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Next set of Fire District restructuring begins after Board of Commissioners approval

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ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners met Monday with the restructuring of a new set of Fire Districts as well as a presentation of an improvement plan for the Health Department. These were the top items on the agenda.

The process of restructuring the Fire Districts in Randolph County to remove the 15-cent tax rate cap that these districts had continued with four new districts was brought forth before the board for approval to start the process.

The process – which has already been completed for Guil-Rand, Climax, West Side, and Franklinville Fire Districts – began with the board’s approval to abolish the current capped Fire Districts for East Side, Level Cross, Randleman-Sophia, and Tabernacle and establish a public hearing for September 6 to be held so that the new districts can be formed.

The four fire departments will still cover the exact same areas, with the only change being that they will no longer be held to a 15-cent fire tax cap, albeit the departments still would have to get approval from the Board of Commissioners for any proposed tax hike.

“This is not a tax increase,” said Chairman Darrell Frye. “Any increase has to come before this elected board of county commissioners, and they have to approve a request. It puts every fire department here under the same guidelines and the same rules.”

The board also approved two contract addendums, with the first being with Smith-Sinnett to add $185,000 for the design, bidding, and construction administration of the Randolph County Health Department.

“The original Health Department was built in the early ‘80s, so it’s about 40 years old,” said Robert Carmac of Smith-Sinnett. “It’s had some minor renovations done over the years, but the majority of those renovations were a make-do situation. Most of the buildings and exam rooms remain as is. I remember when I was young, going into the health department as a kid and the same orange countertops that had been there for years. Given what we’ve gone through over the years, there is no secret the value that the health department provides to the community. But they are very much in a make-do situation.”

Smith-Sinnett was originally commissioned to conduct a space needs study for the health department and brought forth a preliminary plan of action for a redesign.

“They are trying to make-do, but I think through this study and what we’ve shown is a plan to provide better customer service, better flow for the patients that are coming, and a better usage of the space,” Carmac said.

According to Carmac, they will ask for a $1.5 million base bid for construction, with a 6-8 month design window and an 8-12 month construction window which would see the completion of the project by late 2023 to early 2024.

The second approved addendum was with the contract with Hobbs Architects for the Historic Courthouse Museum design to add $44,950 to the project to design the replacement of the upstairs HVAC.

The board of commissioners approved a request from Bordeaux Construction for additional funding and a time extension for the Randolph County Detention Center expansion project.

The approved funding request will be provided as a change order to the contract for a total of $322,796 in two different contingencies.

“In addition to the money, we are also requesting for a time extension of four months,” said John Witcher from Bordeaux Construction. “This is a two-month time extension for the Phase 2 issues that we encountered with the smoke control system required by the state and then also a two-month time extension that would be added on to the end of the project so that we can deliver the maintenance building for the project.” 

According to Chairman Frye, the additional funding will not need to be taken from the budget and is instead already interspersed in the project.

“We do have some funds in other areas of this project that don’t require any budget amendments or the setting aside of any additional funding at this time,” Frye said. “We still have about a year to go in this process, and some other issues could turn up, but right now, this does not require us to budget additional funds to complete the project as we know it today.”

The board also then approved a resolution with Lancaster Customworks, Inc. to enter into an economic development incentive agreement for the construction of a new facility. 

“Lancaster is a high-end upholstery manufacturing company located currently in 18,000 square feet in the city of Archdale,” said EDC President Kevin Franklin. “The company has been around for 30 years, and they are continuing to enjoy consistent growth and double-digit sales over the last several years and have just outgrown the facility they are in now. There is no room around the current building for any further expansion, and so they are looking at a new location to build a brand new facility in the city of Archdale, and it’s just a stone’s throw from their current location.”

According to Franklin, the incentive package would have a total cash amount of $120,700 over five years. Of that, $79,000 will come from Randolph County, and up to $41,700 will come from the city of Archdale.

“The full investment of the project is anticipated to exceed $5,000,000, which will include $4,295,000 in real property and about $731,000 in machinery and equipment for that facility,” Franklin said. “They will retain their current full-time workforce of about 25 employees and plan to create 27 new jobs overall in a five-year period related to this expansion. The average annual wage of the new jobs will be at least $46,000, about $6,000 on average more than the current annual average wage here in Randolph County.”  

The Annual Settlement Report was presented to the board for the 2021-22 tax year, and it was reported that Randolph County had a 99.24% collection rate for real estate, business, and individual personal property.

The board also appointed Debra Hill to a new, four-year term as County Tax Collector and approved a request from the Board of Elections to reclassify their part-time office assistant 3 position to a full-time election programs specialist. 

The board then approved the request to purchase four 2022 Type I Ford F-450 4×4 TraumaHawk ambulances for $1,146,164 from Northwestern Emergency Vehicles, Inc. through the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s competitive bidding program.

Finally, the board approved the submission of two applications for USDA Rural Development loans, each for $2 million to be paid out over ten years with zero percent interest for the Farm Food and Family Education Center.

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet August 1.

RBC

County board chairman says the restructuring of fire districts is not a tax increase

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ASHEBORO – The Randolph County Board of Commissioners met Monday with multiple budget items on the agenda as well as to provide some clarification in regards to the new fire districts.

First up, the board of commissioners approved the final design by HH Architecture for the development of the Farm, Food and Family Education Center as well as a budget amendment to reallocate the funds that the county had already set aside for the project. 

The plan, which will cost $29,564,000, will have around 44 acres of development with around 60 acres of undeveloped land as a buffer.

“There’s a couple of parts, but Cooperative Extension will have offices, there’ll be gardens, labs, and a demonstration kitchen,” said HH Architecture CEO, Kristen Hess. “Soil and Water will have their offices with meeting and classroom space. There’s a proposed maker space and then a commercial kitchen for businesses actually wanting to start with a kitchen certified by the county. There’s a big exhibit hall component with concessions and an open-air arena for livestock shows and sales. We have a lot of accessory buildings as well just to be in support. Incubator barns, equipment sheds, greenhouses, raw material storage, animal staging. These are all necessary for the support of the facility.”

The board also held its first round of public hearings for the restructuring of the county’s fire tax districts to remove the 15 cent fire tax cap, starting with the Climax, Franklinville, Guil-Rand and Westside. 

“This is not a tax increase,” said Chairman Darrell Frye on the restructuring. “This is not a budget increase hearing tonight. Fire departments have no taxing authority. This board was elected by the citizens of this county to represent them. Any changes in the fire tax can only be made by the board of county commissioners.”

“We have rates over a wide range, but our caps are at 15 cents. Any fire department in the county can go over that limit right now. The problem is that when the citizens would get their tax bills, it would have the 15 cent fire tax and if their fire tax was set at 15 or 16, there would be a second line for that additional tax and that could be confusing. That they had two fire taxes on their tax bill when really there’s only one, but it had to be done that way under the current structure. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to change the structures of the fire districts.”

In more of an effort to be transparent, according to associate county attorney Aimee Scotton, the county had sent out notices alerting the public about these proposed changes.

However, there was some confusion among the public in regards to a statement in that notice about the county’s tax cap of $1.50. Some felt that this was going to be the newly proposed fire tax rate, leading to a bit of uproar. 

“That $1.50 [tax rate] is set by the State of North Carolina,” Frye said. “It also includes your Randolph County property taxes. It’s not just a limit on fire taxes. It is a cap on any county wide tax that would be passed in this county. For example, if you had a school tax, that would be added into this total. And the total for all of these taxes cannot exceed $1.50. So there is a cap but it’s all inclusive to protect you against a higher level of any sort of taxes.”

Randolph County is not looking to raise the fire tax rate during these public hearings, however, Chairman Frye did note that some fire departments, such as Climax, are asking to increase those rates, but that would require them to present a proposed budget before the board of commissioners for approval.

The board approved second-year bids for Aging Services to Randolph Senior Adults Association (RSSA), who will be the lead agency in Randolph County, and Regional Consolidated Services (RCS).

The agencies help provide adult daycare, congregant nutrition, home-delivered meals, information and options counseling, transportation, in-home aid at levels I, II and III and housing and home improvement to older residents who need additional assistance.

Along with approving the agency bids, the board also approved their proposed fiscal year 21-22 fund allocation.

“Working with the current Randolph County award amount, the Aging Services Planning Committee recommends to you for board approval the following amounts: Randolph Senior Adults, $586,904 and Regional Consolidated Services, $310,349, for a total Randolph County allocation of $897,253 as it is known today,” said Executive Director of RSSA, Mark Hensley.

Funding will not need to come from Randolph County and is instead provided by Community Services Block Grants and the Older Americans Act. The county’s only role is deciding who the provider will be and how their funds will be allocated over their three year bid.

The board of commissioners also renewed its contract with Mediko, Inc. for inmate medical services at a cost of $791,532.55. 

According to Sheriff’s Office Manager, Justin Brubaker, Correctional Healthcare was another competitive option that was looked into, but Mediko proved to be the preferred option with things such as their use of LPNs and the familiarity already had with them. 

“We’ve been with Mediko since November of 2019,” Brubaker said. “As far as COVID-19 and what we’ve been through, we can’t say enough about the staff with Mediko. It’s just that bond, that relationship we have with Mediko. We’ve trusted them since 2019.”

County manager, Hal Johnson, gave an update on the opioid settlement that Randolph County had participated in, stating that the county would see $9,824,000 over an 18 year period, with the first payment of $377,000 expected in late spring. The money has safeguards on it that will only allow it to be used on things that will “help offset the effects of the opioid epidemic.”

“The memorandum of agreement that we signed with the State, outlines about seven or eight different areas that the county will focus on as we begin to develop programs and allocate money to various treatment options,” Johnson said. “The county government must also sponsor a joint planning meeting with all of our municipalities. That meeting will be open to the public also and it’s a time for the county to meet formally with our municipalities and agencies and talk about different options that we may want to pursue over time.”

The board then awarded a contract to S&S Building and Development for the Social Services renovations at Northgate. 

The low bid offer came in at $1,318,792, but the extra costs of the project are going to see a projected total of $1,599,792, which the board has already budgeted for. The project is expected to be completed in 10 months.

Finally, the board gave approval for a fourth – and potentially final – budget amendment for the Courthouse Renovation Capital Project 

“We’ve gotten our substantial completion, they’ve moved in, they’re occupying the space, there’s just a few little odds and ends to be wrapped up,” said county engineer, Paxton Arthurs. “The main thing being the changes to the front counter with the secure transaction and the deal trays.”

The amendment, which is for $26,000, will finish out and close the project according to Arthurs.

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet June 6.