Officials: Onslow County faces challenges, sees change
By Amanda Hickey, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The 19th annual breakfast, organized by the
Video of the presentations will be available through the city of
Onslow Memorial
Chief Executive Officer
According to Piper, the hospital had an income of
In 2013, OMH wrote off
"We're finding more folks without insurance. Those with insurance have such a high co-pay they aren't able to pay their bills," he said.
Those bills are then written off as uncompensated care.
Piper also told the group that the Affordable Care Act will lead to a downturn in both volume and reimbursement from
He said he expects to see a
The hospital is creating a strategic plan committee to look at options to ensure future sustainability. A recommendation is due by the end of 2014, he said.
The theme for 2014 in
"Challenge is a great way to describe the last several years in
The county is seeing less residential construction with permits down 35 percent since last year and a 172-percent increase in commercial permits since 2009, he said.
"With all the new construction it would be easy to assume that property tax revenues would be at an all-time high," Hudson said. "Unfortunately, our county's property revaluation has exposed a decline in value of the countywide tax base of approximately 3 percent. This number includes real and personal property, public service companies and registered motor vehicles."
But Hudson said
While residential growth is slowing, Hudson said that does not mean that
"Evidence of this lies in our school system, where the student population increased by 258 students since last year," he said.
According to
Phillips said there are challenges that are going to be faced in the coming year but the city is working to iron out the "bumps and bruises" and ensure that
Instead of a speech, Phillips shared a video created by city staff highlighting some of what is happening within the city limits, including investing in the downtown area, demolition of
Schools
According to Interim Superintendent
The anchor, he said, has an "all time high" graduation rate at 87.2 percent in 2013 while the dropout rate continues to decrease and was at 2.32 percent in the 2012-13 school year.
Meanwhile, the number of students taking advanced placement classes continues to increase with 265 students enrolled in 2010 and 411 in 2013.
Growth, he said, is something the school system is familiar with since more than 300 new students have arrived annually since 1949.
"I'm confident though that the oncoming growth challenge will be embraced through a joint team effort by our commissioners and our board of education. Will the solution be easy? No. Is it important that this important that this community develop one? Yes," he said.
Coastal Carolina Community Coll ege
Lingle told those gathered that the college is about educational quality, student success and "not about much of anything else."
The college, he said, has been a leader in state performance measures and continues that legacy.
MCI-East
Col .
Clark said it's the picture of what's to come can get cloudy.
"Forecasting is very difficult ... it's tough to know what the future holds," he said.
Since last year's State of the Community, there has been sequestration, government shutdown and budget uncertainty.
Clark said that the
While the
Clark said the overall cuts of 10,000 to 12,000 personnel by 2017 will be felt at
He also said that MCI East expects to see deployments increase as Marines deploy to sites across the globe in response to security contingencies.
Clark said there are 270 ongoing projects aboard
He said there's a 90-percent housing occupancy rate aboard the base with another 400 residences to be complete this year. His t orically, the base had 4,500 housing units available but the installation is moving toward having 5,200.
The
Clark said the new
Other projects aboard the base include a new dining facility at
In the last year, the station has built a new front gate, a new entrance to the
The air station has also built a new waterfront community center near the marina and is expanding the combat aircraft loading area and building a new squadron hangar and parking garage in the
"When this construction is done at the end of this year, we'll have spent
According to information from
Salmon said there is another
Am and a Hickey is the government reporter at
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