2019-02-04 State of the County Exhibit
Book X4-4 Page • I,
2019 State of the County
Vice-Chairwoman Olson-Baseman will provide a few welcome remarks and introduce you...
Thank you, Julia; and thank you to everyone who has gathered here to
hear the State of the County and who is watching from home.
I am truly humbled and honored to stand before you as Chairman of your
Board of Commissioners to give our 2019 State of the County address.
I have served as a Commissioner for a little more than ten years now and
have been blessed to serve as chairman four times. Each year that goes
by, I am more impressed by our public servants and what they do for our
citizens, the innovative work that our staff is accomplishing, and the
difference we are making in our community.
I believe in New Hanover County, I believe in our county government's
vision and goals, and I believe in all of the people whose passion and care
are driving us forward.
Those people are the 1,700+ employees who work every day to make
our county and community better. I'm telling you — these are some of
the most dedicated and passionate men and women you'll ever meet.
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They put others before themselves and they serve all of us with care and
quality. They are the best and the brightest, with an inspiring
commitment to public service.
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I speak on behalf of my fellow Commissioners when I say that we feel
privileged and honored to serve alongside all of the incredible county
employees, working each day to make life in New Hanover County the
best it can be.
My fellow Commissioners are here with me today, and I want to
recognize each one of them:
o Vice-Chairwoman Julia Olson-Boseman
o Commissioner Patricia Kusek
o Commissioner Woody White
o Commissioner Rob Zapple
These are passionate and committed men and women and I feel honored
to serve with them. They put so much time and effort into guiding our
county, supporting staff, and setting priorities. Please join me again in
thanking them for their service to New Hanover County. <<Chairman
LEAD ROUND OF APPLAUSE>>
I also want to recognize the many elected officials and community
leaders who have joined us today as we reflect on the past year and
celebrate what is to come. I appreciate their partnership and their
support of New Hanover County. <<Read names provided by Kym>>
Thank you again for being here tonight and for all that you do for our
community day in and day out.
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And I want to thank some of our county staff who, administratively, make !:
our work possible:
o County Manager Chris Coudriet
o Clerk to the Board Kym Crowell
o County Attorney Wanda Copley
Thank you for listening to us, for serving with us, and for keeping us on
track — you and your teams are the backbone of what we do as a Board
of Commissioners.
And, most personally for me, I want to thank my father, three-term
former New Hanover County Commissioner, Jonathan "Joe" Barfield, Sr.,
for inspiring me to lead, and his wife Janice. I also want to thank my wife
of 30+ years Laura and our girls for their tremendous support and great
doses of reality at times. They remind me that when I am at home I am
not Commissioner Barfield, I'm just dad and just the husband. I am
grateful to each of you for your support.
It is with, and because of all of you — and I mean all of you —that we have
been able to accomplish so much this past year.
This speech could be hours long, and I could list every single thing our
departments and our county have accomplished over the past year But
I'm going to spare you those hours, and just give you a snapshot of some
of the most notable things your county government has done on behalf
of its citizens. And that way you can get home for dinner!
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We started the year by adopting a new five-year strategic plan that is
helping to guide our work and set our priorities of intelligent growth and
economic development, superior education and workforce, and superior
public health and safety. Those are the pillars for our work and it brings
the vision of your Board of Commissioners to life in real and meaningful
ways.
Over the past three years, we have received 22 awards from the National
Association of Counties for innovation because our departments, our
public servants, are aligned with our strategic plan and working every
day to serve our community in new and better ways.
This year alone, we received six of those national awards:
• Community Justice Services won for their case management
program that helps our most vulnerable families increase their self-
sufficiency,
• Our Public Library won for their Fiction to Fashion event, and the
way it teaches teens about the value of library resources and the
fashion industry,
• Fire Rescue won for their pilot program that helps to reduce
emergency response times,
• The Senior Resource Center won for their short-term home
delivered meals program that serves seniors who are recovering
from an illness or surgery and they also won for their innovative
nutrition program that provides healthy eating education to
seniors and utilizes an herb garden that participants help to
maintain,
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• And last — but certainly not least —the Sheriff's Office won for their
Communityl Program that bridges the gap between jail and the
real world to reduce recidivism and help residents succeed.
• Communityl and Fire Rescue's pilot program also received
statewide awards for their innovation.
Those are some incredibly powerful programs and it shows you how New
Hanover County is a leader in the nation and the state.
We have also succeeded in making extraordinary commitments to
education through increased funding to our public school system,
including funding three additional Pre-K classrooms. At our Cape Fear
Museum, we increased children's activities and tripled the attendance in
our Pre-K programs. And we implemented CLASS Project — which puts a
library card in the hands of every New Hanover County School student.
We are close to completing the new Pine Valley Library in the Spring,
which will be a library for the future and a space for children to learn and
grow.
Our community's growth means New Hanover County must evolve with
it and continue to improve our services. With that in mind, we have
constructed a new state-of-the-art Ogden Fire Station, which will be
ready to serve our community in just a few short weeks.
Last year we broke ground on the new Public Health and Social Services
building. This building will bring these two agencies, and all of the
programs they offer, under one roof providing convenience for our
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clients and creating efficiencies in the public health and human services
we offer.
Our commitment to public safety and school safety led us to add more
school resource officers and school health nurses this past year— so they
are available at every school — as well as additional mental health
providers in our schools.
We also increased funding for our Sheriff's Office to expand programs
and continue their diverse work across our community. Our Sheriff and
his team are truly incredible, and this past year their work won them
National Accreditations because they received reaccreditation from the
Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies and National
Accreditations for the Detention Facility. They are the best of the best.
Our Community Justice Services Department was commended by North
Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein citing New Hanover County as one
of the most effective and cost efficient models of Pretrial Release
Services across the state. This means that people who are awaiting trial
can be monitored and don't have to be in jail, and we can connect them
with services and resources that can help prevent future interaction with
the judicial system.
We also focused on improving the quality of life in our community and
helping residents enjoy this beautiful place we live in.
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We can see this progress in new parks amenities, walking trails, and the
purchase of land at Echo Farms for a public complex that includes clay
tennis courts — which is a great partnership with the City of Wilmington.
Thank you again to the City of Wilmington for that great partnership.
New Hanover County Commissioners helped to make big strides for our
employees and, through the work of Human Resources, successfully
implemented a minimum living wage for all county employees. No one,
no one, who serves our residents full time will make less than $31,200 a
year or $15 an hour. We are putting our money where our mouth is, and
being the example for our community because it is so important that not
only our employees, but all residents make a livable wage.
Our Environmental Management Department continued to provide
innovative solid waste management, adding a new food waste
composting service to our citizens at no charge and completing the
construction of a new landfill cell. This is the first cell in an expansion that
will add 65 years to the life of the landfill.
And, as of today, we have launched a new permitting software called
COAST that will create more efficiencies for our development community
to obtain permits, begin projects and make it even easier to do business
with New Hanover County.
Over the past few years, our county has become a regional leader on a
few key issues - namely, the opioid crisis, GenX, and hurricane recovery.
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New Hanover County has set the tone and pace of forward movement
for our region, and we have embraced this role and excelled.
Solving problems has been our primary focus and guiding principle, and
the results speak for themselves.
We have taken the lead and worked to combat the opioid epidemic by
funding TIDES, an evidence-based treatment service for pregnant
women with opioid use disorder. We also continued work to fight the
suppliers of these opiates in our lawsuit against manufacturers. This
lawsuit has gained national traction and is a strategy other communities
across the nation are following to address the opioid epidemic. And we
are working to bring an innovative and much-needed opioid treatment
facility to our community called Healing Place that will have 100 beds for
men who are struggling with substance abuse.
When we learned about GenX in our residents' water supply in 2017, we
tackled the issue head-on to hold Chemours accountable. Those efforts
continued throughout 2018 and to today, as we work to get our residents
the clean water they deserve. It's one of the most critical issues facing
our community's public health, and your Commissioners and our Public
Health Department have been out front on this issue and will continue
to be.
And none of us can soon forget Hurricane Florence, which left its mark
on New Hanover County as it made landfall on September 14th this past
year.
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It devastated many in our community, flooded homes, tore roads apart,
shut down businesses for weeks and even months. But it also brought us
together as we worked, hand-in-hand, to serve those who were
impacted.
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There were over 1,500 county employees who stayed behind to serve
and protect our residents during one of the most difficult times in our
recent history.
They worked tirelessly, 24/7, for 13 days in the County's Emergency
Operations Center and at six county-operated shelters. They quickly
reacted to a variety of unforeseen events, took care of county facilities
like the buildings were their own homes, and they took care of each
other like family.
As I went from shelter to shelter, I saw men and women working for
three or four days straight, without the ability to change clothes or go
home to take a shower in their own home. Without the ability to sit down
at the dinner table with their loved ones just to say a prayer and break
bread. I saw so many in our communities and our county employees
sacrifice their time and energy on behalf of the citizens of our
community. To me, it really touched me deeply to know how much our
employees care about this great community that they live in
As the storm lingered over our area, the county set up a Base Camp that
housed more than 500 first responders from about a dozen agencies.
This was an incredible undertaking, led by Beth Schrader, our Chief
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Strategy Officer, that converted the former Sears store into a home for
these men and women who were helping our community.
New Hanover County Fire Rescue was among those agencies that helped,
making more than 350 rescues in the harrowing floods that impacted
many of our neighbors.
We served more than 1,000 residents in our local shelters and those
state-wide, helped to coordinate large-scale donations coming into the
community, and set up points of distribution for residents to get basic
necessities — water, meals ready to eat, and tarps.
The care and coordination that your county showed through it all was
truly remarkable. I remember walking to our Emergency Operations
Center one day and watching the folks again working with our
management team, looking at Steven Still, who I call him Superman. He's
our Emergency Management Director. How in touch and in tune he was
leading in a very calm manner to make sure no one got too excited but
everyone knew what was happening through Hurricane Florence.
Steven, thank you for all that you do, and thank all the employees for
what they did for our community.
And I saw each one of my fellow Commissioners during this time —
supporting staff, always eager to help, and showing true care and
compassion. I want to especially recognize Commissioner Woody White,
who did a tremendous job of leading the county, and being a calm,
reassuring face every day in those live briefings. I enjoyed seeing you on
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TV every day and it kept me up to speed as well. Our community was
looking to us for guidance, and I am proud of how we responded and the
sincerity we showed. And Woody, thanks again for your leadership.
Following the storm, we transitioned our Base Camp into a Community
Recovery Resource Center that was unlike anything that had ever been
done before, here locally or anywhere in the nation.
At our resource center, we assisted more than 15,000 families through
the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; collaborated
with community agencies to provide relief assistance, case management,
housing resources, job training, food and clothing vouchers — and even
pet therapy— all in one place. And we partnered with the Salvation Army
to continue providing supplies weeks after Hurricane Florence.
We made sure that our Resource Center was co-located with FEMA to
ensure our residents could come to one place to get the services they
needed.
And if you visited the center while it was open, you saw the amazing work
being done. During those nine days of full operation, we served more
than 21,500 residents. That's 10% of the county population.
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We began collecting debris as soon as it was safe after the storm, and —
after nearly four months of collection — picked up 1,246,902 cubic yards
of vegetative debris and 77,057 cubic yards of construction debris in the
unincorporated areas of the county. That is more debris than we've ever
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picked up in the past, and it shows how much damage our community
sustained.
Our Building Safety Department issued 1,400 repair permits for free after
the storm until December 31St. Our Planning staff developed a
Temporary Housing code amendment to allow for rapid deployment of
RVs and modular units for people displaced from their homes.
I say all of this to show you how great the need was, and still is; and how
your county government proactively responded to provide our residents
with the help they needed.
After the initial days of the storm, we opened a Hurricane Florence
Recovery Coordination Office, which is unique to most governments
after a disaster. It tells me, and it should be reassuring for you, that New
Hanover County is here for our residents long after disaster strikes.
We are helping to guide folks through the arduous process of grant
programs, FEMA assistance, and so much more. We are making sure that
our residents get the help they need and deserve. And it's not something
that happens overnight. It will indeed take time, but one thing's for sure
that we have: New Hanover County, our staff, will be here and will help.
We continue to work with our community partners and our elected
officials to ensure that our residents, our community is prepared for the
next disaster. We will be even more prepared, so that we can be even
more resilient when the next storm comes our way.
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The year ahead of us looks exciting and full of new potential.
We will focus more on affordable housing, which in the months after
Hurricane Florence, the need has been brought even more to light. New
Hanover County will work to make this a priority, and to partner with
local nonprofits to ensure residents in our area have the opportunity to
live affordably and within their means.
We will continue to work with New Hanover Regional Medical Center,
your county-owned hospital, to ensure that our region's healthcare
needs are met.
And as our county grows, we will grow with it
New Hanover County remains committed to economic development
through partners like the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce,
Wilmington Business Development, Wilmington Downtown Inc., and our
ILM Airport—which had a historic year adding a new airline, new nonstop
flights, and over 1.7 billion dollars in economic impact for our region.
Thank you Julie Wilsey for your great work for our community.
We will continue to explore the possibility of Project Grace —
redeveloping our downtown block into a mixed-use area with our
downtown library and Cape Fear Museum located together.
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And my fellow Commissioners and I will bring our county's legislative
priorities forward in both Raleigh and Washington, advocating on your
behalf.
We will push for a dedicated funding source to keep sand on our
beaches, and pursue legislation that increases funding for the state's film
grant program and encourages expansion of the film industry.
New Hanover County will keep the opioid crisis in the forefront of our
public health priorities. We will continue to work to address drinking
water quality. And we will continue to advocate for our children, for their
education, and for our schools.
Our strategic plan — our priorities of intelligent growth and economic
development, superior education and workforce, and superior public
health and safety — will continue to guide our work.
We recently held the first of two budget work sessions, and those
priorities were at the forefront of our conversations. Each of your
Commissioners believes in our county's goals and understands the
importance of our work.
And because of our strong financial position as a county, we do not
anticipate any type of a tax increase for our residents in next fiscal year's
budget. And I know we are all pleased about that!
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Again, I want to thank you all for being here tonight and for being a part
of your county government. Also would like to recognize a few other
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folks here with us tonight. <<look toward Kym and she will let you know
if there are additional officials to recognize>>
We are one board, committed to you And I look forward to the year
ahead as we work together, as we collaborate and deliberate, and as we
accomplish great things for New Hanover County and the community we
love.
<<Allow for round of applause>>
Thank you very much for being here tonight. We will take short break,
and then I invite you to join us in twenty minutes right next door in the
Andre' Mallette Training Room for our Board of Commissioners meeting.
The State of the County is strong. God Bless.
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