County staff on Nov. 3 previewed a public-facing financial dashboard and provided updates on several human-service items affecting residents.

The county manager reported that federal SNAP (food nutrition services) funding had been suspended beginning Nov. 1 and said county staff are coordinating with partner agencies to identify resources for affected households; the county manager said nearly 12,000 Alamance County households are impacted. The manager also reported that WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) funding had been secured through November with the state filling gaps for the short term.

The county has invited VIA to the Nov. 17 meeting to discuss the behavioral-health center and related resources, the manager said. The manager also corrected a previously reported grant request amount for a transit operating-assistance program: staff confirmed the requested amount is $239,142 and that no county match is required.

Rebecca from the Budget Office previewed a ‘‘beta’’ version of a public financial dashboard that will initially publish the county general fund on a quarterly cadence. Rebecca said the dashboard will pull data directly from the county’s Munis financial system and present revenue and expenditure summaries, department-level spending, and performance measures; the launch will be phased, with the landfill enterprise fund and special-revenue funds added in later phases. She said the team plans an instructional landing page and an email-based question function for public follow-up and expects a live link from the county website soon (staff targeted a live link around Nov. 10 during the presentation).

Commissioners provided layout and usability feedback — including a request to place a bold “Questions” tab in an obvious location — and suggested future comparisons to pre-COVID years to help readers evaluate trends. Rebecca said the dashboard will not publish live transactional data but will be refreshed each quarter after internal verification to protect data accuracy.

What happens next: staff will complete the phased rollout, take commissioner input on layout and performance metrics, and publish the general-fund dashboard first, followed by additional funds in later quarters.