By Miles Layton

SWAN QUARTER — Hyde County commissioners on Wednesday night approved amended project budgets, issued tentative awards for multimillion-dollar water projects, advanced a FEMA project ordinance, backed a consolidation of county human services and handled a series of budget adjustments — all after pausing to celebrate county employees who finished at the top of the county’s “Get Moving Challenge.”

The meeting opened with routine leadership selections — Randall Matthews was re-elected as chairman with Shannon Swindell re-elected as vice chair. Congrats!

Get Moving Challenge: county staff step up

Commissioners paused business to hear from Anna Schafer of the health department about the county’s wellness push — Get Moving Challenge.

Anna Schafer described the program as a regional initiative sparked by the Northeastern North Carolina Partnership for Public Health.

“This year saw strong participation,” she said.

“This has probably been the most successful year so far. This has been the fourth time that we’ve held this in Hyde County. We ended up with nine teams in Hyde County — I think it was 40 county employees participating,” she said.

Team results: third place went to The Leftovers with 1.84 million steps; second was Crop It Like It’s Hot with 1.89 million steps; and first place was Slow Motion Ninjas with 1.96 million steps. Schafer singled out top individual performers: “In third place, we had Maria Nunez… She had almost 500,000 total steps. In second place, we have Logan Mooney… she had 620,000 steps. And then finally, the individual with the highest step count was Olga Sadler and she had 786,000 steps. So way to go, Olga.”

Citizen Hyde Academy launches civic education series

Elena Williamson briefed the board on the new Citizen Hyde Academy, a four-week civic education program designed to acquaint residents with county operations through interactive sessions and hands-on projects.

Williamson framed the academy as more than a lecture series: “This is an opportunity to learn about the county government from the inside out. And when I say that, I don’t mean just another boring lecture class, but rather a fun, interactive experience. We will create mock county budgets, hear about projects in the works, enjoy community and more.” She reminded residents the application deadline is looming: “We have an application deadline of December 15th. And you can check out all the flyers and the application itself at our county page.”

Mattamuskeet project requests nearly $7M

Superintendent Melanie Shaver presented a needs-based public school capital fund distribution request tied to the Mattamuskeet Rising project — the school that’s under construction, moving along nicely.

“Yeah. So, this is our look-ahead request with this larger project… This look-ahead request is for $6,967,113.50,” she told the board, describing a short-term funding request to cover upcoming construction phases.

Shaver said visible progress at the site is encouraging: “If you have driven by Mattamuskeet, you’ll see the interior walls of the gym going up. We will have the remainder of our concrete pours completed by the new year, and those tie-ins will be poured as well. You’ll start seeing some steel go up which is really exciting as well.”

Chairman Matthews praised the advancement. “It’s very exciting to see all that. It’s very exciting. Thank you for all the hard work you’ve done of getting the money to do this. You know, I think it’s gonna raise morale. I think it’s a wonderful thing. Thank you.” Commissioners approved Shaver’s look-ahead funding request.

Tax report: collections trending up

Tax Collector Donnie Shumate reviewed November collections and multi-year comparisons. “Collections for the month of November are up $4,651 for the current year, and down $42,804 for the delinquent collections compared to the same month last year. We’re up 2.4 million to current year-to-date collections, and down about $90,000 for delinquent year-to-date collections,” he said.

Shumate noted the county is seeing improvements in delinquent accounts and provided a five-year comparison: “You can see that we are actually 1% higher… than we’ve been in the past five years, as far as current year-to-date collections at this point in time.” Current collection rate stands at 36.02% with $7.7 million in uncollected levies for 2025. After questions, commissioners accepted the tax report.

Major water projects: budgets increased, tentative awards approved

Manager Kris Noble led a trio of project budget ordinances tied to county water system resiliency.

For the Booster Stations Replacement, Rehab, and Resiliency Project, Noble said the county sought to amend the ordinance after securing additional DEQ funding. “We originally received $1,444,275… we were awarded a second pot of money to total $3,379,787,” Noble said. The board approved the amended PBO to reflect the new total.

The companion Water Tank Rehabilitation & Resiliency Project also saw a modest increase. Noble said the amended total revenue and expenditure will be $1,494,203, and commissioners approved the change.

Noble also sought adoption of a PBO for the NCDPS Division of Emergency Management FEMA Project — a state-centric residential elevation project for Ocracoke Island. The ordinance recognizes $3,228,019 in FEMA grant revenue and authorizes the county to account for a small amount of local reimbursable expenditures tied to the project.

Following budget approvals, commissioners considered tentative awards. Noble reported that Green Engineering identified A.C. Schultes of Carolina as the lowest responsible bidder for the booster station work with a total bid of $2,957,416 and D & M Painting as the lowest for the tank rehab at $1,312,000. The board approved issuing tentative awards to both firms, contingent on final DEQ approval.

Human services consolidation endorsed

Commissioners unanimously supported a resolution favoring consolidation of the Department of Social Services, Department of Aging Services and Department of Veterans Services into a single Human Services Agency.

“We want to put those into a single human services agency,” Noble said, explaining that the change is intended “to improve the coordination and delivery of services, enhance communication between our agencies, and also create fiscal efficiencies for our county.”

Noble said the Social Services Board supports the move: “Social Services Board fully supports the efforts of the Board of Commissioners in adopting this resolution as it is necessary, proper, and an achievable step for the betterment of Hyde County Human Services.” She added that the existing DSS board will remain in place as an advisory body: “They will just pass it all up to this board for approval.”

“It is saving money,” Noble said.

“I like that word,” Matthews replied.

“Yes, sir. It will save us money,” Noble responded.

Jury pay, budget revisions and other business

The board set jury commission compensation at $100 per member after a brief presentation of statutory duties: approving automated processes, determining the master list size and compiling the master list.

A package of budget revisions cleared the board, reallocating funds to cover additional foster care expenses, phone system delays, airport maintenance, a missing HVAC loan payment and other needs. Noble summarized adjustments, including adding $200,000 to DSS contract services and $100,000 to DSS salaries, a $5,000 appropriation for airport maintenance, and accounting for the missed $46,500 HVAC payment. The total fund balance appropriation for the revisions was $391,530.

Chairman Matthews closed the meeting after commissioners approved the omnibus budget and other items, leaving Hyde County positioned to advance several large infrastructure projects while consolidating human services and investing in local operations.