Votes at a glance: Columbus County schedules budget hearing, approves school parking funds, contracts and settlements

The Columbus County Board of Commissioners on May 19 accepted the proposed FY 2025–26 county budget for advertisement and set a public hearing for a date in June 2025, and approved a series of routine and substantive motions including school project funding, connectivity for the new 9-1-1 center, a PFAS settlement, and a software contract for Environmental Health.

The board voted to accept the FY 2025–26 proposed budget document and set a public hearing for June 2025 at 6:30 p.m. (the meeting record supplied “Monday, June 2025 at 06:30PM” but did not specify the calendar date). County Manager Eddie Madden presented the budget materials and confirmed the public hearing schedule.

Other items the board approved by voice vote or unanimous consent included: - Use of North Carolina lottery funds and the associated budget amendment to pay for the McConaughey Middle School parking lot (Superintendent Adam Thompson requested the item). - Authorization for the transportation director, Joyce Jacobs, to sign pre-application documents for an NCDOT grant (FY275311 grant referenced in the packet). - Permission and a $1,000 special-appropriation budget amendment to allow the Denver City Chamber of Commerce to possess and display fireworks at South Columbus High School for an event; the director requested the permit and appropriation. - Approval of the county’s required open noise settlement resolution and budget for FY 2025–26; staff said the detail is in the meeting packet and that expenditures are administered consistent with the attorney general’s requirements for handling settlement funds. - Approval of a contract with MCNC for fiber connectivity to support VIPER radios and redundant Internet for the new 9-1-1 center; Interim Emergency Services Director Kaye Stevens said the connectivity will be paid with a 9-1-1 grant and a separate gift grant. - Approval of the 3M PFAS settlement presented by County Attorney Amanda Prince. - Approval of the first reading of a revised depreciation schedule (finance director Heather Woody said the change stems from auditor recommendations and extends useful lives for infrastructure assets in enterprise funds). - Approval of an amended budget ordinance and fee schedule in advance of a software conversion for the collections/utility billing system (finance staff described a temporary shutdown of the old online bill-pay and a 2–4 week window before the new system’s online payments are expected to resume; convenience-fee rates were unified and reduced in the new schedule). - Approval of various budget amendments and project ordinances (items 21 a–m, including increases to fines/forfeitures and ABC distributions, airport paving, veteran-services grant acceptance, and an environmental-health software contract to Tyler Technologies that staff said is grant-funded and time-sensitive). - Approval of funding for detention-center meals and related budget amendment (Captain Robert Creech requested the item). - Authorization for the sheriff’s office to cover conference-related expenses (annual sheriff’s conference travel authorization). - Approval of the Columbus County Water and Sewer District resolution for the local water-supply plan during the combined district meeting.

Where the record shows a motion and second, the clerk recorded motions made by named commissioners and the board passed items by voice vote with the clerk’s “Aye” confirmation; specific roll-call tallies were not given in the minutes distributed at the meeting. For example: the motion to accept the proposed FY 2025–26 budget was moved by Commissioner Bullard and seconded by Commissioner Scott Floyd and passed on voice vote.

Next steps and public notices Staff said the proposed budget and ordinance will be available for public review prior to the June hearing. Several contract approvals were marked as grant-funded and time-sensitive; staff told the board that some grant funds will be forfeited if the county does not spend them within the stated grant windows and urged prompt contract execution.

Items approved at the meeting did not include line-item roll-call tallies in the oral record; where a formal roll-call is required or recorded in future minutes, staff indicated they would provide the itemized vote.