2015-02-02 State of the County i
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Thank you so much Beth. The honor is truly mine.
Welcome everyone to our 2015 New Hanover County State of the
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County Address. On behalf of your Board of County Commissioners, I
would like to thank you for taking the time tonight to be here or for
those of you watching at home, thank you for tuning in to watch your
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County government at work.
At this time, I'd like to introduce my fellow commissioners with us this
evening if you would please stand when I call your name; Vice Chair
Beth Dawson, Commissioner Skip Watkins, Commissioner Woody
White, and Commissioner Rob Zapple.
It is so exciting to be serving with a full board of extremely talented and
passionate community servants.
Your commissioners make great efforts and sacrifice both in time and
energy to serve our community and I invite you to join me in thanking
them for everything they do to make New Hanover County a truly
special place. [JB lead a round of applause]
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I'd like to also recognize other community leaders who have joined us
tonight.
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Many successes in New Hanover County are the result of the
collaboration and commitment of these men and women working side
by side with your county leadership.
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[Recognize mayors, council members, legislative delegation, and other
elected officials. List provided.]
Thank you for being here with us tonight and for all you do for the
citizens of our county.
I would also like to recognize our Clerk to the Board Ms. Teresa Elmore;
our County Attorney Ms. Wanda Copley; our County Manager Mr. Chris
Coudriet, and a special acknowledgement to the almost 1700
employees of the County; some who are here and some watching us
from home. I have had the opportunity to work closely with many of
these men and women, and know them to be devoted public servants
who strive to serve all of us with care and quality.
[Iron Man 3 example]
Thank you for what you do.
And I would be remiss if I did not thank my family for their continued
support during my years as a county commissioner. They give me
strength to persevere.
[personal thank you Pastor Campell, Dad, Laura and girls]
I am so honored to be standing before you this evening for this 2015
State of the County Address in my third term as your New Hanover
County Commission Chairman.
1 I'd like to start the county address this evening by taking us back a few
years.
[*1967 photo on screen]
I know what most of you are thinking; that's a lot more than just a few
years.
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Well, as most of you know, I moved to New Hanover County in 1967
when I was 1 year old.
I show you this photo to illustrate how much can change in one
1 lifetime, and not just mine.
Think back to where you were and what life was like for you almost 50
years ago. Our community looked very different then.
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In the last years of the 60's and the early 70's, New Hanover County
was still largely rural with a population of just over 90 thousand people.
In 1969 we celebrated the completion of our Cape Fear Memorial
Bridge,
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our new Memorial Hospital had just been built,
and the men and women of our community worked at some our largest
employers like General Electric or Corning; new industries that brought
with them innovation and put many in our community to work.
A lot has changed since these images were taken
and these years have passed.
We've seen some impressive transition and growth in our community
and in our education system from our elementary schools to the
university and community college.
Many things have changed in the way we travel, do business,
and in our perspective on commerce and our overall economic health.
Since 1967 we've become connected to the rest of the nation, the
world, through technology and innovation that we could never have
imagined.
Connections that have created great interest in our region from far and
wide.
We've had our ups; we lived through a housing boom and an economic
bubble.
And we've had our downs; hit hard by a building moratorium and the
great recession.
"For when I am weak, then I am strong."
In 2011, I was fortunate to be the Chair of the Board when that Board
faced a daunting task, a challenge, to chart a new course for the
County. And we did just that
We set a path and the following year my fellow board members and I
moved forward in creating a plan that was innovative, forward thinking
and would give clear direction to the County.
After a long and thoughtful process, the County's Strategic Plan was
adopted in 2012. This plan was the first in many important plans
putting into play the key elements the County had identified it needed
to sustain, improve and grow the overall quality of life in our
community.
Through this strategic planning process, we identified three main
objectives;
superior public health and safety,
superior education and workforce,
and intelligent growth and economic development.
These specific objectives best represent the county's priorities, they
define how resources will be used, and measure our effectiveness as
leaders.
Each objective has carefully identified targets.
For superior public health and safety those targets are:
To reduce and prevent crime
Increase the safety and security of our community
and reduce health risks and disease
For superior education and workforce, our focus is on
Preparing all students to be successful in a 21st century world
Enhancing the self-sufficiency of individuals & families
and improving community literacy & workforce readiness skills
And your county has accomplished significant progress and success in
the last objective, which is intelligent growth and economic
development with goals of that objective to include:
Promote a strong diverse economy& high quality job growth
Create and support a vibrant and culturally diverse community that
encourages private investment
and support a planned environment that enhances community &
preserves and protects our natural resources.
Economic development was quickly identified as our top priority and
working under the directive to create new and better jobs,
New Hanover County has made a real investment in our community's
business future.
Working collaboratively, the City and County made possible some
important business opportunities like Castle Branch, GE, and Live Oak
expansions and the addition of real jobs to our community payroll.
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Also working alongside the City of Wilmington and other key
community stakeholders like UNCW, Cape Fear Community College,
Wilmington Business Development and the Chamber, the county
secured the services of an economic development expert and crafted
our very first plan to serve as the framework and 'pathway' for our
strong economic future.
The plan appropriately named 'Pathways to Prosperity' took a hard look
at our region and provided us clear feedback and recommendations
that sparked an open and exciting dialogue with our city partners.
Six recommendations were agreed upon as the priority
recommendations and the City and County immediately began to rally
around each target with energy, resources and conviction.
Those recommendations are
1. Create a three-county marketing alliance with New Hanover,
Brunswick, and Pender Counties
We're making great headway on this front through the Southeastern
Partnership; a successful partnerships between Wilmington Business
Development and the Brunswick County Economic Development
Commission.
2. Advocate for and develop a realistic and sustainable written
incentive policy
New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington have reviewed the
framework for this important joint document and should be adopting a
formal policy by spring designed to incentivize higher numbers of better
jobs in targeted sectors.
3. Support new and small businesses
Your current county commission board, and boards of past have
consistently been champions to encourage and grow our local
businesses.
4. Sustainable funding sources to improve the county's economic
development infrastructure
We're serious about growing our economy and strong wage earning
jobs. New Hanover County is currently working on the means to create
a dedicated economic development fund to do just that.
5. Rebuild New Hanover County specifically as it pertains to the
development of water and sewer infrastructure along the 421 corridor
This is an important corridor for economic development and your
county government is working in partnership and moving forward to
install water and sewer to turn raw land into marketable business sites.
6. And advocate for the continuation of state incentives for film and
television.
This has been a priority legislative item for us in recent years past and
our efforts this year started off even stronger when four of your elected
county leaders successfully started the statewide conversation about
the direct and indirect value this industry brings to New Hanover
County and North Carolina.
As you can see, many of these items are well under way since that 2014
meeting and our continued efforts to work collaboratively remains
critically important to the success of each of these recommendations
and in the efforts to create long term, high quality jobs.
It's important to stand united in plan development, but more so in
putting those plans to action.
Consider the value added to economic development and job creation in
continued and successful partnerships with the city and our beach
communities.
Consider the contribution UNCW and the Cape Fear Community College
make in advanced education and workforce training of young men and
women as a critical piece to the success of small business and large
industry in our region.
We have to empower both of our higher education entities to be able
to grow to meet and exceed community expectations and needs.
We cannot find ourselves behind the curve on education as a
community.
We must be willing to identify what will make us stronger, more
competitive and we must be willing to support it in our actions, our
words and our resources.
Workforce training, entrepreneurship, incubators, think tanks; these
are all current buzzwords and the keys to our economic future.
Let's embrace education as our key.
Let's start with a new focus in our homes and in our elementary
schools. Let's prepare our children for the world, enhance self-
sufficiency and improve the skill set of those who will be our future
business and community leaders.
[Insert a brief example story about watchdogs]
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As a county we have made it a priority to provide the necessary services
to raise our children to be the stewards of our future.
We've worked alongside the New Hanover County School Board in
making some tough decisions to make sure we have the adequate, the
right, learning environment for our children.
We can do it by addressing some of the critical infrastructure needs of
our schools in our community. It's a conversation of needs identified by
the New Hanover County School Board, and we must be willing to
continue that dialogue.
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Beyond the bricks and mortar, we've also had the hard discussion
about improving services that will benefit our children and families. As
a county we need to address:
Future health and human service improvements
The rate of childhood obesity in our community
And continued or improved access to those services that keep our
community healthy and safe, like our parks, our effective justice system
programs, our continued support of the pretrial release program, a
regional drug testing lab and drug and DWI courts.
Our community health is an important piece of our success, and as a
county we must be willing to make the necessary investments to drive
results.
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We've accomplished some amazing things in the last couple of years:
We've made great strides in our beach and inlet maintenance program
and projects. The authorization for the Carolina Beach project put to
rest some real concerns about putting sand on the beach and the
impact to our coastal businesses and our homes.
Coordination with Wrightsville Beach, Kure and the City of Wilmington
keeps the conversation alive in Raleigh and Washington, a conversation
important to our economy and a conversation this region must
continue.
We implemented a hugely successful household hazardous waste
program. In one year's time we've diverted over 156 tons of solid
chemical and electronic material and almost 17 and a half thousand
gallons of liquid chemical waste from our landfill space and our
environment.
Landfill space is a precious commodity for our community and
continued efforts will be made to optimize the use of this limited
resource.
We are seeing our building permits rise each day as our unemployment
rates in our city, county, our region, are on the decline.
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1 New houses, new commercial establishments and new jobs provide
revenue for our county and enable us to fund the projects and services
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you demand and deserve.
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1 1 We've achieved an impressive double AAA bond rating and adopted a
debt policy that conveys our financial management strength and
marketability. Our position in the bond market is driven by this rating
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and our ability to borrow money for projects at lower rates shows us to
be both long range thinkers and fiscally responsible.
[recognize Woody for debt policy leadership; round of applause]
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And we're moving the bar; we're leading the way in responsive
government and providing value for tax payer dollars. As a county we
strive to be accountable, innovative, display stewardship, integrity and
professionalism.
1 Economic development, education, and the health and safety of our
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community; these are our responsibilities as community members and
leaders. These are the hard decisions that face each of us as we try to
provide the best and brightest environment and future for generations
to come.
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A lot has changed since 1967, and in the blink of an eye our children
and their children will be looking back on our actions as they reflect on
a community, I am sure, that will change many times as it has since my
first days here.
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It is our responsibility to lay the ground work for the opportunity, the
chance, that New Hanover County will be a successful and joyous place
to do business, raise our families, generate some of our fondest
memories, and call home.
I'm looking forward to the next 50 years to be just as amazing as the
last with the best of those years starting right now.
It is my honor to be part of this community, this board and to serve as
your County Commission Chairman alongside the very capable men and
women working to make this county the very best place it can be.
Thank you for spending this time with us this evening and as always,
thank you for your interest in your County government.
Good night and God bless.