Beaufort County commissioners unanimously approve requests | Eastern North Carolina Now

    While the hospital drama has commanded the stage, behind the scenes, Beaufort County administrators and employees have been busy orchestrating several other large projects and partnerships.

    At Monday night's special-called Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meeting, several of these items came to light and to vote. The commissioners voted unanimously, 7-0, to approve each item presented.


All seven members on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners raise their hands in a display of unanimous agreement, here, and on several other occasions at Monday night's special-called meeting.

    The most expensive proposition of the evening was a recommendation from Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill that the board execute an energy savings contract with Schneider Electric, at a cost not-to-exceed $2,350,000, paid in installments over a time period not-to-exceed 15 years.

    According to Beaufort County's 'findings of fact,' as presented in its resolution to seek state approval for the spending of these public funds, "An increase in taxes is not necessary since the guaranteed energy savings equal or exceed the sums to fall due under the Contract."

    The projected energy savings were valued by Stanford White, an agent of Schneider Electric, according to the same resolution.

    Schneider Electric will work to improve the energy efficiency of Beaufort County buildings: the administrative, emergency management, farm services, health department and social services buildings; the animal shelter, courthouse, courthouse annex, maintenance shop and others.

    In the second-most expensive project, the replacement of the soon-to-expire Bath radio tower, Spruill similarly devised a way to offset costs to the county. Rather than add the expenditure to the county's already-swollen budget, Spruill located a private company, NextMedia Group of New Bern, with an interest in replacing the tower: the ability to continue broadcasting one of their five radio stations, WQZL FM 101.1.

    NextMedia has agreed to replace the tower, with a 100-foot height increase, at a cost to them of $737,000, plus $4,916 a year in operating expenses, in exchange for a 30-year lease of the property. Beaufort County will pay a one-time fee of $60,000 for new antennas, plus $30 ($1 per year in rent) for the 30-year lease.

    An operational Bath radio tower is necessary for Beaufort County to maintain its means for emergency-services communication. The new 511 ft. tower should improve signal output and reception for emergency services by an average of 24 percent, according to a Bath Tower Fact Sheet provided by the county.

    "Wow, that's a good deal," remarked Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage.

    If this arrangement seems too good to be true, it's only because most of the messy legal arrangements were unraveled and satisfied before being presented to the public. Spruill and Beaufort County Emergency Management Coordinator John Pack have been negotiating and seeking permits for this deal since May 2009. There have been 42 e-mails and eight face-to-face meetings with NextMedia, according to the Bath Tower Fact Sheet.

    "This is the first time the public's heard about this, by design," said Pack, in an interview that night.

    At the meeting, Pack and Spruill also recommended that the commissioners enter into a Delta Alert Contract to provide Beaufort County with reverse-911 services, at an annual recurring expense to the county of $8,000. Reverse-911 services will provide a mass dial-out to county residents, with automated information about how to handle an impending hurricane, epidemic, water-line problem, etc.

    Spruill said that the county can expect about half of the recurring expense to be differed by grant revenue from the Beaufort County Health Department; and money from Pamlico Plantation, Cypress Landing, the Town of Belhaven, the Town of Chocowinity, PCS Phosphate, and hopefully Aurora.

    "Contractually they're not obligated to stick. But we've sold them on this," said Spruill.

    The City of Washington already uses another company to provide reverse-911 services to city residents.

    "We're hoping they'll become a vendor, because it will be much less expensive to them, and it will help us, too," said Pack.

    The commissioners also unanimously approved an audit contract with Thompson, Price, Scott and Adams, of Wilmington, for auditing Beaufort County's financial statements for fiscal year ending 2011, at a cost to the county of $40,475, plus $1,000 for preparation of the annual financial statements. Beaufort County has hired said firm to provide auditing services since FY fiscal year ending 2002; but a provision in this year's contract excludes Thompson, Price, Scott and Adams from bidding on the contract for fiscal year ending 2012.

    The board also unanimously approved a request by the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office to purchase a 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe, for use in its narcotics division.