Outstanding programs earn accolades

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Twelve county programs have been awarded a 2007 Outstanding County Program Award from the NCACC.

“Counties in North Carolina are facing many challenges, and this awards program is a great way to highlight some of the outstanding work being done by our counties,” said NCACC Executive Director David F. Thompson. “As the demands being placed on county governments become more complex, counties are forced to find new solutions to old problems. This awards program is a way to bring attention to excellent programs that other counties might want to emulate.”

The intent of the awards program is to recognize and share information with other counties about programs that involve a uniquely innovative process, solution or idea to address a county or multi-jurisdictional issue and/or to prevent a future problem from developing.

More than 50 programs in three categories – Public Information/Participation, General Government and Human Services – were nominated for the 2007 awards.

Alamance County
Haw River Trail Coordinator

In 2006, Alamance County was one of 10 governmental agencies to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of North Carolina to work together for the development of the Haw River Trail and the conservation of its land and waters. In this spirit, Alamance County, the cities of Burlington and Graham, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation agreed to fund a full-time position to coordinate conservation and trail efforts on the Haw River.

This position was filled in May 2006 and has helped generate more than $101,000 in grant funding and $13,000 in property donations. Alamance County currently has almost $500,000 worth of pending grant funds to further develop the Haw River Trail. The cost to Alamance County for the 2007-08 fiscal year is $10,000.

For more information, contact Parks and Recreation Director Bryan Hagood at (336) 229-2380.

Gaston County
LifeNet Cardiac Care Project

Gaston County Emergency Medical Services and Gaston Memorial Hospital worked together on the LifeNet Cardiac Care Project, which enables paramedics to transmit EKG readings from the field directly to the hospital. The Gaston Memorial Foundation provided a grant to enable the EMS department to upgrade their equipment to allow them to transmit the EKG readings directly to the LifeNet Receiving Station at Gaston Memorial Hospital. Previously, the paramedic would phone in the results of the EKG.

Sending the readings directly to the LifeNet Receiving Station enables the attending cardiologist to diagnose a heart attack before the patient is even loaded into the ambulance. If a heart attack is diagnosed, the hospital prepares the Cardiac Catheterization Lab while the patient is en route, and the patient is taken directly to the lab instead of being admitted into the emergency room first, thereby saving time.

Prior to the implementation of this program, it would take an average of 160 minutes from the time a patient was admitted to the hospital until the blood flow was restored to the affected area. This interval is now commonly under 45 minutes, and in some cases is as low as 30 minutes. Restoring the blood flow more quickly lessens the likelihood of permanent damage to the heart.

For more information, contact Assistant EMS Director Jeffrey Waldrep at (704) 866-3204.

Buncombe County
Community Fluorescent Light Bulb Recycling

Buncombe County kicked off in July 2007 a program to allow residents to drop off used compact and regular fluorescent light bulbs for recycling. One of the first barriers to overcome was to make sure that citizens were able to access the drop-off sites easily. The Buncombe County Solid Waste Department worked with 13 participating city, county and volunteer fire departments to establish collection sites throughout the county.

Solid waste personnel visited each fire department and designated an area within each fire hall to locate the collection bins. When the bins are full, the fire department contacts the Solid Waste Department, and personnel trained in handling household hazardous waste materials collect the bins.

The spent bulbs are stored at the landfill’s household hazardous waste handling facility until enough inventory is collected to load a large trailer for transport to the recycling facility in Winston-Salem. The recycling facility separates the glass, phosphor powder, mercury and other materials so that as much of the raw materials as possible can be recycled.

The light bulbs contain mercury, which is toxic and once released into the environment can accumulate in living organisms and travel up the food chain, where it can reach high concentrations in fish. Since July, nearly 4,000 bulbs have been recycled and removed from the landfill.

For more information, contact Kristy Smith at (828) 250-5473.

Orange County
Inspect Plus

The Inspect Plus program is an in-house developed software program designed to make building inspectors more efficient. In November, the Inspect Plus program enabled Orange County building inspectors to go paperless in the field, reducing by more than 1,000 the sheets of paper used each week for inspections requests and documentation.

The program enables inspectors to spend more time in the field each day by eliminating the need for return trips to the office to enter data and print reports. Inspectors now process inspections results in the field on laptops. The laptops are docked in the inspector’s vehicle and also provide electronic maps to properties using the county’s GIS.

The laptops also are installed with all of the N.C. State Building, Plumbing, Electrical and Mechanical codes. An inspector can attach the relevant code to the inspection if further explanation is needed.

For more information, contact Susan U. Mellott at (919) 245-2593.

Alexander County
Alexander County Mapbook

Alexander County wanted to publish a detailed mapbook of the entire county using the county’s Geographic Information Systems data and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) software. The book was designed to help highlight economic development opportunities for businesses that were looking to locate or expand operations in Alexander County.

The county agreed to fund printing for 1,000 copies of the 155-page book, while 15 students at Alexander Central High School gathered and entered the data needed. The information was broken down into 10 categories: demographics, arts and recreation, history and values, retail locations, emergency services, local government, education, economic development, location and geography, and historic sites. The students designed each page and researched all the maps.

When the book was published, copies were distributed to local libraries and the Library of Congress. It was also made available in several outlets to be sold to the general public, and many copies were given to the county’s economic development organization.

For more information, contact GIS Coordinator George Brown at (828) 635-3024.

Durham County
Long-Term Care Web Site

Making the decision to place an elderly family member in a long-term care facility is often a difficult and emotional decision. Durham County’s Department of Social Services sought to eliminate some of the anxiety about the decision by creating a Web site with information on the adult-care facilities within the county.

The Web site (longtermcare.durhamcountync.info/index.cfm) provides information about each facility, including Community Advisory reports, complaints, corrective actions and any sanctions received by the facility.

The Web site also includes contact information and a map showing the location for each facility. As a result, information is now easier to find for citizens, and the public will also be able to research the history of each facility.

For more information, contact Director of Social Services Sammy Haithcock at (919) 560-8000.

Lee County
Youth Council Program

The City of Sanford/Lee County Youth Council was started in 2007 and is designed to enhance positive public awareness of the services provided by local governments and to encourage students to consider a career in public service.

The program included a series of twice-monthly meetings that exposed students to the many services and programs offered by city and county governments. Students were often given assignments to complete after sessions.

Youth Council members also served on various county boards, such as the Board of Health and the Parks and Recreation Commission, and two Youth Council members were selected for a paid 10-week summer internship with the city and county governments. That program was funded through a grant from the N.C. Civic Education Consortium.

For more information, contact Strategic Initiatives Director Lesa Price at (919) 718-4605, ext. 5505.

Onslow County
Project Hospitality

Project Hospitality promotes public outreach and interaction between the Onslow County Board of Commissioners and the public during the board’s regular bi-monthly meetings. County staff members personally greet each citizen attending the board meeting and provide a copy of the agenda.

Staff members also explain the public comment and public hearing process, in case any citizens are interested in addressing the Board of Commissioners, and answer any other questions about the board meeting.

Citizens are also introduced to the Board of Commissioners and other county staff members, including the county manager and county attorney. During a typical meeting, as many as 50 citizens may be in attendance, meaning that the program could impact more than 1,000 Onslow County citizens per year.

For more information, contact Clerk to the Board Beth M. Purcell at (910) 347-4717.

Brunswick County
ADA Educational Umbrella

The Brunswick County Health Department’s Educational Umbrella program is sanctioned by the American Diabetes Association and empowers local health departments to provide preventive medicine education to diabetics. The lack of education about diabetes results in many more instances of renal, circulatory and vision problems among diabetics when they are not trained on how best to manage their conditions.

The ADA has stringent requirements for educational programs, however, and many counties do not have the resources to meet these conditions. By creating one umbrella program through the State Health Director’s Office, all 100 counties are now able to begin providing these services to their citizens.

Five pilot counties started the pilot program in 2007. The goal is to have complete ADA recognition by this summer, said County Health Director Don Yousey. If it is sanctioned by the ADA, it will become the first statewide program of its kind in the nation.

For more information, contact Yousey at (910) 253-2274.

Iredell County
Litter Prevention Tarp Giveaway

Working in conjunction with officials from the N.C. Department of Transportation, Iredell County officials learned that as much as 50 percent of roadside litter comes from unsecured loads in the backs of trucks. The county decided to attack the problem through prevention rather than penalties. The Litter Prevention Tarp Giveaway program was designed to educate citizens about the need to cover loads being taken to county waste facilities and to provide them with a tarp to help reduce litter. Many citizens were not aware that there were existing state and local ordinances requiring loads to be covered.

The county Solid Waste Department worked with the Sheriff’s Department and the N.C. Highway Patrol to give away tarps and educational materials. In the first few weeks of the program, deputies gave out tarps instead of citations when they stopped motorists in violation of the laws. The Highway Patrol provided to the county copies of a brochure explaining the existing laws about securing loads. These were distributed to citizens by deputies and at the county’s solid waste facilities.

The county gave out more than 700 tarps, and Director of Solid Waste David Lambert estimates that he has seen an increase of at least 50 percent of the number of covered loads being taken to county facilities.

For more information, contact Lambert at (704) 878-5430.

Orange County
Spanish Proficiency Assessment Tool

With a growing Hispanic population, Orange County leaders recognized several years ago that the county needed a way to assess the abilities of its employees and volunteers to speak, write and translate Spanish. Working with the Chapel Hill Institute of Cultural and Language Education, the county developed a Spanish Proficiency Assessment Tool.

The purpose of the assessment tool is to further accessibility to all county services for Spanish-speaking residents by helping assure that county employees have sufficient knowledge of the language and culture of the Spanish-speaking community to communicate effectively. In the first year of the program, 36 county employees volunteered to go through the assessment.

Historically, the county only assessed an employee’s Spanish proficiency if the employee was hired as a translator or interpreter. This resulted in many departments having no staff evaluated as being able to communicate with Spanish-speaking clients.

The Orange County Office of Human Rights and Relations had a Partnership Grant with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and received a $10,000 grant to develop the tool. The county offers free courses to any employee who wishes to begin to learn or improve their Spanish.

For more information, contact County Manager Laura Blackmon at (919) 245-2306.

Wake County
Crisis Intervention Team

Wake County’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) began with a group of law enforcement and mental health professionals, along with advocates for the mentally ill, who wanted to develop a program to address the rising number of mentally ill inmates being kept in the county jail.

According to figures from the county, the estimated daily cost for an inmate with mental illness is $93, compared to $67 for inmates without mental illness. In addition, inmates with mental illness have an average stay of 90 days, compared to just 19 days for other inmates. So far, the program has diverted more than 200 persons from the jail – representing an estimated savings of $1.7 million.

The program not only represents potentially significant cost savings, but it also enables the persons with mental illness to continue receiving their treatment in their community. The program uses existing community resources and volunteers to provide the training to law enforcement officers. The training is also offered to the municipal police departments within Wake County.

For more information, contact CIT Coordinator Chris Wassmuth at (919) 212-7528.