Beaufort County Leadership Continues to Miss the Point | Eastern NC Now

Beaufort County Leadership Continues to Miss the Point

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

The environment to promote economic development has several important items that must work together.  These items become more important when one considers that our county does not have the population and transportation advantages of a Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro or Rocky Mount.  In addition to transportation and population, economic development items include: a successful education system, honest law enforcement and reputation.  Reputation includes an honest government, that is capable of making strategic decisions for the betterment of the entire community.

Companies and consultants who are looking for manufacturing sites look at what actually goes on in a community rather than what they are told.

The question of the future of the Aurora community is in front of us today.  Most of that future depends on whether or not the S. W. Snowden School remains open or closes.  The School Board has sent signals during the past ten years or more that the school will eventually close.  This signal has placed a dark cloud over the future of Aurora and residents of the entire community.  The question is now before the County Commissioners as to whether or not the school will be kept open.

Beaufort County’s largest taxpayer and industry is in Aurora.  In order for this industry and Aurora to prosper we need to keep the school open.  The signal sent by County Commissioners to keep the school open will greatly increase the prospects of growth and encourage investment into the community.  In keeping the school open, the commissioners need to prod the School Board to do things that make the school grow as opposed to the board’s current attitude of negativism.  The Aurora community should form their own school support committee to provide tutoring to students and monitor the School Board.

The cost of keeping the school open includes a summary of the difference in cost between closing the school and keeping it open, the cost of the additional transportation to haul students the 25 miles from Aurora to Chocowinity and the cost impact of additional students in the Chocowinity Schools.  The school system seems to be saying the savings is the entire cost of running the entire Snowden school, maybe as much as two million dollars.  This is false information.  A lot of this money follows the students, wherever they are.  Again, we are talking about the difference in cost between keeping Snowden open and closing it.  This is much less than two million dollars.

The Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, Frankie Waters, has thrown additional confusion on the Snowden closing issue by proposing that we close three schools (presumably Snowden, Chocowinity Middle and Chocowinity Primary) and build a consolidated school somewhere several miles south of Chocowinity.  Waters made this proposal without any input from the Board of Commissioners or the School Board or the people residing in the areas served by these schools.  Is he still in the back room making deals with Cheeseman?  It will be a costly mistake to bus students back and forth across the south side of the county.  Moreover, it should be obvious to school officials that if Pamlico County can entice Aurora/Richland Township students to Pamlico, then Beaufort County Schools should be able to retain them with some good management.

It is obvious to even the most ignorant that the consolidation of schools has not worked. These schools are so large and impersonal that students do not get the attention they need, these large venues are not conducive to parental visits, and the teaching of odd-ball dogma without textbooks has left both parents and students in the dark.  Neighborhood schools reverse all of these sins.  S. W. Snowden is the last neighborhood school in Beaufort County. It should be kept open!  One only need to look at a map to realize that.

Another issue is about economic development and the Beaufort County Industrial Park South. The Gang of Four (Frankie Waters, Jerry Langley, Ed Booth and Randy Walker) voted not to rezone the Park to “heavy industrial”.  We have had this approximately 300-acre site for almost 20 years.  It has rail, natural gas, high voltage electricity, federal highway, public water and sewer services.  Not one acre has been developed.  Why?  Because it is zoned “light industrial”.  Commissioners Stan Deatherage along with Tandy Dunn and myself have been trying to get the zoning changed.  Again, the Gang of Four (Waters, Langley, Booth and Walker) refuse to understand that the appropriate zoning is necessary for development.  This site will not be given serious consideration until it is zoned “heavy industrial”.  Leadership misses the point.

The Snowden closing and the Industrial Park South are of the same level of importance as at least three of our past crippling mistakes.  These are the gifting of the Beaufort County Hospital to Greenville, the closing of the Belhaven Hospital and the locating of the US 17 Bypass.

The majority of the Board of County Commissioners gave the Beaufort County Hospital to what was then Vidant when they had much better offers.  They failed to support keeping the Belhaven Hospital open because they supported Vidant.  There has been no savings to Beaufort County citizens for health services from these actions.  The Belhaven population has shrunk.

The location of the US 17 Bypass was decided by vote of the Board of Commissioners to be on the west side of Washington.  The alternate route was on the east side of Washington.  The west side route did not create any new development opportunities.  It is across a swamp.  The eastern route would have connected the north and south sides of the county with a bridge across the Pamlico River.  All benefits would have been to the entire county.  This bridge would have resolved the present Aurora and Snowden issues.  There has been very little benefit to the present location of the US 17 Highway Bypass.  Leadership missed the point again.

There have been three active fraud investigations in Beaufort County during the past year. There is the McRoy fraud in Chocowinity, the Old Ford Fire Department and the Pinetown Fire Department situations.  I suspected that things were not right at Chocowinity three or four years ago.  I requested a forensic audit several times.  I was voted down each time. Commissioners have the duty to protect the money of the taxpayer.  These votes sent a bad signal to those who would take our money.  Money takers realized they were safe. Commissioners seemingly did not care.  The manager has made statements to the effect that commissioners have no authority over money once he writes the check.  None of these frauds were detected by Beaufort County elected officials or employees.  Outsiders blew the whistle every time.  Beaufort County leadership missed the point.

Please read the first paragraph again.  See if you agree that Beaufort County has serious problems in leadership.  Maybe the 2026 elections will make a difference.