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Murphy – The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners’ new majority was prepared to seize the moment.
The new-look board on Monday night made several sweeping changes and reversals to some of the most contentious issues the group has addressed in recent months and years. The moves came after Ben Adams was sworn in as District 3 commissioner, Commissioner Cal Stiles was unanimously voted board chair and Commissioner Jan Griggs was an unanimous selection as vice chair.
Commissioners began the night by passing a resolution opposing the previously approved high school consolidation plan, then withdrew authorization of a $2.5 million match for a $50 million state grant awarded for a consolidated high school. They also created a variation of a planning committee called a Needs & Solutions Advisory Committee that is designed to “identify needs, solutions and foresight for a bright future for the county.”
Near the end of the session, Stiles instructed county attorney Darryl Brown to draft a new noise ordinance, and the board voted to terminate its fixed-base operator agreement with Gaylund Trull at Western Carolina Regional Airport in Andrews.
“We felt like that there were a lot of issues, nagging issues some of them, that had been going on for some period of time that needed to be dealt with,” Stiles said Tuesday.
“We had the support to do it, and I was glad to see we even had the support from the other two commissioners on a lot of the items. I’m hoping, going forward, we can all work together now to help better Cherokee County, for us to be more progressive.”
The board’s resolution opposing the school consolidation plan states that “better use can be made of the $50 million grant, and that such use should reflect the vision of the citizens of Cherokee County.” The resolution goes on to request that state Sen. Kevin Corbin and state Rep. Karl Gillespie advocate with the Department of Public Instruction for a “modification in the grant.”
Cherokee County Board of Education member James “Jaybird” Ellis recently advocated for the grant to be repurposed toward consolidation of several Murphy-area elementary schools.
“We’re not saying to send the money back,” Griggs said. “We’re saying let the new school board decide which way that money should be spent.”
The board’s new Needs & Solutions Advisory Committee was established under N.C. General Statute 153A-77(a), which allows commissioners to establish such committees and other similar bodies composed of county residents.
Stiles and Griggs previously sought to establish a type of planning committee to help plot the future of Cherokee County. Those efforts, however, were met with concerns that the establishment of such a group could open the door to land zoning in the county.
“I oppose zoning, and this part (of the resolution) right here says, ‘And not under NCGS Chapter 160D,’” Adams said. “That means this committee has nothing at all to do with zoning. This is a committee to help us see how we’re going to grow our county for the next few years, and hopefully something like this would have foresaw some of the problems, like the crypto mine.”
As for unenclosed crypto mines, the board has spent a full year going in circles over a possible noise ordinance or land use ordinance that could offer a means of controlling noise from new facilities in the future. That debate was reignited Monday night during the commissioners’ items portion of the meeting, when Stiles asked Brown to have a new draft of a noise ordinance ready by the January meeting.
Brown raised the possibility of a noise ordinance in December 2021. However, by June of this year he warned of inevitable litigation associated with taking such action, and the board backed away from passing it.
In June, the commissioners instead pivoted to allowing Brown to explore the possibility of a narrowly focused planning board that could give way to some type of land use ordinance aimed at crypto mining operations. Brown returned to the idea of a land use ordinance after consulting with an environmental attorney about a possible amendment to the current noise ordinance.
“I previously told this board, both publicly and privately, that the most effective legal method to quell the crypto mine noise is with a land use ordinance under chapter 160D of the general statutes,” Brown said in June. “Such does not have to be a slippery slope to zoning.”
The board also used part of Monday’s meeting to dissolve the fixed-base operator lease agreement with Trull for the airport. In October, commissioners unanimously voted to take no action on a controversial lease agreement designed to extend Trull’s service.
“After consultation with the board in closed session, pursuant to Chapter 143 of the N.C. General Statutes, I have advised the board and can report to the board that if it chooses to enter into this lease, it would be against legal advice,” Brown said in October, following a brief closed-session meeting with the board part-way through the meeting.
A fixed base operator is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction and similar services. Trull has served as the airport’s FBO since 2018.
“In 2019, the previous board, of which I was not even a member at that time, voted in a lease for the FBO against legal advice,” Griggs said Monday night. “The only person who voted against that lease at that time was Commissioner Stiles. Therefore, I make a motion that we terminate the FBO lease, we give (Trull) the required 60 days written notice.”
Commissioner Randy Phillips likewise said he was not on the board at the time and, though he initially did not realize otherwise, now recognizes that it is not a legal lease.
Multiple commissioners said the current FBO lease is one reason the airport is out of compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration, which is hindering the county from receiving funding for the facility.
For more information about the board’s decisions Monday night, see the Dec. 14 edition of the Cherokee Scout.