Commissioners approve refresh of Sheriff’s Office weapons

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners has approved the Sheriff’s Office’s request to update its weaponry.

At its meeting Monday, the board approved a variety of Sheriff’s Office purchases, including 225 Gen 6 Glock 17 pistols, holsters and red dot sights for just less than $300,000.

“We’ve been on a five-year cycle to replace all of our weapons and our current ones were purchased in 2021,” said Colonel Steven Nunn. “We do foresee getting seven years out of these.”

Patrol Sergeant James Thacker said: “The Gen 6 pistol comes already MOS ready, which is for the red dot optics. We can mount them straight to the pistol.”

According to Nunn, the sheriff’s office will trade in the old weapons to AmChar Wholesale, the company who they’re purchasing the new weapons from, for credit off of the total purchase.

The funding for the pistols is coming out of the law enforcement restricted funds.

“This is better known on the street as drug money,” board chairman Darrell Frye said. “When our deputies stop a vehicle on the interstate or on our roads and they confiscate money, cars, drugs, under law, it’s theirs. So this is not public tax dollars. It’s money that the sheriff’s department has earned by doing its job.”

The board also approved the purchase of three 2026 Ford F-150 Police Responders for $142,000.

“These are vehicles that are ready on the lot,” Nunn said.

The funding for the vehicle purchases were already appropriated in the Sheriff’s Office’s budget.

Board OKs roof funding for elementary school

The board then approved the Randolph County Board of Education’s distribution request to use $878,000 of targeted lottery funds for the reroofing of the Randolph County School System’s Coleridge Elementary School.

“This is the first year we’ve pulled money down for the repair and renovation fund,” assistant county manager Will Massie said. “It was created back in 2021 by the General Assembly using NC Lottery funds and it is for repairs and renovation of classroom spaces.”

According to RCSS superintendent Stephen Gainey, there was $1,715,000 set aside specifically for the RCSS.

Sign ordiance changes approved

The board also approved the changes to its sign ordinance that were discussed at last month’s meetings.

The primary change was a lessening of restrictions on billboards, allowing them to be placed 1,000 feet apart from one another on each side of the road as well as limiting them to being placed no closer than 300 feet from any residentially zoned property.

Library by-laws addressed

Finally, the board approved minor changes to its library ordinance and by-laws

“We’ve tried to make these by-laws more similar to some of the other boards that we have, so that it would be more in line with the same outline and procedures,” said county attorney Ben Morgan. “We’ve instituted term limits and tried to add uniformity to some of the other boards where you guys are appointing nominations. That’s the main change.”

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet April 6.