bit about who we are. I am trying to spread the good news University. You know we, one of the things that I'm trying to do is expand our footprint. In other words, just get our knowledge base out who we are. So one of the things that we've done is trying, what we're doing is trying to bring some big name folks to campus. We had Michael Jr., who's a Christian comedian on campus a few weeks ago. And we've got Tim Tepo coming to speak at graduation and doing a private event for us tonight before. I'm told that the Tepo, well, once we announced the Tepo event, the number of hits on servers doing Google searches for UMO Explosion, which is what we're trying to do. And I'm told that we will have the largest percentage of graduates attending graduation this year, if you can figure that out, that we've had for a long time. And in fact, I think we've run out of tickets and we're getting a lot of requests that people who are wanting to go. I don't know why they wouldn't come to see me, but they're choosing Tim T. Bo we're excited about it, happy about what the future holds for university. And I'll be glad to entertain any thoughts or questions. You might know a couple of you attempted our, but, Reven cutting ceremony a couple of weeks ago at our food commodity facility. We just got noticed, I'm not math faculty board don't even know this. We just got noticed Friday that we are, I mean, thirsty, that we are received a half a million dollar golden leaf grant to help with the other form that we've got. So a lot of good things happening, proud of who we are and I'll entertain any questions that you might have. Any questions you got a question? Feel free to ask them. I don't have a question. I would like to say though, I attended the ribbon cutting and what a nice facility you all have constructed not only in the new building but the other buildings there's way over it. One of them correct me if I'm wrong because of University of mind all of graduating more ag and teachers then no class state university didn't last year sure did and wait you know I won't this is big to me just from being on the K-12 side and I will have to tell you boy probably don't want me to wouldn't want to hear me say this but I did sit down with her and her parents and took a pencil and mapped out because I'm trying to be a common sense type guy but we have a student coming to us next year that was all for the Park Scholarship at NC State, which is a free ride. Plus, received the N and GM and N Good night scholarship from SAS to go to state. If that child had taken that opportunity, she'd made a good money going to school. She turned both of those down and was coming to the University of Alabama. And I think that speaks volume for our act curriculum, speaks volume for our time and get community. You come to Mount Ola and we know you're by name, not just social security number, I think that means a lot. And we're proud to, as I tell all of our parents, they're young adults. I can't keep them from getting into young adult things, but we can guarantee that I'll have opportunity to get to know our Lord and Christ, Jesus Christ, and a better relationship. They can't remember. We're happy about that. But I just like to say that I'm very proud of what you've accomplished there, what the university means to us locally. I'm heavy an egg and no doubt since you've added egg there it has really been a lot to our area and I just appreciate what you're doing. Thank you so much. I think I'm saying comments. I mean I could talk to you all day long I'll be honest with you. Not right now. Well I'm on a fun racing campaign if you want to talk. Not right now. Well, I'm on a fun raising campaign if you want to talk You know, we're really I mean we've done some things and I'm out of my Cup for zone and some of the things that we're doing but as I tell people on the best present they got today and And so you know we're excited. God's really up in opportunities. I think doors and Thank you. We'll say some really good things come from. We are just getting into some of the research stuff which is you have to go through the sex levels of accreditation to do the research and we're excited about some of the talks we're in with some major corporations and businesses in the ag. Well, I would like to commend you on the fact that you have put in God first into the outlay of the university and allowing him to guide you and all that you do. And from that, you will continue to be successful and I too have a chance to attend the ribbon cut. And thank you guys for what you're doing here in the county. We really appreciate you. Yeah. You know, it's sort of scary to hear and you folks know about our not to have how short our food supply has gotten, and the building that you were in is for safe food handling. And our food supply has gone down just to just to a few days of life. And so it's important that we train students on how to handle the tech. So excited about what that's going to be. Other questions? Thank you so much for having me. I would like to come back and give you an update in a year or so, not quite a year, whatever we can do. Just let you know what we're doing. Hey, feel free. Thank you. Welcome any time. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That moves us to item number six. Thank you. Thank you. Jason McGurk. Good evening commissioners. Thank you for allowing me to come tonight and discuss the JCPC. It's good to see everyone. I get to see you in various capacities throughout the year. So it's good to see you all dressed up. You're looking sharp enough. But thank you for allowing me to speak. I can tell you I'm, I think all of you know I'm assistant district attorney here in Dupland County. I've been here for 12 years now. I can tell you that there is a lot of crime in the county, but our law enforcement are doing a great job. They're working hard. I was with the sheriff's office until 9 o'clock last Friday night at a scene, Best Gang Homicide. So everyone's willing to put in the work. And we thank you for your support, as we try to do the best thing for Deflin County. Try to keep everyone safe. I'm here as the chairperson of the Deflin County juvenile crime prevention council. And that's a job that received from Mr. Futrile. He did a great job. And I just try to keep up with the standard that he created. We have two separate items to discuss at your pleasure. We have the juvenile Crown Prevention Council certification standards. I do have paper copies for anyone who'd like to paper copy. Otherwise, we have done everything we can to recruit, to fill in all the memberships that are available. There are only a few that we do not have names listed for. So I think for the most part, we've been able to get good participation throughout the county. If there's any positions that aren't available it's not because we have a tribe. So we are doing everything we can to meet the standards required by law to perform our duties for the county. So we would ask that the chairperson approve the certification standards tonight. Also moving to the funding plan, we had in the budget $212,657 and then $29,746 in kind with a total of $242,400. We did have new applicants this year, which I think is a good thing for the county. Anytime you can provide more services to juveniles, that is a good thing. All the services that we've had in the past work hard and do a good job, but we had a new service from Wallace that was able to help cover that area, which we did have a lot of coverage for, and that's the Mt. used development training. Some you may be familiar with Dr. Jimmy Tate who is the head of that organization but they presented a program that we think is going to work well for the Wallace area. And it is intensive. We try to mix programs where they can be done at school during school hours as well as programs that are more intensive We try to mix programs where they can be done at school, during school hours, as well as programs that are more intensive that prepare people for jobs and mentorships and give them opportunities to succeed past school. So that's part of what we like to see. And I think we had just good discussions this year and we're ever come up with a budget that everyone agreed with on the funding committee and the entire council. Are there any questions regarding the funding plan? Questions? I can say attached to the funding plan are descriptions of the different programs we have. If anyone's curious, I can answer questions to that as well. I can say everyone works hard. Part of stopping crime is getting ahead of it. It's difficult to deal with crime on the back end because all we can do is put them in prison or jail, which costs the taxpayers money. So if we can get ahead of it and talk with these children before they get into trouble, I think that's the best avenue. That's the cheapest alternative for the county. So we think it's a good agenda for this next year and we hope it'll help. I do too. At this time, I'd entertain a motion from the floor to approve the juvenile crime prevention camp. So fiscal year 2023-24 County Fund in Plan and certification. The application. I got a motion. I got a second open for discussion. second of an important discussion. When we look at the crime rate, we focus on the juvenile and with the programs that you have. Are you seeing a decrease or an increase or kind of ways Before yesterday it turns a demographic what played the biggest role of the crime that's actually taking place So if you look at crime as a whole I would say it's drug-related mental health related and alcohol related A lot of the crime that happens in DuPont Cain, I can speak on that from a handle murder cases to robberies, to rapes, to all the serious felonies. However, in my career I've handled traffic court and in fact I handled traffic court today. So So in a broad global view, those things are what impacts crime. So a lot of our crime is drug related. It's either for drugs or to get money to buy drugs. So we have an issue with meth in this county. We have an issue with heroin. Of course we have our 40 coming through the county. So we have a court or a for drugs to get into the county. I can also say that mental health is an issue. I think everyone's aware that we no longer have a place for people with mental health issues so they are either housed in our jail or they are sent to somewhere like a husky for three days before they put them back on the street There's no long-term facility that keeps people anymore and that means that we have people get back on the street commit crime so That is the adult View of things now if you look at juveniles, we run into the same issue. If you talk to principals and school resource officers, we have the biggest issue in schools, vapes, those vapes now, whereas kids when we were growing up or y'all were growing up, they were smoking cigarettes. Well now kids are vaping with marijuana and things laced into marijuana which could include fentanyl. So those things are less detectable they can go into the bathroom and smoke a bait and we have no clue what they're doing because they don't produce the smell. So vaping is a major issue that our schools are facing. I can say that coming out of COVID, there was a issue with kids being out of school, out of structure, so it was a difficult transition back into structure. So that is a lot of what we're seeing. The last element that's becoming an issue is school threats. And I don't know the explanation to that other than attention, possibly social media and the pervasive, pervasiveness of that. And just people trying to get attention. I don't think any of the kids are actually going to commit a crime. But they are making threats which cause a major issue resource wise for the county. Because then we have to evacuate in school, even though they were never going to do anything to begin with. So we're trying to address those issues. I think there are mental health issues at that age as well that the parents are not appropriately getting their kids to the right treatment, but drugs, mental health, alcohol for the older kids. But those are the main issues. As far as whether the programs work, my interesting is that they help. I don't think we're going to save everyone in fact in my 12 years here. I've prosecuted kids from 15 years old and I'm still prosecuting them today for serious crimes. I don't think we're able to save everyone, but if we can save one, that is worth it. And we do have success stories that we, every meeting that we have, I ask, I want to hear a success story. And then I want you to tell me what your challenges are. What do you need from us? And so we emphasize that. I'm not a number-sky. You can tell me that you had 30 people get through your program. That doesn't mean a lot to me. I'm not a numbers guy. You can tell me that you had 30 people go through your program. That doesn't mean a lot to me. I want to see someone actually changed. So I asked for that during our meetings. And I hope that happens. I think that's why we're all here. But I can tell you that we're excited about the programs that are really working with kids. Restitution and community service is just essentially punishment and getting victims paid back. Psychological services is making sure we're addressing their mental health issues so they don't keep committing crimes. But the other programs really go in with the kids and try to establish good behavior, responsibility, job preparedness. So I think they do a good job with those. establish good behavior, responsibility, job preparedness. So I think they do a good job with those, the kids we can get in those programs. I hope that helps. And I'm happy to answer any further questions, but those are the issues that our county faces, whether they're 12 years old or 60 years old. And that's the issues that every county faces. But thank you. Any more questions? Here and none. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Same sign. Carry. All right. Thank you. All right. That moves right into item number seven. Amanda Hatcher. Okay. So, I'll call you. Yeah, we know. I've just signed it after the meeting. So, I can bring this to the meeting for Dewey. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Dewey Blink County Forage Prevention is a grant funded program housed in the Cooperative Extension Department that works to improve youth understanding and communication of the consequences of substance use and adverse behavior, personal responsibility and media and societal influences in targeting youth and young adults through advertising information. Early substance use and childhood analysis affects later drug use, youth with more access to alcohol and drugs are more likely to use them. Unfortunately, Dupland County consistently fares worse than the state average in terms of youth risk to participate in at-risk behavior. In response to these needs, a full-time Dupland County 4-H prevention program conducts the following action steps in school prevention education lessons using evidence-based curriculum. Retail, merchant education, coordination and partnership with nearby counties on collaborative prevention efforts, including SAMHSA, LENOR and Wayne counties. Coalition partnerships with other agencies such as juvenile crime prevention council, special awareness education events such as Red Ribbon Week, specific prevention sessions for Dukeland County Schools, Mediation Center, and other agencies. Dukeland County 4H Prevention Program receives grant funding through East Point Human Services. As a result of COVID, additional grant funds were leveraged to provide more funding to the Dukeland County 4H Prevention Program. Prior to this additional funding, enough funds were only available for part-time program but with this additional funding enough funds were available to make this a full-time program through June 30th, 2023. This contract amendment with East Point for the Dupland County 4H Prevention Program has two important functions. One to allow $25,594 in grant funds that end in March 15, 2023 to carry forward through June 30, 2023 and 2 to accept $2,266 in additional grant funding to be used through June 30, 2023. Cooperative extension would respectfully request you all to approve the contract amendment by DocuStyne. request you all to approve the contract amendment by DocuSign. Do you all have any questions? Any questions? Pleasure to board. I got a motion in a second to approve the amendment with EF Point, or the Court of the Duke and County 4H prevention program, and authorize the chairman of the doctor's sign. Any further comments? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. All opposed, same side. Thank you. Thank you. That moves us to the government. Thank you. Scottie. Thank you. Summall. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Hey, that moves just to give me a break. Scotty, someone? Good evening. Good evening. Let me just say I love my job. I love bringing good information and good news, because though there's challenges, I'm always happy to bring good news. And in that regard, I'm going to introduce a new friend and but he is representing an old friend to myself and the county and he can talk a little bit more about that. But not to steal his thumb thunder. He will be speaking tonight about a letter of support for a couple of insurers that are going on in the county. That's the good news I talk about. Mr. David Nance is going to be speaking on behalf of Next Gen Block Company, Next Generation, and that's a for-profit. And also the American Dream Homes of Carolina, LLC, which is a nonprofit venture, I will mention this presentation has been presented to the Economic Development Commission and they've given a nod of support. And at this point, I'll turn it over to Mr. Nance and he can continue his conversation. All right, thank you, Scott. Good evening, gentlemen. Good evening. I'm here, first of all, my name is David Nance. I'm here representing the Bellari brothers with Bellari Foods, who are expanding their influence within Dupland County with new ventures. The first new venture is an XGM block company. XGM is a new type of block assembly system that can be assembled without any mortar. We are in the process now of putting the equipment in a facility at 125 Warren Road in Warsaw and that manufacturing facility over the next five years will employ at least 20 people over the next five years based on our projections at this time. We have $13 million worth of pre-orders signed for at this point. If we continue that capacity, we'll be adding on additional shifts on that plan and expanding the number of employees. But right now we're projecting a maximum of 20 in the first five years. We're going to be in the process of applying for a rehab grant for which we need a letter of support from the county commission for that grant just to start the application process. The presentation that you see on the screen. This is going to produce additional jobs in support to our county. It would also provide an avenue of education that will be producing to actually use this product and training people to use the product. I can say that it does not require your traditional skilled labor to assemble this system. Once it's assembled, you can assemble a 10-foot high wall that's rated at a 180-, not just blocks individually. So, like I said, the Valaris have invested in this. There are fourth generation company in the food business. They're expanding their exposure because they have another generation of Valaris coming. And this will give them the ability to improve things and stay a part of the community. Traditionally houses have an age process. They get old, we see it in Duke and County now, we ride around and there are abandoned homes everywhere that are just dilapidated and falling down. These homes are concrete from the ground up. They are a block assembly, both interior and exterior. So once the assembly is put together and is put a finish on the outside, it's waterproof, and a concrete roof can be applied to it as well. So you've got something that gets long givety to the community. One of the focuses of this product is affordable housing and industrial workforce housing. So that's the thing that has really brought the virus to the dance and saw it as a valuable thing to go forward. This is one of the blocks that are used in the variety of layouts. It comes in both six inch and eight inch sizes and as you can see it's a tongue and groove system. It actually interlocks together and that's what makes it gives it an extreme and gives it as long as it's driven. This is just a prototype of one of the things that we are hoping to build. We're in the process now in the city of Warsaw, which we're blended into the next presentation I have to do some low income and affordable housing in that community with full duplexes with this product. And that's in the in the loads now. with full duplexes with this product. And that's in the loads now. We start off with raw materials of sand and concrete. We have a mixing plant on site. That goes into the block laying machine and the block is laid out and is allowed to dry. And then the entire assembly is shipped off to a job site by job lots. It's just like you see traditionally, the LOUT and Foundation install reinforcement base layer, laying no cutting required because we do the design in-house. Mechanical and electrical rough ends are processed at the same time. The block is laid and then we apply a finish to the exterior that is a waterproof finish into the interior and that's how it works. Again, what we're asking for is a letter of support for the preliminary of our grant process will be coming back because under the rehab use the county has to be responsible for 5% of that rehab and we'll come back once we have the preliminary application approved and be asking for that support as well. And that is my presentation on next year. All right. Next is a nonprofit organization. Carolina American DreamHums is a nonprofit that we are setting up. The Vilari brothers are setting up themselves. This is designed totally to benefit Duplin County. We already have funds aligned to go into James Brunt College for cyber security and electrical security education for local people. After the attack on the electrical grid here that happened just a few months ago, we came evident that we needed to address those types of things. And so those funds are already aligned for this nonprofit once it comes a reality. Carolina American DreamHums is also in the process of planning these four duplexes of R.A. mentioned for Warsaw. Warsaw is providing the property and we're doing street construction behind the property as well as building the houses for this affordable and low income housing. At this point, this nonprofit is already aligning for many things in this project. Number one, solar power will be incorporated in this program. Emergency contact will be available in each one of the units that are done in Warsaw. They connect directly to the police department. So everything that we're doing is based around the community and then using non-skilled labor, be able to assemble these things. Just like the old block that you used by Lincoln logs, basically, it all fits together. All you gotta do is have a string line to follow and you can make it happen we appreciate you hearing us we would request your support the letter of support on each of these projects going forward and you have any questions anybody have a question for him at this point? Are you at liberty to say what the cost of first square footage on a home like this would be? Not this time. We've done some preliminary figures, but until There are some some things that that we're working on right now First of all, electrical contractors aren't used to working this way. So we're having to train the electrical workforce as well. We're going to be doing the actual electrical roughion at the time that we're laying back because there's no mortar involved. So you don't have to mess with that part of the equation. Same thing with HVAC. We're doing zone HVAC in each one of these houses with many splits rather than traditional heating and air conditioning. So we can control the humidity levels in the houses better. And with this product, the insulation factor is higher than it would in conventional framing in construction. Any other questions? All right, if we have any more questions, let's move back to item number eight and I would entertain a motion to approve a letter of support for next gen block company from the Duke and County Board of Commissioners, which would be added to their application for federal and state and local grant incentives. So, I got a motion. I got a motion on a second. Any further discussion? Here and none, all in favor say aye. All opposed, same side. All right that carries. So now let's move to number nine. I would entertain a motion of a letter of support for the American Dream House of Carolina's LLC. I have a motion. I've got a motion. I've got a second. Further discussion. Here you're none. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Same sign. Carry. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm glad you're going to get both letters. All opposed. Same sign. Carry. Thank you so much. Thank you. Sounds like you're going to get both letters. I appreciate it very much. Yeah, thank you. We appreciate what you've tried to accomplish. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That moves us to item number 10. Tracy Simmons-Kanigee. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman and fellow commissioners. Come with to you guys with several different things from the health department tonight. The first one is two annual reports that we have to present to you guys annually. The first one is the 2022 Community Disease Annual Report. You should have that in your packet. You should include the number of investigations from 2022 to the probable confirmed as it compares to the previous three years. So a couple of things I just want to highlight that's on this report. As you guys can see we've continued to have an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. We saw more of an increase through COVID and we continue to do that. So there's been quite a bit of awareness that has taken place thus far in 2023 for those diseases as well. HIV we have actually had two new HIV cases already in 2023 which we will see how the rest of the year compares to that. The other thing was COVID since we are the public health emergency will expire at the end of May, the day of May 11th. Just to give you guys some numbers as it relates to COVID. So over the last three years, our highest percentage, weekly percentage of positivity rate was at 40.1%, which was the week of January 16th, 2022. The second highest weekly percentage was at 31%, which was the week of July 31st, 2022. The lowest that we had saw throughout the pandemic was at 0.8%, which was the week of March, 2020-22. For the calendar year of 21 and 22, each year January in July were there worst months that we experienced here in the county. Currently, as of April 12th, we've had a total confirmed cases which were being come through some form of a commercial lab was 21,035 positive cases and 265 deaths attributed to COVID. Our current rate positivity right now is around 5% in the county. Any questions about that? Okay. Okay. The next report is the Dupland County Child Fetality Prevention Team Annual Report for calendar year 2022. So this, there was four child fatality prevention team meetings in 2022 in which the team, which is a community community. The community is a community community. The community is a community community. The community is a community. The community is a community. The community is a community. The community is a community. The community is a community. The community is a community. The community is a community. increase in deaths in 2021 compared to 2020 in 2019. Any questions there? Okay. The next one is a request of accepting some additional food and lodging agreement, a Dendom 8, 8, 74. This is some additional funds that we get for our environmental health program to implement state mandated sanitation regulations and so we would like to accept $4,804 for this budget year with approval of a budget amendment for 2022-2023. All right, I'd entertain a motion to approve the budget amount for 2022-23 and accept the funding of food and lodging 8874 for $484. Do I have a motion? I got a motion. I got a second. Any further discussion? Here you're none, all in favor say aye. All opposed, same side? Here you are none. All in favor say aye. All opposed, same side. Here you go. Okay, the last agenda request is for acceptance of a scholarship award from NATO that is for our region eight infection prevention team. So they applied for a scholarship for a certification infection control. With this we did receive that. This is a short term grant opportunity from May 2nd of this year through June 30th and so we would like to accept this scholarship award of $2,500 with the approval budget amendment for 2022 2023. You've heard your request by this pleasure to This scholarship award of $2,500 with the approval budget amendment for 2022-2023. You have heard your request by this pleasure to board. I've got a motion. I've got a second. Any further discussion? Here and none. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Same side. Here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. That moves us to item number 13. Mr. Chairman, I have no announcements tonight, but I would like to ask that the board go into close session for sort of North Island General Satchik 143-313-11-86 for personnel matters. Pleasure to board. I got a question before we go into the close session. Did we get that taken care of to project gray? It was in this week's consent. All right, pleasure to board. Okay, I got a motion. I have a second. Any further discussion? All the figures say aye. All opposed, same side. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are now going into closed session. Appreciate your attendance tonight. Hope you all have a safe two weeks and we'll see you back in two weeks. Thank you so much. Okay ladies and gentlemen we're going back in to open session out of closed session. Give everybody a chance to be seated. Okay. Commissioners, is there anything that we need to take care of in open session? Not a commission to it. We've got a earth day at the museum this weekend. If anybody wants to make a call with you. The call will be in the center. All right, I've got a motion, then a second, ton until May 1st, 2023 at 6 o'clock. Any further discussion? No. Here in none. All in favor say aye. All opposed? We are officially adjourned.