The Craven County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution for the Military Person of the Quarter, talked about the Highway 70 project and other things during the Dec. 2 meeting.
The Board of Commissioners heard a presentation on the Craven County Alcohol Beverage Control Board and covered several items during their meeting on Dec. 2, 2024 at the County Administration Building in New Bern, NC.
Kenny Morris III, the chairman of the ABC Board, said that it has been a year since they opened the ABC store in Bridgeton and the new warehouse. They opened the administration office in the spring. He thanked Paul Brown, the general manager; Brook Saylor, the assistant general manager and Meloni Wray, the chief finance officer, for their work.
He reported a 6.2% increase in revenue over the last year, which equated to $17,700,000.
He said they transitioned from working with Alcohol Law Enforcement to working with the Craven County Sheriff’s Office. Lt Sawyer attends the ABC Board meetings.
He said as part of their obligation under North Carolina State Statute, they have to donate funds to educational and rehabilitation efforts. They donated $35,000 in grant money for D.A.R.E. programs throughout the county school systems.
“Craven County receives a portion of the proceeds from the bottle tax that is charged for each bottle of alcohol that is sold in the county,” Morris said.
He said the county’s share of the bottle tax collected is $1,040,000 and some of the funds have been advanced to the county. He gave a $630,000 check to the county for the remaining balance.
He said they transferred the former ABC Board warehouse on Martin Drive to the county and he believed the building is now being used by the county maintenance crew. The building is valued at $650,000.
The Board of Commissioners appointed Denny Bucher as chairman of the board and Jason Jones as vice chairman.
They held a public hearing on a proposed no wake zone near Merchants Grocery fueling station and boat ramp in Brices Creek, but no one from the public spoke. The board approved a resolution with Chairman Dennis “Denny” Bucher of District 7, Vice Chairman Jason Jones of District 2, Commissioners Thomas “Tom” Mark of District 1, Beatrice “Bea” Smith of District 3, Ettienne “ET” Mitchell of District 4, Shevel “Sherry” Hunt of District 5 and Chadwick Howard of District 6 voting aye. The request was sent to the NC Wildlife Commission for review.
The BOC approved the consent agenda, which included the minutes of the Nov. 18 meeting; tax releases and refunds; a resolution for the Military Service Person of the Quarter and budget amendments, according to the meeting packet here.
Budget amendments included:
-A $5,000 grant from Craven County Community Foundation for repairs to the inclusive playground at Creekside Park.
-A donation from the Twin Rivers Little League Softball. “The donation will allow staff to purchase materials to construct an additional batting cage around the youth softball fields.”
-A $5,000 grant from International Paper. The funds will be used to provide picnic tables and benches around the pickleball courts that are scheduled to be constructed at West Craven Park in the spring of 2025.
The resolution recognized U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Christopher R. Golding as the Military Service Person of the Quarter said Golding enlisted in 2023 and is stationed at Marine Wing Communications Squadron 28. “LCpl Golding has logged over 100 hours of volunteering; to include tutoring individuals interested in entering the armed services, as well as providing outreach to the community. In addition, he has also volunteered at Creekside Elementary School reading with the students and providing them with insight for their future.” He was also nominated for the Carteret and Havelock Military Person of the Quarter.
The board approved the 2025 Board of Commissioner Meeting Calendar.
Stuart Blount was reappointed to the Township 8 West New Bern Fire Board and Roy McCoy was reappointed to the Township 3 Cove City Fire Board.
Ray Griffin spoke during the Petition of Citizens and thanked the commissioners for putting up the “In God We Trust” signage.
“We have had some good results on putting Ten Commandments back into the school. We’ve hit several counties and going around and we’ve been talking it up,” he said.
County Manager Jack Veit said he attended the RAI meeting and there was “very good instructional information about programs that are out there that are getting toward the educational side of the opioid crisis.” He said RAI kicked off a nine-county multidisciplinary study of the gaps and needs assessment about available resources, which is expected to take three to four months. The final product will be presented to the BOC.
Commissioner Mark said trash was supposed to be picked up on Monday morning and it doesn’t get picked up until Tuesday morning, at the same time receptacles are picked up. He said it has become a monopoly with the garbage people. He said they raised the fee to $72 and didn’t provide the service they should be getting.
Commissioner Howard said he attended a town hall at the Township 6 Fire Department on Nov. 25 with some school board members, the sheriff, engineers and citizens. He said they discussed several critical issues affecting Craven County.
He said Cadmus Capehart talked about the North Carolina Department of Transportation project updates. He said they talked about delays in Havelock and James City. He said a lot of citizens attended the town hall and offered recommendations and insights. He said the DOT said the Havelock Bypass was delayed for almost a year. He said citizens in his district were very interested in hearing about that and the reasons why the project was delayed.
Chadwick Howard did not give any details on the project or why it will be delayed.
He said Sheriff Chip Hughes reported that there has been a decline in opioid deaths and overdoses and said the progress was due to the partnership between the Craven County Task Force, the county and the Sheriff’s Office. He said they discussed school bus safety initiatives and said people were passing buses in neighborhoods.
It’s unclear who hosted the town hall or what was said.
Commissioner Mitchell said she received an update on the delays over US 70 becoming Highway 42 during the New Bern Area Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting. She said the project has been pushed closer to 2028.
“The issue is not suppliers, it is workforce. Balfour Beatty cannot hire enough people to work on the project to keep it on its timeline. That’s upsetting to say the least. So, to the citizens, we apologize. It is not the fault of the contractor. They can’t make people come to work and be hired,” Mitchell said.
NewBernNow.com asked her who reported that there was an issue with the workforce, and she said the information came out of the NBMPO meeting.
Mitchell referred us to Deanna Trebil, the director of the NBAMPO for expert clarification on highway construction issues.
We asked the NBAMPO for a copy of the meeting minutes and were told a draft of the minutes would be available in mid-January. We were referred to NCDOT for more information.
The Department of Transportation told us the project details are regularly updated on their website. The James City project is expected to be completed by mid-2027 and the Havelock Bypass project is expected to be completed by the Summer 2026. The Havelock Bypass to East of Thurman Road project is estimated to be completed by summer of 2028. NCDOT said they don’t comment on contractor employment matters.
We reached out to Balfour Beatty for comment and Leslee Mallinson, the senior vice president of Communications said, “We have the necessary workforce and team of experts, as well as strategic trade partners, to successfully deliver the projects. Projects of this nature are complex and often require third-party stakeholders outside of Balfour Beatty’s scope and control to complete various activities before construction can progress. We are a committed partner to NCDOT and to the cities and communities impacted by these important infrastructure improvement projects, and we are working to expeditiously and successfully deliver them.”
E.T. Mitchell also said over the last few months “it has become the exception rather than the rule when trash gets picked up in my neighborhood, on my route as is supposed to.” She said it’s the same thing for recycling and noted it was not a slam to the county staff. She said when she calls staff, everything moves quickly and apologized for disturbing them on the weekends to get trash company out there. She said, “It probably happens two to three weekends out of four” and said she would like to have a meeting with the trash people and the commissioners.
We reached out to Steven Aster, the director of Solid Waste and Recycling, for comment and he said, “The county is working with GFL on ways to improve services.” He said curbside service will be delayed due to the holidays.
Solid Waste convenience sites will close at noon on Dec. 24 and reopen on Dec. 26. Curbside pickup will be delayed by one day during the holidays. Wednesday’s pickup will be on Thursday, Thursday’s pickup will be on Friday and Friday’s pickup will be on Saturday, according to information provided by Shane Digan, the county’s public information officer. Craven County government offices will be closed on Dec. 24, 25, 26 and Jan. 1 in observance of Christmas. The Craven Area Rural Transit System will provide limited services with dialysis and Port Health on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26. Services will not be provided on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1.
Watch the meeting video here:
By Wendy Card, Editor. Send an email with questions or comments.