Michael Bobbitt: Notes From The Peanut Gallery (VC BOC July 6th, 2015)


Chairman Taylor gaveled the regular monthly Board of Commissioners meeting to order at fifty-thirty instead of standard six o’clock hour. Vice-Chair Wilder moved to enter into closed session to discuss Economic Development Projects, a Contract Negotiation, and a Personnel Matter. The Chair did not say there would be a formal announcement when the regular session resumed. Speculation can abound the idle minds of those waiting for the doors to re-open. Most waiting in the foyer had a vested interest in one or more of the three topics being discussed behind the closed door. It is interesting to watch how swiftly their conversations shifted to anything except the elephant(s) on the other side of the door. When the doors opened the six active commissioners were already seated appearing to be awaiting the seating of their subjects.

Public Hearings Zoning Church and Family Cemeteries

The first public hearing was on a zoning change that would allow churches and families cemeteries are allowed in the O – I zones and not permitted in the R-10 zones. Also this zoning change will allow through special use permits that manufacturers can locate in highway commercial zoned areas. The first part is straight forward the second may (cross our fingers) encourage manufacturing growth. No one in the public objected or favored the zoning change. An hour after the public hearing the Board approved the ordinance changes.

Public Hearing Zoning Ordinance Solar Farms

The second public hearing was is to allow the erection of industrial scaled solar collectors across acres of agricultural land. The Planning and Environmental Committee met publically to discuss the ordinance changes and approved changes to the original ordinance. The big irritant to those favoring less zoning restriction and more commercial solar collectors is the 100 foot buffer perimeter. John Davis a builder of these sites said the 100 foot buffer is prohibitive (here because the land parcels are smallish). Mr. Davis did admit that solar collectors are not visually esthetics yet a 30 or 50 foot buffer was adequate to hind the eye sore. Mr. Davis lives in a neighborhood within Durham where industrial scaled solar collectors are prohibited. Such a location may be a reason Mr. Davis does not empathize with those living next to acres of mirrors. Al Rivers endorsed the smaller buffer saying this is a good business model it only pay taxes and does not add students to the school system. I had no intentions of speaking except Mr. Rivers’s argument is anti-growth. Unless school population are growing the community is stagnate or dying. When the time finally arrived to vote on the solar zoning ordinance those favoring less restriction won the day. Those favoring square miles of ground based mirrors across agricultural land, and lower school enrollments included Commissioner Brummitt, Garrison, Hester and Taylor.

Public Hearing on Economic Development Opportunities

The public was invited to comment on a proposed county issued grant and a county issued loan to unnamed company(s) and an unnamed individual. The content of the agenda provides no meaningful information to use to form an opinion. Only those members of the “us” group who met in secrecy knew the details of the grant and the loan. The only public comment was my question to the Chair and the Board, “How do you expect someone to favor or oppose the grant or the loan without any knowledge of the grant or loan?” Commissioner Brown asked what can we tell the public and not tell them? The Chair turned to Jonathan Care for some help with this. According to Mr. Care the grant and the loan are economic development opportunities that could risk failure with too much public disclosure before the Board acts. Mr. Care added that the Chair wanted the public input on the grant and the loan. Chairman Taylor said we need to do a better job with these types of public hearings. Later the Board did approve making the grant to encourage an ambulance business to move from Oxford to Henderson. The company would have twelve employees up from the current ten. The loan is in to Jerry’s Artarama, a vibrant business distributing art supplies worldwide. Their corporate offices are in Raleigh; their distribution center is on the south side of Vance County. The company is expanding their physical facilities and needs a little help to buy $600,000 worth of equipment to be used by some thirty additional employees. At 5:30 pm revelation of those factors could jeopardize both opportunities by 7:30 pm is was public knowledge. I don’t understand how those two times made any difference. As an aside, both of these economic development opportunities are within the six business areas the county should be focused on for growth. Unlike covering acres of agricultural land with mirrors prohibiting food production and blocking the land from future growth for next 20 plus years.

Public Comments

Three speakers came to make a public comment. Two of the speakers were looking for government answers to the problem of idle you and an archaic educational calendar. Why aren’t schools open in some form offering classes year round? It’s not because the whole family is needed to bring in the crop which was the reason we didn’t start with year round schools. Their voices were heard by Commissioners Brummitt and Brown listened and asked the education committee to review the issue. The third speaker said more in his voice than he probably intended to say. He came to ask the county to move the confederate soldier memorial from the front of the administration building. Before anyone gets their panties all in a wad, you hand to have listened to the man’s voice. He said he was a VietNam veteran. I suspect a combat veteran. If my suspicion is correct he unknowingly shared through his voice a camaraderie known only to combat veterans, regardless of their war including the soldiers of Civil War. Hopefully, all commissioners will read what he said in their minutes and think how he said it then find the appropriate place for all veteran memorials.