Ena Sellers

By Ena Sellers

Duplin Journal

After voting concluded on March 5, the unofficial results for Duplin County primary elections show Democratic Candidate Mary L. Williams-Boykin, taking the lead for the County Commissioner District 4 seat with 302 votes, only two more than incumbent Jesse Dowe who received 300 votes in the contested race.

Incumbent Elwood Garner took the lead in the Republican race for District 1 County Commissioner with 66.91% of all votes against Republican candidate Cindy Lee Sallis who received 33.09% of the votes. Commissioner Garner will be on the General Election ballot in November, as of press time he will be running unopposed to retain his seat as District 1 County Commissioner and says he is looking forward to serving the citizens of Duplin County for another four-year term. 

“I’ve got to first thank the voters of District 1 for their support in the election. It was pretty humbling to get roughly 67% of the votes. And thank my wife and family for their continued support, because while I was trying to campaign, I left my wife doing a lot of other stuff at home,” said Commissioner Garner. 

According to Jasmine Gadsden, Duplin County Board of Elections director, as of last Friday they had 6 ballots that came in on Election Day left to process along with Provisionals. 

“Election Day totals were 5,129 in-person voters,” said Gadsden, adding that they had 1,882 early voters and “ended with a total of 39 [absentee-by-mail votes] that we have already processed.” 

The Duplin County Board of Election will conduct their canvass meeting on March 15, certifying all votes have been tabulated and counted. In North Carolina after the results have been certified, a candidate can call for a recount if the difference between the votes is no more than 1% of the total. It is unknown whether Commissioner Dowe will request a recount, the Duplin Journal was unable to reach him for comment.

The official election results will be announced after the state board of elections does their canvass on March 26.

Murphy Family Ventures recently made a $12,500 donation to the Wallace Fire Department. Fire Chief Taylor Johnson said that the funding will be used to add a “much needed” metal building to the department’s training facility. 

“The facility is currently used by most all neighboring volunteer departments in Duplin, Pender, and Sampson,” Johnson said. 

“We’ve got some good plans for that money,” Wallace Mayor Jason Wells stated in a press release. “We will probably use those funds to help build a building on our training grounds. Training facilies are important, and we’re the only department in thecounty that has such a facility. That helps with overall accreditaon of the department, which helps with homeowner’s insurance ratings and things of that nature.”

The Wallace Fire Department is primarily a volunteer organization, but it is the largest department of the town, according to Wells. That’s why he says contributions like this one are so important.

“As this area grows, there are more emergency calls, and the town relies heavily on the fire department,” he said. “If we had to fully fund it with paid staff, it would be a huge hit to the budget. We’re extremely thankful to our volunteers, and we rely on donations such as the one the Murphy family has made.”

“The Wallace Fire Department provides a tremendous service to our local community,” said Murphy Family Ventures President and CEO Dell Murphy. “We are grateful to the dedicated firefighters who are vital to the safety and well-being of our citizens, their homes, and their businesses. This donation is an opportunity to give back to those who give so much to protect our community, and to thank them for their service.”

By Ena Sellers

Duplin Journal

KENANSVILLE — After much discussion about the Duplin County Unified Development Ordinance  (UDO) presented by Austin Brinkley with Insight Planning, at the Board of County Commissioners meeting on March 4, the Board voted 4 to 1 to adopt the ordinance with a change to the proposed 30-feet easement to remain at 50 feet.

Brinkley presented the final draft of the UDO recommended by the planning board, which incorporates Duplin County’s seven ordinances combining subdivision zoning and regulatory language for land use into a user-friendly document to aid implementation.

“Your subdivision regulations really make up a large portion of your UDO,” Brinkley said during the public hearing, adding that it sets the requirements for the subdivision of land, installation of infrastructure as well as standards and required guarantees from beginning to end.

Brinkley also addressed easements, which had definitions  added to include language specifying where structures can’t be located within the boundary of a recorded easement, putting restrictions on access easements.

“You do have a private easement exemption where lots can be created on a 30-foot easement, a maximum of three lots, be approved by the administrator, a service subdivision, which this is a special type of subdivision to create lots for utility purposes, cemeteries, well sites, communication towers, things of that nature. There’d be a lot of restrictive covenants involved in those types of divisions. You have your type A expedited minor where the track to be divided is greater than five acres. No part’s been divided within the 10 previous years. It doesn’t qualify as any of the other exemptions and then no more than three lots are being created,” said Brinkley, adding that those are statutorily required.

Another update highlighted was that home park operators will be able to sell the lots only when the entire park is being divided and all infrastructure within the park meet the standards of a subdivision.  “Essentially they would have to legally be converting the whole park into a manufactured home subdivision in order to sell off any individual lots within the manufactured home park,” Brinkley said.

Commissioner Justin Edwards questioned the request to reduce the size of easements to 30 feet. The current requirement is set to 50 feet and the Department of Transportation requires 50 -60 feet to build a road and allow space for installation of utilities and other requirements.

Chris Hatcher, Duplin County Planner, shared that he believes a  50-foot easement was a bit excessive for an access easement for only three lots.

“A 30-foot easement is adequate size to support a graveled improved access for emergency services and for general access to the properties,” said Hatcher, adding that other rural counties have the 30-foot easement.

Commissioner J. Edwards disagreed.

“I’ll be honest with you, a 30 foot easement, once you ditch it on each side, if you’re required to keep your drainage ditch inside that 30-foot easement, if you have to put a ditch on each side of your access road, your access road is going to be less than 10 foot. So you’re down to a single lane road that can’t get iffy. I mean, our county has been there. It gets to the point the emergency services can’t get in, you can’t meet, and it is an issue. That is why we went from 30 foot to 50 foot to combat those issues. And that’s why I personally want to stay on 50 feet,” said Edwards.

Hatcher explained that when someone grants that access easement of 50 feet that becomes an unusable area in their property.

“If you got a 200-foot property line and it’s 50-feet wide, that’s like 50 times 200,000 square feet of area that’s not usable for your property. Plus then too, they also have to gain that additional square footage on the other side of that property to maintain that usable area of a half acre of the 21,780 some odd square feet. Those were the bigger issues that we heard coming from the public as far as when I do this access easement, I can understand what the purpose is for the 50 but if we’re just creating one or two, three lots out of this, that amount of square footage that I’m losing would actually sometimes hinder someone from being able to subdivide their piece of property,” said Hatcher.  “Sometimes people can’t get the 50 foot access easement because their property doesn’t have it and they have to share it with the neighboring property to gain that 50 foot access easement. Some property owners are willing to share that, some are not. Those are the major concerns that we’ve had recently with the 50 feet and asking for the reduction to the 30 feet.”

Commissioner Jesse Dowe stated that several people had approached him requesting that it be a 30-foot easement and it’s been six months dealing with that issue.

County Manager Brian Miller recommended the board approve the UDO as presented with the amendment to a 50-foot road easement.

“I have seen what Commissioner Edwards is speaking about first hand if you want to research it’s called Raw Sakers Road number two, where emergency services vehicles were not able to provide curbside service to the residents on the road so I would recommend to the board to approve it with the amendment… to a 50-foot easement.”

After much discussion the Board of County Commissioners decided to follow the County Manager’s recommendation and the motion carried with four commissioners voting yes and one no.

In other business the board approved a $40,223,100.00 contract with Daniels and Daniels Construction Company, Inc. for the construction of a 234-bed detention center, subject to securing additional funding and the review, negotiation and approval of contract terms and conditions by the county attorney