here we come to the
much U awaited 9A approval of the sports complex Mr
Smith I I'd like to make a motion that we table this until such time as we can get
um public hearing or some manner that would let the people that are all right
we have a motion do we have a second second all in favor I I all opposed I uh
so 43 I say that okay so we going to hear
the discussion yes oh so 3 four okay yeah am I right
yep all right so Mr Smith if you would like to uh lead some of these answers
off these people been sitting here all night so I think they need some answers sure um let me get Thomas to come up
I'll need him for some of the comp things but I actually found some and I think one of them is may have been the
folks he were using um I sure can
so I just found in F folks have put out a periodical
called Community playmaker in 2023 Rocky Mount which everybody knows Rocky Mount North Carolina has an event
center that generates $15 million of economic impact for 165,000 sqt facility
this was someone's question earlier about comps and I know you've got some others from South Carolina they generate
77,000 people a year uh coming through the facility and they only have a 53,000
people liveing the living in the uh living in Rocky Mount they spent $41
million on the facility um part of it being debt related and part of it being a grant and
they did raise taxes slightly I guess it didn't say whether to fund it for operating or to build it Rocky Top
Sports World in Gatlinburg Tennessee which Gatlinburg I guess has a nonseasonal population of just just
under 3600 people um spent $56 million in
2022 on a facility that they have there that generates 12 million visitors a year and it's a joint venture between
the city of Gatlinburg and the county and it generates $46 million of economic
impact so I found those two and I know Rocky Mount was one that you guys had looked at but you had some others from
South Carolina um so I'll let him do that in just a seg but let me I do have the questions wrote down they're not in
any particular order were and as the folks came up and spoke um youth tourism
Youth Sports tourism in 2015 was valued spending at $9.5 million in 2021 it was
$40 million the one that I noticed that I don't have a a great answer for is the
notification piece there there is no law here that we had to notify anyone of the meeting you know we did I mean I was on
TV twice about this and we've talked about this I think in three or four public meetings so we don't send notices
out you know there's no zoning change or anything like that so that's the one that I don't have the greatest answer
for the rest of them I got got down pretty pad um we we don't have to put
this out for a vote for Citizens because we're not borrowing money for this we're paying for this with cash and I'll
explain where the cash is coming from in just a minute so if we were borrowing money or going to do a bond or something
of that nature that would be probably even if we were going to put out a bond there's two two types of bonds there's
bonds where we can ask the citizen to pledge the tax rate as the backing for the funding for that that would be voter
approved there's bonds that we can sell the gentleman on the corner mentioned capacity of debt falling off we don't
run deficit spending like the federal government so we pay a mortgage the
federal government's not paying their mortgage that's why they're running a deficit and the deficit adds to the debt
and I know you guys have seen the 41 trillion or whatever they show on the news so that's how you go in the hole in North Carolina we're not allowed to do
that so we have to have a balanced budget and we have to make sure part of that budget is dedicated to paying our
debts every year so there is no deficit spending I don't I don't remember how
that got brought up but that doesn't that's not that's against the law in North Carolina um so where did the
source of the funds come from during the covid eror and those of you that probably saw me on the news I
mentioned that covid fun money I did that for a reason because two pots of money came to us during what I call the
covid err and always when I go on TV I always want to make sure my mama can
understand me in Thomasville then everybody has got it I did not want to go through with a news spot on explain
the difference between covid rules of covid money and what they refer to and you you all may have remembered this
arap money the American Rescue plan act $33 million came to this County from the
American Rescue plan act from the federal government there were rules for spending and one of the ways you could
do it was you could take those funds and you could pay pay for your personnel cost in your general fund and then take
your county dollars out and use it for anything you needed to use it for it was
called Revenue replacement and basically what they were doing was they were saying County we've
locked you in hostage for two years so we're going to allow you to take all the money that you lost and if you want to
quote unquote wash it and you use our money for personnel you can take your
money out and use it for what you need to some jurisdiction chose to spend those dollars on giving out raises or
adding staff and Etc and some of those jurisdictions have now gotten caught with and I'm not saying them all but I
see it a lot where some of those jurisdictions have now gotten caught with okay we added things and now we
don't have the grant money so we have no way to pay for it we chose not to do that we chose to move it to the quote
unquote rainy day fund and set it there not for this project initially and I'll
touch on that just a second and so along with that came a reval in 2021 that took
place starting in our fiscal year 2022 every year in North Carolina you
have to do a property revaluation every eight years by law you can do it sooner
but you have to do it within every eight years we've always been on an 8year cycle and we've always been at 54 Cent
tax rate the last rev Val we done when I got here 10 years ago was basically the property values didn't grow it was
pretty much flat what we call Flat zero so we didn't adjust the property tax rate because there was no T no reason to
and the theory behind that is if your property values grow you're allowed to lower the rate by the same proportion
and you generate the same amount of money and your bill doesn't change does that make sense all right so the
legislative piece of that act comes here with this board it's setting the tax rate they have no control over your
value so your value will Ascend based on markets and we will assess it and then
we bring the assessments and they set the rate now the one we're going the one we did in 2021 housing prices were
starting to go up and we decided then we probably need to get ahead of this and go ahead we
were already getting pressure from the state North Carolina saying you need to do a property re reevaluation you need to do a property revaluation so we
decided to go ahead and do it sooner do it on a six-year cycle we did it but
property values kept ascending so 15% growth in property values at that time
is going to generate more funds for the county we did not change the rate down we decided we had these big major
projects the jail being one General Renovations and some additional School Renovations and I'll talk about those
too in just a second and some sewer needs so we said all right we're going to be able to put these funds to those
and we're not going to have to raise taxes to do it the houses kept going as
you guys know you see the news every night so now we're in a situation we got to do it again next year because now
we're we've been told by the state of North Carolina your sales ratio is too low you have to do a reval because you
can't you can't do this that may be a different revow that's coming up in 2027 it may be one where this board and
I'm not going to put words in anybody's mouth here tonight because we're a long ways off from that we'll be talking about this a year from now tonight but
this board will have to Grapple with what do they do with the tax rate because I don't I'm not sure you know
John Q sis and I'm a taxpayer as well you know we're allow all that amount of growth with no
issues so that's that's another way that funds got put away in this rainy day
account everybody with me the property revalve from before and the coupling with the arap
dollars so what do you want to spend it on well this board seen a list of projects at least a half a dozen times
over the last year that can be used for a variety of things we did have
Thomasville sewer project that we got got some funds from the state of North Carolina but we've also helped out with that to expand sewer down 64 turn left
and head to Thomasville what will it do it will allow this Basin and cor Corridor over here to
grow so 64 has never been able to grow because it doesn't have sewer now
there's now there's cap ways to handle that there was another project we wanted to do where we wanted to everybody I
don't know if and you all know we have a we have an industrial park at the county MH on the west side of the county over
here it's called the I85 Corporate Center it's where Edgar is located if you've all heard of that okay so there's
other lots to be sold in that Corporate Center and our thoughts were there are other land around there that can be
developed so we had funds come in from where I just described earlier that we said you know what we can work out a
deal with city of Salsbury and we can go across the river and expand sewer that
way so we're not beholden to just one we don't want to own a treatment PL that make sense we just want to be able to
lay lines turn that infrastructure over to somebody to run but we've got capacity to deal with that's how you
grow you can't grow without sewer politically there's some issues there that we need to deal with there's some
land owners in the way that don't want to sell property there's a lot of obstacles that project could be upwards
of $50 million so what we decided to do was take those funds and say you know what or this board has decided at I
don't know two or three meetings ago we'll take those funds and we'll be able to use use them for this project now that's a choice they can make because
again the These funds are free and clear they have no strings on them quote unquote there are funds can be set aside
we already have them on our plan and again it's a plan that I just talked to you guys last Thursday about that I'd
like to see us this is my personal opinion divvy up for school projects and
what I'd like to do is get this board with a facilities committee to come this summer work with the school systems work
with the college it will not be enough money to do everything that they need on their list but it will be a good
starting point with as the gentleman spoke on the end over there when we get debt capacity we already have a budget
pretend it's like a roller coaster with my hand you're paying this much now if we're going to go up just a little bit
for the jail and we already got that covered and then it drops off just like your house mortgage you get 30 years in
it's going to be less right eventually you pay it off and you get the D from the bank and it's over with we are going to be going on a downslide but we
already live on a budget that's this tall when it slides the Gap is the
capacity you can sell additional debt and you're living just like you're living today no tax increase that's
legitimate [Music] numbers now if you go beyond that debt bars you're spending more than you are
today so there's another way that we can sell debt and we can help the schools
and continue this you know game of going on doing that you know the schools capacity at this time
we got 25,000 seats in this County for davidon County Schools we're only using
177,000 in 10 years they're only projected to use 19,000 that leaves a lot of seats and
what that basically means is everything from lexingon North is being utilized
and everything from lexon and South is not that is a conversation the School
Board needs to have about possibly redistricting you don't come to us for a
new school now there are particular schools in this District that have have 100% capacity but the system has
capacity so think about it you wouldn't go want them to come ask this board to
build a new school and spend a new a new Elementary School's law would have cost you 65 or $70
million so somebody would not want to come to say hey why don't you build a new elementary school when you know
you've got you're only using 70% of Your Capacity so there's conversations that
need to be had there and those conversations can have have with this board and with the school board as well
again long as we go through go through those so that's where the money come from that gets that one off the list um
why we didn't do a vote we have done EMS pay someone brought that up about EMS and not that is a state that's actually
a nationwide wide problem um nobody wants to be uh in law enforcement
anymore nobody wants as you know nobody wants to be a fireman anymore nobody wants to be a paramedic anymore so we've
all gotten as actually nobody wants to be in the labor market is shrinking not growing and that's even bigger
macroeconomic problem in other words we've not we've not born babies in this country in the last 50 years so it's not
the calary is not coming we've talked about this in this boardroom before there's no group of people coming to say
I I'll take the spot of everybody that's retiring it just ain't there so as a nation we're as a world if you read the
if you read articles about uh Japan for example or China just introduced a bill
the other day and their whatever you call it their their government agencies or their government Parliament saying they're going to start getting into the
business of incentivizing people to have babies because they just don't have enough people to pay for everybody
that's living so that's going to be a problem Nationwide but we did raise paramedic pay 10% uh two years ago year
and a half ago uh we tried some other things to get people to ride trucks we try to pay for riding program it worked
for a little while it got some part- Tim to ride ultimately we had to go and say all right we're going to have to raise
pay um who did the county buy the property from I mean that's public record off the Deeds it was it's the
Franks family uh down off Highway 8 there so I think I'm allowed to say that
it's again it's on the deed will the will we raise taxes no I mean definitely as you just heard from my Fe there the
construction part of this no the operating piece of it so once it's built you got to operate it right so last week
we talked about this last Thursday based on these size facilities we're talking about and Thomas can touch on the
Staffing someone brought that up in a minute uh you know you got to have a lot of part-time staff so I don't know that
you need the the four full times are kind of the Heavy Hitters of running it you're going to need a lot of part-time
staff for for ground maintenance you're going to have a lot of contract lifeguards all those kinds of things the
estimates and this is coming largely from our Engineers right now you know if it's going to take $2 million to run the
facility I mean $1.6 million to run the facility the expectation is it makes to
two and largely from the pool area as you saw and so that's where you get the
$400,000 uh quote unquote over collection that can be used for someone mentioned about security well there's
you a pot to go to to buy additional security if you need to um roads inside
the park handled by us outside the park probably going to be conversations with do just as we've saw tonight with the
zonings um teacher raises somebody brought that up we did address that last Thursday as well we didn't go now the
state everybody has to remember in this room these are state employees so they get paid their salary comes from the
state but there's supplements that we provide and we had a conversation yes uh
last Thursday about a possible adjustment to local supplements but we're only a small piece so always
remember that when you see on the news about raises for we don't pay their salary quote unquote we're responsible
for a supplement piece um someone they also mentioned Thomas marshburn's going to work 15 more
years so I got that on record I wrote that down hold him to it I thought it was five but uh he's somebody said 15 so
I wrote that's mean this book um and Mr chairman I think that's all um of the issues I wrote
down so if I missed anything let me know no I think you got them all I think so I
took Mr chairman I make a motion that we approve the Sports plex oh let me me pre real quick let me
preface what you have before you sorry I would have been helpful I'm sorry commissioner Elliot All you have before you is what we talked about last
Thursday a project ordinance a capital project ordinance to take the 65 million
from the funds we just discussed which right now is 81 move it into this project so now it's
earmarked what I would Envision is Thomas working with the facilities
committee to come forward with the phasing piece that someone brought forth this you got the earth move and you got
well we got design first of all it's going to take months to get the design part down and then we going you're going
to be coming back to the facilities because this board's going to be involved in all those contracts over and over again but there'll be those in
addition to after design you'll be some Earth moving and we get get part probably started with that I guess here
in warm weather so you know as you're moving through through the phases till you get to construction so I just want all tonight is set the budget project
ordinance with the um notion that Thomas is going to work with the facilities
committee to bring forth those pieces because you know how we are we're going to probably bid them as we go to get value engineering pieces on
this all right we have a motion on the floor yes sir do we have a
second second all right Motion in a second any other discussion yes we're
not going to make one one brief comment if I make just um just just I've got a
lot of constituents last Thursday I was Full Speed Ahead on us I still support the complex my suggestion to briefly
table the decision is not me being against the complex so all my fellow
Commissioners know that all my constituents know that I just had a lot of legitimate concerns since last
Thursday well founded and I thought it was just expedient for me as a
representative of you folks just to say hey let's don't rush it let's maybe take a couple of weeks get your concerns
answered and alleviated and then look at it again that's all I'm saying I do support this but that's I just want my
fellow Commissioners to know what and I hope Casey answered most of the questions I hope he answered all the
questions all that I heard anyhow Matt did you have I do have a statement if that's right okay um so I
I've been a proponent of this for for a while and I've talked about the the positives um again destination for
family and kids Economic Development the revenue it will be generated we went with a conservative estimate I think
personally it'll go beyond that um and then of course how it can be used by the schools those are the positives now I
did similar to commissioner um chip ker here I did take some time over the weekend I looked back at some of our
capital capital Improvement plans from last year some of our budget things and obviously I've been hearing from
citizens as well and I I do have some concerns and so I'm going to take kind of a balanced approach here one of the
concerns is is there going to be um sort of a dramatic disruption in the
Southmont area to the folks who live down there it's very rural and is that something that they you know are going
to be accustomed to and would want the other piece is
and we we talk about this bringing Economic Development and it bringing in
the revenue and again totally agree I think it will I think it could also bring in more
housing developments and that is a concern I have it's a concern in this County I think that a lot of citizens
share and I think a lot of the board members share it too are we prepared to have more neighborhoods shooting up in
that area of the county and then lastly and this is kind of the biggest one for for me right now is is it a good
investment I I think it is again I think it will bring Revenue but is it the best
allocation of these funds at this point in time and for me it's not more
critical than some of the the projects that we have talked about that have been
requests in previous years especially with the schools I'm not talking about a new school but
Renovations and at one point I know that the the North Davidson Public Library
was was on the list I don't think it's on our capital Improvement plan any longer so I I think we just need to make
sure we're prioritizing the things we we need to prioritize in the county again not
saying it's not a a great idea I don't know if Now's the Time to be to be
moving forward with it those are my concerns all right Casey do you want to follow up with that any or are you good
no I mean I do want to say about the capital plan p um because you had asked me that and I think you had asked me well Mr chairman it was in there last
year at the phase one piece and if you remember I brought it to the board on a Thursday morning meeting and we kind of
talked about that and I think majority of you all said no let's let's move on with doing it now so I just want to
point that out it's been in the plan but at the phase one level which was the ball fields piece you start adding the
the quatics piece or that in the quad what we call it the center that's where the game changed but um so it's last
year we ended the fiscal year with it end like that as we moved through the year we've talked about it and that's how we got here so what okay could have
a question um in the capital Improvement plan as it stood last year I think we
had agreed it was about 45 million for for Education right this year it's been
cut to about 33.5 to make all the cash work to get all them projects in you can't have all of it that gets back to
your point about priorities right right and that and that's my concern here again it's not that there's not value in
it um and all these the Commissioners whether they agree or disagree they're all coming from a good place um it's
just a concern that that I have well then one more crept in the lake dredging right that crept in too as well because
you know we've all agreed to do the study and we know there's going to be somewhere along the line a potential I
won't call it an ask or something's going to come so there's there's part of what sephon it off it landed on the list
when it was not there last year so and and we're going to try to get Federal money or some State assistant money with
that we had conversation fre there's a lot of folks on the lake that are looking out there at sandom and and are
looking at us for help you know and again those are taxpaying citizens that pay extra property tax to live on the
lake of B I'm hoping the federal government will come through as we told Senator Jarvis this morning and that alleviates us from doing 10 uh 10
commissioner mael but for right now the plan is always needs to be the worst case scenario and that that's the thing
also we're hearing a lot of rumors from the federal government moving in that you know the state could hold the
education department here pretty soon you know we're hearing that we're hearing about the federal education
department being uh diverted by the president and uh Congress and everybody
moving down to the state that is a real deal that is not just rumors and we
don't know what that's going to look like it could totally change the game for Davidson County state of North Carolina all 100 counties so uh that's
on our preview we don't know how much money that's going to be we don't know where we're going to be in that so
that's one thing that we're discussing board too just to piggyback on what Casey said though so the audience knows
the 10 million we have for the lake Dron is also got to be shared Rowan County
has got to match an equal amount okay so or that that's kind of the the study
that we've done anyway the long term and the cost of that is 30 million so we still don't have enough money there so
hopefully either we can get the federal government to pay all of it uh or some state and federal assistance and again
maybe we get our money back back but those people's been sitting out there for a long time paying high property tax
uh with one foot of water in front of their house so U commissioner
McClure I'm like it's already been said um I think there ought have been more
opportunities for the public uh to have input um how a coach basketball JV for
15 years I'm certainly not against um Athletics and I think that sometime
that that would be a good thing to do I just didn't notice yesterday I don't know whether yall saw
it or not the Down Jones went down 890
points the standard in po went down lower than it has
ever and the NASDAQ went down further than it has ever done and there's
there's talking of recession nobody knows at this point in time
what um president Trump's terrist are going to everybody's guessing but they
don't know exactly what it is and that's another thing that I had said before but
not not against the Plex it's just I think it not
now okay um Karen I'll leave with you next I'm skipping over a few people here
and there so thank you I just wanted to say few things uh and some of it may be repetitive from what you all said but I
wanted to underscore some things in the upcoming budget if I'm supportive and
grateful for the possibility of a significant increase in the supplement to be paid to our teachers and we know
that that's long overdue I was a teacher my my daughter is a teacher and is in
administration now and she can she can speak to it as well but um I'm I'm very
very hopeful about that now on the sports complex I want you to know that I was not on board initially that uh I'm
I'm I'm conservative and I don't say yes and I don't say no but I wait I wait and
think but I've listened and and um I wanted to see and and learn from
everyone including our uh Parks and Recreation director especially
uh the possibility of uh this project on our lives in this County I'm
particularly uh excited about the possibility of schools having access to the facility he's got a plan about the
schools having an access and working out that access particularly in the area of
a the swimming facility uh there's on this complex plan is an indoor pool and
an outdoor pool I can see amilies playing at that outdoor pool I can see
students coming and practicing and having their meets at that indoor pool I
I just think it's fantastic but the public I think is
important what uh this entire facility is going to offer for everybody from the
athletic side which my girls uh were in athletics but just for the fun of it not
for the competition but they would have been able to to have that as well families will be able to use the fields
and enjoy the fields and the general public being able to come to these swimming facilities I spoke uh with some
of my other colleagues about the thomasv Aquatic Center has made such an impact
on the City of Thomasville and people that were never able to be a part of a
pool Community are are there now uh basket I don't think you realize
there's a a building for basketball courts um you know that will enhance the
skills that our students possess we can and I love that one of the gentlemen
said we can look at Contract workers or we can consider using our own local
teens for summer jobs or for after school jobs I think that's
fantastic um I've heard both sides uh we've heard that um and and I think will
be a destination for not only our citizens but outside our community um
some people have complained about the location let me say this I I taught home
home schooled children not taught homebound t uh students when I first
started teaching I had to travel this entire County and that's the reason to
meet the needs of these students that were going to be out of school for a short period of time this this huge
County West and East North and South I learned how big it is and it would be
difficult to find this large a piece of land that may have like this guy said um
track for for for people to uh practice their uh cross country AC cross country
also the possibility of this um RV Park
uh but certainly we look at that in a positive way but um I think we have a
plan that's going to support this plan and the required facilities as well as the needed facilities uh in the in the
years to come the price tag is from for any of us is a large price tag but it's
I I just think it's about our citizens our citizens and our financial
opportunities for the citizen for the people outside our community uh
my my grandchildren moved from Hillsboro to here and they live here now my
grandson was playing soccer he played on these fields all over this County and
they some of them were pretty rough but they were loved and used they are loved
and used um their their children and their grandchildren can can benefit I'm
going to be long gone I'm too old you know I'm going still be here yeah you
might still be here but I know I'll be out out the door but it's it's a long
range plan for a long range good purpose thank you thank you
too long I'm
sorry I don't have just a couple couple things here Mr chairman one I want to
assure Miss hash there's been no discussion about
raising taxes I don't know where that's coming from that's right no discussion whatsoever about raising taxes and I
will not vote for a tax increase um Mike you mentioned something
about the RV parks we have discussed this and there and and unless something changes there is no plans for no
long-term leasing of those sites so one week one week is all there is just put
your mind of easy on that uh we got people to travel every day to from here to go to Dan Nicholas
Park we got traveling teams that travel all over the Eastern seat to go to
tournaments New York amen uh
we got companies that in the past not now in the past have looked at Davidson
County and said that's a nice County but I don't want to go there I don't want to
move my family there because there's nothing to do I mentioned this
Thursday I talked to a highend rep with Walmart and if you like them or not like
them but they're very successful who told me if you want to invest in in
in this County put your money where your resources is because then nobody can
take it away from you we got kids sitting in the classroom wondering what
their future hoes and we got people out here that are opposed to a complex like
this for our children but I full support of a $70 million
jail now come on we got to have to jail so don't think I'm talking against that
but the problem is we're more concerned with that than we are giving our kids a
future for tomorrow and somewhere to go families getting them off the front porch and going to a destination that
they can enjoy and then you got businesses that are barely scraping by
think about what this influx of of citizens coming from different counties
different states coming to our our County and patronizing our business and building more
businesses it's I'm like commissioner wford it's a win-win
situation and as far as putting it off why I got to be honest with you why
we're going to be grading it's going to take it's going to take a couple years to get this thing moving is that not
enough time no sir
no you can we can say I oppose this and I oppose that but you can't really find
a better place to put the money than in our children amen and in our families
you can talk it all you want to talk it but it falls on De ears when you're talking against where the money really
should be and that's our children and what their future holds amen
and we have against all suspicion brought Industries to this County that I
guarantee you have to Citizens don't even have a clue as to what we brought because the newspaper won't print
it you know why because you got seven set Republicans up here and they won't talk good about seven setting
Republicans it's a shame because the people deserve to know what's going on in their County
and and Mr chairman that's all I got to say uh I'm sorry I don't mean to come across
as angry but I I'm passionate about you
know those two coaches sitting back there told it like it is amen they deal with those children every day I know
what they're talking about I know what children need and I hate to say this but I'm
going to tell you anyway I I spent f went through five different foster homes growing
up I know what it's like to be poor and no place to
go and this gives our kids an opportunity an opportunity that they
don't have now we got kids begging for a bowling alley man and to give them something like this and we can speak
against it I I don't understand it but uh I'm
sorry that's just the way I feel and I respect you have to tell you how it felt
Mr chairman I I know I made a a motion but can I comment you comment yeah we
going to comment a little bit too cuz Okay um but you can go ahead and comment or I can't last you ended up um I would
just like to say that you know I'm I'm very passionate when it comes to this subject
um um a a lot of y'all might know Mugsy Bogues well he was he was my dog 's
Godfather um we we took Riley from Atlanta all the way to Indiana she's
played basketball all over the United States and we had to travel and spend money lots of money to go
everywhere uh she is a junior in high school right now and it pains me that
she's probably not going to reap the benefit of this uh but if my grandchild
can if yours can um the probably the biggest statement made
tonight uh coach Samuel when you stood up here and you said the buzz from the
kids immediate right now immediate excitement from the kids not just at Oak
Grove but at leadford at at at North Davidson at Central Davidson the buzz
around our community right now just for a hope to have somewhere that they can go and be proud of and if there's one
thing that I could have a leing legacy because I'm pretty sure all y'all know that uh I'm retiring in two years I'm
not going to run for reelection uh I've enjoyed this it's been the honor of my life but if there's one vote that can
cement my legacy that I can go down and be proud of it is this one tonight so
thank you and I I pray to God that it will be used for
good okay thank youall um I'm going to go back and
U and touch on what commissioner sh said you know we talked about a $65
million sports complex and a 67 million
jail nobody in this audience has asked for a public hearing about the $67 million
jail um a $67 million jail that'll take $2 million a year to run
would help I don't know if y'all know we Supply health insurance for every inmate that's in there we have we're liable for
their health while they're in jail but again where Did
We As Americans kind of get crossed up 65 million for 15 how many thousand kids
177,000 in our system you just said might as well say 2,000 kids well 20,000 kids they got 25,000 seats okay 20,000
kids many kids go to school $65 million for for 20,000
kids um or $67
million for 100 beds come on 100 beds
now I'm like commissioner shell yeah we got to do something with with our inmates I get it it's it's a tough
situation but you know to me I'd probably build a lot less expensive
U um facility uh for
inmates it's just me cuz I'd rather give it to the kids okay that's just me so
again somewhere along the line I don't have kids okay so I'm just telling you what I would do if I had kids here
inmates here I'm going to invest over here it's just what I think we should do
U maybe some of those inmates wouldn't be in there if we' have invested maybe a little bit better when they was younger
who knows you know maybe there's a bus that comes from the inner city of to Ville and and lakes and maybe they can
get some teams together and carry them down on buses and and show them they something different than I get it there's nothing to do on the streets of
of the inner cities so again some of the things we've been doing in the United States for the last 20 years sure we
ain't working okay so whatever it is we can look at it I I think our president's
looking at it now we can send $350 billion do for people to die in Ukraine
but yet we can't 65 million bucks on our kids here uh in Davidson County but
anyhow that's where I'm at again I know the sheriff uh needs some some space for
his inmates and uh I guess that's a society we live in that we just going to
keep getting increased in inmates but anyhow that's where I stand I don't see how we cannot invest in our children so
uh I will uh entertain a vote we have a motion in a second so all in favor say I
I who was the second I'm sorry Karen okay thank you Karen was the second so all in favor I
I any opposed yes three to four the motion
carries so thank you all very [Applause]
much and can I say something in her ears um y'all talk about uh voting
against it or not against it the ones that spoke up here were voting to let
the people talk about it did not vote against it don't pretend to know
what's in my mind okay Fred and don't project don't yes you do you projected
as them what you thought I was thinking thank you thank you all right I just
thank you buddy thank you thank youall y'all have a good night thank you very much I know thank you everybody's
passionate thank you thank you thank
you come on yeah yeah we'll take just a few minutes here we need a little bit of a break thank you thank you very much
thank you thank you we're going to take about a two minute recess okay and turn it into five how you doing