Stokesdale Town Council meeting

Sept. 9 / MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

as reported by PATTI STOKES

Mayor John Flynt called the monthly meeting to order. Following an opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, a revised agenda was adopted and Flynt then introduced Jim Albright, director of Guilford County Emergency Services. Fire service district. Albright spoke first about a proposed change in the way the county taxes citizens for fire protection in the Stokesdale fire district. The requested change comes from the county, not the fire department, he explained, and he said Stokesdale’s fire district is one of only two in the county that does not have a service district overlay for fire protection.

Stokesdale Fire District (SFD) charges the third lowest fire tax of any district in the county, Albright noted.

“The pressure we’re seeing (to raise the fire tax) is from declining volunteerism, which leads to a need for more paid staff,” Albright said, adding there is no indication from SFD that it has plans to immediately raise the fire tax.  5  0 to schedule a public hearing for Oct. 14, after which the council will vote on whether to authorize the county to have fire taxation authority over its town limits. Update on pandemic. Albright was then asked to speak about the impact of COVID on the county’s emergency management system. (See related article on front cover.)  5  0; after requesting one correction in the May 13 minutes, those minutes as well as minutes from the Aug. 24 regular meeting and closed session meeting were approved. Republic Waste. At the invitation of councilman Jim Rigsbee, Jorge Fernandez, general manager, and Joe Salamone, area director, operations, with Republic Services, spoke about the company’s services and steps they are taking to improve them. (See related article in News Briefs.) Fire Department. Fire Chief Todd Gauldin said the department responded to 87 calls for service last month; of those, 39 were fire-related and 48 were rescue-related.

As a safety tip, Gauldin advised residents to store fuels away from their home. Gauldin also said anyone needing a smoke detector or help with installing one, at no charge, can come by the fire station.

Interim town clerk Dale Martin said six new water meters were installed last month; 38 meters are on hold; the town processed 37 8-1-1 calls, and population-related info was sent to the state demographer’s office. The Guilford County Emergency Operations Plan is ready for review. Events Committee. Councilman Derek Foy announced the Christmas parade will be held Saturday, Dec. 11, in downtown Stokesdale. Also, a 9/11 ceremony was planned at the fire station on Sept. 11.

Regarding the 9/11 ceremony, Gauldin added that afterward, an Eagle Scout project honoring those who have contributed to the fire department since it was created in 1954 would be unveiled (see p. 35).

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Finance Officer Kim Thacker reported on the general fund and water enterprise financial transactions and balances as of Aug. 31. She also said the town recently received $362,737 from an American Rescue Act grant, and will receive the other half of the grant in 2022.

Thacker said online finance classes she attended in early September, which were offered by the UNC School of Government, were very beneficial.

“It’s nice to know there are resources available when I have questions to make sure we are following statutes and policies and procedures,” she said.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

 Mike Crawford, a Stokesdale resident for 12 years and a candidate for mayor in the Nov. 2 election, said he has been married for more than 48 years, is the proud father of two children, and has worked varied jobs including that of a catalogue manager, stockbroker and business owner. “I know what it means to make The Northwest Observer • Totally local since 1996 a payroll, whether I get paid or not,” he said.

Crawford said the town’s webpage and social media presence can be improved, as well as the town park, and as mayor he would do more to protect existing businesses as well as to attract new businesses to Stokesdale.

“I believe in government, small and limited,” he said. “… I am honest, ethical, and have no ax to grind.”  Vicki White-Lawrence, vice president of Friends of Stokesdale, invited everyone to a candidate open house hosted by the nonprofit on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. All six council candidates are invited, she said, and a table will be set up for each so that citizens may speak with them individually.

White-Lawrence thanked the Northwest Observer for a recent article that helped draw several new people to the group’s monthly meeting the previous evening. She encouraged everyone to learn more about Friends of Stokesdale on its Facebook page.

REZONING

Town Planner Oliver Bass presented a request to rezone 1.15 acres on Lyman Street from RS-40 to CZ-LI (Conditional Zoning – Lighting Industrial). He noted the surrounding properties are mostly industrial or undeveloped. The applicant wishes to open an auto repair/services business, CP Truck and Automotive Solutions, on the property.

No one spoke for or against the request.  5  0 to approve the rezoning request. Board of Adjustment (BOA). After a brief recess, the council reconvened as the Board of Adjustment and heard a request from Danielle and Michelle Kelly, who sought a variance to install an 8-foot-high fence (rather than a 4-foot-high fence, as allowed by the town’s ordinance), about 77 feet from their front property line at 8306 Misty Meadow Drive. After several neighbors spoke in opposition to the variance, the Kellys withdrew part of their request and asked if they could install an 8-foot

fence only around a parking pad where they have trailers stored.  5  0 to deny the variance, based on several findings of fact, including that the Kellys had not demonstrated an unnecessary hardship would result from the strict application of the town’s ordinance. Water line extensions. Regarding extending water lines, Rigsbee asked fellow council members to consider “coming down N.C. 65 before we go jumping on something. Let’s just cover the bases and see if it’s feasible.” Budget amendment. Thacker presented a budget amendment to the budget ordinance for the fiscal year ending June 30, to increase the amount pulled from general funds and Capital Park Improvements by $120,000 so the town can move forward on the purchase of 9.8 acres for $214,000.

To that, Flynt said the council had been trying for a couple of years to add features to the park and the current year’s budget was approved based on $100,000 being available for capital park improvements, which would now be used for purchasing property.  4  1 (Flynt opposed) to approve the budget amendment.  5  0 to request Guilford County allocate $2,927,000 from money it received through the American Rescue Plan; the town would use the money for water projects. Closed session. Council recessed at 10:23 to go into closed session; after returning about 40 minutes later, no action was taken and the meeting was adjourned.

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ICU patient, are unvaccinated, Jim Albright, Guilford County Emergency Services director, told the Stokesdale Town Council at its Sept. 9 meeting.

“Politics aside, one of the things that’s different with this run of COVID than what we saw last spring is the fact that we do have a vaccine available,” Albright said. “And I will tell you that we are seeing significantly less severe illness in the vaccinated. That is just simply a medical statement, not a political statement.”

Albright attended last week’s council meeting to discuss a change in the way fire protection is taxed in the Stokesdale Fire District, but while there he was asked to give an update on the pandemic’s effects on emergency services in the county.

“I’ve spent 35 years in public safety, but never imagined I would be managing a pandemic, and particularly a pandemic that has had as many multiple crescendos and decrescendos as we’ve dealt with over the last 18 months. We are seeing deep impact of COVID in this community at this point,” Albright told the council. “Hospitals are basically at capacity. From an emergency management and EMS side, typically if we had a disaster in this community, we could call for help and there was help coming, but a pandemic impacts every single community, so we have no surge capacity across the U.S., and that’s what’s making this so difficult.

“My employees also are getting sick, and they have family members who are sick,” Albright continued. “And quite frankly, they’ve been working in high levels of personal protection equipment, etc., for 18 months and last month was the busiest month in the history of ambulance service in Guilford County. We typically run 220 calls a day, but instead of around 7,000 calls we ran 8,000 calls. at was about 30 additional calls per day, and when we get to the hospitals, the emergency rooms are literally stacked full of patients.”

On a positive note, there has been a slight dip in call volume in the past week, Albright said.

“Thank goodness!” he exclaimed. “I literally was working employees to a level they had never been worked in the history of EMS.”

While the severeness of illness from the Delta variant is similar to other variants of COVID, it is much more contagious, Albright pointed out.

“You carry 1,000 times the viral load in your nose with Delta than you did with other variants. So, do masks help? Yes, because they cut down on transmission of particle, and by the same token, if you’re wearing a mask it cuts down on your inhalation of particle. It does not save you from getting an infection.”

For non-acute issues, it’s not uncommon for patients to be waiting 12 or more hours before they’re being seen in the emergency room, Albright added, noting that is leading EMS crews to look for other options of care such as urgent care facilities and telehealth.

“From an epidemiology side, part of the conversations around vaccines are that if we can decrease the amount of illness in the community, it cuts down on the mutant viruses that also are generated,” Albright said.

When Councilman Jim Rigsbee asked if Albright could “get those poor ambulance ladies a raise?” Albright responded, “We are actively working with our board of county commissioners right now,” then emphasized that emergency services personnel are overworked these days.

“They don’t get to go home until the work is done,” he said.

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