For the past several years, as a run-up to the county budget preparation in the spring, commissioners have held an annual one-day retreat to discuss various matters that are expected to influence the new budget and/or new initiatives or directions that could do likewise.

Heretofore, the retreats have been held at a site other than the Person County Office Building, where commissioners regularly meet, and retreat business typically has consumed most of a full day.

This year’s retreat, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 7, will start at 7 p.m. in familiar surroundings of room 215 of the PCOB.

Explaining the retreat schedule, Person County Manager Steve Carpenter indicated Monday that the evening was the only time some of the commissioners could meet next Thursday.

Six items are on the agenda for the retreat, beginning with Carpenter and County Finance Director Andy Davenport providing commissioners an overview of the latest legislation enacted by the General Assembly that will bear on county and-or the county budget. They also will review the county’s fiscal condition with an eye toward the new budget.

Next up will be a discussion led by the county board’s chairman and vice chairman, Johnny M. Lunsford and Jimmy B. Clayton, pertaining to county funding for Person County Schools, about which commissioners and Person County Board of Education members have exchanged views off and on for the past six months or so. The school board and schools Supt. Dr. Larry Cartner have pleaded with commissioners to increase funding for the schools, while commissioners have made it a point to emphasize that they have increased the county’s annual current expense allocation each of the past three years, while acknowledging they have not provided funding at the level requested by the schools. >>

Also at next week’s retreat, commissioners are slated to hear a presentation from County Fire Marshal Johnny Gentry concerning a Person County Fire Chiefs Association proposal for a county-wide fire tax. While a county fire tax is not a new idea in Person County, it has not been subject to much public discussion in recent years.

Fire protection outside the City of Roxboro is principally provided by a series of volunteer fire departments that receive an annual equipment stipend from the county but otherwise fund operations on their own, typically from proceeds from a variety of fund-raising events throughout the year.

Commissioners will devote time at the retreat talking about how they might proceed toward advancing the conditions they laid out last month as part of their authorizing issuance of a special use permit for Republic Services of N. C. to add one additional waste collection cell at the Upper Piedmont Environmental Landfill that the company operates in southeastern Person County.

By a 3-2 vote, commissioners agreed to issue the permit but not before holding a hearing on an alternative sites study, subject to a thorough study by independent professionals of waste disposal alternatives and also a study of the impacts of various pollutants on county citizens and how a larger landfill might influence those impacts. To date, however, commissioners have not publicly taken any action toward hiring consultants to perform the requisite studies.

Commissioner Kyle Puryear, whose motion won that 3-2 approval, is to lead this discussion during the retreat, which presumably could begin to advance the issue.

Two other items for the retreat have commissioners slated to discuss county banking service contracts for the next year and also hearing from Jackie Thompson from Roxboro Media regarding a prospective design for the county’s Web page.

The retreat is open to the public, but unlike regular meetings of the board of county commissioners, the public typically does not get a chance to address the board, unless commissioners specifically invite comment from the audience.