you you The I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. you I'm going to go ahead and do that. I'm going to go ahead and do that. I'm going to go ahead and do that. I'm going to go ahead and do that. I'm going to go ahead and do that. Welcome everyone. We do have an overflow room because we are a little packed in here So Phoenix and it's me broadcast next door as well Streaming from here to there. So First item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. We have special guests with us tonight I'd like to ask how Rick Frickland Rick would you leave this the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under Justice for all. Thank you Rick. Commission next item is the agenda approval. What's the blue the board? I'd like to make a motion. We approve the agenda. We need a second. Second. Thank you. A motion a second. You need a discussion. Hearing none of the call the question all favor raise your right hand. You can pose light wise. The agenda has been Ladies and gentlemen Commissioners the next item is public comments is where members of the public come speak To the Board of Commissioners as a body. You have three minutes and I do have a list in no certain order but if I mispronounce your name please apologize but I want to call you name which please come up to the podium and give us your three minute public comments. The first person to Matthew is it Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do or Do Yeah, I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. It's now we know the sound works over there. So that's great. Good evening, commissioners. Ladies and gentlemen, we're here to talk or to speak in opposition to any potential proposal from enchanted homes to develop a 30 acre parcel on a zero-lams-girl road. A major subdivision on this parcel will cause catastrophic and irreparable harm to the health, welfare, and livelihoods at the entire community and the surrounding land. So that charms include, but are absolutely not limited to, the production of toxic sewage and runoff that will inevitably leech to the groundwater, our drinking water, and run into our protected watershed. It reparably harming the public health, safety, and welfare of your county residents, something specifically prohibited by the watershed protection ordinance. An unimaginable strain on existing water resources is something else that will be created here. This is all well water here, there's no public water. We have periods of drought that are very common in this area, and that does absolutely tax our water supply. You know, a major subdivision will seriously jeopardize those resources. Another point I'd like to raise here is that, you know, these developers have a history of behaving poorly. What enchanted homes is expecting to propose here is nothing more than a strip mining operation. They reap immediate profits but create disastrous social and environmental consequences for the local community and the land. Then they move on to their next prize and they never look back for a held to account. Developers such as Enchanted Homes will promise the world to local governments and planning boards in order to get the door and start their development. They will quickly throw up poorly constructed homes, built and poorly designed developments at locations ill suited to them. They'll use high pressure sales tactics and underhanded gimmicks to unload their inventories fast as they can on a hopeful and trusting public, often first time home buyers. Then the inevitable issues arise. Environmental harms, water runoff problems, all sorts of things. By that time, the developer has moved on to greener pressures to pull the same trick once again. It's extremely rare that they're ever held to account for the destruction they cause, nor are even required to ensure the developments are constructed in a manner suitable to the community or the land. What is not rare, however, is that these developers will have their rewards. Their executive teams will have gotten their big fat bonuses. They all live in big homes, on big lots, far from the little people who are stuck in the deteriorating boxes they've built, for which they had such high hopes. the building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building building Thank you, sir. Sangyeon is a stock STOTT. Brother Pretend. Good evening. I live on two of six Creek Road, right off of Lambs Grill Road. And unlike Mr. Dow, I don't have an engineering or technology degree. I do know I don't want enchanted homes as my neighbor. I own 18 acres that abuts the land that is for sale. I let them know that I had already talked to, I have cattle that graze there, not proctably. And I have let them know that I have negotiated with case farms to have a chicken house on the 20 acres there with a partner. Out of courtesy, since there isn't a zoning, they had no comment to that that they don't care if they sell the homes, knowing that that's potentially going to happen. If you live in the country, a chicken house is okay. You're from the city not so much. My four cousins were raised right there together. They all moved to town. I stayed. The reason I stayed is I liked the rural area. If I wanted to live in town, I'd moved to Boris Citi or Rutherfordton, but I beg you not to ruin the landscape of what's there. My dad formed that land, and he even died by one hay there on a track track. But anyway, I stayed. I sold their property to a young couple right across from this development that, at a loss just because I wanted to pick the buyer. I wanted somebody that wanted to stay in a rural area and have chickens in the yard, which they do, and the dog and two children. I picked them for that property. Inchan, it has no such criteria for who they sell to or how long they stay. They have several better business bureau complaints and have not been resolved. And I won't take up the whole three minutes, but I appreciate you, Liz. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, ma'am. We have another public speaker to recognize Bill Echler. Mr. Echler. Mr. Chairman, commissioners, good evening. My name is Bill Echler and I live in the Green Hill area. There is a parcel of property on the south end of the county that has stirred some controversy. Partial is 30 acres and is on a protected watershed. The controversy that seems to be coming up is that the parcel folks want the county to develop land use regulations stopped the development or some other method to stop the development. This is a protective watershed. There should be limited development regulations already in place by statute such as the number of houses that can be built on site. I would also question what multiple wells on the property would possibly do to the aquifer. Also, what damage multiple septic systems would do to the groundwater? This should be investigated and if costs are incurred in process, the developers should pay for them. If it is determined that some sort of public water and sewer systems are required, the developers should pay for the infrastructure to the development. It has been suggested that the county stopped the development using land use, zoning regulations. This would have to be applied county-wide to use unnecessary, restricted regulations to control 30 acres. That must also be applied to the other 350,000 acres in the county. Or would be ludicrous. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Let's hear it. Michael Pack. It might be in the other room. Michael here, you signed a PACK. There he comes. Hello, sir. You got one man left. That's harsh. Just to welcome Sir. Just wanted to say good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. I live across the street from the 30 acres. They're talking about developing the subdivision on for enchanted homes. I've lived there for over 20 years in my family. I really don't want subdivisions to bring extra traffic. They're going to have to widen the roads. There's no way to handle all that traffic about it. I know they'll have to put in water and sewer. I don't want that out there. I live in the country for a reason. I enjoy the country plus this Niagara culture area. It benefits a lot of people. I don't want to see that destroyed. If I wanted a subdivision, reason. I enjoy the country plus this Niagara culture area that benefits a lot of people. I don't want to see that destroyed. If I wanted a subdivision, I'd live in town. I just don't want that right across from me. Plus there's already a drug problem in that area. I don't want it as exacerbated with if there's 60 homes there. I mean you're looking at target target's opportunity for criminals. I don't want that there. We already have a hard time getting the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department out there because they're stretched so thin. I understand that we're on the edge of the county. We've called state troopers about people out there walking around their own drugs and it's hard to get a response from any law enforcement. So I just really don't want the extra hassle out there. I live in the country for a reason because I like the country. I love the sounds of the country. I don't walk all the traffic. It's bad enough living on a road that connects Spartanburg and Old County and everything. So it's already a high traffic, enough area without adding things to it. I really don't want to see that. Plus the homes are what I've seen and heard with the lawsuits against enchanted homes. They're low quality homes. They're going to be value the property in the area. And then there's going to be shoddy houses out there. And it's going to bring all sorts of other problems. I just really don't want the subdivision out there. That's pretty much my piece. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. The next person's gen has RO and it can't be the rest are. From airport road 1 2 7 on airport road. Sorry man couldn't read your handwriting. Yeah good evening my name is Jennifer Roth. I live across the street on 1270 airport road. My views from my kitchen window is hay fields and I moved there nine years ago from California. As a child in California, I was extremely depressed because I lived in a housing development and it really affected my desire to live in the country and commune with animals. So I became a horse trainer and I made my living with that and I moved out here and now I'm gonna look at housing developments. Now I've been doing some basic research and it sounds like that enchanted has lied to the, in one of the recent hearings, executive and knowledge lying to the county officials. This area is a farming community. If you look on Google Earth, you will see it's all beautiful farmland. And we need to preserve the farmland. If you want to live, I want to see what it looks like in California and how the destruction, then I tell you, you have to really start finding some ways to draw the line. And this is no place for high density development. It's completely, it'll completely be like a blight in our neighborhood. And it's very much farming. I studied horticulture and agriculture at UC Davis. All you have to do is look at the lay of the land. OK, I live at the highest point. And across from me is the highest point. And you can see the drainage. It's a protected watershed area. You can see how this could really have a bad effect. And it's a green, what you call it, a green thing. There are so many wildlife. There's so many animals. And this development really will just create problems for the water table, for all our neighbors, just my neighboring people, they're gonna be flooded out. They will be flooded out. We have ponds, we have ducks, we have herons. It's really not a place to put a development. Please, I will, it's just, I'm not a very good speaker, but this has a huge effect on so many people. And I'm sorry, enchanted has 40 developments. When does greed stop? When do you start to really pay some attention to ecology? It has to start at some point. And this is a really good point to start. So I don't know anything about politics. And I'm so upset that I can hardly talk. So I will stop. But we have any questions. You're free to come out and see my farm and see where the water would go and the beautiful bucala is how gorgeous it is and this would be a tragedy to put it there. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, you did a great job. Our next speaker is Eric Gordney. Eric. G-O-R-N-Y. That'd be the next run. He's on this way. We got four more. I'm Eric Gorni, 11th Henrietta. I'm going to change the subject a little bit. I'm here to, again, ask you guys during this season to start looking at the budget. The county commissioner, if you go to your website, says the main job that you guys have is the budget. And I know I was asking questions beforehand. Even the education budget seems to me that if the school system is losing students and yet they're asking for an increase in their budget, I just think that it's your guy's job to address that and say, listen, we can't do that. And as I've said before, my tax is doubled this last year. With no improvements to my land, we need to lower the tax rate. And the way you can do that is by addressing each of these departments, shrinking the departments, getting, I've talked with Alan before, maybe getting rid of the way that we initiate septic systems here in the school system. I can remember when I was in college, my largest class had 300 students in it. And yet we all had a great education and with 300 students in that class. If the school system needs to start consolidating some of those rooms into a larger classroom, not can sell it if they're going to join those classes like say a history class and you know multiple history classes into a larger classroom. I don't really think that that's going to ruin their education. But so I'm asking you as a taxpayer because you guys literally are coming after me for my hard earned money. And if I don't pay it, you take my house, I'm asking you to take less, to go back to my the 2022-2023 budget and to those to that tax level so that my cash outlay goes back to what my cash outlay was before it was doubled, literally. I'm asking you, but just about you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mr. Boyce Abernathy. Boyce. There you are. Hello, sir. You have three minutes. Here we go again. I was at the zoning meeting that they had up at Pentecost about 21 years ago. Had a big crowd. They were people there that I didn't think would ever come to a meeting, they were there. People got up and spoke. We had two county commissioners that got a wild hire. They wanted to have countywide zoning, and the ball got to rolling. And when we had the meeting at Pentecostal, big crowd, don't remember anybody speaking in favor of countywide zoning. Everybody spoke against it. And I remember one gentleman, a friend of mine, he got up and he said, I'd rather have a bad case of hemorrhoids than have countywide zoning. The crowd erupted. They started giving them a standing ovation. They started asking him to run for county commissioner. At that time, I saw the two commissioners that were in favor of countywide zoning. They held her head down and they knew they'd been hooked. So that was the end of countywide zoning, that meeting that we had at Pinnacle Elementary. And it is just something that comes to counties and people have to decide if you're going to have countywide zoning or not. And at that time, we didn't do it and we've survived all this time. Yes, there's housing developments, there's things that are developed. But I guess at some time, you're all going to have to make the decision if you're going to have countywide zoning decision if you're going to have county-wide zoning or if you're not. But what happened that night, I would say that if you go down that road, you're going to have a lot more people here than what you have tonight because folks in Rutherford County, I guess, is one of those don't trade on meat issues and they just won't it. And one of the things is we talked about unfunded mandates and that's a very serious problem we talked about the schools and the budget. And tomorrow night at 7 o'clock, Rutherford County Board of Education will be discussing the future of Rutherford County Public Schools as I understand they have a $24,000 study fee and they will get that presented at seven o'clock tomorrow night and we will see which schools they recommend closing and which schools they recommend keeping open so the consolidation is going to probably start and that will help if we can sell some land for Rutherford County can sell the Daniel Road property and the other property it's on Highway 221 or the side of the O'Robins Peat Shed. If the other for county schools can start selling some land that they're not using, that seems to be something that's inevitable. So I just say to y'all tonight that sometime you need to make a press release and just say y'all are opposed to countywide zoning and then that'll get folks off of you back. Thank you. All right. Thank you, boys. We got 16 more. Next is Thomas Trial. this trial. Good evening, Chairman, Mr. I live on Airport Road and I'm here to address the development at the end of the process. About five years ago I bought the property of Airport Road for a variety of reasons but the main reason was to escape urban sprawl. I used to live in a low country of South Carolina. Over the course of the 40 years I lived there, I watched unbridled development take place. It brought more traffic than the roads could accommodate. More children than the schools could house. More newcomers than law enforcement could police, as well as a burdening of local governments to the extent they could not address existing problems because of staffing issues and law fair. Growth can be beneficial for a community. However, in many cases it's quite disruptive for the current residents of the locale. It takes place in and always brings with it unintended consequences. All the development that took place where I previously resided had access to public utility water supply and waste water infrastructure. This development has neither and will undoubtedly negatively affect the nearby residents in ways that are either costly or worse with no remedy. In conclusion, I'd also mention like knowing well my neighbors, I have and we all look out for each other. Given the level of coverage, local law enforcement and emergency services can give us, it's only natural for us to have a close relationship in this rural community. The addition of 50 plus families on a property not much larger than my own within a quarter of a mile in my home will make that kind of a relationship with these new neighbors pretty much impossible. relationship with these new neighbors pretty much impossible. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And the last public comment that signed up tonight is Michael Dalton, sir. Sir Good evening. Thanks for allowing me to speak tonight. I am Michael Dalton. I live down in the Childhood community we started opposition to zoning in 2002. I've been fighting this for 22 years We've been through many individual cases of homeowners coming to, we call them NIMBs, not in my backyard. That's why I'm here tonight. As you commissioner Snow, the only way the federal and state laws allow you to perform the request that you're being asked tonight is through the process of zoning. You're being asked to zone this property for the benefits of a few people in this area. What is zoning? Zoning is simply defined without all the glorious titles to make it sound good. It's when a group of citizens come to a meeting ask this and ask you to quote, protect their rights. Now there's not a room back here behind this wall that has a bucket of rights that you pull out that demanded right and you give it to these groups. Other citizens possess those rights and you have to go take that right from them to give to these groups. One of the statements I read concerning this issue was, I cannot believe there's no zoning in this area. Well, you can blame all that on me and the other people in this room that are no zoners for the last 22 years. I remind this commission that we got the zoning issue put on a electoral ballot. It's around 2008 somewhere in there. 66% of the rural citizens of Ruddford County said we don't want zoning. And my job is to keep the 33% from bringing it in. However, the not-zone that you're accused of is an incorrect statement. This parcel you're referring to is on. It has a zoning officer, Danny Cersei, a planning commission that watches over the zoning restrictions. It's in a watershed ordinance which is zoning. It restricts what an owner can do on their properties. Other parties decided what a landowner could or could not do on that property over there. They took the rights of all the property owners in the watershed and gave it to somebody else. I don't have enough time but have restricted is it? Not too long ago the town of Far city which is 12ish miles from me placed me under a watershed ordinance when they got another inlet out of Broad River. Now listen, that ordinance would not even let me change the oil in my tractor or my vehicles on my property. I could not a nerf. We don't need anything else. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Hunt, I think you're well for your public comments. Commissioner, the next item is the consent agenda. Is there anything that Commissioner would like to add or remove from the consent agenda? Is there anything that Commissioner like to add or remove from the consent agenda? Motion to approve. Thank you. I'm gonna motion in a second in discussion. Who gonna call a question? All the favourites raise your right hand. He can pose light and wise. Thank you, carries. I'm sorry. Three seven six three. The Roth County Transit named Roll Transit System of the year. I could recognize. Here's our. We were just talking about this outside. Good evening. We are thrilled at transit to receive this honor from the North Carolina Public Transportation Association out of all 100 counties. We were chosen as the rural transit system of the year. We've been doing business since 1990 and we do about 55,000 trips a year for our citizens. I think the best way I can explain what we do as essential services is to tell you about something that transpired on Friday, if I may. On Friday, we've been working with an individual all week who needs to go to Levine Cancer Center and Charlotte every month on a Tuesday to stay overnight and then needs to come back home on Wednesday. Just not a really easy way to figure that out for us. But we were able to work with Levine and get it set up on the days that we already go to Charlotte on Tuesday on Wednesday in order to make this transportation work for this critical care for this individual. However, we are concerned as to what that would be when our grant funds run out. And so I have to applaud Candice McDonald, who's here out, not that they've come in yet, who works in our transit office, because she really became an advocate for this individual, and she called our partner in this with DSS to see if they could relook and see if the woman may qualify for Medicaid. They relooked at the situation and found out there were a couple things that needed to be corrected actually in the application. And in doing so, this individual now qualifies for Medicaid, which means a couple of things. It means her transportation is guaranteed because it will be paid. It frees of our grant funds to help other citizens in our community. And it provides this very sick individual with health insurance that she didn't have before. And that is what we do every single day. It was a great day working together in County Government. I want to applaud Director DeHun and her staff at DSS as well because there are so many people who work tirelessly to help people get where they need to go that don't always get that recognition. But I've said it a lot lately that you can have all the services in the world, but if people can't get to them, they're wasted. And that's what we're here to do. So I have brought some of my staff if I could have them come up. I appreciate that. Maybe get a little photo taken. That would be that would be fantastic. Okay. All right. Everybody's there. I'm going to give you a big round of applause. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'll show you what this is. Okay. All right. We got it. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. You have a picture for him right now. Thanks. You're welcome. You can't get rid of him. I'm going to have a picture for him right now. You can't rip up. That's like my house should have been over a little bit. Thank you everyone. There we go. Mr. Commissioner, next time is 3759. I'd like to recognize Caleb Johnson, the EMS Wing Proclamation. Thank you, commissioners. May 19 through the 25th is the Fittieth Annual EMS Week, the National Week in the, with your pleasure, I'd like to bring my admin team up, I have my admin team with you. Yes, sir. In 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized the EMS to celebrate this as a national standard for this week. For EMS practitioners, the important work they do in the nation's communities. These guys are my backbone, they're my admin team, my lean on them every day. And with the FEDF annual coming up, the third week of May, the theme is honoring our past and foraging our future. And that's what we try to do every day. We honor our past and ones who've taught us in the EMS world, and we forge our future with the students, we teach it to college, and pay back to the profession. And with this, I would like you guys to proclaim May 19th through the 20th, 2024 as EMS week here in Rosrican. Thank you. I'd like to recognize Commissioner Benfield at this time. I just, I would like to make a motion that we have this proclamation. It's awesome. You want me to read it or? Yes, sir. Whereas the Emergency Medical Service or VITO Public Service, and whereas the members of the Emergency Medical Services team are ready to provide life saving care to those that need 24 hour a day, seven day a week. And whereas EMS providers put the need of the communities above their own, and they respond to cries, treat injuries, save lives, and the hour of one's greatest need, whereas access to the quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury, and whereas emergency medical services have grown, the filling gap by providing important out-of-hosp hospital care, including preventive medicine and follow-up care. And whereas the emergency medical services system consists of paramedics, emergency medical technicians, emergency physicians, emergency nurses, firefighters, educators, administrators and others. And whereas the members of the emergency medical services team engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enhance their life scavenging seals. And whereas the appropriate to recognize the value and accomplishments of the emergency medical services providers by designating the emergency medical services week. And now therefore the Rutherford County Board of Commissioners, Rutherford County, North Carolina. In recognition of this event, do hereby proclaim the week of May 19th through the 20th of 2024, as emergency medical services week. We with them honor the past and forge in the future. We encourage the community to observe this week with the appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities. And this is adopted the six day of May of 2024. You making that as a motion, sir? I make that as a motion. Second. We got a motion to second. Any discussion? No. It's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I call the question on favoriter right hand. Any further light wise? You got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where would we be? Uh-huh. Commissioners, next item is three five, excuse me, three seven five eight, older Americans a month proclamation, like you recognize Tammy Aldridge or director of senior center. Good evening. Older Americans this month of May, a time for us to recognize and honor, rather, for county older adults and their immense influence on every facet of American society and whereas through their wealth of life experience in wisdom, excuse me. Older adults got our younger generations and carried forward abundant cultural and historical knowledge, whereas older Americans improved our communities through intergenerational relationships, community service, civic engagement, and many other activities, whereas communities benefit when all people, when people of all ages, ages, abilities and backgrounds have the opportunity to participate and live independently, whereas Rutherford County must ensure that older Americans have the resources and support needed to stay involved in their communities, reflect in our commitment to inclusively and connectedness. And we now request the Rutherford County Board of Commissioners to proclaim May, 2024 is older Americans month. This year's theme is powered by connection, and that connection is also technology as well as connection with other people as socialization is so important. But it emphasizes the profound impact of meaningful interactions and social connection on the well-being and health of older adults in our community. and social connection on the wellbeing and health of older adults in our community. We call our residents to join in recognizing the contributions of our older citizens in promoting programs and activities that foster connection, inclusion, and support of older adults. Thank you, Director. Commissioner Horser-Wilda Borg. I make a move to approve the proclamation. I second. We've got a motion in a second Indian discussion. No. Thanks for being here. I think not to call the question. All in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed, light wise, proclamation. I'd like to recognize the director, huh? For an exciting, which is 3756, World Elder Abuse Awareness Proclamation, our DSS Director, D. Hunts here. Thank you. Good evening to the commissioners, county manager, county attorney. Thank you very much. I am D. Hunts, the director of DSS. And I stand before you today about world elder abuse awareness month that will be in June. So just a little bit about it, as elders, they have paved the way for us and they deserve the utmost respect and care, but they sometimes find themselves neglected and mistreated. As social service professionals, it is our moral duty to stand up against elder abuse and advocate for the protection and wellbeing of our senior citizens. We have a proclamation that we ask you to proclaim June 2024 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Bond. Thank you, Director, are there any questions? Motion to approve the proclamation. Thank you, Commissioner. Second. We've got a motion in the second, any discussion? Any other call of question? All in favor, raise your right hand. You can play the light wise. Thank you, Director. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And going with the thing, next time is 3773, clerk to the board of commissions week. Commissioners week. 7773 clerk to the board of commissions week commissioners week So we have Hazel Kim Hazel how long have you been a clerk to the board? 38 years So we here, 42. 38 years. So we have a proclamation here regarding the roles of the Clerk to the Board's Commission. Would you be so kind as you're reading it for us? I'm going to give you. She's going to give to you? She's going to give to you. No, the resolution, honoring you. It loves me. Resolution are encloser to the board of commissioners. We might face through the matter of the 2000s. Whereas the office of the clerk to the board provides the communication link between the citizens, the local government body, and administrative departments, and local government partners. And whereas the position of clerk to the board is one of the oldest and local government dating at least back to biblical times, and his term has long been associated with the written word. So he is not modern day clerk. So it is not modern day clerks. So it is that modern day clerks are official records keepers for their counties. And whereas North Carolina law requires every board of county officials to appoint a clerk and the clerk continues in that position at the pleasure of the board. And whereas the clerk's most significant statutory duties concerned the preparation, filing, and safeguarding of local government records, but the statutory duties can constitute only a portion of what the clerk actually does. Whereas the clerk plays a vital role in county government and provides the written record and needs ensured that the board is accountable to the county citizens and to other republic and private officials. And whereas the clerk is sometimes described as a hub of the Queen in local government, because of the central world that the clerk plays in the government's communication network. And whereas as local government becomes larger and more complicated, the clerk's role as a professional, dispassionative provider of information to citizens, government officials, and the media becomes more and more important. And whereas the North China Association of County Clubs is at a very vital professional association of public officials dedicated to improving the professional competency of clerks through regional and statewide educational opportunities. Seeks honor all clerks to the board in North Carolina, through a statewide clerks to the boards of commissioners week, which follows on the week of May 5 through the legileth of 2024. And where I as all those clerks worked for the bolds of county commissioners, Rudd for county's clerk and deputy clerk, truly provide service to the citizens of Rudd for county. And where I as a Rudd for county clerk to the bolded commissioner, Tyson Hanks, and the deputy clerk, Kim Aldridge, have faithfully and truly served the citizens of Rutherford County for many years with dedication, compassion, humility and great devotion. Now therefore the Rutherford County Board of Commissioners does she abide recognized the week of May 5th to May 11th, 2004, as close to the Board of County Commission's week and extends our appreciation to our clerk to the Board of Hain and to and extends our appreciation to our clerk to the board Hazel Haney and to our deputy clerk to the board Kim Aldridge and to all county clerks who are filing services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the county's day of represent. Adopted in 16th day of the May of Commissioners would like to congratulate the Board of Commissioners. I've never had someone read their own population to themselves. Commissioner, what's the will of the Board? I'd like to make a motion. We approve the resolution. Exactly. Got a motion to second. Any discussion? I would just say that I think HUB, Hazel the HUB, has a very out-description of what Hazel does within County Government, and I appreciate her so much for the work she does. Right on. Thank you, Hazel. You're a true asset to this county, and I know you've really helped me along the way too. So thank you for everything you do. Thank you, Ken. Thank you very much. Both of you. What'd you do? All right. You know, for a discussion, I call the question on favor, raise your right hand. You need to pose light wise. Okay. Congratulations. Go ahead, y'all. Commissioners, next item is for information, which some of the week one's done, but it's still allowed the public to know it's getting ready to come up soon. But it's item 3755. These are for the Strobe County Board's commissions. I'd like to recognize our clerk, Hazel Haines, who if you would just give us an idea which ones and when they're expiring. Thank you, Chair. There are five few Pullmans, which are made by County Commissioners throughout the County Board's commissions. And his terms will be inspiring. When you turn into this year, those vacancies will be one appointment to the router to Water Authority, four appointments to the historic preservation commission, two appointments to the Home and Community Care Broad Grant Committee, one appointment to industrial facilities and pollution control and asking authority, two appointments to the Isofino Community College Board of Trustees, five appointments to the Regional Crime Prevention Council, three appointments to the Library Board of Trustees, three appointments to the Planning Commission, three appointments to the Resident County Economic Development Association, three appointments to the two is and development authority. Three of whom is to transit the advisory board. And three of whom is to be workforce development board. And these of whom is to be advertised and we will accept applications. And you may choose my components and you should edit. Thank you, ma'am. and you may choose my report and I'll be to that. Thank you, ma'am. Commissioners, there's a suggestive action there before you will to the board. Make a motion that we approve the advertising vacancies, accepting applications and making appointments at a future meeting. Thank you. Motion to second, any discussion? You're going to call a question on the favor, raise your right hand, and you put it out of the box. Thank you. Please sign up. I'm here with you guys. Uh-huh. Commissioner's next item is 3760. This is actually an update from Mosley Architects for a Ruffer County Tension Center. And I'd like to recognize Mr. Payne and Mr. Davis. Are they here at this evening? There's one on. Come on, gentlemen. Dana Cersei, you can introduce the gentleman. All right, thank you. Thank you so much, gentlemen. I appreciate you allowing them to be able to join us tonight. In April of 2023, this board approved professional services with mostly architects who conduct a space needs study for the county's detention center facility. And tonight we've invited them back to be able to hear some conclusions and a presentation based on their studies. So thank you so much for having me. Mr. Payne. Thank you. Pass that on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tonight Brian Payne, our office, my name is Todd Davis. I head up our Justice Secretary. We worked on this project together with multiple of our engineers, chemical, electrical, plumbing, security. Kind of look at, identify your space needs and issues of your current facility and maybe options to move forward. Now, the current jail maintenance issues are ongoing. Your county's done a really good job at the age of that. And the fact that it houses residents that don't want to be there and really good job at the age of that, and the fact that it houses residents that don't want to be there and don't want to take care of it, that kind of creates a problem in itself. So we kind of put together your bed projections to look at where you're going to be through 2045 based on county population and the mission rates. We're kind of touching on those here in just a minute. And then some architectural options where there's an addition or looking at a new facility kind of address those long-term. We probably see that. The state rate capacity of your facility is 208 beds. What that does is it says that you, when you built this, you had 208 beds that were rated by the state, the house inmates. What it does not do in order to have 208 inmates in there would have to be almost like a perfect world. The same type of offenders that can classify. One example would be if you had 48-bed female unit and you only had 24 females, then you can't put 24 or anything else in there. So 24 empty beds would make up that 208. So when I say it has to be a perfect world, that classification that inmates per that housing. There's a term called operational capacity, which is operational capacity is like 75% of what you're ready capacity. When you reach that number, you're technically full. When you have co-defendants, you have gang members, you have different classifications that can't be housed together, but you have to have the ability to separate them. that can't be housed together, but you have to have the ability to separate them. One, another thing is we say that Jail's age kind of in dog years, is once they open, they never close, and they're open 24-7, 365, unlike any other county building. So if you have a broken laboratory in the jail, in other buildings that is broken, you can just move down the hall to another one that's maybe not, but in the jail you can't do that. So they age a light quick. Some of the bed projections. We used to do your county bed projections. We kind of used your county population from the State Office of Budget Management, which most counties, that's what they used for their county population growth. We used last five previous five years of six years actually of data to go back historically to look at where you're at. 2017 you admitted 4300 into the jail and then it's it kind of went down. 2019 was the onset of the pandemic in 2020. You'll see how those numbers kind of went down a little bit. 2020 was your lowest point with 3467 that were admitted and then you can see that that number started to go back up in 21 and 22. We finished this report in December of 23. So in 22 you were at 4404 inmates that were admitted to your facility. Using that admission rate together with your county population, we projected 324 and five year increments, which your admissions would be. Your admission rate was based on how many people were admitted per 10,000 of county population. So in 2025, we're projecting 4,441 and then in 2045, 4,647. I mean why not? Venture. I can't hardly, so I'm sorry I can't hardly see that. Right, it's the next slide. Yeah, he had it. There you go. One thing that is important to know is average length of stay. That's the single most important number that drives your needed bed count. I was pleased to see that your average length of stay is a lot better than a lot counties. I mean, I've probably done 60% or better of the county jail being projections in North Carolina and y'all is in pretty good shape at 17.79. The national average is between 10 and 20 days. North Carolina is usually between 12 and 25. I don't see a red flag go up until it's 25 days or more and usually I have to explain that to people that working at facility because they go, we've got people who have been here for three years. This is looking at every single person that's admitted to the gym. Whether they're there for 30 minutes or they're there for four years that you're still responsible for once being admitted. So overall looking at every single one of your admissions, you know, almost days, it's not bad. So it means what that tells us is that your criminal justice system is actually processing inmates through the system at a fairly, fairly good rate. However, we do note that that needs to be constantly monitored. It's going up two days that make a big difference in your overall bed. Talk about peaking ratios. Your peaking ratio, peaking is at times throughout the year that your admissions in your average daily population is much higher. When people are admitted, it could be for a multitude of reasons. DEA could be doing a drug roundup, probation parole could be doing a roundup. Sheriff may have just served a lot of warrants, anything that makes that peaking go up. That's important to know because you still have to place to put those. And what we do is we looked at every single day for six years. Not just a week here, a week, that quarter, we looked at every day. I got all of those, all of the intake releases from the county for six year period and kind of calculated that. Your peaking ratio is a little bit higher than what I was expecting. I think it's your peaking ratio was like 1.16 or 1.24 was the average. Typically we see that in the 1.16, 1.17. All that means is that certain times of the year you were getting a lot more inmates in than normal. But with your average leak to stay being so good, the peaking ratio did not have that big of a factor like we see in some county. Looking at your, looking at all of the admissions, your admission rate, operational capacity and your average length of state kind of led us down the path of how we projected. You'll see on that chart it talks about classified where we add 20% in that goes to the ability to properly classified separate offenders. And then the peaking ratio at 1.24, so it shows in 2025, should have average double population around 2.16 in a classified and peaked need of 3.22. All the way to 20.45, you're classified in peaked need about 337 beds. So after calculating all of your bed projections and your future needs, we can then start looking at options. I'm going to turn this over to Brian and let him walk you through how those are. Please, Eric. Libby, your eyes, got it. Well, I got my glasses. Thank you all for having us. I'm Brian Payne with most architects. I'm going to walk you through a couple of options. Three having to be exact of what we did as part of the study. The first option is basically a stand-alone facility off site, somewhere in the county. We actually worked with county staff and there was a couple parcels in the county that this project fit. And so that's what we studied here was basically a brand new jail facility on a site. And so that's what we studied here was basically a brand new jail facility on a site not in downtown Rutherford. This is designed for about 337 inmates is what your big calculations told us is what the need was by whatever year that was, 2040, 2045. And so that would be your total build out of this. This option is a brand new core, brand new bed count. And it's pretty efficient design. We've used something similar in other counties in the state and it's worked out well. I think the downside of anything that I share with you tonight is cost because none of these options are cheap and today's dollars that we're dealing with and the world of construction things are not cheap. So this option, as I can't see either, I'll have to bring my cheat sheet with me. This was about a 95,000 brand new square feet and it was roughly $73 million. And that is the total project cost, not just bricks and mortar that was fees and any kind of inspections and anything like that land acquisition, those type of things that would have been factored into that. So that would be a total project cost. Option number two was kind of a complex idea of can we keep something on the current jail site. And as you can see there, it really created a phasing nightmare there because there's so much going on on that site with the existing courthouse, a lot of parking going on there, the existing Sheriff's Office and the existing detention center. So we had to take the approach of looking at it from a phasing standpoint of what had come first, what came next, those type things. And we had to look at making sure all those existing facilities were made operational during all these activities. This is kind of a problematic approach. The site is very small. It's very crowded with all these facilities there. So as you can imagine, it got complex and it got tossed. So the idea for this one, one thing I did want to point out too is if you were to go this route There really is no future expansion on this site. This really kind of maximizes the site We this would it be involved with creating a new parking deck so you can get rid of some of the parking there Jason to the courthouse and the Tencent Center This did try to manage to salvage the existing 164 bed tower That's own as part of the dead Tencent tower. That's own, as part of the dead tension center, so that was kept as part of this and reused. But it did involve creating a brand new core and then some additional housing as an addition to that. As you can see, this roughly gave you 248 new beds, which coupled with that existing tower that we were trying to repurpose and reuse brought you to a bed count of about 412, and this is about an $80 million project. About 70,000 new square feet for that one thing just like on options to Festival we had. Cost escalation 12 months. Oscar had some contingencies. But under contingency. And the 30. Thank you. So we took a step back and we said, okay, well, what could we do with the existing building and can we renovate the existing building to continue to utilize it moving forward. So this option number three that we've titled number three here basically creates 156 new beds. We were also trying to keep that existing 164 bed tower that you currently have. So this option brings you to a total of 320 beds. And then we went to kind of a complex renovation process of that existing portion of the building there, that one story building. Now this did need, for this to work, really the sheriff's office needs to be relocated to a different facility. That way we get enough square footage available in the building to, of course, the other needs associated with this size facility once you get up to about this 320 beds. That makes sense. And then this option here cost wise, this created about 36,000 new square footage. And that was roughly 45 million there on that option. Those were the three options. I know I went through those quickly, but we can talk about questions here in a moment, but I think we do have a wrap-up slide of what our recommendations were coming out of this study for you guys. One, like I said before, I think it was 336 beds are needed there by 2045. We wrote down that 90% of those need to be two men occupied cells in 10, where a single restrictive housing type unit. We thought it like Todd had mentioned, it's good to continue to reduce and maintain that average length of stay. Any kind of option you can to reduce that is always good. Provide different types of sale housing there, improve site lines, continue making necessary repairs, which we understand you guys have done a great job in continuing to make those repairs. And then implement and make classification plans. And then there's a couple of other points there. But I'll stop there and for sake of brevity and ask if there's any questions that we can help address. I have a question. Yes, sir. When I look at option three, when you look at the new rupture attached to the current tower and you look at the control room. Why wouldn't you rotate that where the tower could still be utilized for the new section too? We studied that and that was our first approach with that. The problem is the length of that bill and you start getting into the third street there the roadway. Now I guess if you work with the town and close that street that may be an option We could study that a little bit more to see if that would work but oh without knowing that we didn't go that Well, I mean that's the purpose of the tower and having to control rooms there and to be able to be in the center It's like you know, it's like option one when you look at that the the new design is the design nationwide. When you do a nursing home type spoke wheel, you have to have the control tower in the center and you literally can look down every hall to see what you need. If you have somebody needs assistance, you can you absolutely know it. There's no blind spots basically. And it helps you staffing efficiency, which right now trying to hire law enforcement public safety staff. Very difficult. I think I'm in as well too. I do like the idea of having the tower aligned or the building aligned with the tower. It makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of traffic that goes down that street there. And it doesn't necessarily have to travel down the street by aligning that building to the tower so that it can be utilized as a tower and I'd have to shift the, shift some of your guards there and put them in the arm by shutting that street down. You can additionally make sure that we have a pathway between the detention center and the courthouse. Secure thereby, if not eliminating, almost eliminating any chance of having a runner from time to time. And that does happen. You see that in a paper several times a year or so. In terms of that, I think it would be the best utilization of our money at that is merely discussion. I think you raised a great point, Commissioner. We did observe that that's in that particular circle, and I do think that's something that I should. So during your discussions with everyone, you at that one point, talk to the town of see by closing the street or or just the first time. Just to get into that portion. We've been on charge with the state. I think the charge was to give us options. I just want to wear that option. Yeah, the conversation was that's a county commissioner's kind of decision if we try to close that street. Closing the streets sometimes can be difficult to do that and have brave benefits. We could optimize parking and in make control. Safety, including inmates cost important. Yeah, he mounted that, but that wasn't, but so that wasn't considered then. That was the first thing we looked at. I mean, we just stopped there at that point. On the AOLOS, I would like to publicly state that our detectives, law enforcement, our public defenders, judicial systems, our DA, they've been doing a terrific job in prosecuting the cases and moving the cases forward. It's a truly team effort, making sure that when your officers are there on their day to be in court, the reports are completed. The public defender is here at the D.A. The judge. That is why the ALS is so low and saving the taxpayers money. I begin this, there's folks through this system as quickly as possible instead of us paying the daily rate of holding those prisoners in the local detention center. But we do have a new courthouse coming, courtroom coming, which should help you alleviate and help out of the AOS as well. I want to wear me a vest again. But if I do my math right, at your first bed, if it's 8 cents, don't add 8 cents to the tax rate, we'd have to pay $8 dollars a year to service that debt. So we would have to raise taxes that just to cover eight million dollars with the debt. At that first option for a brand new. How do I do? I don't know if you were sitting here an hour ago but okay. All right. All right. And then the other ones if you're sitting here an hour ago, but okay, all right. All right. And then the other ones if you do the lower before four million dollars or four cents. Okay. Yes, sir. Then we're dealing with a either a new facility or eventually if you if you got enough land on option one, if you did it, make the commitment then you can eventually have a new quarterhouse Our courthouse is going to be 100 years old in what two more years. It's got the same square footage it had 100 years ago. There's so much growth you can do where it landlocked where we are sitting there and I'm not abdicating new but I'm just saying I have worked in a facility or been tied to it when the courthouse joins with it and they build a whole new complex. It adds on if you got the room for it and yes it's money and that's what we don't have. I'm just saying it makes sense to grow new than to keep preparing and patching old stuff in my bed. Because your numbers aren't that far apart when you look at them and you still got the same problem. How old is this, Jim? I'm 40 years old. I mean, there's parts of it was 70. Right, 70. One's the oldest. I was there when we had the old Sally Port. Now, I mean, it was different. 38 years ago, when I was in there, it was just, it's gotten better, but it's, it's time to maybe change, I'm in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Any questions regarding the presentation? All right. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, thank you very much. Commissioner Nick's next time is three, seven, six, five. Mr. Choirs are, are to serve the development authority budget information Like right recognize the director Mr. Non-casing Foot rechargeable batteries Mr. Chairman There are several batteries at that time. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Commissioners, any manager, any attorney? On behalf of the TDA Board of Directors and staff, it's my pleasure to be here with you this evening. It's exciting times in tourism in Rutherford County, and I want to share the financial numbers with you to this evening, and then talk about our proposed budget and then I'll be back in next month to talk about all the other bound projects and all the marketing and all that. So it would be breaking up into two sessions but starting out we'll see there on our first slide we have a budget of 3.1 is our proposed um our tax receipts and we're going to come in at 3.5 and part of that is and a lot of that is because our Arxie tax collections we had budgeted 2 million 450 we're going to come in at 2 million 750 maybe 2 million 8 again if county tourism continue to grow and then we also have some interest earnings there that are over budget so that that accounts for the $413,000 increase over budget and then you'll go down the rest of items rather it's marketing rent office repairs maintenance that's how we're going to wrap up the year. It's important I want to show you that we're going to 3.5 million in revenues and we're going to have 6.2 million in expenses. Now I'm going to tell you how that works is and I want to show you some detail on some of the later slides but we're going to have a lot of projects roll over. But for bound all the cap improvement projects aren't going to get completed this year. They're going to have to roll over where we thought there would be. Okay now we're going to move into our proposed budget. PDA Board will be meeting later this week to review the budget and give their final approval. We wanted to work with you commissioners, make sure you had an opportunity to see it. Next year's budget, we are proposing revenues of two million 885. You'll see a 641 drop. Don't let that scare you. A 641 drop is because we don't have $600,000 or grants coming in that we're planning on for the power trials. So that's the biggest reason for the jump. We're projecting a flat, round 27528 of oxytax receipts. Western North Carolina and the state, kind of feels like I'm stuck, it's gonna be flat. But we're showing continuing to grow. I'm prey in Ref County, but I think this year may be our best year ever. We finish up, so we'll see. Now a couple more months to finish. All other line items pretty much coming in on, you know, budget compared to last year, we are gonna increase marketing and advertising. The biggest part there is we're gonna increase our TV ads and trail promotions. We've got a county wide tourism development trails across the county. So we're going to be promoting that even more. And then you'll see there under professional fees, we're going to purchase a $30,000 software package to help track and help our marketing team understand more about the ins and outs of ruffer county and how we can better forecast that. All that being said, we're going to have, oh, then the other big item that we're going to have is we will also be participating in under marketing. We're going to spend $138,800 under the Legacy Park signage. So the TDA be kicking money into that. But end of the day, we're projecting our budget to come in at 1.135, 1 million 135,000. The TDA's board's goal is to maintain that at 1.2. But we are kicking in additional $300,000 in Legacy Park this year, budget year, and additional $300 on that. So a few details go quick here, marketing advertising. There's the breakdown that I was telling you about in total, increasing our advertising budget, and in our community projects. This is important. I'll throw this out, but there's the legacy park update where we're going to spend money there. We're also going to continue the strategic plan. We're going to be continuing to market, engineer, promote new community events and everything. We're anticipating six to eight ground breakings and ribbon cutings over the next year. So we'll be marking promoting that, a strategic plan. Implementation will be spending $1.3 million putting that back into the Rutherford County projects. 600,000 of that will be into Legacy Park. And we will spend agritourism. We will be spending $75,000 to continue working with our agritourism group. He won tourism. Say all that to say real quick, end of the day. Rutherford County TDA has been growing our taxi tax and growing revenues and growing tourism in the county for the last six years. We're putting where are the TDA is maximizing how much money we can get back in the community. Well, if you'll see that chart right there, over five plus years, the TDA will be putting back into this community for tourism related expenses or projects. And every one of those projects are quality life for our citizens but over 6,485,000 dollars. Now, we've been blessed. I can tell you when Rutherford Bound started, I would have never dreamed that after five years, this county and with the oxy tax that we could put back 6.4 million. That's in my presentation. That's awesome. Thank you, sir. I really appreciate that. Any questions? No. Okay. Thank you, sir. Speaking of money, the next time is 370 budget amendments like to recognize our finance director, director, follow-up, follow-up, director director all the reds Paul good evening. Good evening. There's a series of budget amendments for your consideration this evening. The first one are some seizure funds that were received for the sheriff's office. DSS has also received some emergency placement foster care funds from the state. some emergency placement foster care funds from the state. Similar to the last two years, registered deeds was notified that there's a grant opportunity for $2000 for registered deeds automation enhancement. The next couple items are utilizing some of the state directed grant funds. The first item will provide the budgeted funds needed for the 145 college avenue, better known as the Biolo building. We're trying to come up with a community name for that project. But tonight the bid tab is here for your consideration. This will use the ARPA enabled funds in conjunction with the State Director grants to be utilized for that project as well as one of the conditions with the State Director grants there's an expiration date of October 2025. So the next one we're asking for you all to repurpose, reallocate what we are originally done as an ARPA enabled project. Move it to the state directed grant funds so that we can utilize more within that time frame. There's no expiration date on the ARPA enabled funds, so this will just replace or displace that money so that when we do go to bid for the courthouse renovation. Or any other future project than those funds would be available at that time. Great. Great. And the last item for the debt service fund, the animal control building had needed additional funds from what we had originally appropriated with ARPA enabled. We had moved that from the debt service fund that was sitting there as county fund balance and were requesting that to be moved back to the debt service fund for some future project. Are there any questions from the board regarding this budget amendments? No. Regarding the budget amendments, what's the will of the board like to make the motion that we approve the budget amendments? Second. I think I've got motion second. Any discussion? make the motion let me approve the budget amendments. Second. I think I got motion second. Any discussion? You know the call of question. I don't know if they raised your right hand. He didn't pose like one. It's OK. There you go. Next item is 3766. The bid tab for the renovation of the outfit for 145 college avenues. Just a king building. Not built. No, not built. Or the battle building. I know, it's what come up with the name. It won't be the either of those. The surcey buildings. Good evening, commissioners. Good morning. Thank you for this. November of 2022, the county acquired the former grocery store, located at 145 college avenue to house several county services including the revenue department, the library, the elections office and veteran services. Additionally in November 22, the county issued a request for qualifications and went through an interview process where the county wound up contracting with upland architects for professional services on some projects, including 145 College Avenue. Well over the past year, there's been design work and construction documents that have been accomplished in support of renovating and upfitting this facility. In fact, let me note that this is nearly a 39,000 square foot facility and what a project it is. On Tuesday, April 30th at 330, there was a formal bid opening. The pre-bid meeting actually had seven commercial general contractors in present. However, there were three bidders that were competitively pursuing this. And the bid tab, Wilkie Construction, Sausage and Construction and Beam Construction. With Beam Construction being the winning low bidder with 9 million even, we'd like to point out that the county worked diligently with the staff pursuing legislative funds and received a state capital and infrastructure funds. To be able to support this project in its acquisition. So the staff recommendation for you tonight is to utilize those funds to upfit this facility and to be able to expand county services into this location at 145 College Avenue. You've got any questions? I'd be glad to try to fill those. Yeah, yeah, being construction companies lowest better, but they're also the same one that's doing the animal control facility. No sir, actually being construction is doing the bus garage there at the former RS middle site. So they were aggressively pursuing this. Wilkie Construction is currently in the animal control. They were also aggressively attempting to get this for the sake of efficiency working in the same vicinity. So heaps having them cross the road basically is what boils down to it. It does indeed and of course we're pleased that these are not local dollars but state capital infrastructure for it. I know there's a pretty good escalation in construction cost over just the last year, six months, two years. Yeah, we were extremely pleased, I guess, to see that these are in the $230 per square foot range, which is very competitive today to say the least for commercial project classes. Any questions? No, thank you. Commissioner, does it recommend a motion before you? I'd like to ask you what you're... Motion to award the contract to the winning low-bitter bean construction at the base bit of $9 million. Thank you, Secretary. Ninety. Ninety. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I got a motion. Mr. Henry, you just said it? Yes. I got a motion. Mr. On you to second. Yes, we got a motion second. He discussion Who gonna call a question? No favorite region right here. He opposed like wise Wish us next time is three seven five seven JC PC funding allocation for 20 24 2025 I believe we have. Tom and Paul. Yep, I'm Tom. Tom Vame, I'm the chairman of the JCPC Council. And yes, our request is for you to approve the funding request that's presented. The only really questionable thing that's in the request is that we do have 64,000 that is unallocated at this point. We did have a group that has dropped out, Team Court has dropped out of our services. So we've put out an ad for another replacement for Team Court. We have not had one yet, but we plan to come back with either another company or another service or another budget allocation for that. If you have any questions, I can answer that. Any questions from the board? Appreciate the work, Yondu. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm motion to board? Appreciate work, Yaldu. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm motion to approve the Fundament of the Quest. Second. I got a motion in a second. Thank you, Mr. Hunt. Any discussion? Any other call to the question? All favor? Raise your right hand. Any opposed? Why would you guys sort of thank you? Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm going to go ahead and move. The commission is next. Next. This is an agreement with great. We're going to be insulting. We'd like to recognize at this point, Mr. Steve and Harrison, our Steve Erison, our county manager. Steve. Thank you, Chairman. Scott Lugano is here this evening and I did not see him. I didn't know if he was in the back or here with us. The staff are recommending that the county enter into an agreement with Scott Lugano, doing businesses gate-spring consulting to provide professional planning and consulting services for the county related to collaborative strategic planning. This is under option A of the State Memorandum of agreement with the MLA. As shown on exhibit A, option one of the MLA. Mr. Lugano will he'll be providing ongoing project management as required by the MLA. This is a two year contract that we're recommending effective July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026, the recommended fee based on the proposal is $120,000 over the two years, so $60,000 for each year, which will be covered with a portion of our opiate settlement funds. So this will be the first time we're expending opiate funds and just to kind of offer an explanation as to why. Part of the challenge we have is the state created this MOA that required all of the participating local governments to sign. It does set out a course for how you can expand the opiate settlement funds on option 8 strategies, which are pretty broad, but it has a pretty long multi-pates list of option B strategies. Before you can open those up, you have to go through a pretty lengthy due diligence process that involves engaging the community and engaging those in lived experience, our community partners and others, and a few other boxes that we have to check off. So Scott will be doing that for us and the other part is just the grant management piece. There are a lot of reporting requirements that counties held to under the MOA as well as those that we fund. So Scott will be managing that as well. So the good news is we are still working through the request for applications that were received and by June we'll be coming back to you and June to present some proposals for first time expenditures for using our opiate funds. This evening the request has have two recommended actions at the board so willing to choose to approve these first is submitting the resolution which is attached to direct the expenditure of opus settlement funds Second action would be to approve the submitted contract services agreement with our Scott Lugano DBA gate spring and authorize a chairman to sign that Thank you gentlemen. I'm glad to respond any questions that you might have now this memorandum of agreement or MOA you call it But it is required by the states. People don't realize that, don't think, correct? It is. It's OK. Media questions, comments? I just said real quick. We want to open up those option Bs because it's broad as option A strategies are opportunities. There's still not as finite in relation to some of the additional tools that we could put in our tool belt in relations to how to further effectively address opioid substance use in the county. Option-based strategies will do that for us. Excellent. Thank you. Commissioners, there's two record emotions before you. What's the will of the board? I'd like to make the first motion to approve the submitted resolution to direct the expenditure of opioid settlement funds. Thank you. Second. We've got a motion and a second, any discussion? We're going to call a question on favorite or right hand, any opposed live wise? Okay, and secondly, I'd like to make the motion that we approve the submitted contract services agreement with Art Scott Luzano, as close as I can get. It's BBA gate spring and authorized the Chairman to sign. Thank you. Got a motion. We need a second. Second. We have motion to second. Any discussion? A whole question on favor as you write hand. You put it a on the wires. I'm curious. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner, the next item is 3752. This is the budget presentation from the County Manager. I would like to point out that we're going to have the kind of manager will provide his budget. Presentation to us but after after that before we move on to the next section, we will have to improve on the budget workshops on the public hearing and the budget adoption dates and times. So without further, I would like to recognize or carry a manager. Thank you, sir. Before I get started, we've had, I've asked the department heads as many of you that were able to come this evening to attend the meeting. I appreciate them being here. I know it's been a long evening before you, but would you all mind just standing up for a few minutes or just for a second? I mean, the department heads that are in an representative office. That's a pretty phenomenal. And just to... Applause Just to be clear, and then standing, she was just real quick. I want to introduce everybody, because I think it's important to public notice who it is that serves them. If I start with the left, this is James Kilg, a solid waste department. April, appreciate you being here. Library of Shane, I bet, went to you first. Devon Rashes, our airport director. Shane Dodson with the Building Inspection Office. Carriage Alls, transit. Dom Caseen really works for TDA, but he saw, he's our weeklaming, so appreciate you being here this evening. And then D, our DSS director. Tammy's in the back. There you go. I didn't see Dawn. I'm glad you sat down, D. Tammy Aldridge is Senior Center. Dawn is the Board of Elections, Susan Hall with Veteran Services, Brandon Higgins. He's our solar and water conservation and there's several hats that he wears, because same as Danny with building inspections and planning and GIS, garage, maintenance, all of that falls under him. Caleb Johnson, thank you for being here. This is our EMS director as you met earlier. And also Frankie Hammack, another one that wears the mostative hats with emergency management and fire marshal, Deborah Conner and Paula Roach, the HR director and finance director. This is my left hand and my right hand and all of that. Appreciate them for what they provide to the services. I've had two people trying to interrupt me and point them out that I forgot Jay Gordrick. I had not forgotten Jay Gordrick. You'll just be patient. This is Jay Gordrick at our IT director. Jay's going to mix the magic happen. In the back we have Hazel Haines. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. When you see about how much it goes into our county budget, it's really about what they're providing to the county. You know, I get a little defensive, and I'm going to admit that when somebody calls out relating to county budget and what we're doing and what we're not doing, just to ask us. But the challenge for us is we're working in a very repressed inflated economy right now. You ask any one of these people that are in this room right now or is your budget bloated? Do you have enough money in your budget? They're all shaking her head right now. Have a conversation with them and learn more about what the exactly it is their needs are. We're trying. You know, at the same time, we're trying to find that balance between what the budget will allow us to do. Same thing with the school system in the college. And I appreciate seeing Jason Masters back there as well. We fund quite a bit through the health district as well. So thank you, sir. But I think that really, that's that challenge is for us as finding balance. How do you find that balance of what we can do? And continue to ensure that we're providing good service and great service at the same time, understanding that it does put a burden on new taxpayers. We get that. It's that balance. I'm going to go through a few slides and I promise you my slide presentations not as long as it has been. I'm trying to make it a little more abbreviated, but I do have a few things I want to go through. I'm going to go straight to the point and just get you where we are in a relationship to what we're recommending. The total general fund budget is proposed of $8,826,500 to $7,000. The total budget for all funds coming in at $107,510,713. So that includes all of the funds that come through the county that we collect including community partner agencies such as our fire departments. We don't have governance or provide any supervisory authority over fire departments. With the funding, we collect through that fire district tax desk and through finance department. The proposed budget represents a 4.283% increase in the general operating funds from the 2425 approved budget and an overall increase for all budgets at 5.68%. The proposed FY24 25 budget does not recommend an increase in our current tax rate of 45.4. However, to address the continued cost of our operations due to inflation, loss of sales tax dollars, and to ensure that our employees wage rates that we can assist our departments with the recruitment and retention efforts. It would be necessary to include $2,431,359 from our available and unrestricted general fund balance to balance this budget. And the proposed budget includes a 4% cost of living adjustment for staff. The primary factors impacting or proposed budget include flintflation and supply chain issues, weights competition in local and regional public and private sector employers and a significant decrease in our sales tax revenue. To highlight our recruitment and retention struggles, our strategies were continuing to sample the job market for comparable positions and sampling. It continues to indicate that we are falling behind the market for staff compensation across the region as well as locally. This is drastically impacting our staff recruitment and retention efforts. Looking at the full spectrum of all county positions, we find positions that are running above the regional market rate for comparable positions and duties, some that are right at the regional market rate and some that are below. It's a mixed bag. We believe that a 4% cola will permit us to ensure that all of our positions are at or above market, it will offer us time to further evaluate this during the upcoming fiscal year. As I previously stated that it's critical that we adjust the wages of our employees, commensurate with the cost of living increases and to remain competitive in the regional job market. Because so many of our county positions require various certifications, credentials and training to perform their tasks, it's important that the county received the best return on that investment as good stewards of the county taxpayer dollars. As an example, the county's required for by building a fire code inspections. Mr. Dotson, you just met. Our inspectors go through a rigorous multi-year certification process to acquire their building and fire code and certifications as required by the state. The building code side and the fire code side require certifications at a multitude of levels, which means that until they are fully certified on all levels, the county investment per each inspector will likely exceed $15,000. Whenever we have turnover, we generally hire inspectors in a work against capacity. So what that means is that we're starting all over again. This is true for many of our departments. D. Will tell you it's the same for DSS, our EMS staff, CableTay, the sheriff's office, Chief Greenwell will tell you that. And many other departments that are in here. We lose this investment and have to start all over again. Every time we have turnover. There has been no significant growth in county staff levels, our programs and services, except for federal and state mandated Medicaid expansion. Yet the cost of maintaining and sustaining current operations has increased significantly. Nationally inflation has increased by 18.6% over the past four years. Prices from material goods are required to operate have increased by 3.5% from just a year ago and fuel prices are up 6.6% from just a month ago. Health and auto insurance rates have significantly increased with auto insurance increasing by a stunning average of 21.4% just since last year. Economists predict that prices will not go down anytime soon. For the first time in a number of years we're beginning to see a reduction in our sales tax revenues. We are filling the deal effect of our sales tax revenues decreasing, which is occurring statewide, as well as a reduction of sales tax revenues to the county as these revenues are diverting to some of the municipalities and fire departments post revaluation during the last revaluation. Most of the fire service districts retained their prior fire district tax rates as did the largest municipalities just reminder we dropped hours from 59.7 down to 45.4, which is an unprecedented reduction in that tax rate in one reval cycle. Several other municipalities, what you do when you make me go last, you get a bunch of jammering stumbling. Let me start over there. Several other municipalities set their tax rates above revenue neutral and above the county established tax rate, which is further eroding our sales tax revenues. North Carolina counties can select to use one of two sales tax distribution formulas, adverloorum or per capita. We've historically preferred to use adverloorum formulae to continue our support of education and our fire departments. The perIT formulae generally reduces the percentage of sales tax collection for county governments reduces, which in turn increases the rate of collections for the municipalities. When challenged for that, those fire departments are not eligible for sales tax distribution under the PERCAPIT model, only the Advalor. Finance Director Rich is continuing to monitor this as we're starting to see a distribution rate percentage shift that may require the county to consider going to a per capita model. Per North County General Statute 105-472, county commissioners can only change that distribution formula in April of any given year. And this change would not take effect until the following fiscal year. Preliminary budget numbers. The total amount of funds requested from the county departments in our offices, the school system college, and other community partners came in at 90 million, 9,509 and $93. Which left an initial gap of revenues needed to cover the request and additional expenditures of 11 million, 614,445. When you back out the value of the economic development and incentive agreement amounts that we pay out each year, the value of one penny, that comes out to $999,917. So that's the value of one penny that comes out to $999,917. So that's the value of one penny of our tax rate. To accommodate this increase in the budget, if our present that to you this evening, it would require the addition of approximately 11.62 cents to the tax rate, which would increase the current tax rate of 45.4 cents up to 57.02 cents per each $100 of a praise value. That equates to about a 14.82 percent increase. To propose an operation budget of 80 million eight hundred and 26,507, we worked through the budget line, budget line items, line by line, to carve out that 11 million, $614, and $445 in request for funding. So where are the dollars drawn? Top three areas supported by the proposed 2425 budget are public safety at 28.93%. Education at 26.47%, and Human Services at 22.71. Public Safety Education and Human Services they make up 78.11% of the county budget. The Human Services number just as a default for that number can be a bit misleading because we have so much that comes in in the way of federal, state, and local, our grant dollars that support that program. It only comes out to about 35.4% that are actually local dollars. The other 64.6 is coming from state, federal, and grants. County continues to cover the gap in funds available for capital facility debt service for education. That's primarily due to the legislative reduction in lottery funds and projected reduction in sales tax contributions, which directly impacts especially those articles 40 and 42 out of the sales tax articles. The county also utilizes $1.7 million of the new quarter-scented sales tax to help fund critical schools capital and debt service. If we add in the portion of county funds used to supplement education related construction debt service, that's approximately $8 million. $7 million, $996,125. Education makes up approximately 32.21 of the appropriated county funds. Just based on operation expenditures right now, public safety emergency services, it's getting the larger portion of those county tax dollars. Key takeaways from the proposed budget, we continue to attempt to address inflation while ensuring quality service delivery for our citizens. And we continue to implement employee recruitment and retention strategies all while not raising the tax rate. Let's talk about the college. For FY2425 we are recommending a total of $3,726,750 dollars to also thermal community college with 3 million 26,755 going to operations and 700,000 to capital outlay including debt service for college capital outlay the county the total county financial support for FY 24 and 25 will be 4 million 186,165 $186,165. For the school system, for FY 2425, we are recommending an appropriation of $18,368,689 to the Rutherford County School System with $17,368,689 going to operations and $1,000,2 capital outlay, including that serves school capital, the total county appropriations supporting the Redfield County School system. During FY 2425 will be 25 million, 88,646. Total county appropriations supplement education capital outlay over the above. The sales tax and lottery fund distributions is 1,542,760. That's just to show that the reduction in sales tax and lottery funds aren't sufficient enough in and of themselves to support that. So we do contribute 1.5 million from additional local county tax dollars. Approximately 84.5% of the school system budget comes from federal state and grant appropriations leaving approximately 15.5 to come from local county appropriation. Dr. Setton, I hope that's close. As of July 1st of 2024, County will have debt service outstanding of 21 million. I think it's always important to show the slide so that we can show citizens and taxpayers where those dollars are going in relations to capital outlay and capital debt service for education. As a July 1st, we will have a debt service outstanding of 21 million six hundred and eighty three thousand and fifty four dollars. The county represents 5.6 of the total debt service outstanding. ICC see represents 14.2%. The Rutherford County School System represents 78.8% and a water sewer project the county funded in 2006, 2007 and 2010 which it's a no longer in plot and process but we're still covering that debt service at KM at 1.4% of the total. Budget message recommends $10,000,000, $415,000, $16,000 is our debt service set aside for the upcoming budget year. Going into the new budget year, approximately 93% of our capital outlay total debt service outstanding will be tied to education. Solid waste, rather than county County Solid Waste Department, you know, they operate as an enterprise fund and their budget has to be self-supported. Revenees have to be sufficient to cover the expenditures. Due to the continued increase in the operating costs that we're seeing there, the increasing of critical urgent capital facility and equipment needs, and the reduction in state revenues for state mandated programming. It continues to be exceedingly challenging to generate revenues sufficient for meeting the current and ongoing operations and capital facilities equipment costs for that department. As our cost to operate and manage the solid waste operations as well as the cost for our vendors and their subcontractors continues to climb. We are we're continuing to find ourselves unable to avoid increasing our various fees to curve those operational increases. Primary factors increasing the solid waste part budget or as follows continue to sustain increases in fuel, old tires and parts prices, which for our large trucks and the large amount of equipment we have, that can be quite expensive. Also fuel surcharges have increased due to fuel prices on our, as well as our tire disposal and MSW contracts that have escalated. We have an annual two to three percent consumer price index increased tire disposal and MSW hauling and disposal. I believe that's correct, Mr. Kilvoh. In order to meet our lead slave requirement to present the balance budget for the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund, we are recommending the following fees. Solid Waste User fee, $160 a year. Solid Waste Homestead fee will increase to $70 per year. Recycling availability fee we're proposing $13 a year. Municipal Solid Waste Tipping fee we are recommending $76 per time. Construction and demolition debris, Tipping fee, we are recommending $45 per ton. The continuing and sustained pressures placed on our budget caused by continued inflation and supply chain issues, as well as ensuring that our employees can earn a thriving wage, have created unique challenges for us. We continue to create linger effects as we begin the 2425, which will continue, sorry, to create Linger effects as we begin the 2425 budget cycle. Brothers for county employees and our leadership teams demonstrated an ability to persevere in whether this unforgiving storm, which I'm very appreciative, and I'm proud to be included in the Monvita ranks. I would like to publicly acknowledge my great respect, appreciation to the Rutherford County Department of Health and our administrative team are here at the administration building as we navigated through this very complex budget process. Permit me to specifically acknowledge the contributions of planning a public work director, Danny Cersei, IT director, Jay Dordry, HR director, Deborah Conner. Their teams has they they expended quite a bit of time and additional time pulling all together with the resources to get the information and the data and the numbers from each of the other county departments to include in our capital facility plan, our IT hardware software plan and the HR or the departmental human resources request. Finally, our finance director, Paula Roots, I know I'm a barrister every year but she's deserving of such. She and her team work extremely hard and sure that we maintain a high credit standing that our expenditures stay within budget that the integrity of the handling of our finances are beyond reproach. Director Roach is a creditor to her profession and we are exceptionally fortunate and blessed to have hers our finest director. In the end, recommendations contained in the recommended 2425 budget are those of the county manager. I appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve the Board of Commissioners and citizens of Rutherford County. I look forward to working with the Board to review these recommendations and adopt the budget ordinance in June. I'm glad to respond to any questions that you may have. I think the Chairman will leave us through to the next action of those dates and we'll have some opportunities to discuss further. But glad to respond to any questions that you may have to see in the chairman of commission. Commissioners, are there any comments or questions you have this time? Through it. Thank you, sir. Commissioners, I'm going to look for a motion to approve June 3rd as as are at 6 o'clock PM, as are public hearing. June 6th, as are 5 o'clock PM for a budget adoption. In May 20th, May 21st, May 23rd, 5 o'clock PM for a budget workshops. I move the, we adopt those dates. Thank you. Kind of motion in the second any discussion. You're going to call a question on favor, raise your right hand. You can post live wise. Okay, the answer is that thank you. Thank you. I'll leave you to the next item. One or agenda is to go into close session under one four three three one eight one one eight three is attorney client. And the close session will be held in here to be the board of commissioners the county attorney and county manager and the clerk for the board we will there will be no action afterwards we'll be no expected action after the closed sessions over the thank you for coming tonight we'll have to have it in here and thank you appreciate all right commission's only for a motion go to closed session that way second yeah motion second discussion Appreciate it. All right, the commission is only for a motion to go to closed session. Second. Second. Okay, motion, second, discussion. Turn it on a call to the question. No, a favor, raise your rate. Turn it on a hand, you book. Lightwise, we're, as soon as the doors close, we'll go to the... you you you you you you you you you you