Tag Archive for: #vancecountygovt

Vance County Logo

Vance County’s Recent Committee Reports & Recommendations

/by

100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

-Information courtesy Vance County Government

Properties Committee – Eaton Johnson Bidding Schedule

The committee (Brummitt[C], Taylor & Wilder) met on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, to discuss the bidding schedule for the Eaton Johnson renovation and whether bids should be released as discussed at the board meeting last month. Two of the three
committee members recommended proceeding forward with bidding in light of the good bidding environment.

The DSS director was present and mentioned that roughly 40% of their clients have embraced the use of phone and virtual meetings during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, although federal and state requirements necessitate in-person meetings for a good portion of the work in DSS. The DSS director mentioned that the volume of individuals needing assistance and
visiting the department will increase significantly once normal operations return.

Recommendation: Proceed forward with the bidding process for Eaton-Johnson renovation and set a public hearing for the June 1, 2020, board meeting as required by the LGC for project financing.

Addressing Ordinance Appeal – Vance Academy Road

The committee discussed an appeal to the county’s addressing ordinance from a citizen for property along Vance Academy Road. The citizen plans to add a residence to the family farm and due to there being more than two homes along the same drive, the county’s addressing ordinance requires the path to be named and all addresses along the path to be re-addressed.

The ordinance allows the board of commissioners to hear and decide on appeals and waivers to the requirement. The citizen/property owner has appealed the request due to the difficulty in re-addressing their current address as it is the address
of record for 16 franchised businesses, more than 20 other businesses as well as registrations and licenses with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The committee discussed the request and recommended granting the appeal to allow one additional residence to be constructed located off of the existing paved drive.

Recommendation: Grant the appeal from the addressing ordinance administrator’s determination and allow one additional home to be added to the paved drive that contains residences with addresses of 560 and 580 Vance Academy Road, and to encourage the property owners to adequately post the location of these addresses along the paved drive.

Human Resources Committee – Resolution Amending Personnel Policies Relative to COVID-19

The committee (Faines[C], Wilder & Taylor) met on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, to review a resolution ratifying the Families
First Coronavirus Response Act. The committee reviewed the act last month and recommended approval of the local policy amendment consistent with the act this month.

The act and associated policy extend the criteria for employees qualifying for family medical leave, provides emergency paid sick leave to employees and defines emergency responder positions that are essential and excluded from portions of the policy.

The emergency paid sick leave provides up to 80 hours of paid sick leave and is available to all employees for the following
qualifying reasons:

1. The employee is subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19; or
2. The employee has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine related to COVID-19; or
3. The employee is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis.

Non-emergency responder classified employees are also eligible for emergency paid sick leave for the following additional reasons:
4. The employee is caring for an individual subject to an order described in #1 or self-quarantine as described in #2; or
5. The employee is caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed (or child care provider is unavailable) for reasons related to COVID-19.

Recommendation: Approve resolution amending personnel policies to include the COVID-19 Policy and the COVID-19 Policy for Emergency Paid Sick Leave Emergency Responders.

The next Vance County Board of Commissioners’ meeting will be held on Monday, May 4, 2020, at 6 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room, 122 Young Street in Henderson, NC.

Vance County Logo

Vance Co.: COVID-19 Hurts Sales Tax Revenue, Will Impact New Budget Year

/by

100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen provided WIZS with the following statement concerning the County’s current state of affairs and the 2020-2021 budget process:

On the Vance County business front, we have trying to operate as close to normal as we can. All County employees continue to work, but we have limited interactions and access to the public in our offices due to COVID-19.

We have continued to hold our committee meetings. We held our Commissioners’ meeting on April 6 – we did not have enough members of the public in attendance to go over our 10 public restriction in the room, but we also made the meeting available on Zoom.

We are on schedule for our next Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Monday evening, May 4, 2020, and will make that one available on Zoom as well. In order to avoid any potential “Zoom bombers” or hacking, the County will have the meeting log-in information for anyone that wants to call and get it, but we are not pushing it out via all media outlets.

We have a properties committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 3 p.m. to discuss the schedule for the Eaton-Johnson Renovation and will follow that with an HR committee meeting.

A lot of our attention from the staff standpoint lately has been on the budget. We are finalizing the numbers this week and plan to present the budget to the commissioners at the May 4 meeting.

COVID-19 has had and will continue to have impacts on next year’s budget. Our main concern is the impact on sales tax revenues due to the various businesses that have been shut down the last month or so. For the current budget year, sales tax impacts will be felt during the last month in the fiscal year (June) as sales tax dollars come into the county three months after the sale.

For the next fiscal year, we are expecting lower sales tax revenues for the first and second quarters of the fiscal year and quite possibly into early 2021 – realizing this time period could be extended depending upon how the economy reacts. As a result, we are budgeting conservatively for sales tax revenues which limits our ability even further to add large items to next year’s budget.

The other impact we have seen on budgeting is that businesses which typically list business personal property by April 15 have been slower to list this year. They are coming in, but it has delayed our ability to finalize the budget numbers as we use what is listed to determine property tax revenue for the next year. We intend to finalize this tomorrow and may have to make a projection vs. basing it off of the actual listed property.

All in all, I am pleased where we are with the budget in light of the challenges we have had lately with COVID-19, but I am recommending to the board that we revisit our revenue projections in the fall to ensure we are still on point with all of the uncertainty.

In terms of normal budget worries, I am always concerned this time of year with the number of necessary budget requests from departments that we are unable to fund. The board will ultimately decide whether we made the right choices when they review the budget, but we are always challenged with only minimal revenue growth and the ability we have to fund additional items without raising taxes.

Vance County Logo

Vance Co. Announces Several Committee Meetings March 24-26

/by

100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

-Information courtesy Kelly H. Grissom, Executive Assistant/Clerk to Board, Vance County Board of Commissioners

Please be informed of the following Vance County committee meetings. All meetings will be held in the Administrative Conference Room of the Vance County Administration Building located at 122 Young Street in Henderson.

Water Committee (Brummitt, Taylor, Wilder)

Tuesday, March 24 at 3 p.m.

Topics to be discussed are:

  • Connection fee increase

Properties Committee (Brummitt, Taylor, Wilder)

Tuesday, March 24 at 3:30 p.m.

Topics to be discussed are:

  • Review of final plans for Eaton Johnson
  • Lease extension for Alliance Rehabilitation Center

Public Safety Committee (Wilder, Brummitt, Taylor)

Wednesday, March 25 at 3 p.m.

Topics to be discussed are:

  • Community paramedic program
  • First responder program
  • Reorganization of the fire department to a combination department

Human Resources Committee (Faines, Taylor, Wilder)

Thursday, March 26 at 3:30 p.m.

Topics to be discussed are:

  • Health insurance
  • Manager’s evaluation form

High-Speed Internet is Here: Residents Encouraged to Join Waitlist for Service

/by

100.1 FM / 1450 AM WIZS; Local News broadcasts M-F 8am, 12pm, 5pm

-Information courtesy Vance County Government

After a lengthy process, Vance County was selected to bring high-speed internet to the unserved and underserved areas of the county. The kickoff meeting was held in mid-July 2019. The network build will take place over the next four years, with at least two new sectors added each year.

Vance County has partnered with Open Broadband to deploy this service throughout the county. Rates start at $39.99 for 25Mbps download speed.

To stay informed on the progress and the service areas in each sector, please sign up for the County’s no-obligation waitlist. To signup and for details visit www.openbb.net/vanceco

Tell your neighbors to sign up, too! The more people that sign up in the same neighborhood, the higher it becomes on the priority list.

(This is not a paid advertisement)