1. Joint Board appointments
John Fogg and Nancy Wilson two racing adversaries in their prime were re-appointed to the ABC Board. An aside, why is the sale of alcohol a State controlled monopoly instead of State monitored business? I digress to the summary.
2. Economic Development Industrial Park Matters
Stuart Litvin, introduced Dale Carroll Deputy Secretary of the NC Department of Commerce. Mr. Carroll was here to formally present the NC Department of Commerce’s recognition of two certified development sites here in Vance County. The certification is a big positive for our County. (Refer to http://www.nccommerce.com/business/certified-sites and http://www.nccommerce.com/business/certified-sites/certified-sites-faq for more information about certified development sites.) The two sites recognized were Triangle North Commerce Center and Henderson Vance Industrial Park (congratulation to the Watkins’ for one of this site.)
3. Public Comments
Henrietta Clark, a retired teacher, spoke to the Board on the topic of funding public education especially for the STEM program at abandoned Eaton-Johnson school. Ms. Clark recognized Commissioner Mr. Brummitt as one of her students back when he was a public school student. Ms. Clark ended her presentation first saying let’s find the money for education, then adding “Anyone want to ask a question.” The full Board’s silence was deafening.
4. Contracts for Volunteer Fire Departments and Rescue Squad
Commissioner Brummitt requested that appropriate water entity replace City of Henderson in item iv on page 4. Mr. Asycue or Mr. Stanton suggested changing the end of the first sentence in section 4.b on page 1 to indicate the end of the fiscal year. Commissioner Brown had an issue with the word ‘may’ in item 9 on page 5. (refer to the commissioner’s packet elsewhere on HiH.) Commissioner Brown objected to the word ‘may’ and was insisting it be replaced with ‘will’. Mr. Care explain why ‘may’ is the better word allowing the Board more flexibility than the word ‘will’. Commissioner Brown’s objection was finally quelled when Commissioner Wilder said he had no intentions to micro manage the VFD budgets. From my seat in the gallery it was obvious there was something besides the one word that had Commissioner Brown ire. The contract for the Rescue Squad sailed though without the controversy of may and will, even though Mr. Asycue introduced several just discovered corrections to the contract.
5. Economic Development Project Agreement
The public copy of the Commissioners meeting packet excluded the Economic Development Project Agreement. In the past when this happens the topic is reserved for executive session. Mr. Care explained to the Board that this is the long term agreement between Vance County and Semprius Inc., a company developing a high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) module to make the world’s smallest solar cell. (Refer to www.semprius.com). The agreement invests $600,000 of the County’s Community Development Block Grant funds into Semprius. Mr. Care said this is the best agreement with Semprius that we can get for ad valorem taxes and job creation over the next five years. Mr. Care stated the $600,000 is the only time the County provides investment funds without Semprius making investments that increase the ad valorem tax base. Commissioner Brummitt reminded the Board of recent prior business ventures were County funds were expended without a return. Mr. Care added that limiting the funds provided by the County to Semprius are a result of lessons learned. Commissioner Brown said this is an agreement for job creation for economic development. Chairman Garrison and Commissioner Brown adamantly wanted to include a requirement that jobs be filled by Vance County residents. Mr. Care calmly reiterated that this agreement is governed by CDBG requirements and those requirements exclude whom gets the jobs. At one point during the tense discussion we saw Chairman Garrison and Commissioners Brown arguing with the County’s hired attorney regarding the legal language and requirements of the agreement. After some twenty minutes of discussion Chairman Garrison said something to the affect, we didn’t understand the contract language in layman’s terms. The agreement was then approved by the Board.
6. County Water Project
The Commissioners were all aglow when Mr. Asycue confirmed the first link of pipe had been placed in the ground today, July 9th, 2012. Commissioner Wilder asked if notices announcing the laying of pipe could be placed in stores and businesses. Mr. McMillen said that was possible then added the County’s new web-site includes a map showing the progress of the project. Commissioner Hester correctly stated that most people don’t know the name of the County’s new web-site. So readers of my notes and users of HiH here is the link to the County’s new web-site www.vancecounty.org. Notice the .org instead of the .gov. Also here are two links to the maps of the water project.
http://www.vancecounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/VC_DistrictMap1.pdf I think the shaded circle on the right side of this map indicates the progress of the project.
http://www.vancecounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/WaterLines_Proposed_8x11.pdf
6. Resolution of Appreciation – Randy Ball
Although this occurred early in the meeting I intentionally placed it last in my summary to end on a positive note after such a rancorous meeting. Mr. Ball is a neighbor and a first class gentleman. The County did a nice job of recognizing Mr. Ball’s contribution and 24 years of service to the County. Mr. Ball’s thank you to the County was a class act in its self.
Where did competitor of HiH go? Did Sam scare him off?
Hmm, Went from Scheduled maintenance to “Is this your domain.”
County website looks nice. I understand that a Wake County company designed it. I hope local internet providers got a chance to bid on it, “Buy Henderson First”
I think he got scared once Deception started posting his travels.
Mingo, you’re going to open up a can of flying worms for me. I can with 100% confidence share that local web design companies did not get the chance to bid on the county website project. At least, if they did contact any, they did not contact all.
We (Dataforge) never got a bid request from the county to provide a quote for the project. Not a call to ask if we were interested, no letter, no email, not a thing. It’s not like we submitted a bid and our bid was too high, or didn’t meet their requirements. We didn’t even get the opportunity to place a bid.
We designed the city’s website, http://www.ci.henderson.nc.us almost 2 years go. And have been hosting it ever since. We used a content management system so each department can go in and update their own pages on the website, provided training on that to each department, lots of custom work, a custom theme design, etc. The same requirements the county had for their new website. And we did the city project for about 1/4th of the cost the county paid.
Turns out, the company that made the county’s new website used the same software package we used for the city.
Also turns out just before the county’s deadline for the departments to have info on the new website before going live, a few departments called me up in a panic that they had not been trained properly, their deadline was looming and they weren’t ready. Purchase Orders were even made and approved to us to fix the mess. But then it all got swept up quietly real quick. Why didn’t the other company they paid about $35k to put all the needed content on the site and help the departments prepare?
There is nothing special about the county’s website at all that warranted ignoring the local companies. But, we are quite ignored. I see every month in the Board of Commissioners IT report how they’ve installed new computers here, new monitors there, new notebooks, software licensing, firewall, etc. All the stuff that we do. Yet we have never got a bid request from the county on anything.
Yes, I’ve attempted to contact Mr. Ayscue (County Manger) and Mr. Brown (County IT) numerous times, but neither have bothered to give us even a courtesy call to say Hi. I’ve asked if we need to subscribe to some system to get the requests, finance office just says I need to contact Mr. Ayscue, and now that Mr. Brown is there, Mr. Brown.
We do more work with the Franklin and Warren County gov than our own county.
The city has treated us very fairly on website work, we have submitted a few bids on projects (and won), some I can’t divulge what yet. But on computer work, we have not received any bid requests on any equipment or support services.
I would think that it has to do with us publishing HiH, but the ignoring was way before we took over HiH. I have not been able to take the time to write a proper letter to the County regarding the issue, but I’m past the point of asking What do we need to do to get requests, and to the point of asking Why aren’t we getting the requests?
We have an excellent track record, some other sites we’ve designed are Henderson Collegiate, Five County Mental Health, Marketplace Cinema, Ballet Arts, Community Care Partners, Henderson Pediatric Dentistry.. wait I’m not going to name them all. But by last count I think we have about 60-70 websites. This isn’t an ad, it’s me ranting at this point. But in short, I can say that Vance County did not ‘Shop Henderson First’.
Phil, you did the town a favor by rescuing the website and evolving it into a more relevant sight. You and your company do fantastic computer work. The County needs to be accountable for their decision. How many of us will make a point to ask the question, “why didn’t you have local computer businesses bid on the new website and Shop Henderson First when the new website was developed?” the next time they see one of our elected Co officials?
What a shame Phil. As you stated, you are more than capable for the job. Just don’t know how they think sometimes. Maybe after this they will change their policies.