Meeting Notes

We added basic notes about county government meetings to our coverage. If you have additional story ideas, please send them to reporter and photographer Eleazar “El” Yisrael at (252) 258-9434 or [email protected]

The Pamlico County Board of Commissioners held a regular bimonthly meeting May 5, 2025. 12 people in attendance. The commissioners will host a budget meeting for the next government fiscal year on May 12th from 12 - 4 p.m. at the Pamlico County Courthouse Annex.

• Pamlico Schools Superintendent Jeremy Johnson presented the 2025-2026 fiscal government year budget request.

  • Pamlico Schools fund balance is $458,775

  • See Down in the County’s most recent budget meeting notes for more details.

• Dave Peterson gave an annual report from Trillium Health Resources which is a “specialty care manager (LME/MCO) for individuals with serious behavioral health, intellectual/developmental disabilities, and traumatic brain injury in North Carolina,” according to the organization's website. Trillium provides specialty care to the county.

  • Peterson requested a commissioner to join the Trillium regional advisory board.

  • Currently, they manage Pamlico and 45 other counties. They will go out for bid in two years, and urged Pamlico to consider Trillium as opposed to a “national company.”

  • They administer narcan kits, provide patient care, enact jail/prison re-entry programs, assist mobile clinics and provide phone lines for mental services.

Public comment:

• Larry Summers, a representative from Veterans Affairs, thanked the commissioners for their support in the Veterans Affairs event.

• Jessie Aldridge, from Pamlico’s Special Olympics, invited commissioners to the event on Thursday.

  • This is the first year the county is sending two athletes to the state-wide Special Olympics.

Consent Agenda (routine items to voted on and usually don’t require discussion):

• Approved: Accounting Firm Carr Riggs Ingram for a one-year renewable contract with the county to perform financial audits for the next fiscal year of 25-26. They have worked with the county for the past several years.

  • Total yearly cost is $60,000.

• Approved: The county’s advertising of individuals real property tax outstanding taxes for 2024 within newspaper circulation. As of May 1, 2025, the outstanding amount is $494,642.20.

• Approved: “A tax foreclosure attorney agreement with Mark D. Bardill, P.C., a North Carolina professional corporation, trading as Zacchaeus Legal Services to provide foreclosure actions on delinquent real property taxes due to the County” for a minimum of two years.

  • He is the attorney that the county uses to foreclose property when taxes aren’t paid.

• Approved: The Pamlico County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council (JCPC) budget, funding Pamlico teen court, Pamlico Stillwaters and JCPC administrative funds.

• Approved:  Pamlico County Volunteer Fire Department Franchise Agreement, which is an agreement between the county and all volunteer fire departments for their services.

  • The county provides funding for the fire department’s services through fire taxes. Further details on the dollar amount for the upcoming fiscal year will be provided soon.

• Approved: A resolution to direct the expenditure of Opioid Settlement Funds.

  • The county was awarded money from opioid settlement and commissioners renewed the disbursement of funds to companies and nonprofits to help people struggling with opioid problems. 

  • Total amount is $42, 911.

• Approved: April 27th-May 3rd to serve as Resilient & Thriving Communities Week.

  • Coastal Coalition for Substance Awareness & Prevention Program are partnering with “several agencies to host events to support the community” that week according to the county manager, Mark Brewington.

• Working under the county’s Finance Department, commissioners approved the creation of a grant administrator position.

  • The position “includes preparing and organizing materials for proposals, submitting and monitoring grant applications, maintaining financial and program reports, as well as grant budgets.”

• Approved: A joint resolution with seven other counties opposing ferry tolls proposed by the NC State Senate.

  • Other counties include;  Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, and Jones county.

Correspondence Agenda (discussion required and are not routine):

• Approved: A resolution opposing legislative preemption of county government planning and zoning.

  • Pamlico County is opposing two state bills — Senate Bill 688 and House Bill 765 — that would take away or reduce local control over land use, planning and zoning.

• Approved: A resolution for Bay River Metro Sewer to designate applicants agents.

  • The county is working on a sewer project in Oriental, called “Phase 1 – Project EMA-2022-DR-001-004.” The resolution would officially allow Bay River Metro Sewer, a separate governmental agency within and outside of the county, to act as an "agent" to carry out this project, especially in working with NC Emergency Management. The county got a grant but Bay River Metro Sewer is doing the construction (not the county) and couldn’t serve as the official agents until now.

  • Eric Harper will serve as the superintendent.

Updates

• The federal government has now allowed for projects to continue if they have already been started. Previously, the federal government recalled FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure & Community (BRIC) grant money for projects that have been started, as well as not started yet. Pamlico falls under this category.

  • The county has a $7 million BRIC grant from damage done in Hurricane Florence. Already used approximately $1 million, and now can use the other $6 million amidst recent news.

  • Soil studies and design are completed. The remaining money is planned to be used for building the infrastructure.

  • In these types of grants, the government doesn’t provide funds up front, but instead reimburses the county once the county has done work.

  • The grant is intended by the county to rebuild/improve sewer lagoons in Oriental and spray fields in Reelsboro community.

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