Commissioners receive good news on annual audit

The Anson County Board of Commissioners this month approved their annual audit contract and honored a long-time Parks and Recreation Director in regular session.

Jeff Waisner spent nearly 25 years with Anson County, both as director of Anson County Parks and Recreation and Building Maintenance. A former member of the New York Yankee and Chicago White Sox organizations, Waisner was credited with adding 37 new programs to the county’s recreation offerings sparking Anson’s sports boom in the late 90s and 2000s.

Tuesday, former state representative and Anson County-native Pryor Gibson, Assistant Secretary for Employment Security for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, presented Waisner with one of North Carolina’s most prestigious awards. The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, a plaque honoring him for his quarter century of service, originated in 1963 and is awarded to persons who have made significant contributions to the state and their communities.

“Anson County’s not always had the deepest pockets. Thank you for investing your whole life to recreation,” Gibson said.

As to the audit, Alan Thompson of Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams and Co. of Whitesville told the commission there was a lot of good news in his findings, along with some challenges.

Anson County has a cash balance of $23,273,000 in 2021 compared to $15,517,000 in 2016 and an additional $7,399,000 in water and sewer funds. Ad valorem taxes constitute 51% of the county funds with various grants, excise tax and sales and service permits accounting for 47%. All this, according to Thompson, represents a solid cash flow versus expense.

That was the good news, Thompson told the commission. But there are still issues that need to be fixed. Anson County has been behind in filing its audit for a number of years and is still recovering from a recent ransomware attack that crippled the county’s communications systems.

“The depreciation schedule needs to be updated, project funds closed out, grant funds need to be distributed within three days of receiving them and IT needs to be strengthened,” the auditor said.

And, according to Thompson, there are some huge issues coming down the pike. By June 30, 2022, the county needs to account for leases, and depending on how many, this could be a substantial amount of work. Software copiers, vehicle leases and more will have to be read and accounted for.

“The finance officer is going to have his hands full,” Thompson told the commission. It’s going to require a lot of work.”

County Commissioner Jim Sims gave his own Reader’s Digest version of the findings. “We have sufficient money; we have a good accumulation of money. What we have not done is in a physical, paperwork way, accounted for all the procedures.”

‘We have had a lot of turn-over in our finance department, a great deal more than in most areas,” Sims went on to say. “When we get that straightened out, that will help a great deal.”

“When I saw the vast fund balance that we have accumulated, I got excited,” said Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood. “Then I thought, well, we’ve already committed $30 to $33 million for the new middle school and we’re going to need a new DSS (Department of Social Services) facility.”

In other commission business, Waste Connections representative Tyler Fitzgerald told the commission that the county has added a new cover and 11 new gas wells to the landfill region to help take control of emissions.

“We’ve seen a significant improvement,” Fitzgerald said. “We still have a couple of spots that we’re still working through. We’ve hired an engineering firm to come in and do an assessment. We’ve got it 90-95% done and that last five to 10% seems to be the hardest, so we are taking recommendations.”

Jamie Caudle and Scott Martin, representing the eight fire departments of the fire chief’s association, asked the commission to add rescue services to the counties’ existing contract.

“We’re going to do something we’ve never done before,” fire chiefs coning to the commission and not asking for money,” they laughed. “We want to add fire protection and rescue services to the contract. This is no change to what we already do, we simply want it in the contract so that insurers and citizens see this they know we are providing these services as well.”

The commission also approved a request from Anson County Sheriff Landric Reid for six Motorola Radio consoles for the 911 center at a cost of $34,431 in 2024 and again in 2027.

The commission also approved the potential replacement of the 9-1-1 Center’s communication recording system noting the existing system is eight years old and the suggested lifespan is five years. Grants will be submitted to offset the costs.

In other action the commission:

• Appointed commission chairman Jarvis Woodburn to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC)

• Approved a memorandum of agreement for an opioid litigation settlement in which all 100 North Carolina counties are asked and would receive, automatic distribution. The settlement could bring as much as $850 million to the state over an 18-year period to address the opioid epidemic. Currently 43 counties in the state have signed on.

• Approved a resolution for accepting American Rescue Plan Act funds. Interim County Manager Ray Allen said he would bring the issue before the commission in September’s meeting to adopt a grant project ordinance. That ordinance is a multi-year ordinance to adopt one ordinance and not have to adopt ordinance year after year for the life of the fund.

• Heard a COVID update that reported 57% of Anson County residents are fully vaccinated and 60 percent have had at least one shot. The county currently is listed as having moderate community spread, the best of surrounding counties. Anson County is experiencing the Delta variant and Allen noted vaccinations are highly effective.

• Commission agreed to return to requiring the public to wear masks in county buildings and for all county employees to wear masks when dealing with the public.

• Ransomware attack recovery: according to Allen the county continues to make progress. Most of the county computers will be back in service by the end of next week with a small number not yet reimaged. Allen noted that there are some scattered issues with telephone service and the county is not yet able to connect AS 400 – kind of a lost technology. Other issues include the fact the county cannot yet restore streaming for the county commission meetings. He hopes to have that done in September.