HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-16-2022 (Fall Retreat)1
December 16, 2022
IREDELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
FALL RETREAT WORK SESSION
December 16, 2022
The Iredell County Board of Commissioners met in a work session on Friday, December
16, 2022, at 8:00 AM, at the Iredell County Cooperative Extension.
Board Members Present
Chair Melissa Neader
Vice Chair Bert Connolly
Scottie Brown
Gene Houpe
Brad Stroud, Sr.
Staff present: County Manager Beth Mull, Deputy County Manager Susan Robertson,
Finance Director Deb Cheek, Budget Analyst Caroline Taylor, County Attorney Lisa Valdez,
and Clerk to the Board Amy Anderson.
Welcome: County Manager welcomed and thanked everyone for their contributions to the
information about to be presented.
Call to Order: Chair Neader called the meeting to order.
Drug Coalition of Iredell (DACI): Mull said DACI started as a division within the Health
Department and once they up and going it created a separate 501c3 non-profit. DACI has had some
personnel changes and upgrades. The County has funded DACI in the past. Their funding is not in
this year’s FY budget because there were some things that needed to be done.
Shane Nixon gave an update on the coalition. It lost it 501c3 due to an oversight but have
since regained it. In the meantime, they were a part of another non-profit. Nixon said the previous
administrative issues have been taken care of. DACI is committed to the reduction and prevention
of substance abuse, misuse, and overdose deaths.
Nixon provided some statistics within the County. One out of three middle school student
will vape before going to high school. Six out of 10 emergency room visits are substance misuse
related. Seven out of 10 crimes has a substance misuse element. Fifty percent of the problems in
the County has something to do with substance misuse. Nixon said to flatten th e line the County
needs the following: coordination of existing resources, administration of programs already being
done, and accountability for resources being used and to put the resources in place. Nixon said the
County needs a Drug Czar. This person is responsible for handling drug control policies in a
specific area. DACI wants to serve as the Drug Czar. Surry County currently has a Drug Czar.
Nixon wants to provide the County with accountability. He provided a background on the
DACI employees. DACI is being awarded on a national level for its lockbox initiative.
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Nixon asked the Board to consider funding DACI again by providing $40,000.
Additionally, Nixon requested some of the opioid funding. He also requested the Board to advocate
for and partner with DACI.
Nixon invited everyone to the DACI “In the Know” Event on February 7, 2023 10am -3pm
at the Charles Mack Citizens Center.
Mull asked the Board to keep the DACI request in mind as the budget process starts early
next year. If the Board would like to put DACI back in the budget and use the opioid settlement
money.
Finance/Budget Dashboard Overview: Finance Director Deb Cheek presented the
Financial Summary Dashboard for November. Numbers and projections for FY24 will provided
in February. Ad valorem taxes are the main source of revenue comprising 60% of budgeted
revenues. Sales taxes are the second main source comprising 18% of the budgeted revenue. Sales
taxes restricted for school capital is budgeted between Iredell-Statesville and Mooresville Graded
Schools. The budgeted number must be adjusted for actual taxes received and will take place in
the fall of the following fiscal year. The County does not receive its final distribution until
September 15. At that time, fund balance is appropriated for this expenditure. Schools Current
Expense funding is allocated by applying a per pupil rate to the number of estimated students per
school system as certified by the NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI). In the first budget
year of reappraisal, the per pupil rate is set equal to the average per pupil rate of the counties that
fall within 20% average daily membership for the previous year, increased by the December
Consumer Price Index (CPI), not to exceed the estimated property tax revenue growth. Each year
thereafter, the per-pupil rate is increased by the December CPI, not to exceed the estimated
property tax revenue growth for the upcoming fiscal year. Each reappraisal year the average per
pupil funding of the comparison counties will be reassessed and the new per pupil funding will be
set at the new average or at the current funding level, whichever is higher.
Cheek said the schools can move money from current expense to capital but not from
capital to current expense. She noted that the per pupil rate is expected to increase by 15%.
Commissioner Houpe said per the school system’s request the County moved money to
current expense. This allows the school system to move it back to capital.
Mull said the County also pays school debt separately. She reminded the Board there are
three educational entities in the County.
Cheek said the fund balance is currently at 36%.
Mull said the fund balance dipped low during the Jail and Public Safety Center. The County
saves money to pay for projects in full. School projects can have bonds.
Commissioner Stroud asked about city hold harmless.
Cheek said that is money that goes to the City that took place with the Medicaid payments
switch. Each month the County gives a portion of its sales tax to the cities to hold them harmless
for the actions taken several years ago.
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Cheek explained how school debt is paid.
Robertson said a recession will drastically effect sales tax.
Mull noted that the per pupil funding never decreases.
Staffing Update
Mull said the Board did an amazing job implementing the market study. Other counties
have now done that and the County is finding itself behind again.
Mull noted the vacancies in Administration are intentional to save money. Some positions
advertised do not have any applicants because the competition is going after the same people.
Currently, the County is competing with hospitals for paramedics because.
Human Resources Director Sandra Gregory updated the Board of current vacancies and
went through the onboarding results. Thirteen percent of new hires from April – December 2022
have already left. Staff is drilling down to find out the problem. Majority of employees like the
benefits package. The current turnover is 17.97% and retirement turnover is 2.87%. Gregory noted
there is a decrease in turnover for the Public Safety Departments. She feels this is part because of
the pay increases.
Gregory said there are still some no shows for exit interviews.
Chair Neader asked if most leaving work a notice.
Gregory said yes.
Commissioner Brown asked if the County sets DSS pay.
Mull said yes. The County has Substantial Equivalency. The Medicaid Expansion is going
to create an even bigger problem for DSS.
Gregory said there is clear evidence of what steps the Board is making for compensation
is working. However, there are personal reasons for employees leaving (flexible work schedules,
work from home, and etc.)
Gregory noted there will be a small spike in retirements in early 2023.
Apprentice Program
Gregory said an apprenticeship program is an extra tool in the County’s toolkit for
retention. Gregory introduced NC Community Colleges Youth Apprenticeship Coordinator Joyce
Milling. Milling presented the Iredell County Registered Apprenticeship Pathways for Adults &
Youth. Milling said there are many benefits to the program: effective recruitment tool, expansion
of education and training options, increased employee retention, having trained and educated
workforce, addresses pipeline concerns, transfer knowledge, and it develops future leadership. The
occupations of focus in the apprenticeship program are EMT, Telecommunicator, and truck driver.
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Milling said youth apprentices have a 91% retention rate. It provides a career pathway and
an opportunity for leadership and advancement. The occupations of focus for the pre-
apprenticeship program are EMT and Telecommunicator.
Mull said EMS, Solid Waste, and ECOM have volunteered to be the guinea pigs for the
program. She requested start a six month program starting January 1, 2023. If successful staff
would like to expand it to other departments. Not every department can take advantage of it. Staff
does not want to use fulltime positions for an apprentice. Because the apprentice does not have the
certification and skills for the fulltime job. Mull recommended taking some lapse salary funds and
creating the apprentice line item in General Governmental.
Commissioner Stroud asked if they will be fulltime employees.
Mull said yes.
Chair Neader asked how long lapse salaries can cover the program costs.
Mull said the program can be funded for some time.
Commissioner Stroud asked ECOM Director Candy Miller what she thought of the
proposed program.
Miller said someone has already applied. The interest is there. The age can be a problem
but staff will work around it.
MOTION by Commissioner Stroud to implement the Apprenticeship Program January 1,
2023.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Commissioner Stroud asked about the variation in training time with ECOM.
Mull suggested the Board acknowledge the training is a guideline but it is at the Department
Director’s discretion. It should be a case by case scenario.
MOTION by Commissioner Houpe to adjust the policy to allow the Department Director
to have flexibility in training effectively immediately.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Human Resource Benefits Discussion
Gregory said the County led the pack on the market study, but the Public Sector continues
to increase pay through Salary Scale Adjustments and/or Merit Increases. Market Studies are
becoming more and more popular for the Public Sector as it relates to pay. The County’s Pay Plan
is fairly balanced with competitors as of right now, but by not continuing to adjust the Pay Plan,
the County fall behind very quickly. A few surrounding Local Governments are offering shift
differentials. The County offers the best Wellness Compliance Discount and has one of two of the
highest Wellness Incentive payouts. Overall the County runs a parallel benefit package when
comparing to other Public Sector employers. Private and Public Sector employers are offering
Hybrid, Remote, and Flexible work schedules. The interest in implementing a Wellness Clinic for
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Public and Private Sector is on the rise. Private Sectors are offering a strong Educational
Reimbursement Program and moving towards increasing salary ranges.
Commissioner Houpe asked about increasing hours at the Wellness Clinic.
Mull said staff is planning that discussion for the Winter Retreat.
Gregory went over the following requests:
Increase Vacation accrual rates as proposed.
Gregory recommended increasing the current vacation accrual by two days.
Vacation time rolls over into sick time. For every 20 days of sick time an employee
has accrued at the time of retirement they have earned a month toward retirement.
Mull said this will help employees with work life balance and recruitment.
Commissioner Houpe said it also puts us above the market.
MOTION by Commissioner Brown to increase vacation accruals by two days effective
February 1, 2023.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Vice Chair Connolly suggested allowing employees to apply accrued sick time with
Iredell County to use towards their retirement age. Example: If an employee is 53 years
old and has two years of sick time the employee could use that two years and make them
55 years old in retirement. This is specific for accrued sick leave earned with Iredell
County.
Fund Vision and Dental Low Plan for Employees Only.
Gregory recommended funding vision and dental low plans for employees only.
MOTION by Commissioner Stroud to fully fund the vision and dental low plans for
employees only.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Retiree Health Insurance Stipend.
Gregory said all employees hired before 7/1/2014 that are employed at the time of
retirement and meet the age and years or service requirements, may be eligible for a stipend
in lieu of continuing health insurance on the County Health Insurance Plan. If those
covered individuals have dependents on the health plan and opt for the stipend option, the
County will contribute up to $500 per month towards a dependent stipend. Current retirees
already on the County Health Plan will be offered the option to convert to a stipend in lieu
of continuing health insurance with the County Health Insurance Plan. If they have
dependents covered, a stipend will be a maximum of $500 per month for covered
dependents at the same percentage. Upon electing for the stipend in lieu of continuing
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health insurance through the County, this selection will remain in force until the employee
obtains Medicare or turns age 65, whichever comes first.
After much discussion regarding tax impacts on retirees the Board directed staff to
further vet this item and report back.
County Attorney Lisa Valdez agreed. This item may have other implications.
Adjust Pay Grade Differential from 4.8% to 5%
MOTION by Commissioner Houpe to implement the final adjustment from the Market
Study; 4.8% to 5%.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
The County was at 4.6% before the market study. Earlier this year, the Board voted
to increase it to 4.8% with the intentions of moving to 5%. Everyone around Iredell is at
5%.
Mull said these items can be covered by lapse salaries until June 30, 2023.
Implement Flexible Work Schedule Policy
Mull said the County is losing employees to the private sector because of work from home
options. The caveat to that is county employees are public servants and will continue to provide
service to the public.
Gregory said the purpose of a flexible work schedule is to provide to provide employees
with increased flexibility with their work schedules while allowing the County to maintain a
progressive and productive work environment.
All positions will be considered for a Flexible work schedule on a case-by-case
basis.
Employee must have the following:
Satisfactory attendance record.
Meet all performance expectations.
Demonstrate the ability to complete tasks and assignments on a timely basis.
The nature of the employee’s work and responsibilities must be conducive
to a flexible work arrangement without causing significant disruption to
performance and/or service delivery.
Gregory said the Sheriff’s Office and Register of Deeds are exempt from compliance with
the guidelines set forth. The right to work a flexible schedule is at the sole discretion of Iredell
County Management and may be denied and/or withdrawn at any time for any reason.
Gregory defined a Flexible Work Schedule. Flextime is an employee working eight hours
per workday, but there is flexibility in an employee’s set schedule starting and ending times. Some
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employees, due to family or personal obligations or preferences, work very early in the morning
and leave earlier in the afternoon. Other flextime employees may prefer or need to start later in
the day and work into the evening.
Examples:
7:00am - 3:30pm (30 minute lunch) or 7:00am - 4:00pm (1 hour lunch)
8:30am - 5:00pm (30 minute lunch) or 8:00am - 5:00pm (1 hour lunch)
9:00am - 5:30pm (30 minute lunch) or 9:00am - 6:00pm (1 hour lunch)
Gregory defined a Compressed Workweek Schedule: Compressed workweeks in which
an employee works nine (9) hour workdays Monday through Thursday, and four (4) hours each
Friday and/or an employee works ten (10) hours per workday, reducing the workweek to four (4)
days a week.
Examples:
7:00am - 6:00pm (1 hour lunch) and 1 day off per workweek
7:30am - 5:30pm 4 days (1 hour lunch) and 7:30am-11:30am half day worked per
workweek.
Commissioner Houpe said this could cause some ill fillings.
Mull said DSS began offering flexible work schedules in 2012 because of NC FAST
system availability. Facility Services and Environmental Health On Site staff are also available
for a flexible schedule in the summer because of the weather.
Mull said the flex work schedule may not work for all departments but others it may.
Commissioners Stroud asked about extending hours.
Mull said it is up to the department director but hours must be consistent with a minimum
of 8am – 5pm.
Commissioner Houpe said the idea is worth exploring. Staff needs the flexibility to make
real time decisions regarding the options.
Commissioner Stroud urged administrative team to educate the department directors of
the flexible work schedule.
The board agreed by consensus to implement the flexible work schedule options
beginning February 1, 2023.
Cost Projection
VACATION ACCRUAL RATE INCREASE $ 0.00
RETIREE HEALTH INSURANCE STIPEND $ 570,785
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FUNDING OF VISION LOW PLAN FOR EMPLOYEE ONLY* $ 85,968
FUNDING OF DENTAL LOW PLAN FOR EMPLOYEE ONLY* $ 491,616
PAY PLAN GRADE DIFFERENTIAL ADJUSTMENT $ 850,000
ON-CALL PAY STUDY TO BE CONDUCTED TBD
Gregory expects the on-call pay study will cost less than $10,000.
Vice Chair Connolly said it is not logical to add new positions when there are so many
vacancies.
Discussion with Legislators
The following are takeaways from the roundtable discussion with Senator Vicki Sawyer
and Representative Jeff McNeely.
The more controversial a topic the less likely it is to be funded. It is important to be
unified with asks.
Cold Body Storage (Medical Examiner): Currently, only hospitals can receive the
compensation for cold body storage. Lake Norman Regional is the only hospital
that can store and their capacity is two. The County has temporarily worked out a
solution with Cavin-Cook Funeral Home and the County is paying the storage fee.
Mull suggested the law be changed to other facilities.
Lottery, Grant, and DPI Funding is being awards mainly to Tier I & II counties.
Some legislators is working to move toward population instead Tiers.
NCACC is asking for the State to lease space for State offices.
Public Defender Office – looking at $1.5 million or so for housing the PDO. Is a
top priority.
Extra Territorial Jurisdiction
Legislators were unaware of any change in classroom size.
Exit 38 is back in the STIP.
Iredell-Statesville Schools: Iredell-Statesville Schools: Dr. James said, “Growth is the
enemy to education when it comes to the number of the buildings you need. It’s not the enemy to
the number of kids we have but we get funded that way. We have some rapid growth around the
County and of course it has taken a while for us to get a rough estimate on the high school. As we
all figured it came in quite a bit higher than we anticipated. There are more needs. We keep up 40
buildings. Needs are constantly there. You guys started the Facilities Task Force about 15 years
ago and you’ve been able to use that as a planning tool. That is sort of where we are today. Tim
has brought some information for you. We have to get permission from you to pull lottery funds
down and we were wanting to use that to update some of our facilities that are at the point of pretty
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much non-useable. One of the things that we are handicapped is youth athletics. We may have to
meet to have that conversation in the near future because our fields are to the point of disrepair.
They are almost unusable. That along with the inability to draw regional meets in we lose a lot of
revenue that could be pulled into the County. You have to have an eight lane track to host a regional
meet. We don’t have one at all. So when we have regionals for cross country we typically have to
house it outside the County. Those events go on during the year, so there is a way to make
additional revenue. Some of the tracks we currently have had a very short life span because we
chose to do it the cheapest way possible and we can get very little life out of it. North Iredell’s
track is pretty well at the point of safety. We have stopped all events there. It is an additional cost
for us to bus those kids to a different site. There are two schools in our county that have the capacity
to have an eight lane track. That would give us the ability to host regional events. Just as you were
talking about the fairgrounds being an economic engine so is regional athletics. If any of you used
to go to Gatlinburg it looks like July 4th every time you go and I wondered what happened. There
are 17 ball fields on the backrow. Those fields stay booked consistently and has brought in millions
of dollars to their county. We talked about it on Rankin Road but whoever the developer was pulled
out. We definitely want to look at ways to generate money and provide athletics to our students.
Lacrosse is an up and coming sport. There is definitely a need for additional sports in our county.
The high school…I am sure we will have several conversations today. We’ve looked at different
venues. Several of you have asked…Tim and I have looked at redistricting. It is just very hard to
do when we are almost sitting on top of South Iredell now for West Iredell. You would actually
have to go into Troutman to pick up enough kids to fill up West Iredell. The growth is what is
hurting us. The growth is one area not countywide. The growth tends to be in the southern end and
it is heading up I77. We could probably put 300 more kids in West Iredell, 200-250 in North
Iredell, and 200 in Statesville. That is only about 600-650 kids. The new high school is planning
for 1650 for additional growth. Shepherds is full. We’re locked in to the point of needing a modular
unit. Then we get into runoff and high density ratios that tie our hands. That area of the County as
far as elementary is growing rapidly. I will let Tim takeover. We’ve not been sitting by. I’ve talked
to several different people. I’ve met with Chris Carney on a P3 which is a public private
partnership. Some districts are going that route. The company that does them here in NC have built
over 200 high schools. That is a way to go. Duke Energy met with us about purchasing the high
dollar equipment. Somewhere around $28 million they can offset and you’d just pay that as a
yearly bill. Part of that would be they would maintain the equipment. There are several different
options. We were sort of like you guys and hoping it would come in around $125-130 million not
closer to $160 million. It made the gap much larger to fill. That is where we are.”
Tim Ivey said, “That brings up two pretty big topics. I wanted to go ahead and talk about
the track so we can possibly move through that. The last time we met you guys asked for some
information. I have every bit of information you could want on tracks, turfs, and cost analysis. Our
board has already voted and approved the scope of work for North Iredell’s track and field project,
stadium upgrades and lighting. Their request is the ability to pull down that money from the lottery
to be able to partner with some of the capital money we have to complete that project.”
Chair Neader asked, “Is the new board up to speed on what the prior board approved?”
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Education Board Chairman Howell said, “We have had several meetings with the new
board members. Training sessions and what not. I would say in the neighborhood of 8 -10 hours
with them. They’ve gone to training in Raleigh. They are up to speed on what is going on.”
Chair Neader asked, “So this request is not new to them? You never want to promise
something from a previous board without the understanding of the new board. I just wanted to
verify.”
Chairman Howell said, “Yes ma’am. Thank you.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “I’ve have several people ask the difference in the 6 lane and
8 lane track.”
Ivey said, “The difference between adding an 8 lane Mondo track and a 6 lane latex track
is $500,000 over a 18-year life cycle, but you are no longer able to hold a regional meet if you
have a latex track. The first three to five years you have to put in another $200,000 for maintenance
and so on afterwards for upkeep. You will have spent more money on maintenance than you do
putting in a better surface. A mondo track is a piece of sheet rubber that goes on top of the asphalt.
Latex is a very thin layer with granular pieces on rubber that is sprayed on the track. That has to
be resurfaced pretty constantly and once a vehicle drives on it the warranty is void. With a mondo
track there is an inch or of rubber that sits on top of the asphalt. The replacement time is 20 years.
The asphalt underneath is not deteriorated like you would see on the latex track. That is one of the
reasons we selected mondo. It’s also the only surface approved for Paralympics. The Special
Olympics children will be able to use the track.”
Commissioner Houpe asked, “Is North Iredell a good geographical location for meets?
Ivey said, “Yes. The school is located right off the highway. Regionals is jus t one aspect
that you would look at. We are also talking about junior colleges.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If this is done, can your board set fees to charge for the use of
the facilities to help pay for maintenance and utilities?”
Dr. James said, “Our hope would be to have an enterprise fund so it can keep itself up.
There are only two sites that can have an 8 lane track. North will be first because it is in disrepair.
South Iredell will be the other site. We would have one at both ends of the County.”
Commissioner Stroud asked, “Can an ambulance go across the mondo track and it remain
under warranty?”
Ivey said, “Yes.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “You gave us costs for 6 lane latex and 8 lane mondo. Out of
curiosity what if it was a six lane mondo?”
Ivey said, “I will have to go back and look. Doing a six lane mondo removes the ability to
host regionals. I don’t know that is something we’ve even considered because our board has said
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they would like for us to put in an 8 lane track at that facility. We didn’t explore that because it
wasn’t an option we were going after.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “After our meeting on Tuesday night I walked the track at
North. It is in bad shape and the pictures do not do it justice. You said those words and I did walk
the track.”
Mull said, “I have a question because we are looking at turf costs for the Jennings Park
project and mondo is something we’ve not looked at. What is the life of the turf?”
Ivey said, “Mondo is the track surface. The turf product is…with my research I recommend
we go with a product called Iron Turf. That is what we’ve looked at. We visited multiple facilities
to look at options. The difference between Iron Turf and the standard woven turf product is the
double weave. There are several rows on single weave. The other one has crosshatching and it
looks more like real grass. For something that would be a high school, college, or park I would
recommend something with a much longer life cycle. Iron Turf has a 10 year non -prorated
warranty. The compan y comes and grooms the turf. The lifecycles they’re getting out it are 14plus
years before you have to resurface. So, for 10 years you know you won’t have any maintenance
costs unless someone damages it. That is something you’d hold them to. The repair costs are not
as expensive as people would think. You will have some little things but the manufacturer’s
warranty is 10 years. Most companies do not offer those.”
Mull said, “So this is really looking at it for 10 years because it does not show replacement
costs.”
Ivey said, “That is correct. What you see is really no maintenance over a 13-year period.
The average costs is $100,000 to upkeep a grass field.”
Chairman Howell said, “After 30 years as a teacher, coach, and athletic director our schools
have done a tremendous job to keep grass on the field. Every school has two to four soccer games
per week. We have a football game and most schools have other sports then little leagues use the
fields on the weekend. Lake Norman High School has lacrosse. They don’t have a field in the
spring because Bermuda grass hasn’t germinated. They’re playing on dirt. Its time that we do
something.”
Ivey said, “One of the primary reasons for doing this also is because it provides the school
the opportunity to generate profit back that they can put into a fund that can help offset the costs
of resurfacing. This is something we wanted to do to try and become self-sustaining. In this
situation we are asking your permission to pull down the lottery money but we are not asking for
additional funds for the project. We are trying to be good stewards of what is provided to us and
utilize that to not come back every time when we run out of a cycle. We are trying to create those
repeatable cycles that generate funds to help us. That is sort of why that is there. Right now, the
schools can’t have certain tournaments because if you don’t have downtime on your field you will
never have it ready for spring. We are having to tell a lot of people no. If you happened to see Lake
Norman’s field before they sunk a lot of money to get it to turn green again. When they graduated
it looked like dirt and that is because of the amount of play. We just have so many kids in the
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community that are involved in sports. I’ve had many parents that never stepped foot inside the
school building but they are at the football stadium or soccer fields. That is where the
communication goes on. That is one of the reasons we are trying to start this cycle. The Board only
approved one but the overall goal is work through a cycle to get all of the schools that way so we
will have repetitive cycles of maintenance and resurfacing, and those costs can be forecasted.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “In the past there has been car shows on the tracks during off
seasons. With this kind of investment I didn’t know if you all had that discussion.”
Ivey said, “We are. Even on the current tracks we have now there are not supposed to be
vehicles on the tracks. It wasn’t very long after they were put in that we were catching people
doing that. A lot of that were the youth athletic leagues. We are going to have to look at the
facilities use and rethink what we are going to do.”
Chair Neader said, “You’ve answered a question already in your comments with the
enterprise fund. Utilizing revenue that comes in from the track and being able to use that for the
maintenance. Do you currently have any enterprise funds?”
Ivey said, “For auditoriums but not athletics.”
Chair Neader said, “Thank you for coming back again to continue the conversation. With
the concerns of moving forward discussing on the high school. We’ve recently talked and excited
to see your timeline upcoming with all the other projects. I will call for vote on track in just a
moment. Moving forward with any additional requests I would love to be able to say we have a
plan in place for the high school before we address any other requests. Would you be comfortable
discussing that? Each time I think we are caught up I have you on the agenda again. Nothing person
Mr. Ivey. We appreciate the update but it seems we get one thing caught up and there is another
request before we can catch our breath to have a plan in place.”
Ivey said, “When our board approves capital projects that don’t necessarily have to come
before you guys that does create a ripple effect. For example, Shepherd has to have a quad un it.
On Tuesday night, I am on the agenda. I didn’t know I was going to be on there until last minute.
I am on the agenda because we have to have some property combined to density share or we can’t
add a mobile unit to the school. That is just a part of it. For a long time I was on our board’s agenda
for every meeting because of the procurement guidelines. Adam’s budget gets approved as a
holistic budget. My budget gets approved piece by piece. To me, I should be on there because that
means I am taking care of the needs of families that attend our schools and taking care of the
buildings. That is sort of how I view that but of course that is not my favorite thing to do on
Tuesday nights. I think the new high school is a challenge. I think we can make a plan to try to
move forward but if our board directs me to come and request to draw down lottery funds for a
project that is where I will go. I don’t know that they will feel comfortable saying we aren’t going
to ask for anymore projects until the high school is done.”
Chair Neader said, “Not done. I am just at a point where the requests keep coming when
we don’t have a plan. It makes me concerned about priority.”
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Ivey said, “We have a very detailed plan. We’ve been over that multiple times with the
Facilities Task Force. We have it laid out. The handout has the phases, the year they went in. All
of those are moving forward because they take different times. Once you get a project approved
you have multiple steps to go through before it actually breaks ground.”
Chair Neader said, “I appreciate that list.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “There are no other projects other than…”
Ivey said, “No more upcoming projects that we have right now.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “The lottery money that you will be getting then we can maybe
put that toward the new school.”
Ivey said, “That is something that would have to be requested from our board. Because
from what I understand lottery funds first have to be approved by the Board of Education then the
County Commissioners.”
Chairman Howell said, “We’ve taken how many projects of their plate?”
Ivey said, “There are actually 8 projects that the school system to either take on them on
their own and there are four that we took off before. The value of those we didn’t have an estimate
for. If we look at those projects that is one of the ways that the board has directed me to try to
make a contribution towards the high school. Even though there is something we know we have
to do. The board purchased the land for the high school in an effort to help. There are some of the
things…No one has a pot of money but we don’t have a secret pot of money that we are not
providing to the County to help with the high school. We are trying to do what is in our means to
help come up with…it was a big shock to me when I got the price back. Like I said in our meeting.
I know if we can work together we can come up with a solution. I just don’t know that we can
agree to the things that will hand-tie us and we can’t serve families that are in the schools right
now. That is what we are dealing with. The stadium renovations at North is a part of the deferred
maintenance. The school system is not made up of just the buildings it is made up of the whole
holistic system. The playground is a part of it. The athletic fields. The parking lots. When you have
an assessment done like we did that tells you all of the major mechanical problems and the lifecycle
it does not tell me that a school needs playground mulch. We’ve had to shut down two sections of
bleachers in stadiums because they didn’t mean compliance. We had to go back and make those
repairs. That is all a part of the preventive maintenance. We want to make sure it does better. I
think we are trying to, with this one project, do something that helps us continue to put money
back into it for a certain period of time so we can utilize what we do have in a smarter way.”
MOTION by Commissioner Stroud to approve Budget Amendment #26 and to utilize
lottery funds for athletic stadium upgrades at North Iredell High School.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Ivey said, “We just got our month three attendance and it didn’t really change much. Dr.
James asked me to look at feasibility of what it would be…he was asked the question about
redistricting. He was asked if we could redistrict and alleviate the need of the new high school. I
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said the only way to do that would be you would have to eliminate a large population of South
Iredell High in order to free up space from Lake Norman. Because the growth is all in the southern
end where the overcrowding is. Also, Lake Norman can’t be expanded because of the watershed.
We are out of impervious space at that school. In order to free up 300 spots from that school we
have to free up 600 spots at South Iredell which means you would have to take the students who
live within the Troutman district and live by the school and move them past South Iredell into the
Statesville or West Iredell just to be able to free up that space. Currently, the IB program that is
there is what is saving us from a lot of the overcrowding at Lake Norman. There are approximately
200-300 students who come from Lake Norman each year that attend South. If we place them back
at Lake Norman that school would be so far past capacity. Some other things to consider is South
has a cafeteria that was built when the school was built. It hasn’t been changed. It seats around 188
students. If you increase the population past the 1700 that are already there it will be lunch all day.
We aren’t going to be able to sustain that. The answer to his question is no there is no way to
redistrict and solve that issue. Mathematically you could say we can put kids here and there but
you will be bussing children past a school to make them attend another school. The ripple effect
of redistricting goes down to the middle and elementary schools because of the feeder patterns and
you end up creating a huge problem throughout. Also, we may not be reimbursed for our
transportation by DPI if we move out what is considered an approved attendance zone.”
Chairman Howell said, “Our problem is putting children on busses before daylight and
long bus routes. We have parents coming to us that have an elementary school child that has to get
on the bus in the dark and has a 45 minute to 1 hour bus ride. These ar e the issues that we face
when we redistrict. I want to ask you a question. We’ve got an old school, Ebenezer, that is for
sale right now. The reason that property is unusable for a school is because it is not large enough
for what the state requires for que lines. The City approved a 600 or 700 single family development
on River Hill Road. River Hill Road serves North Iredell. Cloverleaf can’t handle but about 100
more. So, we’re going to have to have an elementary school there as well. Barium Springs has
been sold and they are going to put a housing development there. They’ve offered us a piece of
land to put an elementary school that saves the County money but it is not large enough for what
we need for a que line. The state sets down what size property we put schools on. Mr. Ivey can tell
you more than I. The dilemma we have as a board…The Sheriff’s Office has been using Ebenezer
has used that for a long time. I don’t know if he still is. The building has got to come down. Now,
the City put in sewer. We could tap onto that. We don’t need a drain field. If we can clean that up
and the County gives us the road that runs behind the gas station we may enough room. I am not
sure. We had discussed that. No one has offered us a decent price for that property and we are not
going to give it away. I don’t think we’d be good stewards if we did. That was an idea. I’m just
saying think about it. We are going to have to have an elementary school in that district and two
in the southern end if those houses get full. You just approved 2,000 more houses.
Commissioner Stroud said, “We didn’t.”
Mull said, “It was not Iredell County.”
Chairman Howell said, “It was Troutman. That is in Iredell County. You guys are still
responsible for building and maintenance of schools. That is on your plate. We want to work with
you. We want to be good stewards of the public money but you’ve got to trust us. We know what
we’re doing. I’ve got four new members on the Board and they are good folks, and willing to put
the time in. We want to do the best job we can for our children. That is what it comes down to
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December 16, 2022
when we start looking at things. I want you to consider the thing about Ebenezer. If someone would
come and offer us $3 million we may take it.”
Mull said, “The County does not own that road. We have no control over the road. The
County does not own or maintain any roads.”
Chairman Howell said, “Anything that we can do.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If you had that road would you have enough for a school?”
Chairman Howell said, “At this time I can’t confirm that we would.”
Ivey said, “Mr. Howell asked us to look at where the sewer comes in. We are identifying
that as a possibility. We have about 14 acres there and we need about twice the size for an
elementary school. Thirty acre lots are about what you need for the que lines. That is one thing we
are having a really hard time on because we go to make renovations and one of the first things we
are asked is about parking. We have to find somewhere to put parking. It is not an easy task. We’ve
been able to do it. We all know that there are needs beyond the high school but that is the first
hurdle we need to overcome. I know that we will come up with a solution. We’ve already thrown
out different ideas. We don’t have the ability to act on those ideas. We can share them and see how
you feel.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “Do you have an estimated FFE cost of the high school?”
Ivey said, “We do not. We are using less product. We have less classrooms because we are
utilizing them more often.”
Hager said, “With inflation I don’t want to throw out a number.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “Could we use space at the other high schools?”
Ivey said, “You can try to do that but you’re still going to deal with the parking issues.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “I am just saying for numbers. Is there an opportunity there?”
Ivey said, “You would also have to take away some space because they are not designed
the same way. Your teachers would have no space. You may gain some. When I was the principal
at South and we didn’t have the addition of the new Performing Arts Center which includes
classrooms at one time I had 11 roaming teachers. So I took classrooms and created office spaces
for them and utilize the classrooms a different way. There are other ways to es sentially increase
population but if you look at the southern end schools there is no way to increase those. South
doesn’t have the cafeteria or other space to support more children coming there. Lake Norman
barely has enough space because they have a combined common area for their cafeteria. We are
starting to encroach on the functionality of the school and that’s why the need of the new high
school is there. We are getting to a point where our infrastructure, roadways, and everything is not
going to work. If that stops working then those schools are not going to be able to be good servants
to our community. That is what we are trying to do. Before it gets critical we need to do something
to pull it back and breathe more life back into that. South is at 1,700 and is built 1,400.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “About how much is the site prep for the new high school?”
Ivey said, “That is expensive.”
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December 16, 2022
Hager said, “Based off the estimate, site work, athletic facilities, grading, parking, and
small auxiliary buildings…about $77 million.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “Where were these numbers when we did the bond prep. I know
the costs of construction and material went up. That’s the questions we are getting. The whole
school was an estimated $80 million in 2020. Just the site work being that amount someone is
looking at that and thinking someone made a mistake.”
Ivey said, “I was not in this role at the time but I was involved in a part of it. I remember
when they were trying to decide between the Overcash and Parkertown sites. They talked about
all this and they said there would be an increase in that. Parkertown is really not big enough to
sustain it and also has a typographical area that would make it not acceptable for this size high
school. The Overcash Road property was essentially what was left to be able to do. We knew there
was a natural stream that ran in the middle of the property. Nobody could estimate what it would
cost to develop the property. Instead of us going from it as let’s get an estimate and asking for a
bond we went off the guess for a bond and then we are trying to build a high school. We’ve all
talked about this. We want to be able to start to change that process. Beth asked me if we have set
plans for certain schools. Yes we do. We have a set plan that we can build a combination
elementary and middle school and we can develop that in a short period of time on a different
layout. That is where we are trying to move toward and we can break that cycle that was happening
before.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “I guess the elephant in the room is do we have the right site.
If there is that much money to be spent on site work…I am asking. I know it is hard to find 100
acres in the County where you need it.”
Hager said, “We have a drainage ditch that runs down the center of the property. It is just
a drainage ditch. It is deemed wetlands. The Town of Troutman ordinance makes us stay away 50
feet away either side of the center. You take 108 acres with whatever the distance is and multiply
it by 50 foot, there is your acreage we can’t touch. You say 108 acres now we are down to 92 or
93 acres. We have done a good job of balancing both sides of the site.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “I am just asking if that site should be looked more for an
elementary middle school site if we could find another site. That is just a question.”
Chairman Howell said, “Was it four years ago that we had the bond. So, I had…it was a
surprise to the Board of Education. We did now know that we were going to be up for a bond for
a new high school even though we knew we needed one. We were in the process of getting
information. I went to Greensboro to our annual meeting and spoke to four different architectural
firms that have built 100s of schools. I asked them the turnkey job on a new high school if we own
the land for 1200 students. It was $97 million then. I came back and told some commissioners $97
million, but you went for an $80 million bond. I am not blaming anybody. That’s what you got
approved by the voters. So that’s the story. It was a surprise to the Board of Education. We were
gathering information for you because we knew we were going to ask you for that. We knew we
needed a new high school. You sort of blindsided us.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “So the two boards at the time misled the public on this bond?”
Chairman Howell said, “I don’t know that we misled anyone.”
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December 16, 2022
Vice Chair Connolly said, “But if we told them it would be $80 million but somebody
knew it was going to be $97 million.”
Chairman Howell said, “Yes, that is the answer I got from the different architectural firms.
That was a spitball answer because I asked what a turnkey job would cost.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “Bill, to be fair these requests come from the school boards.
So, your board sent us a request for an $80 million high school.”
Chairman Howell said, “I don’t know that we did. If they did they didn’t tell us.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “The school board did it like they did in 2014. They identified
the projects. Our job is to help pay or pay for it. That is what we put out there. I am not trying to
blame anybody. I don’t want you to say we did anything wrong because we should have done the
$97 million when we were asked for a bond for $80 million. Today sitting here, should we look a
different site that requires less work? You and I working together for the best of the taxpayers.”
Chairman Howell said, “Yes, if you can find that much land in the southern end of the
County. It needs to be south of Troutman, maybe south of Mooresville. It ought to be on the east
side. That would be great.”
Hager said, “Yes.”
Ivey said, “I think we need to explore those options. That’s essentially what we have been
doing. It would be in all of our best interest because of the situation we are in. Many of us are new
to our positions. A lot of this information that happened in the past that we all inherited. Ultimately,
it is important for us to figure out solutions moving forward to show that we’ve looked under every
stone to figure out our best options. I don’t think it is unheard of for us to say let’s look at another
site.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If you stay on one side of the creek per se you may have
enough land there for a future elementary and middle combination. The Parkertown Road site is
not big enough you say but the topography on it is worse. Because of all this caution, if you guys
can deal with the capacity issue to buy all of us time to locate something. Is that not the smartest
thing to do? From my perspective, that is a hard pill to swallow. For you and us.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “I am going to be honest. This is why I don’t like Task Forces
and side meetings. I found some documents and looking at the minutes from March 25, 2021 and
there was a cost estimate of $130-170 million.”
Scott said, “That is about the time we started the design. Give or take.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “This has been like a ping pong ball since it was voted in three
years ago. We’ve wasted three years. The voters approved it and thought it was going to be $80
million. I know the Task Force had a meeting. I know you have to have the magic people in the
room to put this stuff together but we are going to have to do better. We have to work together to
get out factual numbers. We are going to have to work this thing out.”
Chairman Howell said, “Amen.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “That is the biggest obstacle. As a task force what we’ve done
is go over rough ideas. Boards have met after Facilities Task Force vetted projects and cost s then
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they come to the commissioners. Nothing was done behind the scenes that was a secret. I don’t
want to give people misinformation. We need to stop and see if we can identify some different
property.”
Ivey said, “We actually had 67 meetings that included county commissioners and teachers.
The price has never been hidden. It was in the open from the beginning and we hit inflation. I think
that if we weren’t in a situation like we are in right now we wouldn’t be dealing with it this way.
In the past we haven’t included everybody. This time Mr. Hager and Dr. James has tried to be
extremely transparent with this and involve everybody.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “We aren’t even taking into account our anticipation was 1-2%
interest rate and we are at 5% if we sold the bonds today. That is an additional cost . From our
board’s prospective we need to hit the brakes and look at things differently.”
Cheek said, “You all know this, but we have already spent money on that site. You have
already appropriated $6 million that was supposed to be reimbursed by bonds funds. If you walk
away from this site that $6 million has to be covered.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “Hypothetically, we use the site later for elementary and middle
combination but we find a different site for a high school. In the interim, we would reimburse the
$6 million.”
Cheek said, “Yes.”
Ivey said, “I think whatever the commissioners would like as a direction or something
they’d like our board to consider…they certainly would have to discuss it as a group but send that
request to us and let them look at it.”
Chair Neader said, “It seems we have a lot more than we can delve into right now. I don’t
want to ever rush a decision with this much intensity. Manager Mull, do you have a
recommendation on when to put the Board’s together for a brainstorming?”
Mull said, “I think it would be good to have a joint meeting and dig into this. Chairman
Howell, you were talking about Ebenezer. What if you put staff at Ebenezer?”
Chairman Howell said, “There is a plan. Tim already has architectural drawings on how
we can renovate CATS. We have plans to move our entire administrative team to that site.”
Mull said, “CATS is a DPI approved facility. How about putting the students at CATS and
staff somewhere else? Do you have the DPI requirements for staff?”
Ivey said, “I don’t know if they have the same requirements.”
Mull said, “You may be able to build a staff facility cheaper than you can build a new high
school and put students at CATS instead of the staff.”
Ivey said, “We will certainly entertain that but I don’t know that we’d be able to create the
size of school you want in that facility.”
Mull said, “I’m not saying put the new high school there. I am saying it may alleviate the
capacity issue.”
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December 16, 2022
Ivey said, “I think the board is trying to turn CATS into a comprehensive school which
would help us pull some numbers off. With a technical school, it may not attract the numbers you
think. It’s also a mile from South. I wouldn’t know where to even start on attendance lines.”
Chairman Howell said, “The plans have been more or less approved to going close ADR.
It is a nightmare in maintenance. We will ask you if we can sell it or if you want it. We are not
going to give it away. The other issue is Race Street. If we can move those two buildings into one
and we may able to buy a prefab building and put them in that on CATS property. This may be
cheaper than renovating. We approved an elevator for $1.5 million almost a year ago and the bid
came in at almost $2.5 million. We want to turn CATS into a comprehensive high school. That
way students can take English and math at the school and graduate from there. That will not
alleviate the numbers we are talking about. I told this when the bond came out. We can build a
high school and not build the athletic facilities and those children that go there can ride a bus to
play games somewhere else. That would save you a bunch of money then you can catch them up.
You can do that and I know it’s happened in other places.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “That is why we need a joint meeting – to discuss options.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “What is housed at Pressly?”
Ivey said, “That is the Discovery Program from Barium as well as the EC Department. It
would have to be a very small school to put there. There is no way to do a que lane on Knox
Street.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “I was thinking of staffing aspect.”
Ivey said, “We can look at that as an option. Looking at CATS because it is a large
warehouse. We have to have something like that anyway. We need to look at other options
including sites. We have other sites we could expand. All of that needs to be put on the table.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “I have a tough question here. Bill, if it comes down to us
borrowing $100 million, is your board willing to stand with us and support a tax increase?”
Chairman Howell said, “Yes. We ask some years ago for a ¼ quarter cent…”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “I am talking about property taxes. If we increase the property
tax rate to borrow this $100 million, is your board going to support that?”
Chairman Howell said, “I think so. You have to understand different parts of the County
are going to vote differently. You know that better than I.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “This pains me. This was done in 2020 and we’re now in 2023
and nothing has been done. Now we find out the site isn’t great. We are practically putting the
bond money just into that. I really think this needs to go back to the people.”
Chairman Howell said, “I agree with you. Like I said we asked for a ¼ cent sales tax which
is $12 million.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “Do we have time limit on using the approved $80 million.
Mull said, “Up to 10 years.”
Chairman Howell said, “When can you put the bonds out for sale?”
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December 16, 2022
Cheek said, “When bids are in hand.”
Ivey said, “This project has not been bid. It’s only been estimated. There’s been some
confusion that we have bids. We do not have bids. We could send it out for bid and it could come
in less. Or more.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If we can get the site plan down and work on the phases to
buy time for the auditorium and allow them to play at Lake Norman or South.
Commissioner Stroud said, “Or find a better place. Piece of land.
Ivey said, “If the boards decide to look for other land I know the perfect person that will
find us 100 acres of land within a fairly short period of time.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “If you would have had bids in hand in July 2020 would we be
within budget?”
Ivey said, “I dont know that we would. I don’t know that you can design a high school in
the time people wanted us to do. If we had a standardized plan but the fact that we are having to
design it off of what the site is liked increases a massive amount of time
. Scott and the architects have worked extra and over. If Adams and Associates had not
closed down their business for this we wouldn’t have what we have now.”
Chair Neader asked, “Have they been paid?”
Scott Hager said, “They are to date.”
Vice Chair Connolly asked, “Is the Barium property a done deal?”
Mull said, “It hasn’t closed yet.”
Ivey said, “They’ve contacted us and told us we have until a certain date to move the
facility.”
After a discussion regarding dates and times of a joint meeting, it was decided to have a
joint meeting on January 17, 2023.
Dr. James said, “Growth is the enemy to education when it comes to the number of the
buildings you need. It’s not the enemy to the number of kids we have but we get funded that way.
We have some rapid growth around the County and of course it has taken a while for us to get a
rough estimate on the high school. As we all figured it came in quite a bit higher than we
anticipated. There are more needs. We keep up 40 buildings. Needs are constantly there. You guys
started the Facilities Task Force about 15 years ago and you’ve been able to use that as a planning
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December 16, 2022
tool. That is sort of where we are today. Tim has brought some information for you. We have to
get permission from you to pull lottery funds down and we were wanting to use that to update
some of our facilities that are at the point of pretty much non-useable. One of the things that we
are handicapped is youth athletics. We may have to meet to have that conversation in the near
future because our fields are to the point of disrepair. They are almost unusable. That along with
the inability to draw regional meets in we lose a lot of revenue that could be pulled into the County.
You have to have an eight lane track to host a regional meet. We don’t have one at all. So when
we have regionals for cross country we typically have to house it outside the County. Those events
go on during the year, so there is a way to make additional revenue. Some of the tracks we currently
have had a very short life span because we chose to do it the cheapest way possible and we can get
very little life out of it. North Iredell’s track is pretty well at the point of safety. We have stopped
all events there. It is an additional cost for us to bus those kids to a different site. There are two
schools in our county that have the capacity to have an eight lane track. That would give us the
ability to host regional events. Just as you were talking about the fairgrounds being an economic
engine so is regional athletics. If any of you used to go to Gatlinburg it looks like July 4th every
time you go and I wondered what happened. There are 17 ball fields on the backrow. Those fields
stay booked consistently and has brought in millions of dollars to their county. We talked about it
on Rankin Road but whoever the developer was pulled out. We definitely want to look at ways to
generate money and provide athletics to our students. Lacrosse is an up and coming sport. There
is definitely a need for additional sports in our county. The high school…I am sure we will have
several conversations today. We’ve looked at different venues. Several of you have asked…Tim
and I have looked at redistricting. It is just very hard to do when we are almost sitting on top of
South Iredell now for West Iredell. You would actually have to go into Troutman to pick up enough
kids to fill up West Iredell. The growth is what is hurting us. The growth is one area not
countywide. The growth tends to be in the southern end and it is heading up I77. We could probably
put 300 more kids in West Iredell, 200-250 in North Iredell, and 200 in Statesville. That is only
about 600-650 kids. The new high school is planning for 1650 for additional growth. Shepherds is
full. We’re locked in to the point of needing a modular unit. Then we get into runoff and high
density ratios that tie our hands. That area of the County as far as elementary is growing rapidly. I
will let Tim takeover. We’ve not been sitting by. I’ve talked to several different people. I’ve met
with Chris Carney on a P3 which is a public private partnership. Some districts are going that
route. The company that does them here in NC have built over 200 high schools. That is a way to
go. Duke Energy met with us about purchasing the high dollar equipment. Somewhere around $28
million they can offset and you’d just pay that as a yearly bill. Part of that would be they would
maintain the equipment. There are several different options. We were sort of like you guys and
hoping it would come in around $125-130 million not closer to $160 million. It made the gap much
larger to fill. That is where we are.”
Tim Ivey said, “That brings up two pretty big topics. I wanted to go ahead and talk about
the track so we can possibly move through that. The last time we met you guys asked for some
information. I have every bit of information you could want on tracks, turfs, and cost analysis. Our
board has already voted and approved the scope of work for North Iredell’s track and field project,
stadium upgrades and lighting. Their request is the ability to pull down that money from the lottery
to be able to partner with some of the capital money we have to complete that project.”
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Chair Neader asked, “Is the new board up to speed on what the prior board approved?”
Education Board Chairman Howell said, “We have had several meetings with the new
board members. Training sessions and what not. I would say in the neighborhood of 8 -10 hours
with them. They’ve gone to training in Raleigh. They are up to speed on what is going on.”
Chair Neader asked, “So this request is not new to them? You never want to promise
something from a previous board without the understanding of the new board. I just wanted to
verify.”
Chairman Howell said, “Yes ma’am. Thank you.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “I’ve have several people ask the difference in the 6 lane and
8 lane track.”
Ivey said, “The difference between adding an 8 lane Mondo track and a 6 lane latex track
is $500,000 over a 18-year life cycle, but you are no longer able to hold a regional meet if you
have a latex track. The first three to five years you have to put in another $200,000 for maintenance
and so on afterwards for upkeep. You will have spent more money on maintenance than you do
putting in a better surface. A mondo track is a piece of sheet rubber that goes on top of the asphalt.
Latex is a very thin layer with granular pieces on rubber that is sprayed on the track. That has to
be resurfaced pretty constantly and once a vehicle drives on it the warranty is void. With a mondo
track there is an inch or of rubber that sits on top of the asphalt. The replacement time is 20 years.
The asphalt underneath is not deteriorated like you would see on the latex track. That is one of the
reasons we selected mondo. It’s also the only surface approved for Paralympics. The Special
Olympics children will be able to use the track.”
Commissioner Houpe asked, “Is North Iredell a good geographical location for meets?
Ivey said, “Yes. The school is located right off the highway. Regionals is just one aspect
that you would look at. We are also talking about junior colleges.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If this is done, can your board set fees to charge for the use of
the facilities to help pay for maintenance and utilities?”
Dr. James said, “Our hope would be to have an enterprise fund so it can keep itself up.
There are only two sites that can have an 8 lane track. North will be first because it is in disrepair.
South Iredell will be the other site. We would have one at both ends of the County.”
Commissioner Stroud asked, “Can an ambulance go across the mondo track and it remain
under warranty?”
Ivey said, “Yes.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “You gave us costs for 6 lane latex and 8 lane mondo. Out of
curiosity what if it was a six lane mondo?”
Ivey said, “I will have to go back and look. Doing a six lane mondo removes the ability to
host regionals. I don’t know that is something we’ve even considered because our board has said
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they would like for us to put in an 8 lane track at that facility. We didn’t explore that because it
wasn’t an option we were going after.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “After our meeting on Tuesday night I walked the track at
North. It is in bad shape and the pictures do not do it justice. You said those words and I did walk
the track.”
Mull said, “I have a question because we are looking at turf costs for the Jennings Park
project and mondo is something we’ve not looked at. What is the life of the turf?”
Ivey said, “Mondo is the track surface. The turf product is…with my research I recommend
we go with a product called Iron Turf. That is what we’ve looked at. We visited multiple facilities
to look at options. The difference between Iron Turf and the standard woven turf product is the
double weave. There are several rows on single weave. The other one has crosshatching and it
looks more like real grass. For something that would be a high school, college, or park I would
recommend something with a much longer life cycle. Iron Turf has a 10 year non -prorated
warranty. The company comes and grooms the turf. The lifecycles they’re getting out it are 14plus
years before you have to resurface. So, for 10 years you know you won’t have any maintenance
costs unless someone damages it. That is something you’d hold them to. The repair costs are not
as expensive as people would think. You will have some little things but the manufacturer’s
warranty is 10 years. Most companies do not offer those.”
Mull said, “So this is really looking at it for 10 years because it does not show replacement
costs.”
Ivey said, “That is correct. What you see is really no m aintenance over a 13-year period.
The average costs is $100,000 to upkeep a grass field.”
Chairman Howell said, “After 30 years as a teacher, coach, and athletic director our schools
have done a tremendous job to keep grass on the field. Every school has two to four soccer games
per week. We have a football game and most schools have other sports then little leagues use the
fields on the weekend. Lake Norman High School has lacrosse. They don’t have a field in the
spring because Bermuda grass hasn’t germinated. They’re playing on dirt. Its time that we do
something.”
Ivey said, “One of the primary reasons for doing this also is because it provides the school
the opportunity to generate profit back that they can put into a fund that can help offset the costs
of resurfacing. This is something we wanted to do to try and become self-sustaining. In this
situation we are asking your permission to pull down the lottery money but we are not asking for
additional funds for the project. We are trying to be good stewards of what is provided to us and
utilize that to not come back every time when we run out of a cycle. We are trying to create those
repeatable cycles that generate funds to help us. That is sort of why that is there. Right now, the
schools can’t have certain tournaments because if you don’t have downtime on your field you will
never have it ready for spring. We are having to tell a lot of people no. If you happened to see Lake
Norman’s field before they sunk a lot of money to get it to turn green again. When they graduated
it looked like dirt and that is because of the amount of play. We just have so many kids in the
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community that are involved in sports. I’ve had many parents that never stepped foot inside the
school building but they are at the football stadium or soccer fields. That is where the
communication goes on. That is one of the reasons we are trying to start this cycle. The Board only
approved one but the overall goal is work through a cycle to get all of the schools that way so we
will have repetitive cycles of maintenance and resurfacing, and those costs can be forecasted.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “In the past there has been car shows on the tracks during off
seasons. With this kind of investment I didn’t know if you all had that discussion.”
Ivey said, “We are. Even on the current tracks we have now there are not supposed to be
vehicles on the tracks. It wasn’t very long after they were put in that we were catching people
doing that. A lot of that were the youth athletic leagues. We are going to have to look at the
facilities use and rethink what we are going to do.”
Chair Neader said, “You’ve answered a question already in your comments with the
enterprise fund. Utilizing revenue that comes in from the track and being able to use that for the
maintenance. Do you currently have any enterprise funds?”
Ivey said, “For auditoriums but not athletics.”
Chair Neader said, “Thank you for coming back again to continue the conversation. With
the concerns of moving forward discussing on the high school. We’ve recently talked and excited
to see your timeline upcoming with all the other projects. I will call for vote on track in just a
moment. Moving forward with any additional requests I would love to be able to say we have a
plan in place for the high school before we address any other requests. Would you be comfortable
discussing that? Each time I think we are caught up I have you on the agenda again. Nothing person
Mr. Ivey. We appreciate the update but it seems we get one thing caught up and there is another
request before we can catch our breath to have a plan in place.”
Ivey said, “When our board approves capital projects that don’t necessarily have to come
before you guys that does create a ripple effect. For example, Shepherd has to have a quad u nit.
On Tuesday night, I am on the agenda. I didn’t know I was going to be on there until last minute.
I am on the agenda because we have to have some property combined to density share or we can’t
add a mobile unit to the school. That is just a part of it. For a long time I was on our board’s agenda
for every meeting because of the procurement guidelines. Adam’s budget gets approved as a
holistic budget. My budget gets approved piece by piece. To me, I should be on there because that
means I am taking care of the needs of families that attend our schools and taking care of the
buildings. That is sort of how I view that but of course that is not my favorite thing to do on
Tuesday nights. I think the new high school is a challenge. I think we can make a plan to try to
move forward but if our board directs me to come and request to draw down lottery funds for a
project that is where I will go. I don’t know that they will feel comfortable saying we aren’t going
to ask for anymore projects until the high school is done.”
Chair Neader said, “Not done. I am just at a point where the requests keep coming when
we don’t have a plan. It makes me concerned about priority.”
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Ivey said, “We have a very detailed plan. We’ve been over that multiple times with the
Facilities Task Force. We have it laid out. The handout has the phases, the year they went in. All
of those are moving forward because they take different times. Once you get a project approved
you have multiple steps to go through before it actually breaks ground.”
Chair Neader said, “I appreciate that list.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “There are no other projects other than…”
Ivey said, “No more upcoming projects that we have right now.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “The lottery money that you will be getting then we can maybe
put that toward the new school.”
Ivey said, “That is something that would have to be requested from our board. Because
from what I understand lottery funds first have to be approved by the Board of Education then the
County Commissioners.”
Chairman Howell said, “We’ve taken how many projects of their plate?”
Ivey said, “There are actually 8 projects that the school system to either take on them on
their own and there are four that we took off before. The value of those we didn’t have an estimate
for. If we look at those projects that is one of the ways that the board has directed me to try to
make a contribution towards the high school. Even though there is something we know we have
to do. The board purchased the land for the high school in an effort to help. There are some of the
things…No one has a pot of money but we don’t have a secret pot of money that we are not
providing to the County to help with the high school. We are trying to do what is in our means to
help come up with…it was a big shock to me when I got the price back. Like I said in our meeting.
I know if we can work together we can come up with a solution. I just don’t know that we can
agree to the things that will hand-tie us and we can’t serve families that are in the schools right
now. That is what we are dealing with. The stadium renovations at North is a part of the deferred
maintenance. The school system is not made up of just the buildings it is made up of the whole
holistic system. The playground is a part of it. The athletic fields. The parking lots. When you have
an assessment done like we did that tells you all of the major mechanical problems and the lifecycle
it does not tell me that a school needs playground mulch. We’ve had to shut down two sections of
bleachers in stadiums because they didn’t mean compliance. We had to go back and make those
repairs. That is all a part of the preventive maintenance. We want to make sure it does better. I
think we are trying to, with this one project, do something that helps us continue to put money
back into it for a certain period of time so we can utilize what we do have in a smarter way.”
MOTION by Commissioner Stroud to approve Budget Amendment #26 and to utilize
lottery funds for athletic stadium upgrades at North Iredell High School.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Ivey said, “We just got our month three attendance and it didn’t really change much. Dr.
James asked me to look at feasibility of what it would be…he was asked the question about
redistricting. He was asked if we could redistrict and alleviate the need of the new high school. I
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said the only way to do that would be you would have to eliminate a large population of South
Iredell High in order to free up space from Lake Norman. Because the growth is all in the southern
end. Also, Lake Norman can’t be expanded because of the watershed. We are out of impervious
space at that school. In order to free up 300 spots from that school we have to free up 600 spots at
South Iredell which means you would have to take the students who live within the Troutman
district and live by the school and move them past South Iredell into the Statesville or West Iredell
just to be able to free up that space. Currently, the IB program that is there is what is saving us
from a lot of the overcrowding at Lake Norman. There are approximately 200-300 students who
come from Lake Norman each year that attend South. If we place them back at Lake Norman that
school would be so far past capacity. Some other things to consider is South has a cafeteria that
was built when the school was built. It hasn’t been changed. It seats around 188 students. If you
increase the population past the 1700 that are already there it will be lunch all day. We aren’t going
to be able to sustain that. The answer to his question is no there is no way to redistrict and solve
that issue. Mathematically you could say we can put kids here and there but you will be bussing
children past a school to make them attend another school. The ripple effect of redistricting goes
down to the middle and elementary schools because of the feeder patterns and you end up creating
a huge problem throughout. Also, we may not be reimbursed for our transportation by DPI if we
move out what is considered an approved attendance zone.”
Chairman Howell said, “Our problem is putting children on busses before daylight and
long bus routes. We have parents coming to us that have an elementary school child that has to get
on the bus in the dark and has a 45 minute to 1 hour bus ride. These are the issues that we face
when we redistrict. I want to ask you a question. We’ve got an old school, Ebenezer, that is for
sale right now. The reason that property is unusable for a school is because it is not large enough
for what the state requires for que lines. The City approved a 600 or 700 single family development
on River Hill Road. River Hill Road serves North Iredell. Cloverleaf can’t handle but about 100
more. So, we’re going to have to have an elementary school there as well. Barium Springs has
been sold and they are going to put a housing development there. They’ve offered us a piece of
land to put an elementary school that saves the County money but it is not large enough for what
we need for a que line. The state sets down what size property we put schools on. Mr. Ivey can tell
you more than I. The dilemma we have as a board…The Sheriff’s Office has been using Ebenezer
has used that for a long time. I don’t know if he still is. The building has got to come down. Now,
the City put in sewer. We could tap onto that. We don’t need a drain field. If we can clean that up
and the County gives us the road that runs behind the gas station we may enough room. I am not
sure. We had discussed that. No one has offered us a decent price for that property and we are not
going to give it away. I don’t think we’d be good stewards if we did. That was an idea. I’m just
saying think about it. We are going to have to have an elementary school in that district and two
in the southern end if those houses get full. You just approved 2,000 more houses.
Commissioner Stroud said, “We didn’t.”
Mull said, “It was not Iredell County.”
Chairman Howell said, “It was Troutman. That is in Iredell County. You guys are still
responsible for building and maintenance of schools. That is on your plate. We want to work with
you. We want to be good stewards of the public money but you’ve got to trust us. We know what
we’re doing. I’ve got four new members on the Board and they are good folks, and willing to put
the time in. We want to do the best job we can for our children. That is what it comes down to
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when we start looking at things. I want you to consider the thing about Ebenezer. If someone would
come and offer us $3 million we may take it.”
Mull said, “The County does not own that road. We have no control over the road. The
County does not own or maintain any roads.”
Chairman Howell said, “Anything that we can do.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If you had that road would you have enough for a school?”
Chairman Howell said, “At this time I can’t confirm that we would.”
Ivey said, “Mr. Howell asked us to look at where the sewer comes in. We are i dentifying
that as a possibility. We have about 14 acres there and we need about twice the size for an
elementary school. Thirty acre lots are about what you need for the que lines. That is one thing we
are having a really hard time on because we go to make renovations and one of the first things we
are asked is about parking. We have to find somewhere to put parking. It is not an easy task. We’ve
been able to do it. We all know that there are needs beyond the high school but that is the first
hurdle we need to overcome. I know that we will come up with a solution. We’ve already thrown
out different ideas. We don’t have the ability to act on those ideas. We can share them and see how
you feel.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “Do you have an estimated FFE cost of the high school?”
Ivey said, “We are using less product. We have less classrooms because we are utilizing
them more often.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “Could we use space at the other high schools?”
Ivey said, “You can try to do that but you’re still going to deal with the parking issues.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “I am just saying for numbers. Is there an opportunity there?”
Ivey said, “You would also have to take away some space because they are not designed
the same way. Your teachers would have no space. You may gain some. When I was the principal
at South and we didn’t have the addition of the new Performing Arts Center which includes
classrooms at one time I had 11 roaming teachers. So I took classrooms and created office spaces
for them and utilize the classrooms a different way. There are other ways to essentially increase
population but if you look at the southern end schools there is no way to increase those. South
doesn’t have the cafeteria or other space to support more children coming there. Lake Norman
barely has enough space because they have a combined common area for their cafeteria. We are
starting to encroach on the functionality of the school and that’s why the need of the new high
school is there. We are getting to a point where our infrastructure, roadways, and everything is not
going to work. If that stops working then those schools are not going to be able to be good servants
to our community. That is what we are trying to do. Before it gets critical we need to do something
to pull it back and breathe more life back into that. South is at 1,700 and is built 1,400.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “About how much is the site prep for the new high school?”
Ivey said, “That is expensive. Based off the estimate about $77 million.”
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Commissioner Stroud said, “Where were these numbers when we did the bond prep. I know
the costs of construction and material went up. That’s the questions we are getting. The whole
school was an estimated $80 million in 2020. Just the site work being that amount someone is
looking at that and thinking someone made a mistake.”
Ivey said, “I was not in this role at the time but I was involved in a part of it. I remember
when they were trying to decide between the Overcash and Parkertown sites. They talked ab out
all this and they said there would be an increase in that. Parkertown is really not big enough to
sustain it and also has a typographical area that would make it not acceptable for this size high
school. The Overcash Road property was essentially what was left. We knew there was a natural
stream that ran in the middle of the property. Nobody could estimate what it would cost to develop
the property. Instead of us going from it as lets get an estimate and asking for a bond. We went off
the guess for a bond and then we are trying to build a high school. We’ve all talked about this. We
want to be able to start to change that process. Beth asked me if we have set plans for certain
schools. Yes we do. We have a set plan that we can build a combination elementary and middle
school and we can develop that in a short period of time. That is where we are trying to move
toward and we can break that cycle that was happening before.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “I guess the elephant in the room is do we have the right site.
If there is that much money to be spent on site work…I am asking. I know it is hard to find 100
acres in the County where you need it.”
Scott said, “We have a drainage ditch that runs down the center of the property. It is just a
drainage ditch. It is deemed wetlands. The Town of Troutman ordinance makes us stay away from
50 feet either side of the center. We have done a good job of balancing both sides of the site.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “I am just asking if that site should be looked more fo r an
elementary middle school site if we could find another site.”
Chairman Howell said, “Was it four years ago that we had the bond. So, I had…it was a
surprise to the Board of Education. We did now know that we were going to be up for a bond for
a new high school even though we knew we needed one. We were in the process of getting
information. I went to Greensboro to our annual meeting and spoke to four different architectural
firms that have built 100s of schools. I asked them the turnkey job on a new high school if we own
the land for 1200 students. It was $97 million then. I came back and told some commissioners $97
million, but you went for an $80 million bond. I am not blaming anybody. That’s what you got
approved by the voters. So that’s the story. It was a surprise to the Board of Education. We were
gathering information for you because we knew we were going to ask you for that. We knew we
needed a new high school. You sort of blindsided us.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “So the two boards at the time misled the public on this bond?”
Chairman Howell said, “I don’t know that we misled anyone.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “But if we told them it would be $80 million but somebody
knew it was going to be $97 million.”
Chairman Howell said, Yes, that is the answer I got from the architectural firms. That was
a spitball answer because I asked what a turnkey job would cost.”
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Commissioner Houpe said, “Bill, to be fair these requests come from the school boards.
So, your board sent us a request for an $80 million high school.”
Chairman Howell said, “I don’t know that we did. If they did they didn’t tell us.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “The school board did it like they did in 2014. They identified
the projects. Our job is to help pay or pay for it. That is what we put out there. I am not trying to
blame anybody. I don’t want you to say we did anything wrong because we should have done the
$97 million when we were asked for a bond for $80 million. Today sitting here, should we look a
different site that requires less work? You and I working together for the best of the taxpayers.”
Chairman Howell said, “If you can find that much land in the southern end of the County.
It needs to be south of Troutman, maybe south of Mooresville. It ought to be on the east side. That
would be great.”
Ivey said, “I think we need to explore those options. That’s essentially what we have been
doing. It would be in all of our best interest because of the situation we are in. Many of us are new
to our positions. A lot of this information that happened in the past that we all inherited. Ultimately,
it is important for us to figure out solutions moving forward to show that we’ve looked under every
stone to figure out our best options. I don’t think it is unheard of for us to say lets look at another
site.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “If you stay on one side of the creek per se you may have
enough land there for a future elementary and middle combination. The Parkertown Road site is
not big enough you say but the topography on it is worse. Because of all this caution, if you guys
can deal with the capacity issue to buy all of us time to locate something. From my perspective,
that is a hard pill to swallow. For you and us.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “I am going to be honest. This is why I don’t like Task Forces
and side meetings. I found some documents and looking at the minutes from March 25, 2021 and
there was a cost estimate of $130-170 million.”
Scott said, “That is when we decided the design.”
Vice Chair Connolly said, “This has been like a ping pong ball since it was voted in three
years ago. We’ve wasted three years. The voters approved it and thought it was going to be $80
million. I know the Task Force had a meeting. I know you have to have the magic people in the
room to put this stuff together but we are going to have to do better. We have to work together to
get out factual numbers. We are going to have to work this thing out.”
Chairman Howell said, “Amen.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “That is the biggest obstacle. As a task force what we’ve done
is go over rough ideas. Boards have met after Facilities Task Force vetted projects and cost then
they come to the commissioners. Nothing was done behind the scenes that was a secret. I don’t
want to give people misinformation. We need to stop and see if we can identify some different
property.”
Ivey said, “We actually had 67 meetings that included county commissioners and teachers.
The price has never been hidden. It was in the open from the beginning and we hit inflation. I think
that if we weren’t in a situation like we are in right now we wouldn’t be dealing with it this way.
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In the past we haven’t included everybody. This time Mr. Hager and Dr. James has tried to be
extremely transparent with this and involve everybody.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “We aren’t even taking into account our anticipation was 1-2%
interest rate and we are at 5% if we sold the bonds today. That is an additional cost. From our
board’s prospective we need to hit the brakes and look at things differently.”
Cheek said, “You all know this, but we have already spent money on that site. You have
already appropriated $6 million that was supposed to be reimbursed by bonds funds. If you walk
away from this site that $6 million has to be covered.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “Hypothetically, we use the site later for elementary and middle
combination but we find a different site for a high school. In the interim, we would reimburse the
$6 million.”
Cheek said, “Yes.”
Ivey said, “I think whatever the commissioners would like as a direction or something
they’d like our board to consider…they certainly would have to discuss it as a group but send that
request to us and let them look at it.”
Chair Neader said, “It seems we have a lot more than we can delve into right now. I don’t
want to ever rush a decision with this much intensity. Manager Mull, do you have a
recommendation on when to put the Board’s together for a brainstorming?”
Mull said, “I think it would be good to have a joint meeting and dig into this. Chairman
Howell, what if you put staff at Ebenezer?”
Chairman Howell said, “There is a plan. Tim already has architectural drawings on how
we can renovate CATS. We have plans to move our entire administrative team to that site.”
Mull said, “CATS is a DPI approved facility. How about putting the students at CATS and
staff somewhere else? Do you have the DPI requirements for staff?”
Ivey said, “I don’t know if they have the same requirements.”
Mull said, “You may be able to build a staff facility cheaper than you can build a new high
school and put students at CATS instead of the staff.”
Ivey said, “We will certainly entertain that but I don’t know that we’d be able to create the
size of school you want in that facility.”
Mull said, “I’m not saying put the new high school there. I am saying it may alleviate the
capacity issue.”
Ivey said, “I think the board is trying to turn CATS into a comprehensive school which
would help us pull some numbers off. With a technical school, it may not attract the numbers you
think. It’s also a mile from South. I wouldn’t know where to even start on attendance lines.”
Chairman Howell said, “The plans have been more or less approved to going close ADR.
It is a nightmare in maintenance. We will ask you if we can sell it or if you want it. We are not
going to give it away. The other issue is Race Street. If we can move those two buildings into one
and we may able to buy a prefab building and put them in that on CATS property. This may be
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cheaper than renovating. We approved an elevator for $1.5 million almost a year ago and the bid
came in at almost $2.5 million. We want to turn CATS into a comprehensive high school. That
way students can take English and math at the school and graduate from there. That will not
alleviate the numbers we are talking about. I told this when the bond came out. We can build a
high school and not build the athletic facilities and those children that go there can ride a bus to
play games somewhere else. That would save you a bunch of money then you can catch them up.
You can do that and I know it’s happened in other places.”
Commissioner Houpe said, “That is why we need a joint meeting – to discuss options.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “What is housed at Pressly?”
Ivey said, “That is the Discovery Program from Barium as well as the EC Department.
There is no way to do a que lane on Knox Street.”
Commissioner Stroud said, “I was thinking of staffing.”
Ivey said, “We can look at that as an option. Looking at CATS because it is a large
warehouse. We have to have something like that an yway. We need to look at other options
including sites.”
After a discussion regarding dates and times of a joint meeting, it was decided to have a
joint meeting on January 17, 2023.
ETJ Discussion
Planning Director Matthew Todd gave an overview of ETJ. He explained the different
types of annexations.
Mull said in 2014 the County created an overlay to address a request. The Board can deny
a request. When a municipality requests ETJ it is not property they own. It is owned by someone
else but the municipality is requested area in the ETJ so they will have control how the area is
developed. The municipality probably anticipates growth in the particular area and it is a lot easier
to develop if the property is up to the town or city’s standards.
ARPA Funds Update
Taylor said the County was awarded $35.3 million in ARP and $33.5 million has been
allocated; leaving $1.7 million unallocated. Simulcast is the largest project and sewer for Jennings
Park is the second largest. Taylor said the projects are likel y to cost more than allocated and
remaining $1.7 million could go to those. Taylor said $8 million has been allocated for simulcast.
Mull said staff now has some more concrete numbers for the Vyper Simulcast which is the
one radio system for the entire county.
Jamie Barrier (ECOM) and Mike Mallis (MCI) gave an update on the simulcast project.
The goal is to have a reliable and resilient system. Mallis said staff went through a detailed
engineering exercise with Motorola. Mallis said they are at a seven site design but recommended
eight.
Mallis said based on the actual site design the approximate costs is $10.2 million.
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Commissioner Houpe asked if the municipalities that are going to use the system has
offered to help fund the project.
Mull said this price does not include Mooresville bringing in their equipment – which
would alleviate the County from having to buy it.
Mallis said some equipment can possibly be used. It would have to be reprogrammed but
it could be a money saver.
Barrier said the Town of Mooresville has offered a piece of land near the wastewater
treatment plant.
The board agreed by consensus to move forward with the simulcast project.
Taylor presented an amended project ordinance (pagers and ambulance remounts). Both
need to be moved a different line item.
MOTION by Commissioner Houpe to approve the amended project ordinances.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0
Task Force & Committee Assignments for Commissioners
Chair Neader
Iredell Economic Development Corporation
Social Services Board
Smart Start
Vice Chair Connolly
Juvenile Crime Prevention Council
Partner’s Behavioral Health
Schools Facilities Task Force
Commissioner Brown
Recreation Advisory Board
Fairgrounds Committee
LEPC
Fire Tax Oversight Committee
Commissioner Houpe
Board of Health
Statesville Airport Commission
Home & Community Care Block Grant
Centralina Council of Government
Centralina Workforce Development
Fire Tax Oversight Committee
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Commissioner Stroud
CRTPO
LNTC
Connect Consortium
Cooperative Extension
After much discussion about task forces it was decided for the commissioners to attend
established meetings and report out findings. The term ‘task force’ may remain however the
functionality will no longer be in place.
Chair Neader thanked staff for an informational and productive retreat.
MOTION by Commissioner Houpe to adjourn at 6:17pm.
VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0