1-27 - 1-28-22 BOC Planning Retreat

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Chairman Smith requested at 10-minute break at 10:40 a.m. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH - Heath Cain, Health Director, Anthony Williams, Environmental Health Environmental Health Status Report Anthony Williams with Environmental Health said the food program of Lee County is one of 50 counties enrolled in retail program standards, a program started by the FDA to ensure jurisdictions meet a uniform gold standard for food inspections. It creates a standard for restaurant operators and inspectors and there is grant funding available with no county match. Adhering to the higher standard also served to provide added protection for the public. Lee County has been enrolled since 2015 and has since has been awarded over$60,000 in grant funding. Because of the technical specialty needed to perform food and on-sight wastewater inspections, Health Director Heath Cain said there is a need to create two program specialist positions to provide quality assurance for each program to help with accreditation efforts. The food program is mainly regulated through program standards. This will help develop consistency among inspections and when restaurants switch ownership. The proposal is to reclassify two positions to program specialist within the program. In addition, another environmental health specialist will also be needed to replace a position once the position is reclassed into a food specialist. Program_Specialist_Info.docx 2021_Lee_Co_Staffing Level Assessment tool.xlsx Position_info_summary.xlsx SANFORD AREA GROWTH ALLIANCE Economic Development Update from the Sanford Area Growth Alliance Jimmy Randolph and John Dean with the Sanford Area Growth Alliance provided information on SAGA's program of work. John Dean said that since 2018 there has been an increase in requests for information that come from a variety of sources such as the Partnership of NC and companies looking to relocate or expand. Last year, SAGA responded to over 105 RFIs where as previously the record was 78. SAGA has already responded to 12 RFIs this year. Most RFIs come from the Economic Development Partnership of NC. Out of 12 RFIs received, four have come from consultants. In 2019 there started to be very visible consistent growth when we saw large growth with Bharat Forge and Pfizer. The total investment in projects received is over$2.8 billion dollars and over 3,300 jobs. Lee County has been on the radar of life sciences manufacturing facilities looking at lots six and nine at CCEP. These companies are looking to decide this quarter. There are two significant challenges and one is workforce. The unemployment rate in Lee County is between 3.5% and 4%. The workforce has remained in the 25-27,000 and number of unemployed is around 1,000. The challenge this year is to continue to engage in the effective partnership between the public and private sector and continue to communicate what SAGA is trying to accomplish. 6