Cumberland commissioners outline legislative priorities for local lawmakers

With biscuits and coffee in hand, the Cumberland County commissioners on Monday morning handed the county’s representatives in the General Assembly a list of funding priorities that one lawmaker tallied at $151 million.

The board met with the legislative delegation at 8:30 a.m. in the Department of Social Service conference room off Ramsey Street.

Lawmakers attending were Republican Rep. Diane Wheatley and Democratic Reps. Charles Smith and Frances Jackson, as well as Republican Sen. Tom McInnis and Democratic Sen. Val Applewhite. Democratic Rep. Marvin Lucas did not attend.

The delegation met on Friday with the Fayetteville City Council and reportedly will meet with the Cumberland County Board of Education at a later date.

Topping the list for hoped-for funding from the General Assembly are public water service for the Gray’s Creek Water District; mental health; school construction; landfill expansion; environmental health; and homelessness and affordable housing.

The county is looking to develop a public water system to remedy chemical contamination in the Gray’s Creek community’s private well water. The county estimates the total cost for the system at about $130 million.

The first phase of constructing the system — according to Commissioners Vice Chairman Glenn Adams, who briefed the legislators — is identifying a groundwater supply, building a distribution system, and developing a water source. The distribution system would cost about $27.8 million, and developing a water source would cost another $35.5 million for a total of $63.3 million.

Adams said the county already has some of the money: $10 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act; $10 million in the county’s capital improvement budget; $1 million from Cumberland County Schools; and — hopefully —- $15 million from potential grants.

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The county asked the delegation for $27 million to develop a source of water for the entire Gray’s Creek Water District. Adams also asked the lawmakers to work toward ensuring that rural communities with contaminated wells and without access to public water systems have the first shot at getting part of the $62 million in federal infrastructure funding coming to North Carolina.

“The $27 million will get us water. That’s the ‘ask for,’” Adams said.

The priority is to get clean water to Alderman Road and Gray’s Creek elementary schools.

The board also asked the state to boost funding and support for behavioral health services and facilities to help with a growing mental health crisis. Commissioners specifically asked for support for a child crisis center for ages 4 to 17, citing an increase in youths who need placements.

The 24-hour crisis center, according to Adams, would serve children in Cumberland and surrounding counties. It would alleviate having to send children to other parts of the state or even out of state for treatment. Adams said the board is asking for $16 million.

The county also wants more funding for mental health professionals in the 911 call center and for social workers at the public library.

The board next asked for money for a new E.E. Smith High School, which was built in the 1950s. County and school system officials want to build a 255,000-square-foot building to serve 1,600 students, including students from nearby Fort Bragg. The county estimates the cost at about $100 million, which is based on comparisons with comparable schools in North Carolina.

Adams said since the U.S. Department of Defense does not build high schools, Fort Bragg has been involved in discussions about a new E.E. Smith. Adams said the county has been unsuccessful with two grant applications for construction funding and that federal aid to offset the cost of enrolling military dependents in local schools has been steadily declining.

Next on the wish list was $7.7 million to expand the county landfill, which is set to run out of room in seven years. The money would pay for the initial costs of engineering and permitting the relocation of the waste; stream and wetland permits; and other environmental mitigation efforts. Construction would cost another $13 million.

A long-term solution for increasing capacity at the landfill is to acquire city-owned property, referred to as Milan Yard. Getting that land from the city would extend the life of the landfill to 50 years.

Sen. McInnis asked board members why the county does not have access to Milan Yard.

“Because they won’t give it to us,” Adams responded, adding that the county and city are still negotiating over the 67 acres.

Asked how those talks are proceeding, city of Fayetteville spokesman Loren Bymer provided a statement attributed to Mayor Mitch Colvin: “The city continues to explore the options concerning Milan Yard acquisition by Cumberland County. We want to ensure the acquisition of the land is not only beneficial for the county and city but more importantly for the Fayetteville residents in the immediate vicinity of the land. We look forward to future discussions with county leadership.”

Ironically, Adams noted, the biggest user of the county landfill is the city of Fayetteville.

The commissioners also cited a need for help providing services to the homeless and building affordable housing. Board Chairwoman Toni Stewart thanked the delegation for the $1 million the county has already received for a homeless shelter.

The county recently completed a site analysis for the shelter, but the location has not been disclosed. The county will undertake a feasibility study to determine the size of the shelter and services it will provide to determine final construction costs.

Other issues the board brought to the lawmakers’ attention included:

• Extending the deadline for spending $2 million for the Methodist University stream restoration project until June 30, 2025. Cumberland County was allocated the money as directed by the General Assembly in 2021, with a deadline of June 30, 2023, to spend the money.
• Increased funding for public schools and community college capital needs while ensuring that methods used to distribute school capital funding consider the needs of both low-wealth and growing counties.
• Support legislation for clean water funding and regulation of companies that have manufactured PFAS chemicals. Chemical manufacturers producing emerging contaminants such as PFOA, PFOS, and other PFAS chemicals should be held responsible for cleanup and mitigation of pollutants, including their removal from water, wastewater, and landfill leachate.
• Increase the funding that counties receive from the scrap tire disposal tax by sending 100% of that revenue to local governments instead of diverting 30% of it to the general fund. The change would help counties with rising fuel and disposal costs.
• Support additional funding to assist local governments in managing electronics recycling. Not all manufacturers participate as they should in the program, county officials said.

General government

• Advocate that the proposed Interstate 685 between Greensboro and I-95 in Dunn not bypass Cumberland County to boost economic development.
• Expand digital infrastructure and broadband capability to unserved and underserved areas.

Health and human services

• Support legislation to increase the number of state-funded county Veterans Services officers to at least one per county. Cumberland County’s Veterans Services Office has seven staff members and consistently ranks first in the state for distribution of Veterans Affairs allocations.
• Increase state funding for behavioral health services, including dedicated resources for in-patient crisis beds and substance use disorders; specialty courts; help for mentally ill inmates; and community paramedic programs.
• Support expansion of Medicaid as well as provide start-up money to allow departments of social services to prepare for the expansion.
• Support proposed changes to education requirements to qualify as a registered environmental health specialist. The changes would immediately expand the pool of qualified applicants for jobs in local health departments and help with wastewater permit backlogs in many counties, county officials said. Specific changes include removing the one year of experience required for an environmental health graduate.
• Seek additional funding and preserve Women’s and Children’s Health Services Block Grant Funding for local health departments to support critical services for mothers and infants to address infant mortality. Cumberland County has higher rates of teenagers giving birth and infant mortality, and the difference in infant mortality rate between white mothers and Black mothers is wider than the state average, officials said.
• Secure recurring appropriations to address increased demands on local health departments in dealing with communicable and emerging infectious diseases. Local health departments have received $36 million to address communicable disease control, but the finding was non-recurring for two years.
• Increase funding for adult services such as Adult Protective Services, guardianship and adult day care. Salaries for adult services workers are primarily county-funded, and caseloads are increasing as the population ages.
• Support funding for strategies coordinated by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to address the growing number of children with behavioral health needs in the foster care system.
• Fund strategies to stabilize and expand the child care industry amid staffing shortages.

Public safety

• Allow the use of opioid settlement funds to purchase equipment and supplies for first responders to treat people suffering from opioid and other substance abuse. Specifically, it would include the purchase of Narcan, disposable pads for defibrillators and other life-saving supplies.
• Support establishing a payment system for volunteer fire departments that respond to emergency calls on limited-access interstate highways. State troopers respond to calls on interstate, but fire response depends on local fire departments. Rural, low-wealth volunteer departments near I-95 and I-295 in Cumberland County are getting increasing calls, especially in construction zones, officials say. Local taxpayers are bearing the costs of these calls along these highways, especially in zones with speed limits of 65 mph or higher.
• Support funding for the purchase of back-up generators for use at emergency disaster shelters.