Darrell Frye, center (File photo)
ASHEBORO – Darrell Frye will remain chairman of the Randolph County Board of Commissioners after voting during the first meeting of the newly elected board.
At its Dec. 2 meeting, the board swore in new commissioner Lester Rivenbark, who replaced Maxton McDowell as the District 5 representative, and re-elected commissioner Kenny Kidd.
Frye was selected as chairman of the board and Kidd was elected as vice chairman.
“I thank all of you for your support,” Frye said. “I look across this room tonight and I see many faces that have been here and have been in the processes of county government, supporting the citizens of this county for many years. It’s been a wonderful honor to serve the people of this county and to see the progress that our county has made. I look forward to working with this board as we go forward.”
The board then approved a five-year, $500,000, zero-interest loan for five of the county’s volunteer fire departments in order to assist with the final purchases of radio and radio equipment for various county fire departments in order to meet FCC requirements.
“We have five departments participating and those five departments are requesting a loan up to five years to assist in purchasing these final radio needs,” said Gary McGee, the fire chief in Climax. “Many of these departments have been saving and those that are applicable have been applying for state funds to have matching grants to purchase these radios.”
The five departments include Climax, Level Cross, New Hope, Julian and Seagrove.
The motion passed 3-2 with commissioners David Allen and Hope Haywood voting against the loan due to the 0% interest.
“My concern is that in my mind, this sets a bad precedent for non-profits to come and ask for 0% interest loans whenever they need funds,” Allen said. “I’m certainly not against the fire service. Y’all are worthy to get the funds, but I’m concerned that we’re setting a bad precedent with a 0% interest loan.”
The board accepted a two-year, $17,000 North Carolina Department of Agriculture Farmland Protection Grant that will help fund a consultant to prepare an updated version of the Randolph County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan. The last plan was approved in 2011.
“Within the county, there were 1,238 farms that covered over 131,000 acres of land within the county,” said Cooperative Extension’s Adam Lawing. “If you look back at the 2017 census data compared to the 20222, the number of farms in the county dropped 10% and the number of total farmland acres dropped by 11%.”
The board also awarded a bid for the construction of a 390-foot VIPER communications tower in Randleman to K-Co Enterprises at a cost of approximately $540,000.
The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet Jan. 6.
