County to hire third-party plans reviewer after Lake Country Soil & Water withdraws

County planning staff told supervisors that Lake Country Soil and Water will withdraw from performing erosion and sediment control plan reviews for the county and will end that service at the close of the calendar year. Staff said the county must secure outside professional support to continue plan review uninterrupted and is already identifying third-party reviewers and gathering cost estimates. The staff presentation named at least two potential contractors familiar with this work and said one local firm that has done work in the county is Hurt & Proffitt of Gretna. Longer-term options discussed included creating a county in-house position, sharing a position with a neighboring locality, or recruiting a recent graduate through a partnership with a university (examples mentioned: Virginia Tech, Virginia State, NC State). Staff noted that other regional localities generally contract the service and that building an in-house capacity might not justify a full-time 40-hour position because annual plan-review workload varies; staff estimated about 20–30 plans reviewed per year but said plan complexity varies widely. Supervisors asked whether neighboring counties might share an employee; staff said they had not yet contacted Brunswick County but that workload there appeared limited. Board members were told staff will have a third-party contractor in place by the end of the year to prevent service interruption and that cost estimates and procurement approaches will be developed so the board can consider a budget proposal for 2026.