I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to the beach. you I'm going to go to the side. Might be along. I am here. I can introduce you the various about up to 20 second delay. Oh. Okay. I'll talk fast. You talk slow. I'll call the owner of the meeting on the rough county board of commissioners. And before we start, boys having at the, was a citizen that came to our meetings for many, many years. And he always came with the heart of wanting to know what's happening in his local government. And he always had an opinion. And he always, he was somebody truly cared. He passed away recently. And you know, it's just, I felt like we just missed a milestone in our community of, we can never go back, because he truly cared. And if I could, I was asked we could have a moment of silence just for boys. So just by our heads for one, one second for a moment of silence for boys having that thing. Thank you. Thank you. Commission is next item on the agenda is a pletiful Regents. Who will recognize? The board of commission will leave. would lead to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you commissioners. The commission is item on agenda is the agenda approval. What's the world of work? Motion we have to be agenda. Motion to get second. Second. Second. Got a motion second in discussion. Hang it on a call for question. All come before the board recently come Terry on matters before the to us that's this important to them there is a some guidelines that we're providing to each speaker, but you have three minutes, which we'll call your name, you come up, you have three minutes. If you haven't had a handout or something like that, just leave it over the table there. And if you have ever somebody, we'll be sure that we get a copy of it but do not approach the guidance please. And so I'm going to start with the first one here. Disaster clean up. I'm sorry, I'm Josh Farmer. Mr. Farmer, we're going to see. And there's your timer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Josh Farmer. I'm with the law firm of Farmer and Morris. I would like to talk briefly about the disaster cleanup efforts in the county. And principally, I really want to thank the county for its efforts and what it's doing to support the FEMA programs that are available to us briefly. Some of my interests, I sold a company last summer, and basically after that, since the storm's gone on, or five employees and I and some volunteers, pretty much spent full time volunteering to help folks clean up from the storm. So I've seen firsthand the FEMA efforts from roadside cleanup provide tremendous value to the people that I've also helped and friends and clients and my property and personally. So I wanna thank the county. I know these efforts are tremendous. I know it's a tremendous burden, paperwork, the minutiae, regulations. I'm told by people involved in the process that Mr. Garrison and Ms. Roach are just non-prile. They're without parallel to the counties even around us for the support they're providing for the effort and getting this done. I understand the county's already begun to be enreimbursedemma for some of the funds the county's expended. I would like to encourage the county, you know, despite the efforts, the efforts appreciated, I would appreciate the county to continue as we move into I understand waterway cleanup is in the process now. And then there's even further phase of private property is a debris removal that the county could engage with FEMA. Or. and then there's even further phase of private property, is a debris removal that the county could engage with FEMA for and allow members of the public to apply for FEMA benefits to help their property be remediated. And I just, I wanna thank the county. I'm sure they're perhaps in some fatigue for all the work that's involved, but your work doesn't go unnoticed and it's providing a tremendous benefit to the community. The forest fires that we're seeing around us throughout the Carolina's, the fuel on the ground, Commissioner Hawke knows firsthand. To the extent we can get these things cleaned up with federal dollars that aren't coming from our immediate local taxpayers. I think it's a benefit. You know, the county obviously has a general fund. Some might call that a rainy day fund. I'm not sure that there was a rainy or day, literally or figuratively in Rutherford County history in September 27, 2024. And, you know, to the extent that's used for working capital to fund this while FEMA's reimbursedness. I think that's a fair use of those funds. I thank you for your time and thank you for all your support. I welcome the opportunity to engage further if you've got any questions on how some of this is occurring on the ground. But we appreciate you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mr. Mark Guffey. Good evening, sir. Good evening. First time I've been to one of your meetings here, if you're all my life. I want to speak to you on behalf of my grandchildren. I have eight of them. Five who are in the school system, three more will be in within the next two to three years. So I have eight kids at one grand kids at one time in the school system. And we are short on school resource office. I know we leave elementary schools uncovered during the day at times. We scramble and try to cover all the older schools are covered, but you got people that's gonna be sick or or on vacation. And I think your five officers short right now. So I'm not real sure about the payment way the payment worked to share a office puts the people in place, and the school board pays them. I'm sure it works in that way, believe. But where that here is, if there's retirees or quits, you don't replace them. Okay? We have any SRO officer out there would willingly put their life on the line to protect our our children. But if they're not there, they can't protect. Okay. And I know with the storm and the money and the grants, the grant help tremendously. But we have to be able to protect our communities and our children in the school. I mean, there's just no way around it. One child, something happened to one child. It'd be worth all the money that you could have spent. Okay? So, anything you can do to consider whether we get more money to the church department or how that should work, we need to make sure, you know, I did notice my tax increase this past year. So we need to make sure that we give officers in the school. Okay? We have enough trouble out in the county so they can't pull them off of the county watch to hail. You know, we got them all over the place. I'm like, Lord, sandy mush. So we need to put more office with a decent pay in place because get them trained up, they leave and go to the next county over for $10,000 more dollars. You got to start all over. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. I'm going to miss my name is it linda ways or wages. Linda. Last four days of phone numbers nine zero six one. Let me know the wrong. Okay. There she comes. This is the first time I've ever been to one of y'all's meetings. My name is Linda. I'm here for our S.O.A. officers. I have grandkids, nieces, nephews, and all in these schools. I'm pulling up at Harris, the officers having to leave Harris to go to another school. What if something happens at Harris while he's gone? What's going to happen to our kids, our grandkids? You know, we've getting all this funding and grant money for all this other stuff out here for new office buildings for a library and all that, which is already got office and a building. But yet we're getting grants for that. Where's the grant money that you'll fight and for for our kids and grandkids. need officers in every school in Relifer County, elementary, middle, high, and all. Our eyes are green kids. We need officers in every school in Relifer County, elementary, middle, high, and all. Our ISORO officers are awesome. The ones that we do have. Thank you, Lynn. Thank you. Thank you. It's a buy on nursery, nursery. 142 is your last four digits, your phone number. There you go. There you go. Hell in a little. Good evening, gentlemen. I'm here to do something that got rewarded down at Elinborough a few months ago. Celebrate excellence. Our county is full of it. Across this board in front of me, in the school system, represented tonight in every corner, in every nook and cranny. This county is full of excellence and strength. And what I suggest we do is capture it because some of the excellence is getting a little age and a little extra experience on it. I don't want to lose you at all, but I do suggest that we come up with a way to capture it. Capture in video vignettes because the strength in this excellence would be the most amazing educational source and resource for civics education of our county school students. By the time they get the privilege of voting and the right and responsibility of voting, they will be able to make better decisions. By the time they're trying to decide what they do next with their lives. Maybe they may be inspired to go in the public administration direction. They may want to follow in some of your footsteps. They may want to go for elective office. They need to know more about it. I can think of no finer teachers than the people who are currently holding these offices and fulfilling these responsibilities. And the ringleader would have to be hazel. So the invitation is there, let's find a way. Thank you very much. Thank you. Commanderie-les. You can see you back there. Good evening and thank you for this opportunity. My name is Amanda Cassie. I've been a resident. I've read it for county for 37 years. I'd like to say that at one point in my career, I worked for the school system for eight years, and I worked with some excellent teachers, excellent staff, and excellent administration. Now, I have to be honest, that was some years back, and things happened from that time till now. So COVID hit and it unveiled many different things across this entire nation. People were finding out, not only parents, but citizens, concerned citizens, grandparents, ads were finding out that things were being taught to our children that were absolutely destroying them. D-I, LTGBQ, the transgender issue, the drag queen, confusing them about their identity. I know the school funding is coming up and that the population in our public school system has gone down. Now I am 100% school choice. If you want to go to public school, that's wonderful. But if you want to go to a private school, homeschool, or a Christian school, I'm all that, I'm for that too, let the parents decide. And I understand that there needs to be funding as I mentioned, but I also feel like there needs to be accountability. I feel like somewhere we need to find out why our parents are taking these children out of the public school. Why? I don't, I don't know, I'm not saying that we need to hire a consultant, but I feel like there needs to be inquiries, investigations. Let's talk to the home school association. Let's pull those parents together and find out. You know, a lot of times you say, well, Rutherford County doesn't have that curriculum. You know what? You don't know what happens behind closed doors unless that principal opens up that intercom and lists us to things or a teacher brings a book in and reads something to children that they're not aware of. I have not seen the headlines of the newspaper saying that anyone has asked the principals or the librarians to pull every DIEI or any other transgender, you know, my dad can have a baby kind of books out of the library and dispatch them to the administration office. I don't see that happening. We need to know what's really going on in the classrooms because at times maybe the children didn't feel that they were confident enough to speak to someone in the school system and they went home and told mom and dad some things that occurred and mom and dad pulled them out. We don't know. But I feel like if we don't inquire and find out the source of the problem of and in one sense it's not a problem. There's school there's choice. But why are our children leaving the public school system that most of us were raised in? And because if not we're going to end up here next year and they're going to be asking for more money. But where's the accountability? Where are we making things better for the Rutherford County children that are going to be, you never know what they're going to be. If they're going to be at NASA, if they're just going to be a small home owner, I understand. I just want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and just consider that. Thank you for your time. Thank you. That was a power I knew. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and just consider that. Thank you for your time. Thanks, Amanda. Thank you. It's a poll right here. I thought the poll was running in the comments. Sorry. He changed the bail on us. Yeah. Thank you, everyone, for speaking to our public comments. Next item, commissioners, is Cassin agenda? Is there an item you'd like to add, remove, Senate agenda, if not, what's the will of the board regarding the consent agenda? Motion wave. Privacuse and agenda. Have a motion. We have a motion to second in discussion. I'm going to call a question. All the favors say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Carries. Sorry. We have somebody here to remove. We do have a corn, but I commit to the ventules because I want to. Business transfer time. We need to dial in at tonight. So. Commissioner Sinek's item is 4077. They can see on the Trans-Advising Board, collect or recognize. Hazel Hanger, so this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. vacancy has occurred on the transit advisory board, I'd like to recognize Hazel Hanks at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Vacancy has occurred on the transit advisory board due to a retirement. The board may wish to advertise, accept applications and make an appointment at a future meeting. Thank you. So this is a notice of a vacancy. Commissars, there is a recommended motion there before you. It's the will of the board. I'll make a motion. We approve advertising vacancy accepting applications and making an appointment at a future meeting. Second. Thank you, Commissioner. We've got a motion. A second. Thank you, second. Any discussion? You're going to have to call a question. All All favor raise your right hand. Or say aye. Aye. Right? Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? The carries. Thank you. Mike, you can raise your right hand. Tell us what you do. I'm right. If you can't see it. Commissioners next time is 405-8. Does it point me to the juvenile crime prevention council? Again, I'd like to recognize the wonderful clerk to our board. These lines. Thank you, Nancy. I think it's the under juvenile crime prevention council has been advertised and applications have been accepted. And application was received from the humanitarian walker. So the Lord may wish to appoint me as well. Opportunities to the time to make the council. Thank you Hazel. Commissioners, what's the will to board? Make a motion we approve the appointment. Thank you, Commissioner. You got a motion to say second. Second. Got a motion to second in discussion. You're not to call a question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Any opposed, like? No, I could carry. Thank you. The point has been made. Commissioners, next item is 4088. Make a seal on the social Board. Dr. Recognize these ways. There is now a vacancy under social services board. So you may wish to advertise this vacancy also in accept applications and you could make an appointment in an infusion meeting if you feel desired. Thank you. Make a motion, we approve advertising the vacancy, accepting applications and making an appointment at a future meeting. I have a motion. The second. Second. We've got a motion. Second. Iniscution. You're had the chance to speak to you guys want to want on this but Next is appointments of commissions to boards and commissions. There are three listed here We'll take one at a time time. The Regency Aging Advisory Committee, the Library Board Trustees, the Department of Aging Advisory Committee. These are committees that were served by previous commissioners to Hugginshee to replace. So we'll look towards you if you have an additional serving on one of these. So regarding the first item, the Regency Aging advisory committee, is there a commissioner of the five of us, particularly interested in serving that committee? Okay, here none. I'll move to the next next one we'll just put it for the future Next time is the library board of trustees is there commissioner these are these are boards of committees they require a request at a commissioner Sir Bonn library board of Trustees is your commissioner will make a nation to the hell on Tony on the library Okay, I have a motion need to say Zero say Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. The second. I got a motion second. Any discussion? Call the question. All in favor raise your right hand. Any putt? It's kind of like any folks last night, Michael, you raise your hand. I am. I'm all right. Good. Okay. Thank you. And lastly, it's a part of aging advisory committee. Is there a commission or willing to serve on that committee? I'll do that one, Chairman. Thank you. I got a motion. Need a second. Second. Got a motion. A second. Any discussion? Thank you for your willingness to serve. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right. All right. Terry's, thank you. All right. So we've got one item that we just we punted and we'll grab that in future meeting. Thank you, commissioners. Commissioners, next item 4060. This is something that's Roger Hallfield from Cherrymont Fire Department looking to recognize him was this a comprehensive fire and rescue service study and Chief are you here? Chief I think you asked to have this only agenda for the last month and we had a pretty Chief Mr. Chairman commissioners good afternoon Thank you for allowing us to have some time on the agenda tonight this is not a normal place for me for some years now, but I'm back so Over the last two years, the 17 or over two years ago, our 17 fire chiefs met and unanimously approved our first ever comprehensive study of our fire and rescue services. We wanted to capture data and information to show the strengths and identify the shortfalls in our system, countywide, not individually as a department, but as a county because as you've seen in the wildfire situation and from our response to Hurricane Helene, it takes all of us working together to accomplish our goals on a daily basis and very much so in a situation like those two events. We felt this was necessary a necessary process to help guide our departments in order to adequately provide protection of the citizens and the visitors to Rutherford County. In addition to our time and effort put forth by our county fire chiefs, I'd like to recognize a few county departments tonight that were very helpful in this process. We received assistance from our Fire Marshal's Office, Information Technology, GIS, Medications, Revenue and Finance to make this project complete. And we had great cooperation from all our county staff. North Carolina Fire Chief Consulting was chosen to manage this project. Chief Greg Grayson is here tonight to provide you with a brief overview of this study. Just a bit about Chief Grayson, he has more than 42 years of progressive experience here in North Carolina with fire and rescue services. They began like many of us. They began as a volunteer with hopeful fire department neighbor in Cleveland County Later, he served as the Fire Marshal and Rescue Director for Wake County Fire Chief at Asheville Burlington and Greensboro fire departments and a consultant with the North Carolina Office of State Fire Mars. He has a great team that works for him and we put a lot of effort into this and a lot of time into it. We had hoped to bring this to you before now but we had a storm that caused a little delay in getting this study to you. So this time I'd like to ask Chief Grayson, if he would come forward for his presentation. Thank you. The Board recognized Grayson. And actually, Chief Olfield, that's all. It's saying that when you came up, I recognized that you wanted to bring this to us earlier. And we were delayed due to conflicts. So thank you. So thank you for accommodating, putting it off till now. So Chief. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, commissioners, thank you for allowing me to be here with you tonight. And a sincere thank you to what you do for the folks of Ruffer County. You have a very demanding job and I sincerely appreciate what you do for your folks here in the county. And also in the storm situation you've been through, we've been involved with the side a a little bit with that, we're trying to help and support efforts at the state level. So thank you again for allowing us to be here. And thank you for all that you've been doing here in recent months. We are with NC Fire Chief Consulting. We work with cities and counties across North Carolina. We work in North Carolina only. We're the legal of municipalities not only provider and also the Association of County Commissioners. So those groups keep us pretty busy. And so we help in situations like this and others that that there needs to be some analysis of the view of our system. So we have pleasure working all across the state. We have a great team as Chief said earlier. Many of these folks worked on your project here in Rutherford County. I just say to you that they're very talented, very experienced. Many of them are retired, fire chiefs like myself, but I bring a great deal of expertise to the table. And again we've helped folks across our entire state with similar type projects. As a third party independent group we really are just here to look What's what's the facts, what's the data, say, what's the options, present that to you, give you an opportunity to review that and make more informed decisions. At the end of the day, that's what we're here for. To give you information, as you are the policy makers and decision makers, give you more to work with and give you some facts to work with. So so that's what we did here for Rutherford County. We did quite a bit of stakeholder communication and we talked to your fire chiefs, we heard from them, we even went back out to your firefighters and asked them what they thought about these. We wouldn't be as inclusive as we could. These are the folks serving the people of Rutherford County day in and day out and we thought it was important to hear from them. So we did quite a bit of the stakeholder piece and communication. We looked at the community risks within Rutherford County. We actually plot some storms that come through, but nothing like what you had. Okay, so we did most of this work in 24 before this occurred, but part of that is looking at what are your risks and hazards from traffic to rail to what is what are the challenges and hazards that your fire chiefs here face in Rutherford County. Much of this work is using the GIS system. Your county GIS helped with that. We have a specialist that they're able to talk that language together and make some meaningful visuals. It will hopefully help you to see data and information. And we look very deeply at all your emergency responses over as long a period of time as we could gather. And so we use data to look at that. And that's a great predictor. Your best predictor or future incident is going to be looking at your past incident. So we were able to gather a large amount of data and look at that and present some of that as well. We looked at your financial situation. Where are your fire departments financially? What's their situation? What are some of their pending needs? What does that look like moving ahead in the future? And then our team took all that together and put that in some recommendations for you to consider and debate and continue to look at moving forward. I'm going to talk to you tonight about three points and you've got so much information coming to you. I recognize that so I'm going to simplify in three points. First is that time is really important in everything that the men and women that service firefighters here in Rutherford County do. Time is of the essence in what they do, whether it be a fire situation or a medical situation, time is so very important. I have a picture here talking about Miss Smith. Now if Miss Smith comes into her kitchen she's smelling smoke and thinks her house is on fire or her husband collapses in front of her and she's dialing 911. To her, that response times, from the time she's having the emergency or she's making that 911 call, until the fire department shows up, or EMS shows up, or the law enforcement shows up, whoever that might be. But there are many pieces and parts to that equation. And so this first arrow, the blue arrow, at the top talks a little bit about that. That there's got a process that call, get that call dispatch. Then it takes time from the time that the fire department, in this case, as we're focused on fire, is alerted. They acknowledge the call. They get to the station or they're able to respond to the station as someone's there, wheels on the truck start turning. And then the next piece of that is Travotime. How long will they travel? You have a really large county, just like many counties in our state. And so it takes some time to get there at times. So those pieces are all important, but again, the missed bid, I'm having a process, I'm having an emergency, how long does it take to get there? And time again is important in many ways. This chart just talks about what happens in a cardiac event and to simplify it for you. If someone had a heart attack right in front of you here today, you had a defibrillator and you had trained people, their chances for viable is going to be really, really good, 90% plus. But with every minute that goes past, their chance of survival diminishes. So, again, saying to use seconds are the enemy in these emergency situations because the chance of survival diminishes so quickly. And again, time is very important. Same thing with the fire situation. A fire basically doubles about every minute. And so if you're going to have the chance of survival in a situation with someone in a house, there's a limit to that. There's a limit that you're going to be able to help them. And there's also a limit in time of when you're going to have a lot of structural loss. Okay, so again, time is very important in everything your firefighters do for you here in Rutherford County When you look at how the your departments are responding as I said we looked at a lot of call data This is too small to see you on here, but I think you've got the information just see this is the the Responses of the different departments and areas, but I'll draw your attention to the chart over on the right, and it's saying that your call volume, your demand for services over this time period that we looked at is increasing. It is increasing over time. And we've got some data in there that'll, I think point to some of the reasons that's occurring. But when we look at all the incidents that occur, and we filter out everything, it has to be filtered out, your department's responding in 10 minutes, 43 seconds or less 80% of the time. So that's the way that that is measured and I'll explain why in a moment. But not at 100%, no municipality. I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire, I retire We measured at the 90th percentile, not at the 100th. So when you look at all the things that can happen, multiple calls, storms, those type things, volunteer fire services measured, primarily volunteer fire services measured at the 80th percentile. So just to take away from that is the calls that you're having or increasing. this is the level of service that your departments have been able to provide. There's not a law or rule about what that has to be in North Carolina or in the United States. The only law says that before firefighters can go into a structure that's on fire, they have to gather enough people to have a rescue team. There's a couple exceptions to that. But for the most part, they have to get enough people, if something goes wrong, when the first crew goes in, they can get them back out. And so that's the only piece that's legal. The chart that's over here on the left is what is the national standard for volunteer fire departments, though. It's not a requirement, it's not a law. But it's a guide. And that's what we can do is look at what is your data compared to that standard. And I would say that your time, that time frame you have, when you start looking at whether you're responding to a rural area or suburban area, your times are pretty good. The challenge comes more about getting the number of firefighters that you need there to do the work. That's where the greater challenge is for both of us. And that's a segue. Point number two is firefighting service is a lot of work. It is labor intensive. It requires a lot of people to do the work. And so that's the second point that I'd like to make here with you tonight. It requires a lot of effort, energy, training, and skill, but it takes a lot of people to effectively deal with those incidents. This is to show you where the incidents are occurring by the time of day, and the departments are here on the left hand side. But the peak 12 hour here in Rutherford County between 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 9 a. hour here in Rutherford County is between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. and the peak 8 hours 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and so the reddish pinkish colors that you're seeing there is just when the majority of incidents are occurring. So the takeaway I hope you'd have there is that the the weakest point in your system is weekdays. That's the time that the system is most stressed, having fewer volunteers, particularly in weekdays, and again call volume being fairly high during those hours. Your fire department is varied throughout the county in the amount of resources they have to to work with. This chart just shows what their total income is across the county, but they vary. You have obviously departments that serves municipal areas, a little bit more urbanized areas, and others that are very rural. So the departments are all very different as they are structured here in the county. Most everything within your county though is on is on a volunteer system. Our team supports volunteer systems. As long as your volunteer system can work, we think you should support it. At the same time, we think that support is needed at times. And we see that here for Ruddford County of needing to have support, particularly around the weekday periods. This chart shows those people that are paid in the department. Some of your departments have some career personnel, such as Forest City, those are included there, and some of your other municipalities, some have no paid people. So it's a variance across the entire county. One of the measures you're taking to combat that is sending multiple fire departments to a structure fireman. And that's a great thing. You have a strong automatic aid program here, and I commend you for that. That is excellent. Your chiefs worked very well together. They identified that as one of the greatest strengths. And we believe that that is the case because without that, you wouldn't be able to assemble enough people to do the work that's needed. But calling people from multiple areas around you, again, that takes time if we talk about this moment again. Losing volunteer firefighters is not a rub for county thing. It's not a North Carolina thing, it's a national challenge. I can say throughout North Carolina in recent years if you go back to 2018 forward. We are losing about 3.5% of volunteer firefighters per year in North Carolina. We just got the data the other day for 2024 and positively we only had a 2.5% loss in 2024. So a little bit slowing of that. But when you look at the multiple years, it's still at three and a half percent. A blessing you have in Rutherford County is you're not at the state average either the two and a half or the three and a half. You've lost about one and a half percent per year. So you do have a loss in number. Your loss is less than many counties are working. I'm actually working with a department in county that they've lost almost half of their volunteers in recent. So very serious. You have a dedicated group of folks here that continue to serve to the best of their ability, but the takeaway is to recognize you are losing the number of people that are there to serve and buy that service. Things have changed a whole lot. As Chief said, I started officially, my dad is a charter member of the department. I grew up in, you know, about that high. But when I officially started in 82, there was a waiting list to get them to get them to, as a full time, you know, a volunteer firefighter. And that's not the case. So that dynamic has changed nationally, and it has in North Carolina, and it has in Rutherford County. I think the takeaway I'd like to have is you have a loss, but it's not near as severe as some other counties or experience. The third point I want to talk about is funding, the funding piece of this. US policy makers and decision makers always have points about funding and I have to include that as well. But when we look at your call volume, we look at the volunteerism, we look at the demands on your system. Additional funding will be needed in the future to support your fire service. I'll use the word sustain. We think you have a good system now. You have very dedicated volunteers. You're doing a lot of the right things. You have a very dedicated group. But to sustain what you have, we'll take some more funding because they need more support, again, particularly in those weekday hours that your weakest link in the system. So when you look at throughout the entire county and the changes that have occurred, one of the important things that the chiefs have taught our team about is we took over the rescue services when the rescue squad was no longer able to serve. And they took their responsibility, but anacost that equipment is very expensive but that really hasn't factored into funding that they have it is factors in the call volume that hasn't factored into funding that's an important piece that we would note here as you start looking at those those calls and funding pieces. We bring a couple ideas to you for consideration. You can certainly keep doing what you do today. Each of your departments have an individual service district and you can continue to use that service district as you're using it today. The legislature provides for that model. You are progressive in establishing those quite a few years ago and you can continue to use that in what you're currently using today, but the financial needs are changing. Just one quick sidebar to that, literally, and it's hard for me to grasp my head around as retired just a few years ago, since that time, if you go back to about 2019 to now, the cost of fire engines has literally doubled. It's hard to get your head around that, but it has. And so the Calls to Operations have certainly gone up. So you can continue to use the model that you have. That's continuing to serve you well, and you have that opportunity. But the amount that is available for your personnel will need to be addressed when you're able to address that. There are other models of, we list here some other counties that use those models. One is to have a single tax rate, but single service district across the entire county. That's an option to you. And we, you know, knowledge is an option, but not one that your fire chiefs feel like it's rather for county needs to move to it. The third one there is very similar, but it's focused on one piece of the cost. This third one here is called a service district, it's wet old, overlay service district. It's where you set up a service district but it has a purpose for that funding. Such as staffing or such as staffing and equipment. There's a purpose for that. A specified purpose. And then of course you can use your county general fund. S.O.L. legislature has enabled. But those are the models that exist in North Carolina. And we encourage you to look at those models, what you're using, what you could use as you make your decisions moving forward. So we talked about three points. One, time is critical. Two, firefighting is labor intensive. And three, some additional funding is going to be needed in hand. Moving forward, we've been encouraging to look at the data. We, we, um, cymbled a rather, rather comprehensive report for rather for county. We encourage you to look at the numbers, look at the data, see what that is showing, what the trend lines are showing, and use that to help you be more informed as an elected official. Most of that data was in 2024, or ended in 2024, or so one piece of that obviously may be that you would like to have something revised or updated in that time period, but looking at that data and understanding it certainly certainly recommended to you. Secondly, we would encourage US the Board to identify some members of the Board that would work with the fire chiefs to have some discussion. Meet with the chiefs, have some further discussion about options, and don't need to look at what forces are reasonable and viable for earth for counting and have some of that discussion and don't look at what those options are and make some decisions moving forward. So that's an ask of the group here tonight and recommendation from our team is we would hope you would have some further discussion on this when you have more time to die sick, it's a lot of information, it's large, it's complex, but when you have time to do that, we think that would be an excellent move to keep things moving forward for road for county. The last one we noted at the bottom too, we put a lot of information in the report about volunteerism, and we encourage you to look at that and try to make efforts towards volunteers. You want to retain the people you have. Number one, retain the people you have. You want to recruit new people, but keep the people you have because that's a true gym for Rutherford County. And you do have a good system. So we encourage you to work on retaining the people you have as well as recruiting. But those are really the three things that we want to leave you with tonight is look at the data, analyze the data further, encourage you to have a joint discussion with the fire chiefs about how to best move forward, and then prioritize looking at some of the volunteerism information. And with that, I'll be glad to take any questions. General, may I have any questions at this time. What have you found beneficial to help maintain and even grow a volunteer base? And Chief, I don't know. You don't know. Sure, I'll let Chief speak to that as well. But there is no silver bullet with that, so to speak. Each department has found things that work well. We have given some ideas and reports, suggestions to that. One of the things that I saw on the career side that I learned is serving as fire chief. You get out of things what you put into them. If you put more effort into recruitment, you tend to get better people and you get more people to choose from. So that's certainly very true to me on the career side. We put some information in there, suggestions. The simple thing of having a coordinator, and a single coordinator, for example, into county can be a part-time person. But somebody that all the departments communicate with that represent you at all the events, the high schools, the community college, all the places that they might be able to attract people. We've found that, you know, contacting people, communicating with them, calling them back, giving them information, being a sole source or single point of contact is really helpful. And so that's just one of many. But we outlined quite a few things for you, and... Thank you. Any other questions? Of the four options you had up there. Does our chiefs have one that they think makes the most sense? The chiefs really support I think the overlay district that's the third one down. It is a countywide service district but it is focused on whatever you choose to focus it on. Counties that use that, I think I'll give the example. A foresight, they do focus theirs on personnel to help with that cost of the different options that we've talked to the chiefs about. We asked that question. We met with them all one on one and I think the most support is there, but they're, you know, they're support for the others as well. At the end of the day, they recognize we've got to have some more funds to make this work. To make this system continue to be what has been in the past. The dynamics are changing, you know. My son is has grown up in a very different generation than I did. The dynamics are changing. We've got to have more funds. Any of those would provide it. Whatever you think is best for for us for can I'm very any other questions chairman may I present a few that's okay with the board if I can do mine first. Oh, please Thank you so The overlay service district is very similar to enterprise fund. It's only basic basically a one item for. And you're stating that funding options should be made available. Each fire district can set their own tax rate now. Have any of them maxed out? Your maximum rate is 15 cents per hundred and you're not at that amount right now. So none of them, so they could actually raise those rates right now and receive them. Well, you set the right, the board of commissions. Well, they make you, every time we rebogit, they make their recommendations, but they haven't recommended that to at this point. So, okay. At the end of the day, it's a commissioner's decision, but we understand what you think. Yeah, yeah, I'm saying instead of having additional tax, it was already taxed in place now, which has set it a lower rate. And that's that first option, you know, you can continue to use the system that you have. We outline, here's what the legislature says you can use. Well, I need to, I mean, I'm not having any decision, I'm having enough information to do that, but I just wanted to clarify that. Yes. Really appreciate it. I'm sorry, Steve. That's a perfect segue into what I was going to mention or ask. First of all, I'm going to say that you can't be older than I am. I don't have in the world you... I'm sorry Steve. Well that's a perfect segue into what I was going to mention or ask. First of all I'm going to say that you can't be older than I am. I don't have in the world you would have spent 40 years prior to that so you must have started one year or 10. I didn't have a good chance to be a chief olive field as well as chief Harold and Robert and I want to say quickly, Chairman and Commission, if it's OK. I want to thank the fire chiefs that are here tonight. I'll tell you going through Hurricane Hell, Leighin and then party rock will fire that and then we've got a lot of things that happen and let's not forget it's not been just a year or two ago we had American zinc. The big fire down there and all the and I have been picking on our emergency management director Caleb, not Caleb. You'd like for me to blame Caleb. Frank in hammer because I keep saying he's the common denominator. But if I actually stepped up and have really been a huge help to us in the fire departments, and especially with Hurricane Eline, you know, we didn't know what to expect out of that. Everyone knows the last summer event that was 1916. I think I I'm only the only one in the room is around then when that particular event occurred and it was pretty bad and we could not have gotten through that with all that support from the fire department. So thank you for that. One thing about the fire district taxes. So this wouldn't put another later on. You still have those fire district taxes under that one option. So at a fire department of 3rd 11 cents then yeah they still have that gap between 11 and 15. The challenge is that that one penny doesn't generate much in the way of revenue. We've talked quite a bit about looking at sales tax formularies of difference in ad-villorn versus per capita. The challenge with the county potentially moving from one to the other is that, I don't know why, the state legislature, I guess, is way to sit up on that advalorn taxes. The fire departments would lose potential revenue if we switch to per capita. So clearly for them, that's a pretty significant loss and we've been hearing you loud and clear, thank you for that input. For those departments, talking about $100,000 a year depending on what source they use for that. So that's not an optimum opportunity for us. So for them and as we all know as it's been mentioned already we're not seeing the volunteer base we used to see it's been eroding for quite some time and it's not just them we see the same challenge with law law enforcement, the number of people that are looking at 911 operations, emergency management and EMS. So we're all experiencing those same kind of challenges and trying to find opportunities for people to see this as a wonderful career path. Fire departments, it's a volunteer base. So for them, they're having to re, they're having to pivot to try to consider How do we ensure that we have sustainable staff to do that so I get where they're coming from at the end of the day I think that the challenge is that yeah, we have some fire departments at 9 10 some at 11 12 Some are getting a little closer to that 15 cents to know than others, but Even for one single fire department And I'm not saying this to defend them. I just kind of know what those numbers look like I know that that one penny doesn't generate very much at all. Even if they go to the full balance of 15, it's not generating that top revenue needed in order to sustain their operations. So I hope I'm saying that correctly. One thing to just on page 17, just looking at your graphs, I appreciate seeing that trend. In fact, I encourage anything on doing that. When it starts at 370, it's going to zero. trend, in fact I'm encouraging anything on doing that when it starts at 370s to a zero, I'd like to appreciate seeing that trend. In fact, I'm encouraging anything on doing that. When it starts at 370, it's still a zero. I'd like to see what that graph look like when it's spread out over that more accurate time frame of zero up to the 415th instead of the 350 mark. It's still gonna be the same shelf, same trend line, but just trying to get a sense what that looks like. One question I'd have and not see in that I'd recommend it to the commissioners all the way to the other. I just want to make sure that it's out there as a possible consideration. What if that particular action to take? Norcline General Statutes would also permit the expansion of that particular fire service tax district, covered the entire county to also include EMS. Is that a consideration? Or does the North Carolina General's statue don't allow it for one district covered the entire county to also include EMS is out of consideration or it is North Carolina General Statute only allow it for one district or the other could include EMS as a component part of that that would also receive additional funding. Caleb Johnson appreciate you being here this evening but he'll tell you the strain he has to continue to find ways to support EMS and our operations. It's pretty challenging just as it is with the fire department. So I'm wondering does legislation allow for them to be included in that blanket or is that a separate look at something that's not coupled as far as fire departments in EMS? Do you know? Yes, sir. I believe there's 13 reasons or methods or services you can set up a service district for, mistaken So one of those is the ams one of those is fire protection. It really would depend on just those two right just those two well There are 13 total reasons, you know sanitary districts right, but I guess I'm sorry for interrupts new I'm just trying to clarify that that doesn't include 911 operations or emergency management or sheriff's office other public safety components No other public safety There is one for EMS there's one for fire. It's really up on how you establish it and how you structure it There's process to go through. It's very prescriptive You've got to have a call for a year and you've got to have a document playing But it's whatever you set it up to be those are the the ways that you can use it for any of those purposes, but you just have to follow the process that those are. And do we know what that penny would generate? Let's say if it's one penny, two penny. I know I'm not going to put the fire chiefs on the spot to ask them what they're looking to recommend to the commissioners. If the commissioners are looking to possibly consider this, You know, at the end of the day it is a tax increase. What does that painting about? There's a lot of variables to be your answer. So when you look back, will municipalities opt in or opt out? That's a question. We've set up a spreadsheet to calculate that. So okay, the brotherhood and wants in, if Spendel wants in, wants out, but those make a difference, right? So, when you look at it, you do have to factor in for city and the tax base there and how that would look. So, there is a, it really is dependent upon who is in and who is out. An incorporated area obviously would be one of those, but, you know, we can turn those on or off toggle that and give you that information. And also the valuation has to be accurate as well. Valuation in report is a 2024 Valuation. Right. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Commissioner. Early in the questions. No, I'd just like to personally thank the chief. We're back there in the Chair Mountain Fire Department for saving the farm this past week. That was awesome. Thank you. I think Commissioner Midfield has something to say. Commissioner, I'd be wanting to make a comment that if we let these guys at their max go up to two or three cents to take them all the way to the 15th, then they're stuck right there. And we're limited on what can be done. And it's going to take a legislative action out of Raleigh to make that difference there. So I'm still a volunteer at Santa Motion. We're doing a tremendous thing. And the staff that has helped us in the full time far farther, we've been able to put on, literally make a response about 45 seconds before the winter this back. They're actually rolling towards something. New County policies to respond multiple departments to different structure fires have helped us get more volunteers to ride on the same. But at the same time, there's so many shortfalls that we need to do. So just thank you for this information, John provided it is awesome. And it is something we can physically sit down and read through and make the best decision possible for the whole county. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate that. Commissioner, this is for information only. There's no action recommended. Appreciate that. Mission's next item is 254069. This is a hot report for rough county. I'd like to recognize our finance director, Oliver Roach. Good evening. Travis Keever with Cool Killing Inn is here tonight to do the presentation with us. Okay. We apologize for the delay but we've all experienced delays with Helene as well as his office manages Bob other county audits that were all healing victims. Okay thank you. Mr. Keem is going to see you again and you're on. Good to see you all as well. Like Paula said, just like everything else the last few months where King Helene's caused the delay and wrapping up County ought to work. The impact on our staff as well as all the counties we serve is taking a little longer to get these wrapped up. Hopefully, FY25 will be a little bit more normal year for all of us. But at any rate, thank you for allowing us to serve as your auditors once again for FY25. Our front has been your auditor for a number of years now. We always appreciate the opportunity to start the county. Special thanks to Paula and the staff of the Finance Department as well as D-Tam and all the staff at DSS for their hard work and cooperation in completing the audit. As usual, all county staff has been incredibly responsive and accommodating and has shown a tremendous level of professionalism in working their way through our audit. Appreciate that very much. I'll just start with kind of a high level of summary, the results of the audit, and I will be as brief as I can tonight. Last week, we finalized the audit report on the financial statements of brother for counting for the year ending June 30, 2024. I keep in mind the objective of our audit is to provide reasonable assurance, not absolute assurance that the financial statements are fairly stated. An audit includes examining evidence on the test basis to support the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. To do that, we use our own professional judgment and we evaluate management of accounting policies and estimates. The numbers inside the financial statements belong to the county. to engage us to audit those numbers and provide an opinion on them. For FY24, we've issued an unmodified opinion on the county's financial statement. That means we believe the financial statements are fairly stated and afforded to generally accept a accounting firm. So that's a clean opinion on the financial statements. We also issued an unmodified opinion on the county's compliance with federal and state grant revenue. This means we believe that the county complied in all material and respects with the significant terms of grant agreements that were subject to a program specific single audit. There were seven of those programs this year. Counties received a lot of grant funding that requires a lot of audit work. Seven total programs. In addition to that, government auditing standards requires us to document the internal controls that the county has in place over financial reporting as well as compliance and then verify that those controls are implemented. We do this in a number of ways. We test samples of expenditures to make sure the purchase order policies are followed. That expenditures are approved by authorized individuals, the budgetary authority exists for transactions. And that invoices are coded to the current budget code. We also test samples of payroll transactions. We make sure that employees that get paid are in fact employees of the county and they're being paid to improve rate for the number of approved hours that they work. We also conduct walkthroughs, the key personnel in the finance department, the SS, the revenue department and others to ensure that adequate processes and assistance of checks and balances appear to be in place as it relates to controls over the county's financial information. And so after all that work, we noted no material weaknesses in internal control and no instances of reportable non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. So to recap all that, it's a clean audit opinion with no findings on both the financial statements and federal and state grant compliance. So at a high level, that's about as good a report as I can give. I'm going to turn my iPad on, because the hard truth's hitting me that I can't read that to you. One second. Within your financial statements, there are 15 governmental funds in the county's annual comprehensive financial report. This represents total assets of $151 million total revenues of $139 million and total expenditures and FY 24 of 1808 million. As I mentioned before, we did quite a bit of federal and state single audit work or program specific auditing. There were three federal programs audited, totaling around $5 million. Those were Medicaid, the American Rescue Plan Act, and community development block grant. You had five state programs audited totaling about six and a half million. Those were also the state component of Medicaid, state aid airports, several OSBM grants that the county received, foster care guardian assistance, and lottery fund. Total federal and state grant expenditures and FY24 total of 21 million. And of course of that, single audit was conducted on about 11 and a half million. So just over 50%. The pie chart that shows a general fund summary of revenues, as expected, add warm taxes with the largest shared, about 60%. Restricted interim governmental, which is some of that federal and state grant revenue, was second at 11.3 million or 14%. And local option sales taxes, was about 9.2 million or 11%. This shows those same categories year over year. Everything was up just a little bit, except for local option sales taxes. Those declined a little. We're starting to see that pretty much everywhere as kind of inflation dollars back down a little bit. Some of the grant money that was really being pumped in the system the last two or three years kind of wanes. We're starting to see local option sales tax fall back a little. I would kind of expect that to be flatter, even continue to decline a little bit in the next year or two. But that's what happens. It's the same chart with expenditures. The three big ticket items in Rutherford County, just like most other counties, would public safety, education, and human services. Those were 20.9 million to education or 28% of the expenditures, 22 million to public safety or 29% and about 17.8 million to human services or 23% in the year over year. Graph, the TUMO significant increases were public safety and human services and some of those were salary related increases as well as in human services there was a pretty big jump in foster care payments that plays in this. For us fund balance or fund balance increase from FY23 to FY24 from 54.6 million to 62.9 million. You're available fund balance which is essentially the cash on hand at the end of the year, less than the current payables, increased from $45 million to $54 million. The local government commission likes to compare your available fund balance, the smaller number on that chart, the $52 million. They like to compare that to your general fund expenditures for a year. So the your population group, which is North Carolina counties with populations between 50 and 100,000, it's somewhere between 40 and 45 percent. A fund balance available is a percentage of net general fund expenditures. See the last, tack and FY22, you county was kind of, kind of right in line since then, there's been a little bit of an increase was against some of that grant money's coming in, which has data to fund now. Property tax collections, there's a few statistics on that. FY24, you see that the tax rate did do the revaluation. I think you guys adopted a tax rate that was about 2% over revenue neutral so that led to a little bit of an increase in revenue and Current year collection percentage paid pretty consistent took a small dip down to 98.27, but still a healthy budget center So with that I've been happy to take questions if anybody's got any and Again, we appreciate being able to serve as your all over again Thank you, there any comments or questions from the board this time Commission we are there's a suggestive action before you. It's the little board. Motion week. Except now that I have a couple questions. That's okay. Yes, sir. And I don't know who to direct the question to whether it's Apollo or a presenter on the fun balance that we have. Those numbers that are in there, reading through, I didn't make it all the way through the 160 pages. But what is, is in the fun balance of the 52, are there any projects that have been paid out that would be considered restricted, or money set aside for projects under work that haven't been finished. If the May for the projects that were incomplete, if you'll go to page 71, there's a fit note with fund balance and its various restrictions or commitments that still outstanding. The items, the six million that were assigned for this year's budget, for the 2.4 million that was appropriated as the original budget, plus those items that were carried for that were incomplete. They are within that six million dollars. Plus you have to take into account for things that are not cash, like your prepaid items, inventories. And then we also have many set us up for our air-conditioning, our roofs, those sorts of things. So then you come back down to our remaining fund balance of $31 million. Okay, that answers my question. And this number has been vital enabling Rutherford County to move forward with the devastation and the cleanup. Today we have paid around $13 million in debris bills. We are expecting to be around $23 million. Based upon the volumes that are continuing to come in, it's very likely I'll bring another budget amendment for consideration. So we may hit $25 to $30 million for just road right away cleanup. And there are other counties in Western North Carolina like Madison County. And some of the far Western ones, they did not have cash in their coffers. They did not have fun balance available. So they have been waiting for months to start their debris cleanups with SDR and other things they've been at the mercy of what the state and the Army Corps of Engineers and those subcontractors could do. But when Rutherford County was able to step up, fun balance is there for whenever trouble happens. So it's very vital also whenever we go out for debt, then our we are reviewed by standard importers, mooties and fitch because we still have outstanding rated debt that the majority of which were done for school construction. During Helene, we were put on credit watch, and we were evaluated not only once, but twice during that period, and based upon us having fun balance and the ability to move forward without being dependent on the federal government, as well as the state, that enabled us to hold our credit rating and be able to move forward. I want to add to that because of Paula's due diligence in trying to manage her money's wise one and thank you Paula. We weren't the only count that's been considered for that rate of valuation and we came out on the other side where we're getting to keep that double A monis. What's? It varies a little bit between agency as well as if it's geo-rated versus. If you've heard me say, you're after you're after you, that's so important just because of the ability to do debt service financing. It's important that we maintain a really good credit rating so that it allows us when we're looking at bonds or debt service that we're getting more competitive grants. The other thing too, the policy credit, She did submit two FEMA to get that 50% reimbursement back for the first portion. It's not 50% of the 23 were anticipating but out of the 14 and we have that money back in hand so thank you. We're not expecting to get the rest of that funding back. We didn't expect 100% reimbursement but don't know when. That could be six months. 10 months could be here. Almost did it this one, right? Yes, sir. We started the process. That was for extra extra. That's right. For the Expedite Project, we submitted it. And around the third week of December, we made the first submission. There were four changes and resumments done. It was finally pushed through for approval the third or fourth week of January, but we just got the funds two weeks ago and that was $7.6 million or half of what we expected in volumes at the time that we submitted. At that time we had adjusted our numbers to $500,000 cubic yards and to date we have collected almost $ 780,000 cubic yards. When you look at Western North Carolina and all the counties that you say is operating and doing and managing and those numbers that are reported, we have more debris that's been worked and picked up than all those counties added together. So we're very thankful and blessed for the workers that have shown up and come from as far out as New York, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri that have brought the trucks in here and they work in steel seven days a week. They let to talk to continue the process. That's 750 cubic yards so far. Yes. So far. 750,000 cubic yards. They measure it based upon volume. FEMA reimbursements are anticipated. Now that we've gotten the expedited process approved and the many back, then we fall into a reimbursement process that we do have invoices uploaded up to around 7 million. There are a goal in the next two to three weeks are to continue the upload process so that then we move into reimbursement mode going forward. We have been assigned a new PDMG with FEMA, the one that I've been working closely with for the last 10 to 12 weeks. He had a family emergency and had to go home. So we've recently received a new one about two weeks ago, so we'll be having our first meeting with her. Now that we wrapped up the audit, last week I told her I didn't have time for appointments because we had to finish this paperwork and get on the agenda. Thank you, Paula. All your hard work, Mr. Chair. I have a quick question. What is the minimum fund balance that were required to maintain county? There is not necessarily, there is like an 8% state reference that is just OPA. 8% of a county budget just would give you minimum cash flow to operate. The majority of county funds, as you've seen, were ad valorium taxes. They come in early in the year. Matter of fact, even when the economy went down in 2008, the county removed a lot of other things and they decreased the discount they were given for property taxes down to a half percent because as long as we do a discount then the banks and the escrow agents have to pay early. So that helps us with cash flow to bring the money in early so that then therefore you can operate but as Travis stated counties of similar size in order for us to manage so many programs that work just like FEMA and are in a reimbursement process then they are aiming for 45 to 55% fund balance available so that you can manage those projects. Can I add to that a little bit? I'm working on General Statute 159-8A. It defines a maximum but not a minimum. The reality is 8% represents one month. If things go south for the county then 8%, if we were only 8%, then we would only have enough funds. Not only for the county's budget, but for that 17% of local appropriation school system gets and whatever the college percentage is, shares office. That would only be enough to cover those expenses we currently budget for for 1 month. Paula mentioned the idea of a similarly situated counties. The reason they kind of use that basis, and I guess it's based on a per capita, maybe a... They try to do a similar size, meaning that we have similar expenses and similar expectations. Not a mandate, but they want you at the same percentage of similarly situated counties are to cover more than just one month. Right now, the fund balance we currently have, even outside of the 50% of those fund balanced currently, obligated in FEMA, there's only enough there to cover county expenses in the worst case scenario, not going where that doesn't happen. It only cover expenses for six months. And it goes back to that question too then. I know we've got a lot of conversation ahead of us in the budget workshops, once I present to message it in May, to really talk through what is the needs of the communities, our community partners, and how do we best meet those needs. The reality is that, in the day, regardless of what that percentage and what that number is, are we going to look at using fund balance to cover ongoing recurrent expenses. It's the old adage of do you use your savings account to pay your house payment? Hopefully the answer is no. I know occasionally I'll probably have to, but I would hope that most circumstances that no, we're not gonna use savings to cover ongoing recurrent expenses. We could do that front and load back for a year or two, but then what? That's the question I'm gonna continue to ask you from this point till we pass the budget in June. We can do a lot of things, but then what? At some point you're going to have to pay the piper and then you put the county at rest for not having those funds there to cover those expenses in a worst case scenario. But it's also, it's hard for her to maintain that great credit rating. And also if we're going to consider debt service financing, if we're not maintaining that percentage of available fund balance at a particularly high level, I think the challenge there is when we start looking at what are the capital projects that are facing us at the moment. Counties in pretty good shape would continually have been keeping you updated on the progress on the renovation of the bottle building. None of that was local tax payer dollar. The New Animal Control Center, none of that was local tax payer dollar. The new soccer complex that we're doing in conjunction with R.H.O. Lex and Farr City, no tax rate, local tax paid or dollar. The new soccer complex that we're doing in conjunction with RHI LEX in far city, no tax paid, local tax paid or dollars. The courthouse renovations that we've been working on for quite some time, not a zero bit of tax paid or dollars or in that project. We also have some contribution toward spend to escape park, again, no local tax paid or dollars. Then of course the sheriff's office trying to get some renovations to the old detention center and then to renovate the six grade building and cafeteria to use for admin offices. Again, no zero taxpayer dollars for use for those projects. You see the American Rescue Plan acts, we've been very grateful. Our state legislators have been very kind to pull down some additional dollars for us. We're talking $70, $80 million with the project right now and we have not had to do any get service for any of that. It's all been those state arpa, other funds, and I recognize some of that's still taxpayer dollars but not local taxpayer dollars. We've not had to take those items into consideration. Let's put this in a really good good shape. The challenge there is we still have a lot of things I have of us. At some point the school system is going to be faced with considering the two high schools they have that are, they're at a point where there's going to be a consideration for a placement of those. They have a couple of other schools. We've been luckily working with them over the last 30 years to rebuild lots of new schools, but they're still some that are pretty old. The courthouse turns 100 years old next year. That's something that it's a great courthouse and we're continuing to make changes to it and modify it to give another 10, 20 years out of it. But at some point we're going to have to take a look at what a Justice Center looks like and that also also includes the Sheriff's Office and Detention Center. It's not that old, but you have inmates that are in there 24-7, 33 or 65. There's a lot of wear and tear that happens to a facility of that nature. Part of that old Sheriff's Office is built in the 70s. Some was modified in the 80s, again in the 90s, and then of course the tower of the 90s. It's not that old, but 30 years old with a facility that's been around 24, 7, 365, it gets a lot of wear and tear on it. So at what point are we gonna consider that? Just throw it out there, and I'm sorry I'm putting too much out there. The current numbers we have on a new Jealous detention center came in at $80 million. Just to let you know what that looks like in the relations to debt service, we're talking about $8 million a year. A new high school, when I first came ten years ago, we were looking at some of the capital facility priorities for the school system. At that time, it was $50 million. We know now that that's double. So we're looking at $100 million for one high school. So that's going to be $10 million more a year. I couldn't even imagine what it's going to cost for a place of courthouse. But we're continuing to look for those opportunities to figure out how do we address all the capital needs without having to go to the taxpayers just taking an consideration. But you're getting into that area now where we're going to have to look at debt service at some point. And when we do, the only way you're going to get good rates, good financing, and be able to pull down the best dollar possible, not to put this any more of a burden than we have to on the taxpayers is you've got to maintain a good credit rating. So all of that plays into all aspects of that. The other issue, I'll throw out quickly and I apologize, fun balance. One thing about having, as you know, there's a multitude of different pots of fun balance. You have your stricter and unrestricted, I had a whole list here somewhere. It's a lot. It's a lot of detail when you start breaking down the different types of buckets that we have for fun balance. But the reality is that you also need to make sure, and that's why they ask us to look at similarly situated counties, because when we start July 1st, we're actually using prospective revenues, because the ad-villorm taxes, what we depend on, those haven't started rolling them yet. So you've got at least July August and September that you need to ensure that you can bank that, that you can write those checks. So having that fund balance similarly situated to those counties of comparable size, that's why that's critical. I could go on. I apologize. I've gone on more than five for this. It's a fund balance. The whole conversation of fund balance is very complex. It is. It's, thank you. Commissioner, you asked your question for now. It is a complex. It's a matter. And ever since I've been served as commissioner, I've always felt that being able to give, get the best right for these council needs, that we face as a board is important having these clean audits is important. You know the state changed the rules I think last year year and half ago was chairman godlock I think he's already there. With the DSS you know with DS with DSS, they've changed it where if there's, which there seems to be an era made, they take it from the county. You know, we have to do a clawback. Fortunately, our DSS has been doing a wonderful job in making sure that when they're processing the forms and providing the access or the funding to those people that were servicing, they've been doing a great job on it. But the state, you know, that's a liability we have, so we need people to support that payback if that happens. Or if there's a question, this will be a period of time. We have the Community College, for example, has $43,000 to $44,000,000 in long term capital needs that we haven't touched. in addition to the $8 million of the current needs for the new nursing program for the inside of the building over there. I mean, there's just so much, but it all comes back to being able to have the capacity to dress it and the capacity in our budget to borrow the money or to take care of the need. You just said, Paul, I say you went down to 30 million to label funding to 12 after we pay. After we've taken everything into consideration, there's 31 available. Right, so we're 31. Okay. I'm at the point out as well. The two things I always look at to see what our threshold availability is, if we were do that service what should it's threshold looks like but the primary thing I look at is findings because that shows material weaknesses or areas for corrective actions. Travis, how many corrective actions or how many findings did you find in this particular audit? I know the answer. I just want to hear you say it. I'm sorry. What'd you say? Zero, okay. And that's awesome. That's a credit to our final director, Nurtin. Nurtin, thank you so much. Any questions? Oh, there is a motion suggested action because this is the audit. What is this, the will of the board? The motion is exempt now. Thank you. I have a motion. I will be the second. Please. Thank you, sir. We have a motion. Second. Any opposed? carries. Thank you, sir, for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. You'll probably be right back. Okay. Commission next time is 4-0-8-3. These are bugging amendments. We're March 2025. Lecture recognized. Refine. Instructor. Good evening. There's several budget amendments for your consideration. The first item is for detention and make medical. We received some invoices that had gotten lost in the shuffle with safe keeping and Department of Corrections. They had first built the state. It was actually our inmate so Ruthford County was responsible so that was for prior year bills. The in detention center based upon some safety concerns, there are additional inmates that were moved out of county So there's another budget amendment for that building maintenance for the detention center elevator The maintenance department is currently soliciting quotes to modernize the elevator to essentially replace the guts within and And based upon one day we have received the budget amendment requested for 200,000 there. The college is requesting some funds to be moved from the college capital reserved to replace the water heater at the student center and the installation of an outdoor air compressor for the welding building. The next item is the non-1 wind fund each year when we the budget, a lot of times it wound up being based upon the current year revenues. That is adjusting the fund-twending or the piece-out fund to what we actually receive for the current year. And then the last item, solid waste, as a result of Hilling, and they've used their equipment a little more than what we had ever expected. So based upon the disposal charges that we've received with additional tipping fees, thanks to heline, then we're also requesting a budget amendment so we can go ahead and replace that piece of equipment that has reached its end of life, essentially. Based upon us not knowing how much longer it's going to have continued pressure on the system. They're requesting to do it now rather than put it in next year's budget cycle. Thank you. Are there any questions for the board? I'll want to set double negative on 9-1-1. Last year when we prepared the budget then I had based it upon about 500,000 same revenues as the the year. The 911 fund adjusts that because we're only allowed to keep a certain amount from year to year in fund balance. So they adjust our numbers accordingly. Also, whenever we turn in five year projection plans for replacement of major equipment, then that number will have been flow. So last year year's I had put the same as last year's number in there. They send us that letter once they finish out the 911 report and give us a final fund balance as to what next year's estimate is and it came in just around the time of budget preparation. Final numbers and it didn't get changed in May. Right before it was issued so what this is doing is adjusting it to what we have. What we do is we budget the items that are hitting that particular fund, the balance of that money that we put in reserve for capital projects, or equipment, and it kind of banks and adds to that fund balance until such time we have enough to buy cabinets Habinets, the equipment, or even a server upgrade, and that will just adjust it to what we're actually getting from the same to share. So it's decreasing the revenue and decreasing that capital lot on them. Thank you. Good time to advocate for a new Jew I like the idea of the Justice Center that Mr. Gearsson brought up. Yes, sir Spend it on this one. Okay, Mr. Cersei just sent me a message said he's projected a call from the Justice Center to 150 million. We spent 400,000 this month. Well, back to the matter and the objective actions before you commissioners. Prove the budget, ma'am. No motion to the second. One second. Second. Thank you. The motion second, union discussion. You know, to call a question. All in favor say aye. Aye. This is bringing the iron group down. Thank you. Absolutely. I'm curious. Thank you. Exams 4086. This is the regarding the auto contract is a minimum to it. I could recognize Paul Roach Root. We're requesting that the audit contract be amended to February 28th. We were able to get the report issued on February 27th. And also due to seven programs going through the system, then the dollar amount is being adjusted to 97,500, because each major program is 5,000 each that we want to. For the additional testing required. Any very questions from the board? Is this the same firm that we're currently using? Yes. What we have to do is amend this contract, send it to the local government commission before they can get their final payment for completion of the audit. So this is for the 2024 audit that was just presented just to close it out. Is there any benefit? Do you see any benefit in changing up firms just to have a different set of eyes look at it? There are very few firms in the municipal business anymore. So it's very limited. We will be periodically, we do go out and request bids. Last time we did so, I think I only got two responses. If I can add to that, Paul and I talked about that, and I think next year we're probably looking at center now to RF PR RFQ Just to see what that generates. We want to ensure to we're creating a level of Transparency to make it look like we're not just sticking to one auditing firm, but to their credit They've been exceptional to work with Paul I mentioned and you'll hear the town say that as well. It's hard to find auditing firms that'll do local government anymore. It's difficult. I'm glad Goukay and Stain in the business for the moment. Something will again reach consideration commissioner. Commissioner is a recommended motion before you also will. I'd like to make a I'd like to make the motion that we approved the amendment audit contract to a completion date of February 28th. Bryson is also updated as we had seven major programs this year. Thank you. I have a motion. Thank you. Thank you. A motion second. Any discussion? You know, I call a question on favor. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Car you. Carries, thank you. Next time towards 084. So-so-request is an EMS oxygen generation system. The information presented to you will allow the county to do an exception to the permits process based upon specialized equipment and it often happens with like data servers and things that are not compliant with other things or can't miss well. So the oxygen generating machine is a unique piece of equipment for your consideration. Then we do have the documentation from the vendor as well as a references from several other customers. We looked in to get an oxygen generating machine and that will be paid for with state directed grant money. That the county received last year. We have been in the process of looking for one. Unfortunately we didn't have it in town Helene. There was a need for it based upon what was unavailable. That we finally got this information pulled together for your consideration so that we can get that machine purchased. The EMS department too is actively working for looking for other grant. They've decided that going forward it would be nice to have this equipment as a mobile opportunity. So they're looking into an enclosed trailer so that then when and if something happens, they could move the equipment to whichever resource or whichever building has power or to whichever region of the county needed the equipment at the time. So we are based upon recent events and other issues that have happened. And they're trying to be creative so that we buy one piece of equipment with the state money and then we get our maximum effort out of it. Thank you. Any questions from the board? So I think this is a good system to put in place, but at the same time, it's very not cost effective. But if we're using other monies and accounting monies, then I highly recommend it. It is a good system. Is that the understanding follow that this is very important? Yes, this will be a state directed grant when When we turned in this guy for work for the, when he million dollars for the county, it did include this EMS equipment. So if all of this will be state appropriation money. I'm assuming since we got EMS here, represented that this is what the recommendation from. Yes, the recommendation came from the EMS director, and he was here with me in case there were any other specialised questions. What we were able to do is we'll actually be able to fill our own O2 bottles and we'll actually be reaching out to the fire departments. We'll be able to fill all the fire departments, O2 bottles. right now we're spending right at $300 a week Oxygen just ourselves. So it's gonna be a cost effective in the All room. Do you have any idea how much the fire departments are spending on their mind? I know they use different companies Building a bridge for the end as well, so they'll be able to say because we're not charged to them to fill their tanks this system will be able to feel 80 be cylinder tanks a day. So we'll be able to do that for the fire departments. Also, we'll be the first one in the region, in the Western region, to have this system. So we'll put us at the forefront of exciting, able to be really. Sorry, Caleb, sorry, commissioners. I think it's important to highlight, we actually received funding for legislators for this about two years ago. Between procurement and trying to get competitive beds and then of course supply chain issues, here we are. Talk about the hospital and I mean, the hurricane Haleen greatly highlighted with the need for this. If we had this system that would have helped to alleviate a problem I think working through Frankie and his team and you we were able to find a resolution for the hospital, but as I remember it CEO Schugart was down at the our EOC trying to figure out what to do. She had people lined up down the hallway needing oxygen supplement These were private citizens not patients and they were running out of oxygen Yes Yes sir they were running out of oxygen. We were adding their home generators could not be working because everybody was out of power. But with this if we're able to make it mobile with throughout other grants and things like that we can work with our emergency management to take you to a shelter or take it to a centralized location that way the private citizens in an emergency situation will be able to fill their bottles of oil through this. Will we getting possibly one with each base or just- No, it'll be just one. Just one. The multiple units. Okay. Sorry. So it would be able to run off a generator as well if need be or out- Yes, it is be your trailer. And we have a generator for your main base. And they have a mobile generator. They have a generator at all three bases. That's what I was getting at if something bad happened. There's no power anywhere. They'll go up to them. Gotcha. Any other questions? Yeah. Looked like a wind wind. I mean, you think of helping out our citizens, but also, you know, the fire department's helping relieve some of that, the money that they spend. So yeah, this is really good. Commissioners, I recommend your motion before we regarding the civil source request and what's the will of the board. I'll make a motion. I like to make a motion that we approve the sole force. That's the going. We had a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion? You're going to have to call a question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Carried. Thank you. Excuse me, Commissioner. Why can't you? Next, I was 4071. Agreement to man conditional agreement. I could recognize our EEC director. Where are we? How are you this evening? Good. Thank you for coming. The county is currently under a conditional agreement with a firm, a project that we're calling project Quiet, and it is for the 47 acres that the county owns on Daniel Road. It is being proposed that it be a housing development, and the developer has asked if we could amend the due diligence period which was scheduled to end April 25th and they'd like to add a 90 day extension on that and then 30 day closing after that if it were granted. Thank you. Commissioner, is there suggestive action before you? Berger, do you have an opinion on it? I think it's very wise that we grant this extension. I'll make a motion. We approve the agreement to a mere conditional agreement. Second. You've got a motion to second. Any discussion? Here we know in a call of a question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Gary, thank you. Thank you. I'd like to recognize our county manager, Mr. Garrison. Next item is 4-0-8-5. This is an agreement for the operations management of the Animal Control Services. Mr. Garrison. Thank you, Chairman. Do we have any representatives from part of the foot hills here? I'll see you back. Hey Karen. I'll tell you I've been here 10 years but I'm not really had a chance to get to meet I get to know Mr. Parker and I know of all the great things they've been doing. I've been hearing about that for the same 10 year period. And really appreciate what they do. I appreciate more that she's been engaged with us through some conversations about possible operations, managing the operations for our animal control services. I think that I'm sorry I'm distracted, I just saw you two, I hope you're doing well. I think we were trying to determine if we're related. I think we're garrisons connected somehow, maybe like built cousins 12th removed or something, it's good to see you as well. But anyway, appreciate, I know that Commissioner Halk and Commissioner Hanger also met with you and just trying to figure out what would a possible partnership look like. I believe all the commissioners at one point or another have been engaged in what your operations are. So I say all this to say that we have a good sense of what you do. I appreciate it. You'd extend it out of letter, just to kind of talk about getting the ball rolling and that deeper dive. and reading through it really impressed me because you're already doing everything that would be expected of you as a government ran type animal shelter. And so you check most of the boxes already. So we have been having some great conversations. We're continuing with those conversations. We have provided a draft for her and her team to look at and legal counsel as a possible agreement between the county and Heart of the footheels for operations I want to thank all of those who've been involved from the county as well I know that Jay Dordory and Danny source Cersei with their IT and our public works and planning have also toured the facility with you a couple of times And anyone as well as the old one trying to see what that looks like and you know, what do we need to do to make this happen. We are wanting to see if the commissioners are are meatable to us to continue to move forward in those conversations and doing our due diligence to have a contract in place hopefully by July 1st for the beginning of the next fiscal year and for that budget cycle. So just a quick thank you again to Karen Parker and her team and to our team here for Allowance to continue to have those deliberations and to have some good thoughtful conversations about what this needs to look at and how to best move forward So this evening we're asking you to consider Allowance to take that next step to continue to work with Ms. Parker and her team to Look at a legal agreement what that might look like and for the county attorney, myself and others, to negotiate the terms and conditions of that particular agreement. It's very fluid still at the moment. As they continue to look at it, I just want to make sure that it's out there that we have your support before we continue to move forward. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Ms. Parker. Awesome job, currently, with our nonprofit and taking care of animals. And I think it would be a great situation to have someone that is so passionate about animals and taking care of animals, rescuing animals to be over our animal control. And I'd like to make a motion that we authorize. Our county manager working with the county attorney and negotiating terms on the agreement with Hartley Foothill's rescue and to authorize the county manager and finance director and clerk and board and other county officials that's necessary to sign and execute the documents and support this action so that she can do this starting July 1. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor's motion. And a second. And a second second. Is there any discussion? I didn't have a question though. Will this come signed with the new facility? You know, I was going to wait till we got to the end and throw that out there. Definitely want to applaud our final instructor again and Dennis Ursi and his team and others at MIT have been involved. We're hoping to have a ribbon cutting really soon. The one delay we had was metal trying to get the grating and metal needed for the runs for the animals. I think we're about ready to go. So hopefully we'll be getting information out very soon about a ribbon cutting. And Chairman, one of the things is there's some needs over there now that if we can move ahead and know what the future looks like for them and makes it easier to staff. Good point. I will say I'd like to piggyback off that I had a meet recently and I know it's kind of hard right now to get animal control officers because they don't know what the future is going to look like. So I think if we could say, hey, this is what's going to happen. It's going to be easier to go ahead and hire somebody. Yeah, I agree. One thing I want to make sure that we're doing is allowing Ms. Parker some flexibility, not too much pressure in relations to the McIntyre-Mitch Coast. Sooner or later, we can get that buttoned up and signed. Then that allows her to know that she can begin recruiting anytime. I think she's already had some conversations or at least some discussion about what that might look like. And Ms. Parker, again, after a night we can still continue to meet as needed to continue to talk through once you all have had an opportunity to look at that agreement. So this doesn't mean tonight that you're signing as is. That's you notice it talked about conditions in terms. that's flexible and we can continue to meet to talk through what those details might look like Sorry, chairman any further discussion You know I call a question all favor say aye aye Next time is 4087. I'd like to recognize Chief Greenway. This is a resolution awarding the Deputy Justin McLean and his service side arm. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Chair Fantilburg could not be here tonight, so he asked if I would serve in his stead. So, Sheriff's Deputy Justin McClunney has served the citizen of Rutherford County in his deputy sheriff for 30 years, and he has scheduled a retire on May 1st. In accordance with General Statute 20-187.2, we respectfully request that Justin Coney's current service weapon be presented to him for 30 years of dedicated service citizens' care, along with his bag. Thank you, sir. You need commentary, Mr. Moore? Mr. Willow-Word? I make a motion that we approve the resolution awarding the service by dawn to deputy Justin McLean for the sum of $1. If I was there, I'd pay it. He's not here to give his dollar. Eric, $1 already there. Second. We have a motion in the second. Any discussion? Can you know to call a question? The only favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Here is. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, next time it's 4058. And actually this is where the board of commission will be going close session for an attorney client item. It's under NC GS 14331. 81183 actually we're going to hold this in chambers and it's going to be the board of commission at the county attorney and the county clerk and you guys are free to go. We will not. They'll be not being any business afterwards. So this is it. This is it. Hurry, yet. in the county clerk and you guys are free to go. We will not, though we're not being any business afterwards. So this is it. This is it. All right, yeah, excuse me, what am I doing? legal vote. I've got to go to the board.