Regarding the Vance County Board of Commissioners Meeting held on December 5, 2011
Reorganization of Board
Commissioner Garrison was elected Chairman and Commissioner Hester was elected Vice-Chairman. Chairman Garrison listed his seven goals for the Board. The first goal is jobs, jobs, and more jobs for our area. (I have heard this refrain before and do not recall who said it. If you the reader know the origin of that refrain, please share.) The other six goals include supporting schools, safety of the citizens, laying pipe for the county wide water, using idle lands, working with city and local government and supporting county departments.
Jonathan Care was re-appointed as the County’s Attorney after a request from Commission Brown to advertize for a County Attorney. Do we need a full-time county attorney instead of contracted one? Everyone else was re-appointed without comment.
The Commissioners adopt the 2012 holiday schedule after Mr. Asycue answered Commissioner Brummitt’s question regarding the three day holiday for Christmas 2012. Mr. Asycue said it had to do with Christmas being on a Tuesday next year. I could not hear why that made a difference, maybe someone can enlighten me.
Car Show Report
Nancy Wilson gave a glowing report regarding the “huge success” of the 2011 Car Show. According to Ms Wilson some 42,000 – 45,000 people from 32 states people visited Henderson over the three days. Ms. Wilson said the car show would be featured on a future tv program about drag racing. When asked the number of entries Ms. Wilson revealed that this year’s streamlined process did not require entrants to pay to register. So it is anyone guess as to the number of entries. Ms. Wilson did not recognize the Corbitt Trucks and the Corbitt Preservation Associations presences at the car show. Corbitt Company did put Henderson and Vance County on the map nationally and internationally.
Economic Development – Calendar Year End Report
Stuart Litvin read a long list of meetings he has attended and people he has met in the past six months. Mr. Litvin did state he was not trashing the last strategic development plan the county paid for before he arrived. Although he is creating a two year floating business plan to supplement the overall strategic plan.
Emergency Operations Award of Bid
Anyone interested in learning how to make a presentation to the Commissioners should review Brian Short’s presentations. Again Mr. Short had submitted a complete packet and was able to clearly answer the Commissioners’ questions.
Water Project Matters
Mr. Carpenter started out on the upside saying that building of the “county wide water system” will start in March 2012. According to Mr. Carpenter 35 – 40 miles of pipe will be laid by November 2012. This is half of his August projection. Apparently the number of those willing to buy their water is half of those expected to buy it. Commissioner Brown asked the price of water. Mr. Carpenter at first avoided a direct answer only saying there are some unknown costs including the cost of operation and maintenance. Mr. Carpenter then agreed with Commission Brummitt’s statement we are not going to achieve our goal of $35 – $45 per month adding we are within the $45 range. No one asked how far above the $45 mark. Back in 2008, the voters drank from the well of hope when approving bonds for county wide water without knowing the real cost of that water. With the per month cost for water above the high end of 2008 projections, one must wonder how far above the installation projections will be the actual installation costs.
Commissioner Wilder pushed for his district to be first saying his district was first to sign-up and pay their fee. Someone then said “once people see the pipe in the ground more people jump on the band wagon.” This is a similar to a line from a fictional story about building a baseball field based on delusional thinking. I have heard some people say “they” will force us to give up our wells to pay for the water. I hope this is delusional thinking. Yet I am not so naïve to ignore its potential for reality especially since the Commissioners have authorized an outside agency to sell the water plan to those reluctant to buy.
County Attorney’s Report
Mr. Care reported that the county can act as a housing authority to sell property (that was foreclosed for back taxes). The sales would be to low income buyers who are prevented from turning the house for a fast profit. His goal is to market the properties in the first quarter of 2012.
Consent Agenda ltems
Commissioner Brown pointed out that the Veterans Affairs office is not staffed adequately. This is the second time she has made this point to Mr. Asycue. Veterans Affairs office was unstaffed a full third of the working days in November. I think Commissioner Brown has a point.
I see that one of the 6 goals was to ‘support the schools’ so I ask as a taxpayer when will the County Commissioners start supporting ALL the schools and not a select few? The same can be asked of the Board of Education. When the NEW multi-purpose rooms were added to a couple of the elementary schools one school in particular got left off…again! That school is Carver Elementary located on Carver School Rd. My question is why do the members of the boards continue to support a select few schools and whenever $$$ isn’t available for what was promised Carver it somehow gets left out…once again! Are the students @ Aycock,Dabney,EM Rollins, or Clark St. schools more important than the students at Carver? I say *%&# NO!! The problem seems to be that since Carver is a 1-hall school in a country setting with a relatively small # of students they seem to get what’s ‘left over’ from the other schools. When one school had to be removed from getting the multi-purpose room due to budget woes….guess which one got left off? I challenge any of the elected officials to prove me wrong in my comments.
tony coghill