Housing rehab, job vacancies top county agenda


Monday’s regular meeting of the Vance County Board of Commissioners could easily be mistaken for a special joint session with the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments.

The agenda doesn’t get much lighter than what’s on tap for the meeting starting at 6 p.m. in the second-floor conference room at the old courthouse on Young Street.

Aside from Finance Officer Jerry Tucker’s monthly report, County Manager Jerry Ayscue’s report and the usual assortment of monthly housekeeping items, only two issues are scheduled to come before the commissioners, and both involve the COG.

Dera Adair, the grants administrator for the COG, will present bids for the Community Development Block Grant rehabilitation of seven houses as part of the concentrated-needs overhaul of Julia Avenue. Adair’s letter to the commissioners notes that the bids are about 10 percent higher than staff estimates because of the rising cost of construction materials. She wrote: “Homeowners whose houses are rehabilitated with grant funds are getting less work performed for the dollars spent.”

The recommended bids:

* Foster’s Remodeling & Demolition of Louisburg for $27,310 to work on James Dent’s house at 2011 Julia Ave.

* Sanders Construction of Wake Forest for $28,000 to work on James Bullock’s house at 2012 Julia Ave.

* Hargrove Home Service of Henderson for $3,025 to work on Vernelle Hicks’ house at 2016 Julia Ave. Adair wrote that an addition of up to $800 may be necessary to replace a door and refinish kitchen cabinets that have peeling paint because of a moisture problem that appeared after the initial estimates. Adair called Hargrove’s proposal the low bid, but the bid sheet shows lower bids from Foster’s Remodeling and from Steve Jones of Creedmoor.

* Clayton’s Cleaning Services of Roxboro for $23,810 to work on Perry Davis’ house at 2021 Julia Ave.

* Steve Jones for $24,200 to work on Donnie Hawley’s house at 2008 Julia Ave.

* Hargrove Home Service for $25,656 to work on Mary Alston’s house at 2015 Julia Ave. Hargrove’s bid was the second-lowest, but Adair wrote that the low bidder, Sanders Construction, has all the work its crews can handle with three other houses in the Vance CDBG program.

* Duncan Home Improvement of Roxboro for $25,747 to work on Patricia Terry’s house at 1910 Julia Ave.

Thomas Yarborough’s house at 1948 Julia Ave. is being rebid because only one bid was submitted, Adair wrote.

The other COG issue for the meeting is the adoption of a Section 3 plan, to be presented by the COG’s Rick Seekins.

The Section 3 plan, referring to a portion of the 1968 law that created the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is meant to ensure that programs using CDBG or other HUD funds in Vance County benefit local businesses and provide the chance for jobs for low-income Vance residents.

In other matters before the board, Ayscue is recommending that the commissioners allow the Department of Social Services to fill two positions, a caseworker and a social worker; the Fire Department to fill two vacancies for firefighter/EMTs; the Planning and Development Department to fill a vacancy for a zoning clerk and to add the position of senior zoning officer, both in connection with the move toward countywide zoning; and the Board of Elections to begin looking for a deputy elections director, a job that is being changed from part time to full time.

A report from county Human Resources Director Argretta Reid shows that 15 people left jobs with the county government in the first four months of 2005. The Sheriff’s Office lost two to retirement, and the jail dismissed two.

The other 11 resigned: five from the Social Services Department; four from the Fire Department; and one each from the library and the 911 office.

Of the people whose reasons Reid collected for their departures, two cited money, two workload or stress, two relocation, one a desire to work closer to home, and one scheduling.

Also on the commissioners’ agenda are five budget amendments, $3,577.89 in ambulance charge-offs because the people who owe the money are dead, $2,885.21 in tax rebates (including $1,415.64 to the financially troubled Disabled American Veterans chapter) and $988.21 in tax refunds.

The commissioners will sit as the Board of Equalization & Review to hear further tax appeals during the meeting from 6 to 8 p.m.

The only budget amendment involving county money is a $4,600 expenditure from the county’s contingency fund to replace an air-conditioning unit at the Henry A. Dennis Building. The commissioners discussed and endorsed the project at their April meeting.

Another amendment would spend $60,767 of federal money on crisis intervention at the Department of Social Services. The other three amendments, totaling $18,903, cover federal and state funding for the Vance County Senior Center and the county’s program on aging.

The commissioners also are scheduled to make several reappointments to local boards. Tommy Dale and Commissioner Deborah Brown are up for three-year terms on the 911 Advisory Board. City Council member Bernard Alston is up for another four-year term as a Vance-Granville Community College trustee, though that board usually meets at the same time as the City Council. And Commissioner Terry Garrison is up for another three-year term on the Social Services Board.