Story by Davis McKinney
Graphics by Meredith Wilson
WINDSOR , N.C. — Imagine you are a county commissioner. You are one of five elected to govern fewer than 20,000 citizens. Small county, how big can the problems be? It’s not like you will have to figure out how to develop a light rail system or ways to address gentrification.
Until a hurricane comes and it brings floods — floods of Biblical proportion. Dozens of homes and buildings are damaged or lost.
The cameramen and news trucks come and go. The water levels recede. What do you do now? The Federal Emergency Management Agency approves funding for your county but when will it arrive? Will it be enough?
Ron Wesson doesn’t have to imagine. This is his reality. As a Bertie County commissioner, hurricane and flood management might as well be part of his job description. Wesson was vice-chairman of the commissioners when Hurricane Matthew hit in October 2016.
“We were fortunate in a way,” he said. “It wasn’t our first rodeo.”
Bertie County has been hit with three 100-year floods in less five years. On top of that, the county has lost nearly 10 percent of its population in under a decade. The school system was in a $700,000 deficit just two years ago because of accounting errors. Ron Wesson has had to deal with just about everything but locusts.
“Experience teaches you what you need to do, and how to do it quickly,” he said.
Bertie County isn’t the only place in North Carolina losing population. According to data from Carolina Demography, 47 counties have lost population since the 2010 Census. Rebecca Tippett, director of Carolina Demography, said these areas have experienced a “net out-migration.”
“In a case like Bertie County, the out-migration has been predominately of younger individuals. And it’s been going on for over a decade now,” she said.
Tippett said aging populations result in more deaths than birth, which also causes populations to shrink.
“A lot of what’s driving people out has been the decline of manufacturing and agriculture as major industries of employment,” she said.
Bertie County has slowly begun to get back on its feet in the last year. The floodwaters destroyed the county’s public library, cooperative extension office and emergency response center.
“Right now, we have enough money in the bank today to replace all those,” Wesson said.
The immediate steps toward recovery came from disaster relief funding from the state and FEMA. The federal government gave more than $249 million to affected North Carolina counties after Hurricane Matthew, one of which was Bertie. But now rebuilding efforts for the county are being funded through grants and loans. The money to rebuild the library and cooperative extension office came from a $2.75 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation. At the time, the Board of Commissioners called it “an early Christmas blessing.”
Now that the way forward seems clear, or at least funded, Bertie County is reckoning with problems that existed before the floods. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the county’s education system, which has seen four superintendents in the last two years.
Since an audit in 2016 revealed significant financial problems in Bertie County Schools, the system has been following a recovery plan developed by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Getting back on track involved hiring a new superintendent and finance officer, but also laying off 28 employees across the district.
“Though we’ve not eliminated any teacher positions, it has been the other positions that we’ve been able to eliminate,” said Karen Dameron, human resources director for Bertie County Schools. “That was the last resort of trying to minimize some of the costs the district was having.”
Dameron said some employees have since been re-hired, but not all. While no teachers may have been fired last year, the county has a decrease in the number of teachers over the years. In 2013, the district employed 356 teachers. That number has fallen to 268 for the current school year. The number of students in the district has fallen from 2,720 to 2,260 in the same about of time.
Wesson and Dameron both said housing availability is a hurdle for many Bertie County teachers.
“A lot of our of teachers end up living in other counties or cities some 20 or 30 miles away, and when they get an offer closer to home, they jump on it,” Wesson said.
Dameron said so many teachers are living outside of the district because Bertie County lacks abundant affordable housing and rental properties. And many new teachers being recruited to the area are young and not financially stable enough to buy a house.
Wesson and his fellow commissioners are seeking to solve this problem. Years of planning have culminated in a 24-unit affordable housing complex aimed specifically at teachers. County Manager Scott Sauer said teachers would be able to move in by May 2019.
“Our first goal is to attract new teachers, and to retain those who may be vulnerable,” Wesson said. “The main thing is to add something in order to get qualified teachers here, and then keep them.”
Dameron said the school administration is looking forward to the apartments being available for use.
“Being able to add the housing component to our recruitment package will be helpful for us,” she said.
The housing complex will cost more than $2.5 million. All of the funding will come through grants and loans. So far, Golden LEAF Foundation has awarded Bertie County with $240,000 for primary infrastructure, but the State Employee’s Credit Union Foundation will be providing the remainder of the money through a 15-year, $2.2 million, zero percent interest loan.
The complex in Bertie County will be the seventh of its kind in North Carolina. Similar structures have been built in Asheville and Durham, but both of these areas have seen population growth in the last decade, not sharp decline. Once completed, the complex will consist of 24 two bedroom, two bathroom apartments with a rent price tag of $650 a month.
Bertie County conducted a housing survey in September 2017, as part of the SECU loan requirements. It showed 91 percent of Bertie County teachers feel there is a lack of affordable housing, and 95 percent said apartments are definitely needed in the area.
Traci White, the director of Bertie County Planning and Inspections Department, said Hurricane Matthew has had a lasting effect on housing.
“The hurricane still has a huge impact today because people are worried about being flooded again before they ever get out of harm’s way,” White said.
White said residents are waiting to see if any state or federal dollars will become available to help them relocate or elevate their homes. So far, no money has arrived for this purpose.
“We are very, very confident this will be used by our teachers,” said Wesson.
County Manager Sauer said Bertie County has been able to smoothly develop these apartments for the same reason it bounced back from the hurricanes and floods — leaders who work well together.
“So often in local government circles, you can find situations where the town manager doesn’t like the county manager or the commissioners hate each other,” he said. “But we don’t have that issue here.”
Before any ground was broken on the complex’s construction site, various town government entities signed a memorandum of understanding, ensuring everyone was on the same page.
If one were to just look at the numbers, it seems Bertie County is on the ropes. Population is shrinking at a rate faster than any other county in the state. But North Carolina as a whole continues to grow steadily, and is now the ninth most populous state in the country. Suburbs of the Triangle worry over where to house the influx of new residents. In contrast, the Bertie County Planning Department introduced a program to get rid of the abandoned mobile homes left by those moving away.
“I’ll be honest, you’re elected to do the tough work. This is part of the job,” Wesson said.
Imagine once again you are a county commissioner. Your county is getting back on its feet. 55 businesses were flooded, but only two shuttered permanently. What do you do now? You have made it to the light at the end of the tunnel, but an open road lies ahead. This is precisely the question Bertie County commissioners are grappling with today.
“It’s not just about what one person can do, but about keeping citizens informed and letting them know where we stand and what we see ahead,” said Wesson. “Things are coming back.”
