GENERAL MEMBERSHIP BOARD MEETING – SEPT. 8^TH – The ECC General Membership Board will meet on Thursday, September 8^th. Please attend this important meeting, which will include:

• Presentation from Vann Rogerson, President of the NC East Alliance – Mr. Rogerson will provide an update on the economic and workforce development efforts of the NC East Alliance The NC East Alliance is the lead economic development organization serving eastern North Carolina. The organization works with state, local and national economic development organizations to help existing industries expand; actively market to and assist in the recruitment of new businesses into the area; build regional economic capacity; and provide confidential site location assistance for companies seeking available buildings and sites for expansion or relocation. For more information on the NC East Alliance, visit https://www.nceast.org/.
• Presentation of the FY2021 Audit – The presentation of the FY2021 Audit was planned for the August 11^th Executive Committee meeting, but the presentation was delayed, due to unforeseen circumstances.
• Consideration of amendments to ECC by-laws



Dinner will be served at 6:00 p.m., and the meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m.  

CEDS 2023

The Eastern Carolina Council is requesting your participation in the community response for the development of the upcoming Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) update. Please share your valuable insight and feedback. Input form this survey will assist in creating a 5-year economic development strategy to help guide and better serve our region. It should take 20 minutes to complete. All survey questions are required. Please answer the questions based on your unique perspective and experience. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective. We encourage you to complete and share our survey with other staff and community members to ensure full representation. Click here to take the survey.

If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact David Bone at executivedirector@eccog.org.

What is a CEDS?

Simply put, a CEDS is a strategy-driven plan for regional economic development. A CEDS is the result of a regionally-owned planning process designed to build capacity and guide the economic prosperity and resiliency of an area or region. It is a key component in establishing and maintaining a robust economic ecosystem by helping to build regional capacity (through hard and soft infrastructure) that contributes to individual, firm, and community success. The CEDS provides a vehicle for individuals, organizations, local governments, institutes of learning, and private industry to engage in a meaningful conversation and debate about what capacity-building efforts would best serve economic development in the region." eda.gov/ceds/

National Night Out

January Brown and Angelia Pridgen represented Eastern Carolina Council at the National Night Out. For the first time since 2011, National Night Out Against Crime (NNO) was celebrated in one location for all of New Bern on Tuesday, August 2^nd at Union Point Park. This year’s event consisted of several law enforcement agencies, fire, EMS, food trucks, bounce houses, V103.3 with live remote, static displays, K-9 demonstrations, and many activities for the kids. One vital part of this celebration was the abundance of COMMUNITY RESOURCES in attendance. This event provided our agency as well as many others the opportunity to promote resources for individuals of all ages and answer any questions that the community may have. 

Obie Interactive Senior System

ECCAAA staff provided an Obie interactive projection system to Wayne County Senior Center and Onslow County Senior Center in the fall of 2021 by utilizing CARES Act Family Caregiver Support Program funding. The Obie system is an interactive gaming system that uses a projector combined with motion sensors to project motion activated games and activities onto tables, walls, or floors. This system provides safe, hygienic, and germ-free activities for seniors. Programs include memory games, BINGO, touch and paint program, interactive movement programs, and sports programs. Obie will be utilized in the adult respite programs to engage older adults through cognitive stimulation, social engagement, and physical interactive activities. The system provides activities to engage clients in socialization with others, movement wellness, and memory, ECCAAA met with Wayne County Senior Center staff in July 2022, to train on the program, interact through the system, and explore programs options for their clients. The Wayne County Senior Center Obie system is functional and being utilized with clients. For further information visit: Obie - Interactive Playground Projector (playobie.com)

The Big Pop-Up Community Resource Fair

North Carolina Community Action is working with many local and national partners to provide community-wide pop-up drive-thru events to serve families in need. Coastal Community Action, Inc. (CCA) sponsored the “Big Pop-Up Community Resource Fair” in New Bern on August 18, 2022. CCA brought together community partners to provide items to be handed out to older adults, individuals with disabilities, and families. Individuals serviced were from Carteret, Craven, Jones, and Pamlico County. Volunteers placed these items in the vehicles of local participants who were preregistered for the event. Participants received items including home goods, food, medical wellness items, clothing items, shoes, gift cards, and much more. 

 As of July 1^st, 2022, Community Advisory Committees are allowed to continue visitation to long-term care facilities. The return of CAC visitation and activities will greatly help support the Ombudsman Program and the residents we serve. This is an opportunity to increase the presence of eyes and hears in the facilities and a focus on advocacy for resident rights. Regional Ombudsmen, Angelia Pridgen and Colby Smith, trained 23 volunteers with the Community Advisory Committees on the state CAC re-entry plan and the proper donning and doffing of PPE. Each volunteer must complete this training prior to re-entry to long-term care facility visitation. Craven County Adult Care Committee will be the first committee in the region to begin facility visitation on Monday, August 22^nd. 

Transportation Updates

In the latest draft of the new State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP), three projects originally slated to be de-committed by NCDOT are now scheduled for delivery:

• R-3403B – Widening of US 17 from north of NC 43 (Weyerhaeuser Rd.) to Spruill Town Rd. (near Vanceboro), is now scheduled for ROW in 2027 and construction in 2029. It will be let with R-2513A, which widens US 17 from Antioch Rd. (near Bridgeton) to NC 43. This is a huge win for both DERPO and the New Bern MPO as it closes what would have been a gap in US 17 widening. ($82,300,000)
• R-5945 – Access management along Live Oak St. in Beaufort from NC 101 to Olga Rd. Now scheduled for ROW in 2027 and construction in 2029. ($56,000,000)
• R-5946 – Also on Live Oak St. in Beaufort, the project will upgrade its intersection with Lennoxville Rd. Scheduled for ROW in 2027 and construction in 2029. ($7,800,000) 

To view the draft STIP please click here.

Essentials for Local Government Managers - October 7, 2022 - 9:00am-4:30pm - Wilmington, NC

Are you new to local government management, transitioning, or considering a potential career move into local government management?

This new one-day program is designed for professionals, not elected officials, and provides you with a broad set of introductory training on managing local governments in North Carolina. The program will allow for interactive peer learning, provide a book and other resources, as well support participants with guidance about further training and mentoring options.

What You'll Learn:

1. The evolving role of the local government manager
2. Practices on how to help you and your board get off to a good start
3. Actions to take to create a great workplace
4. Understanding local budgeting and finance

This workshop will be held at Hotel Ballast Wilmington, 301 North Water Street, Wilmington NC 28401. 

REGISTER today at this link. The agenda is under the Material tab.

Ethics for Municipal Elected Officials

NCLM General Counsel (GC) Office has created this training for members to meet the state statute requirements, which will enable learners to earn the ethics certificate. This two-hour training was taught by GC staff and moderated by trained NCLM staff.

In this course, municipal officials will:

• Understand laws and principles that govern conflicts of interest and ethical standards of conduct at the local government level; and
• Build and enhance issue-spotting analysis and reasoning skills.

Click here to register.

Newly Elected Leaders Bundle

The purpose of the North Carolina League of Municipalities Newly elected Leaders Bundle certificate is to acquaint you with the basics of municipal government and provide you with resources and materials that will help you be successful in your role. 

Each certificate is designed with the busy municipal leader in mind - they're self-paced, available 24 hours a day, and lessons are broken into manageable chunks of content that can be completed in between tasks during a busy workday.

This all-inclusive product bundle also contains the required course for the state-mandated Ethics training. Classes include:

• New Mayors School
• The Mayors Role
• The Budgeting Process
• Newly Elected Official's Academy
• Municipal Member Roles and Responsibilities
• Working with Municipal Staff
• Ethics for Elected Municipal Officials 
• In this course, municipal officials will:
• Understand laws and principles that govern conflicts of interest and ethical standards of conduct at the local government level; and
• Build and enhance issue-spotting analysis and reasoning skills.

Cybersecurity Awareness Symposium

The NC Department of Information Technology will be providing a free, virtual N.C. Cybersecurity Awareness Symposium Oct. 4-5. Registration is now open to state and local government employees as well as employees of K-12 systems, colleges, universities, and other public entities. Check out the agenda at https://it.nc.gov/symposium.

Local Government Language Access Collaborative Call for Applications

Building Integrated Communities is delighted to announce a call for applications for the new Local Government Language Access Collaborative, a one-year interactive course designed to build capacity for North Carolina local governments to communicate with residents in community languages. Local government and community organization partners are eligible for funding to support efforts.

Building Integrated Communities (BIC) is a community planning and leadership initiative that partners with North Carolina local governments to create inclusive practices and policies for residents born in other countries. Local governments and community stakeholders work together to improve communication, public safety, mobility, entrepreneurship, and leadership of immigrant and refugee residents.

This program is supported by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Since 2010, the statewide BIC initiative has partnered with the local governments of Chapel Hill, Siler City, Greenville, High Point, Winston-Salem, and Sanford to create and implement action plans for improving the socio-economic integration of newcomers. To date, more than 2000 foreign-born residents from 26 countries of origin have participated in these planning processes.

Call for Applications: Local Government Language Access Collaborative

Due October 1^st, 2022

Program and Funding Information: https://migration.unc.edu/language-access-local-government/

Application: https://migration.unc.edu/application-language-access-program/

*Please note that BIC will also open applications in September for the BIC Partnership Program, which has supported NC local governments and community organizations since 2010 to create comprehensive plans for immigrant integration and leadership. Please visit https://migration.unc.edu/open-programs/ for more information.

Building Integrated Communities is a program of the Institute for the Study of the Americas at UNC Chapel Hill.

For more information contact:

Hannah Gill, DPhil

Associate Director, Institute for the Study of the Americas

Building Integrated Communities

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

3205 Fed Ex Global Education Center

301 Pittsboro Street, Campus Box #3205

Chapel Hill NC 27599-3205

N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency to award $19.4 million to local governments for multi-family housing

The N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency has announced a new affordable housing funding opportunity for local governments impacted by hurricanes Matthew and Florence. The funding is available to local governments in 23 state- and HUD-defined counties as the most impacted and distressed (MID) areas. More information and an online application are available at Affordable Housing Development Fund | Local and Tribal Governments | ReBuild NC. The deadline is Sept. 16.

BRIC & FMA Grants for Insfrastructure

Over $2.3B is available in the Building Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) grant program and $800M is available in the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program for 2022. This can be for shovel-ready construction projects that mitigate the risk of a natural hazard to public infrastructure or plans and studies to help develop future projects (called Capabilities & Capacity Building or C&CB proposals).

Towns and Counties to submit their infrastructure needs by the October 3, 2022 Letter of Interest deadline for the BRIC/FMA2022 grant competition.

MUCH more information can be found on the DPS website Non-Disaster Grants | NC DPS

NCLM American Rescue Plan Training in Wallace on October 26th. 

The North Carolina League of Municipalities, in partnership with the NC Association of Regional Councils of Government and the NC Pandemic Recovery Office, is hosting American Rescue Plan training in various regions across the state. The event for our region will be on October 26^th in Wallace - Register Here. Information about the other locations and dates is at https://www.arp.nclm.org/events.

This is a one-stop ARP shop. With representatives from state, local and academic organizations all in the same room, the NCLM and UNC School of Government are ready to provide information, share case studies, and answer any ARP questions you have. From compliance to reporting to overall strategy, your concerns will be addressed.

This is an interactive agenda, featuring time to ask questions directly to expert panels and work one-on-one with staff from both NCLM and the UNC School of Government. Do not miss this opportunity!

The event will start at 9:00 a.m. and will last until 4:30 p.m. Registration is required, using the form at the link above. This event is free, and lunch will be provided.