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he first Town Board Meeting of 2025 had 11 residents in attendance. Commissioners discussed selling surplus equipment, amending the ordinance for the Parks and Recreation Board, and topics for the upcoming quarterly Town Board Workshop.

Present at the meeting were Mayor Sally Belangia, Commissioners Allen Price, Charlie Overcash, Frank Roe, and Bonnie Crosser. Commissioner Breena Litzenberger was absent.

Also in attendance: Town Manager Diane Miller, Finance Officer Lisa Millington.

Recap:
• Revisions to Chapter N, the Code of Ordinances affecting Parks and Recreation was tabled after concerns were raised by Commissioners Charlie Overcash, Mayor Sally Belangia and Commissioner Frank Roe. Overcash suggested a workshop to address the proposed revisions.
• Commissioner Crosser submitted her resignation as Commissioner liaison to Parks and Recreation Board the day after the monthly meeting, Wednesday, January 15, 2025
• Commissioners Roe and Crosser expressed their happiness with budget reconciliation process going from months to seven days
• Water Project Progress: Commissioner Crosser reported that the Water Project has received two engineering proposals and will proceed with the following two named projects: the White Farm Booster Station Project and the Water System Valve Rehabilitation Project. Both projects will run simultaneously.

Dates & Events: Town Hall will close January 20 & February 10, Polar Plunge January 25, Chinese Dragon New Year February 1

Motions passed:
• Budget Amendments 4 and 5. Budget Budget Amendment 5 allows line item adjustments to be made as they happen.
• Selling surplus equipment: a truck, two tractors and a copier
• Approval to respond to the financial performance indicators of concern (FPIC) by January 16 as required to send to the Local Government Commission
• Offering a contract to the auditor

Public Comments:

Two public comments were made, both expressing concern with the proposed revisions to Chapter N in the Town’s General Ordinances. Chapter N outlines the duties of the Parks & Recreation Board.

The Parks and Recreation Board, along with their Commissioner Liaison Bonnie Crosser, have been working on a revision to the ordinance in pursuit of more grants.

Greg Bohmert said that “the town is slowly gravitating towards becoming a land developer instead of a steward of the public lands.” He said that although he loves Parks and Recs he did not want “my tax dollars should go to bike paths or buying land.” Bohmert also expressed concern that “ our Comprehensive Plan, which was our vision, is now sort of being referred to as somewhat as a mandate.”

Vicki Rasmussen, Chair of the Parks and Recreation Board, spoke about “why it is a bad idea for a small town Board of Commissioners to sell public park land without consulting residents. Public parks are not just patches of land, they are vital community assets. They serve as spaces for recreation, relaxation and connection.”

Rasmussen said the best addition or revision made to Chapter N was in Article 2. She said, quoting from the revision: “ Article 2, Designation of Town Parks, Section 1, Background. And it states, ‘primary restriction, a designated park may not be sold, leased, (except as provided below) or otherwise disposed of without the approval of a majority of the registered voters voting in an election held by the Town of Oriental.’

Rasmussen continued: “In a town with fewer than 1,000 residents, every voice matters. Without community input, decisions risk being driven by narrow interest rather than the collective good. Residents deserve transparency and a say in matters that impact their quality of life. Second, selling the parkland is often irreversible.” Rasmussen concluded by reiterating that once the land is gone “it is gone forever” and entreated the board to “ensure every voice is heard before making decisions that affect us all.”

There has been no discussion in recent previous public meetings about selling parks or land.

Commissioner Frank Roe listens to Commissioner Bonnie Crosser.

Parks and Recreation Ordinance Amendments Tabled

The existing version of Chapter N is two pages. The proposed version is 16.

Town Manager Miller asked the Board to address the revised Ordinance for Parks and Recs, providing the following background: “Chapter N, there’s a request for it to be removed and replaced. The previous Chapter N, basically regulated the activities of the Parks and Recreation Department, these (the new Parks and Rec Ordinance) come with maps in the draft that you have. It’s an inventory of what you have and how big it is and how many people it reaches and all that kind of thing. These are the kinds of things that are required for them to be able to apply for grants.”

Miller continued “I started this with a previous Parks and Rec Board probably six years ago, I was thankful that Commissioner Crosser and Vickie Rammussen, Chair of Parks and Rec took this back on to get this to the finish line.”

Commissioner Overcash asked Commissioner Crosser: “Are you saying everything that’s in there has to be in order to get a grant, even though we know a lot of this can’t be enforced?”

“Now if you’re asking, does every single thing need to be in here to get a grant, I cannot answer that,” Crosser said.

Overcash explained, “ The reason I ask is riding a bicycle single file on the right-hand side of the road and having to have helmet’s on— this is not Oriental. I mean, people ride along and talk to each other.” Commissioner Overcash continued: …“this is not Parks. Traffic and parking, that’s under [General Ordinance F], right? And, so many different things in here don’t apply to Parks and Rec. Why do we have that in there?”

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” Crosser said, “but your children and grandchildren use your town roads as a park.” She referenced concerns over her granddaughter’s safety riding a bicycle in Oriental, saying, “we’ve witnessed two or three times where cars have run through stop signs, so I have taught her, you wear a helmet. Nobody knows what a stop sign is in this town, and nobody knows what a yield is.”

Crosser added “the concern here is just reinforcing what’s at the state level. That you need to adhere to the proper way how you ride a bike, where you wear a helmet.” Roe said he agreed with points from both Commissioners.

“People drive, ride their bikes around leisurely,” Overcash said, “but that’s the flavor of our small town. Yes, it’s changing, but we’re still a small town, so I think we should discuss more of this before we pass anything today.”

“I have been delayed and delayed…if you don’t want it, vote it down.” Crosser responded. Town Manager Miller cautioned that if the Board voted the ordinance down, they could not bring it back up for another year. Mayor Belangia added, “A lot of rules. I mean, I’ve looked over it and I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, this isn’t Oriental at all.’ This is changing Oriental.”

Is this a bucolic village scene, or could it become a crime? Under the revised Chapter N ordinance, leaning a bicycle against a tree could get you a citation up to $500.

The section of the Chapter N revision the Board was referring to is Section D, and includes the following:
• Must ride bikes in a single file line on the right-hand side of the road
• Anyone under 16 must wear a helmet when riding a bike or skateboard
• Protective gear including elbow and knee pads must be worn by skateboarders
• No bikes may leaned against a tree
• Parks are closed after dusk and before sunrise
• No person may play rough or comparatively dangerous games such as football, baseball, or golf except in designated areas
• Anyone in violation of the new proposed Ordinance can be cited with a citation up to $500.

Commissioner Overcash, still pushing to table the motion for further review, said: “We can discuss it in our workshop maybe, and get it up for the next meeting.”

Commissioner Crosser said, “I will now have to call the consultant that I was delayed in calling to do the design work for the grant. To put her on hold because I can’t move forward with the grant until I have this done. So I’m going to have to do that again.”

Manager Miller said the Board had received the revisions in December and if they had “done their homework” this could have been worked through. Crosser commented that Overcash sent an email to her that “he was fine with it.” He replied he was not fine with it now.

Commissioners tabled the motion in a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Crosser submitted her resignation as the Parks and Recreation Liaison via email the next morning.

Budget Updates

Property Tax Revenues Manager Miller said normally Oriental receives 80% of their tax revenues from September through January. However this year Oriental is at 61% so far. “ Unless we get a lot of late payments, that’s not a good number,” said Manager Miller.

Sales and Use Tax
The state had been late in making payments to the town. Miller reported, “We did get a payment today in the sales and use tax that takes the $89,000 to $109,800, as opposed to the $114,000 we expected [from the State]. This is something North Carolina Capital Management Trust warned us about. People are, they’re struggling and so there’s, there’s groceries and there’s gas and there’s heating bills, and there’s less…disposable income.”

“This is the first time we have succumbed to the State projections” Miller continued. “We’re usually ahead of the State projections. We’re doing good on the franchise tax and those kinds of things are working just fine. The solid waste fees are where they’re supposed to be.”

Regarding the budget as a whole, she said, “There’s no padding in this budget. There’s no room for anything to break.”

Fire Rating Report

The Fire Insurance Rating report for the South Pamlico Volunteer Fire Department came in. The better the rating, the better insurance rates in the fire district. Manager Miller said the rating of a 5 has not changed, but she expects the numbers to improve after the Water Projects are finished.

Commissioner Overcash said: “You know, that’s the best that a volunteer fire department can possibly get. The best for our homeowners, insurance wise.”

Town Manager Diane Miller walk teh Board through the Manager’s Report.

Legislative Goals

The North Carolina League of Municipalities has requested Oriental submit up to 10 goals to the State by January 16. The goals were provided by the League and presented in no particular order (they in the document links at the end of the article).

Commissioners asked how many goals needed to be submitted. Manager Miller said, “We want to chime in on things like current Powell Bill, and other state funding is not adequate to address transportation needs. The Powell algorithm is so heavily weighted to major metropolitan areas that we can’t, we can’t do much with what they give us. And they have millions in Raleigh and millions in Charlotte. If you have a metro, it’s a factor of population and miles of road.” The Board agreed to give Manager Miller something by January 16.

The Powell Bill gives funds to municipalities for street maintenance and repairs.

Text Messaging System used to communicate Freeze Warnings

The recent freeze event used the Oriental text messaging system. Manager Miller said “it seemed like people got the message that, ‘hey, it’s going to be really cold tonight’.”

Miller shared an example of the type of messaging used to communicate freeze warnings: “If you need to wrap your pipes, wrap your pipes. If you need to leave the water drip, you know, whatever it is you need to do, this event’s coming in the next 24 hours and it seems to be well received.”

Water Project Details

Commissioner Crosser reported the Water Advisory Board that they reviewed two engineering contracts and are “green-lighted to proceed.”

Project #1: White Farm Booster Station
“We’ll have a booster station connected to the 10 inch water line that will boost the pressure down right from White Farm Road to Dolphin Point,” Crosser said. She directed Town Manager Miller to proceed with the attorney for final review so that the project can get underway. Because of all the permitting involved, Crosser said “don’t get excited about the timeline”, that to “put a shovel or whatnot in the ground,” it will take about “six and a half months.”

Water System Valve Rehabilitation
Crosser reported “we’re going to be replacing 35 valves and (adding) five new ones.” Currently, Oriental does not have the ability to section off parts of the town; the Town staff has to turn all the water off to make repairs. Crosser said they are “looking at the possibility of an insert valve, which is an immediate connection into the line – hot wired in – to take care of some critical areas.”

Oriental’s Public Works will work with the engineers on the project. Commissioner Crosser said that “by the time we go through all the process, in about ten months, we’ll put in a booster station.”

The projects will run in parallel. “We’ll know more about the third project, which is the infrastructure repair and work of the water plant in February,” she concluded.

Selling Surplus Equipment

“These three vehicles need to go,” said Manager Miller. “On the far left is a 1986 vintage John Deere tractor that we still currently use, when it’s running, for small jobs and small digging not really heavy duty stuff because it fits into the trailer.”

Public Works asked Commissioners to delay the sale of a 2000 John Deere tractor until there is a replacement.

Also up for sale: a 2012 pickup truck with 99,000 miles on it and a 2015 Lanier copier.

Manager Miller saidPublic Works has training scheduled on the “big tractor” because employees who were trained on it are no longer with the Town, and that could be why it isn’t being used. They also need to verify which tractor will work with the bucket used to put up flags and Christmas decorations.

The Board authorized Manager Miller to sell the surplus equipment at a time and manner of her choosing, and to hold off on the sale of the 2000 John Deere tractor.

A slide showing the Town equipment up for sale.

Disaster Preparedness in light of the California Wildfires

“I have seen, as we all have on TV, the tremendous disaster in California,” said Commissioner Roe. “How underprepared they were. I’m worried we need to make sure we’re prepared as we know how to be, with funds that we got.”

Roe asked Miller, “Is there anything that you’re concerned about, Manager Miller, that we as a Board need to do for you to be prepared for storms that we haven’t done, that we got money to do, that we’re restricting?”

Manager Miller said that once Oriental replaces the generator at the water plant, “we pretty much have a number on everything that we need to do. We have a list for hurricanes, we have a list for freezing temperatures. They went through their checklist and made sure all the water was turned off and made sure the heat trace was on. Our whole thing for ice and snow is just stay home. So, I think we’re pretty good at emergencies.”

Police Report

There were no police present to provide a report. However, Manager Miller listed the events the police had provided services for in the past month: Spirit of Christmas, the Hope Clinic Run, traffic support to those deploying and retrieving the luminaries, the Christmas parade, a fun run, and the Dragon Run on New Year’s Eve. Manager Miller added “and Louie’s breakfast always causes a traffic nightmare, so they were there for that one.”

Miller said the police also did 46 hours of traffic enforcement last month.

Dates to Know

The next Town Board meeting is Tuesday, February 11 at 6p. The Town Board workshop is Friday, January 30 at 9a at Town Hall.

Related Information

• January Town Meeting Agenda
• Consent Agenda
• Manager’s Report
• Auxiliary Board Reports
• Surplus Vehicles & Equipment for Sale
• FPIC Statement to Local Government Commission
• Proposed Chapter N Revision
• Police Report

Posted Friday February 7, 2025 by Allison DeWeese