RAEFORD — The Hoke County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, January 17, with various contracts and financial matters on the agenda.
The board of commissioners was first presented with two requests for releases from deferred property taxes.
The first request was from Peggy Johnson, asking to be released from four years of deferred taxes totaling $10,389.43.
“I sent her a notice because she had sold another piece of property that was in PUV,” said Acting Assessor Mandi Davis. “I ended up auditing her because her application was out of date, and we didn’t have a forestry management plan on file. I sent the first notice in July 2021 and gave her six months, then I sent a second one in December 2021, and I still didn’t receive any response. Then in September 2022, I billed it because I still had no response. Mrs. Johnson came in November of 2022 and requested that the taxes be released.”
The second request was from Randall Distel Jr., asking to be released from $3,566.48 of a deferred tax bill from a property he purchased that was in PUV. He ended up being billed because he missed the 60-day limit to reapply for continued use.
“I bought this land on March 25 of last year,” Distel said. “The reason was that my father-in-law had gotten sick from a stroke, so we wanted to move back to Hoke County to just be close to him. So we bought this land, and then three days later, he passed. As you probably know, it was chaotic. I had to take care of my wife to make sure she was okay, and so the 60 days elapsed, and it was honestly my fault. I take full responsibility… I thought I had reapplied for the program, but it turns out I didn’t.”
After hearing both requests, the commissioners voted to release both sets of deferred taxes.
“I will say, in watching county governments, it is not normal for counties to be as receptive to their residents in understanding that we all can make a small mistake,” said Chairman Allen Thomas, Jr. “I hope it doesn’t go on deaf ears that we recognize that we all make mistakes.”
The board then heard a request to purchase real property from the county’s surplus.
“We have one new bid on a property off Hamilton Drive, which is off of Aberdeen Road near Lake Elizabeth Road,” said Clerk Gwen McGougan. “ It’s been on our books since 2019, and the minimum bid is $5,658.66. That’s what the county has in it, but the 75% is $4,244, and she’s bid $4,300.”
After a suggestion from Chairman Thomas, the board approved the sale of the land in order to help get it off the county’s books, and there will be a 10-day period where an upset bid may be submitted.
The board then gave final approval to the sale of two surplus properties which had already been through the necessary 10-day potential upset bid period.
One property off of Cheer Lane was sold for $3,033.16 to Briarwood Family Group LLC, and the second property off of Vass Road was sold for $3,114.96 to Lakisha Graham.
The board then approved three contracts presented by the Hoke County Health Department.
The first contract was for an additional $50,000 for an additional peer counselor position in conjunction with the Hoke County Sheriff’s Department.
“This is in relation to the Opioid funding that we had during COVID times to reduce substance misuse in the detention centers,” said Health Director Helene Edwards. “That program’s been going very well, and Sheriff Virgil has requested another $50,000 to staff another peer counselor in the jail to work with the inmates. We do have that funding through the Justice Grant. When it was initially approved, it was for two people, and so now the jail has the two people, and it’s working very well.”
The second contract was for a Community Health Worker to act as a bridge between the community and the Health Department.
“This person would be based in the Health Department and would actually work with resource allocation and with people that do have substance abuse issues,” Edwards said. “Working in our health department and our clinic with anybody that is identified as having issues. It’s just another way that we can spend the money in a reasonable way as this grant fund will end May 31 of this year.”
The final contract was with Maxim Healthcare Staffing to help staff the Health Department.
“Maxim Healthcare Staffing, Inc., is based in Fayetteville, and they provide nurses that do public health work,” Edwards said. “There is a nursing shortage around our nation, but at the health department, we’ve had a loss of nurses since November, a couple each month. We just hired two nurses since Christmas, but we’re looking to use this staffing agency to work with our COVID funding to provide services at the Health Department. This funding is state funds that’ll end May 31, so it’s a way to have some nurses working with us until that time as we try and search and find other employees.”
Finally, the board heard from Attorney Angelica McDonald, whose nonprofit had secured the funding and supported the Hoke County Teen Court program for the last four years but is now requesting that the county absorb the responsibilities for supporting it.
“Last July, I came and talked to you all about the county taking on the Teen Court Program,” McDonald said. “My nonprofit has been running the Teen Court program for the last four fiscal years, and now that it is basically a state-mandated program, I felt like it would be best for the county to take that over.”
The county would take on the responsibility for applying for funding through the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council and will work to help secure a space for the Teen Court to take place.
“We need Teen Court in Hoke County,” said Commissioner Harry Southerland. “Because a lot of our kids need second chances. A lot of us are second-chance kids. There’s no question of whether or not we need Teen Court, because we do.”
“Giving our youth who commit small, petty crimes a chance to not go through our criminal justice system and actually be tried and judged by their peers, I think, is a program that should be taken under the county’s wing,” Thomas said. “We’ve seen over the past two years that they’ve received grants that cover the necessary positions.”
The Hoke County Board of Commissioners will next meet February 7.
