After a slight delay due to a brief election-related protest, the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners were finally sworn in on Monday morning.
Re-elected Commissioners Jonathan Barfield Jr. and Woody White, and newly-elected Commissioner Patricia Kusek took the oath of office on Dec. 19 during the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners’ regularly scheduled meeting.
Barfield and White have served on the board since 2008 and 2012, respectively. Kusek is serving her first term. All three will serve four-year terms and join Commissioners Skip Watkins and Rob Zapple on the board. The slate of winners gives Republican a three-member majority on the five-person board.
The board also elected its new chair and vice-chair during the meeting. White will serve as the board’s chairman, and Watkins will serve as vice-chairman until December 2017.
For newcomer Kusek, improved economic development efforts are a big priority moving forward.
“We should be actively recruiting the right kind of business and industry for our county,” she told the Business Journal during her campaign for county commissioner. “Building a diversified economy that can call upon a variety of businesses and industries will greatly benefit NHC. We recently emerged from a difficult time when our region was not able to absorb the impacts of a tightened economy. Tourism and trade are vital but we must move beyond our base and encourage brick and mortar manufacturers and high-tech entrepreneurs to call our county home.
“We also need to regain our footing with the film industry. How we get there is the subject of debate and will require compromise. But, in the end, the best incentive for economic development is a favorable tax climate,” she said.
White said during the campaign that he would like to see infrastructure improvements in the county’s future, and improved tax policy.
"I'd like us to focus on tax policy, and lesson the tax burden," White said Monday, in discussing economic development.
“I would continue to work hard to make certain that the highway 421 corridor has water and sewer services. We need to work on the 421 timeline, White added.
Infrastructure and growth were common themes during White's campaign.
“Once completed, it [421] will ensure that manufacturing and industry grows in the area close to transportation hubs. I would also continue a strong relationship with Wilmington Business Development, the Chamber of Commerce, and other pro-business groups with whom we have enjoyed many years of solid outcomes,” White told the Business Journal in October.
Barfield pointed toward three areas of focus during the fall campaign, starting with education.
“See the completion and opening of our vocational and technical high school, that will provide immediate job opportunities for students coming out of high school with no plans go to college, improve our current Special Use Permit Process, and increase job opportunities for all," he said previously.
One item sure to be handled early in 2017 is the new Special Use Permit (SUP), which the county planning department has been working on for almost a year.
A special use permit is required for any development that might be compatible with a zone in which it wishes to locate but requires special consideration of its potential impacts on the surrounding area.
Once the planning board votes to move the revised SUP forward, it will be taken up by the commissioners.
"Whenever the planning board gets it to us, in January or February," White said.
