2024: the year ahead

County management shares a glimpse into what’s coming up this year   

By Ena Sellers, Duplin Journal

KENANSVILLE – As 2024 rolls in, Duplin County is setting gears in motion preparing for growth. Carrie Shields, County assistant manager shared that a key focus for the county in 2024 will be infrastructure.

“We really need to look at water and sewer infrastructures within our municipalities to make sure that we are prepared for current and future growth. The Town of Kenansville especially, that is where the growth is happening for government facilities,” said Shields, adding that Kenansville was awarded $8 million from the state to improve their sewer infrastructure.

“We will lock arms and partner with the Town of Kenansville and make sure that we’re all in lockstep to bring that to fruition,” she added.

Shields shared that they also plan to focus on helping drive growth in other municipalities within the county. “Right now, for Duplin County, the Town of Wallace and the Town of Beulaville are the only towns that have available sewer capacity. So, we need to make sure that they continue to stay ahead of it,” she said, explaining the importance of it for a town’s growth.

The Duplin Commons is seeing a lot of activity with crews working diligently on facilities that are scheduled to open this year. According to County Manager Bryan Miller, paving of the parking lot for the new Transportation Department will begin soon and they hope to have a certificate of occupancy within the next month and a half.

Miller also shared that the Animal Care Control and Adoption Facility is waiting on one more electrical panel.

“We’re starting to see some movement and some parts coming in,” said Miller, adding that he is cautiously optimistic that they will get the other panel delivered within the next month or so. “We are going to see some movement on that fairly quickly… The contractors are having to cover the insurance and all the costs of the building until we get the certificate of occupancy for both buildings, so they want to get these things done just as quickly as we do.”

The Veteran Services and Senior Center building is on target for completion in December 2024.

“Daniels and Daniels are doing a terrific job with that… They built up the foundation to where it needs to be, soil compaction looks good. We look for an on-time completion,” said Miller. “Our seniors and veterans really have something to look forward to.”

Miller also shared that the county is working with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and a few jurisdictions including Teachey, Wallace and Warsaw on wastewater projects to help residents with wastewater solutions.

Employment

According to Shields the main employment focus for 2024 is to fill vacant positions in the Sheriff’s Office and Duplin County Schools.

“We’re about 23-24 deputies short with jailers total, and that’s about 20-25% of our workforce, so it definitely has an impact on how well we operate and the response times,” Sheriff Stratton Stokes told the Duplin Journal.

“There’s always been turnover, but it’s two-fold,” he said, explaining that the current climate with the police force in the U.S. caused a lot of retirements, in addition to the pandemic which pushed a lot of people to retire early.

“The job market is very, very tight in every sector, but in order to find qualified candidates who can be police officers and can serve the county and state, we’ll have to pay them better.” The Sheriff shared that they are competing with neighboring counties where some people are getting 20% more in pay. “Crime is always going to be there. We need to pay our deputies a good salary where they can survive.”

Duplin County Schools has 16 teacher vacancies as of Dec. 18, 2023.

When the Duplin Journal asked Miller if there was a plan in place to retain employees in 2024, Miller shared that they have some thoughts on how the county might be able to retain some employees. “But those things will come up at budget time and they’ll be discussed with the board of commissioners,” Miller explained. “We’ll try to figure out some concrete ways to keep some of these employees, but it is hard competing with these larger jurisdictions that have a larger tax base… They can afford to pay higher salaries.”

Miller added that for many employees, Duplin County is home. “So, we want to keep those people in Duplin County, they have already shown a tremendous amount of loyalty to the county, working jobs where they could go to a neighboring county and make five to ten thousand dollars more a year. We need to be grateful for that and we need to show our appreciation to them, and we plan to do that,” said Miller.

When asked if salary increases will be considered more seriously this year. Miller said they are going to “make recommendations to the board of commissioners, but with every recommendation comes a price tag… and that is tough. The board of commissioners is in a tough position. They’ve got to look out for the residents and the employees, at the same time for the business community… They’ve got a lot of hats to wear. It is not as easy as you might think. We need to make sure that we identify revenues that can pay for these recurring expenses,” said Miller.

TOURISM

Miller shared that he is excited to have Shields as assistant county manager. “She is incredibly great,” said Miller, adding that Shields is “overseeing non-traditional government services” to help department heads in aspects related to tourism at the Events Center, and Cabin Lake among others.

“She has such a wonderful strategic vision,” said Miller as he spoke about Shield’s leadership and foresight. “I am incredibly excited about that.”

Shields told the Duplin Journal that they are looking to do more concerts and events for the community.

“We’re trying to focus on what the community is telling us that they want and what we see is working.” Shields shared that they want to make concerts an ongoing thing. Currently there are plans for a big concert coming to Duplin in the spring. “We’re looking at April for that concert.” While the name of the artist cannot be disclosed yet, Shields said it will be a big-name artist.

Shields encourages the public to be on the lookout for upcoming events at Cabin Lake.

“Jordan Whaley has done a fantastic job … making it a true tourist attraction,” said Shields.