Pender County presents draft strategic plan; town-hall engagement and grants manager among priorities

Missy Fulton, Pender County's staff lead on strategic planning, presented a draft strategic plan the board will discuss further and asked commissioners to help publicize five upcoming district town-hall meetings tied to the plan.

Fulton said the draft plan grew from an engagement process that included more than 60 participants across five work groups: "more than 30 staff, more than 10 employees from Pender County Schools, and more than 25 other people" she told the board. She summarized the five goals as supporting schools and education, enhancing public safety, strategic growth and infrastructure planning, enhancing public communications and internal development and retention.

Fulton described suggested actions for each goal: boosting annual capital funding that follows the school capital improvement plan, increasing per-pupil support and school staff supplements, maintaining school resource officers and expanding emergency services planning; a five-year business plan for emergency services and station siting; implementing the Imagine 2050 comprehensive land-use plan and reworking the UDO; creating a water and sewer master plan with prioritized land acquisition; standardizing and clarifying agenda wording and producing short informational videos to improve public communications; and reviewing career ladders, benefits and job descriptions to address staff retention.

On funding, Fulton said a grants manager was included as a cross-cutting action item to help identify outside sources and noted an asterisk in the draft: "it's only 1 action item, it's only 1 grants manager, but it is identified under multiple goals." Commissioners asked for a budget-impact section to be included in the plan to show which actions require new county funding and which might rely on external sources; Fulton said she would add that. She also said the next public engagement round would be the first two weeks of October and that she planned five town-hall evenings (one in each commission district) with open exhibits at 5:30 p.m. and a short presentation at 7:00 p.m. on the emergency services merger.

Why it matters: the plan lays out how the county proposes to allocate staff and capital attention for the next several years and identifies municipal coordination, infrastructure priorities and a potential new county grants capacity.

What comes next: Fulton said she will circulate the draft on a survey and web page and will present a revised draft after the October engagement period. Commissioners asked for a budgetary-constraint section to be added and asked staff to quantify how many proposed actions will have fiscal impacts. Fulton agreed to return with those details and bring the plan back for formal consideration later this year.