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Votes at a glance: Forsyth County commissioners approve firefighters, contracts, airport funding and violence‑prevention contract; split bond premium vote
Summary
At its Sept. 25 meeting the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners approved amendments to the FY2026 budget to add five Vienna firefighters, awarded multiple service and construction contracts, accepted airport grant increases and split a bond premium allocation after debate; the Cure Violence contract was approved over one commissioner’s dissent.
Forsyth County commissioners on Sept. 25 approved a slate of routine and project‑specific actions, including personnel funding for a volunteer fire department, several vendor contracts, an airport lighting grant increase and a community violence‑interruption contract. The board also split and separately approved two parts of a bond‑premium appropriation after members requested separate votes on county and schools allocations.
Key actions and outcomes
- Minutes: The board approved minutes for the Sept. 11, 2025 meeting (vote recorded; Commissioner Woodbury participated remotely and cast a vote).
- Agenda item 3 — Vienna Fire Department: The board amended the FY2026 budget to add five firefighter positions for the Vienna Fire Department at a total cost of $334,491 ($66,897 per position). Motion carried unanimously.
- Agenda item 4 — Bond premium allocation: The county received $2,121,992.95 in bond premium from the sale of the 2025 general obligation bonds. After debt issuance costs of $354,368.35, $1,767,624.60 remained. The board debated the percentage split and, after a motion to divide the item, approved amendment A (county share) on a 6–1 vote (Commissioner Woodbury opposed) and amendment B (school/community college shares) unanimously. The final allocation recorded in the item was: county $1,148,955.99 (65%), schools $530,287.38 (30%), Forsyth Tech $88,301.23 (5%). County staff explained the debt issuance costs were assigned across projects and that lower issuance costs increased the schools’ net premium share.
- Agenda item 5 — Medic Staffing Solutions LLC: Approved a contract to provide temporary clinical staff for the Department of Public Health (physician assistants, nurse practitioners, phlebotomists) not to exceed $75,000. Passed unanimously.
- Agenda item 6 — Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings: Approved off‑site testing services for Public Health not to exceed $71,000. Passed unanimously.
- Agenda item 7 — Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods (Cure Violence): Approved a contract to fund a violence interruption program in Police B‑222 (primarily Cleveland Avenue) in the amount not to exceed $273,738.80, concluding 6/30/2026. The board approved the contract; Commissioner Whisenhunt announced he would vote in opposition, citing the city’s reduced participation and geographic concentration of services; vote recorded 6–1.
- Agenda item 8 — OverDrive Digital Inc.: Approved a three‑year agreement for library digital services totaling up to $357,897.57. Passed unanimously.
- Agenda item 9 — SMME Inc.: Awarded contract for a Watershed Dam Strap Grant project not to exceed $203,989. Passed unanimously.
- Agenda item 10 — Smith Reynolds Airport: Accepted additional NCDOT and FAA funding for airfield lighting and signage rehabilitation and authorized a task order to Afcon Engineers and Planners for construction phase services in the amount of $822,128; state and federal grant increases require local matching funds as described in the item. Passed unanimously.
- Agenda item 11 — Farragut Systems Inc.: Approved cloud hosting services for the North Carolina Property Tax System software with a multi‑year cost schedule; passed unanimously.
- Agenda item 12 — Surplus property auction: Declared county personal property surplus and authorized public electronic auction (GovDeals). Passed unanimously.
- Appointments: The board filled multiple advisory‑board vacancies by acclamation and ballot for contested seats; results included appointments to the Commission to End Homelessness, Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, library board and other bodies as recorded in the clerk’s roll call.
- Tax refunds and routine reports: The board approved assessor/collector refunds totaling $3,007.25 and $20,569.18 and accepted July human resources, August financial and fuel surcharge/franchise reports. Motions passed unanimously.
Context and dissent
The most visible dissent concerned the Cure Violence contract (item 7) where one commissioner objected to the city’s limited contribution and the concentration of program activity in a single police precinct. The bond premium debate (item 4) prompted a successful request to split the measure into two votes so commissioners could separately consider county versus school/community college allocation.
Ending: Most motions passed with recorded unanimous support; where divisions occurred the clerk recorded roll‑call votes and commissioners noted they would continue outreach to the City of Winston‑Salem, state delegation and school district as appropriate.
