The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners will hold its first agenda session of 2024 at 1 p.m. Thursday, with commissioners scheduled to hear updates on important projects like affordable housing in Spring Lake and a new water system in the Cedar Creek area.
Here are some key items to note from the agenda:
County shelters to receive backup generators
Commissioners will hear from Jermaine Walker, the county’s director of engineering and infrastructure, about plans to install backup generators in the five shelter locations designated by the board for emergencies.
According to a Jan. 4 memorandum from Walker, the board designated Westover Recreation Center, Mac Williams Middle School, W.T. Brown Elementary School, Pine Forest High School and South View High School as the five shelters on June 8, 2023, based on staff recommendations.
Now, the county is working to purchase generators for the shelters, though the schools require larger generators that could take 13 to 14 months to arrive, Walker said. The generators will also need to be installed during school breaks with two or more contractors working side by side, he wrote.
Westover Recreation Center’s requested generator is smaller in size and is “readily available,” according to the memorandum.
County staff hope to seek board approval of the generator purchases by May, with the installation of the generators complete by June 2025, Walker said.
What the county will ask Congress for in 2024 and 2025
Commissioners will also receive information on their proposed federal legislative agenda for the fiscal year 2025, which begins on July 1 and ends on June 30, 2025.
According to a Dec. 18 memorandum from Assistant County Manager Sally Shutt, Cumberland County contracts with Hamm Consulting Group to determine what the county should lobby for with federal legislators. Ron Hamm will present the draft agenda, Shutt wrote.
The draft agenda shared with commissioners includes the following issues:
Dept. of Social Services to get additional help from University of Chicago
According to a Dec. 14 memorandum from Brenda Reid Jackson, the director of the county's Dept. of Social Services, the department will request the board approve using $161,154 in existing grant money to pay for additional work with the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children.
Jackson said that since 2016, the center’s A Model Approach for Change in Child Welfare initiative has worked with the department to implement short- and long-term changes to better help children in foster care in Cumberland County.
“Since the inception of the initiative in 2016, the number of children in foster [care] in Cumberland County has reduced from over 900 to less than 500 to date,” Jackson wrote. “The purpose of the contract amendment with Chapin Hall is to continue to provide the research, benchmarking, data analytics, technical support, and program evaluation.”
If approved, the amendment would be added to the board’s consent agenda for its Jan. 16 meeting.
County to seek early intervention programs for opioid abuse
The board will hear a request from Health Director Jennifer Green to solicit proposals for early intervention programs to mitigate opioid abuse, according to a Jan. 2 memorandum from Green to commissioners.
The programs would be funded with money from $56 billion in national settlements with companies that manufactured opioids, Green wrote. The county will receive $30.8 million over 18 years to target opioid abuse, she said.
Green wrote that the county issued a request for proposals in October 2022 for programs to address opioid abuse, but didn’t receive any proposals for early intervention programs, which are aimed at youth up to age 24 who may struggle with substance abuse or mental health issues.
If approved by the board, the request for proposals for early intervention programs would be issued Feb. 1, with two to three agencies receiving up to $200,000 each, Green said. Proposals will be due March 15. The county will prioritize agencies not currently receiving county funding, according to the memorandum.
Tackling contaminated water
The board will receive updates on two different strategies to address water contamination in Cumberland County, according to memorandums from Amanda Bader, the county’s general manager for natural resources.
The county will partner with the Raleigh office of HDR Engineering Inc., of the Carolinas, for the projects, Bader said.
The first project will involve the study of resources for public drinking water in Cumberland County, according to Bader’s memorandum. Bader is asking the board to approve a $400,000 agreement with HDR Engineering, which will be funded with American Rescue Plan Act money.
If approved, the study will evaluate demands for water in the county through 2075, identify alternative water supply sources and assess requirements for the transmission, storage and treatment of water, according to the proposed scope of services provided by the firm.
The second project entails a $55,725 proposed agreement with HDR to assist with a FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant application, according to a Dec. 8 memorandum from Bader. The application will seek funds for a water system in Cedar Creek to address GenX contamination in the area’s private well water, according to the firm’s proposed scope of services.
Affordable housing in Spring Lake
Commissioners will be asked to approve an agreement with Spring Lake-based Kingdom Community Development Corporation to build six single-family homes, according to a Dec. 19 memorandum from Dee Taylor, the county’s director of community development.
The 1,400-square-foot homes, located between Elizabeth and Lee streets in Spring Lake, will have three bedrooms each and will be designated for households with incomes at or below 80% of the area’s median income, Taylor wrote. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for Cumberland County from 2018-2022 was $55,551, meaning prospective tenants or buyers would need to make $44,440 or less to qualify.
The county will provide $900,000 in existing community development funding for the project, Taylor wrote.
According to the proposed contract with Kingdom Community Development Corporation, construction will be completed by Sept. 30, 2025, with 30% of net sales proceeds from the homes returning to the county and 70% of the proceeds returning to Kingdom Community Development to be used for affordable housing programs. If the organization does not use the proceeds within two years, they will be returned to the county, the contract states.
Kingdom Community Development will keep all proceeds from any rentals of the homes to help maintain the units, according to the proposed contract.
Kingdom Community Development Corporation was previously chosen by the county to build affordable housing, Taylor wrote, noting that it “has served as the County’s designated CHDO [community housing development organization] for over a decade and has been involved in expanding new affordable housing for both homebuyers and renters.”
Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
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