Moore County approves $1.2M for school athletics; hear health and staffing crises

Moore County Commissioners revised $1.2 million funding plans April 7, shifting $600,000 to Pinecrest High School projects and allowing North Moore High School to repurpose its previously approved turf funds. At the same meeting, they learned of elder care staffing shortages and growing mental health concerns.

County Manager Wayne Vest reviewed the reasoning for revising the allocated $1.2 million in school athletics for Pinecrest High School and North Moore High School.

On July 15, 2025, commissioners approved $600,000 to Union Pines High School and $600,000 to North Moore High School for artificial turf.

On March 10, 2026, commissioners received a request from the Pinecrest Athletics Club.

Also on March 10, 2026, North Moore High School officials said it wanted to use the $600,000 on other athletic improvements instead of artificial turf.

Now, each athletic project requires pre-approval from the commissioners.

Chairman Nick Picerno said he had made a “boo-boo” when the board approved the $600,000 for the future use of installing artificial turf when the board believed the schools were going to reduce ongoing expenses by installing artificial turf.

The $1.2 million funding came from general funds. Picerno referenced $9 million set aside for athletic improvements from the 2008 $54 million bond issue.

During presentations, the Moore County Nursing and Adult Care Home Community Advisory Committee Chair Patricia Smith, presented the annual report. The counties’ seven skilled nursing facilities, seven assisted living facilities and four adult care homes face widespread staffing shortages and high turnover, directly impacting the quality of care.

Limited staffing causes slow call light responses, less supervision, and higher stress for staff. Leadership turnover makes it harder to uphold care standards. The report suggests North Carolina needs stricter statewide staffing rules to improve conditions.

Smith said volunteers complete training to serve residents. She said they recently gifted single roses in cellophane sleeves and a handmade card made by AARP of the Triangle to some of the Medicaid funded facilities’ residents. “Some of these residents have nobody else. They are the last of their families. It brought tears to our eyes.”

 “There is going to be more demand for long-term care support and services… and there has been no preplanning…Our goal is to die in our own homes. You are just a car accident, a stroke, a heart attack, or a fall away from being placed in a facility rehab. And often you never get out and are placed in a long-term situation,” Smith said about being an advocate for the vulnerable population in need of more oversight, volunteers and enhanced funding.

Moore County Health Director Matthew Garner presented the three-year report. The data highlights health priorities and emerging issues for the development of the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), which outlines strategies to address needs over the next several years.

The Moore Health Board helped compile the data. The top three needs are behavioral health, especially concerning substance abuse, access to general and dental health and transportation to resources.

Moore County is one of seven counties above the normal rate for suicides.

The top causes of death for Moore are cancer, heart disease, cerebral vascular disease, and suicide. Factors that contribute to death are lack of transportation, the cost burdens of housing, insurance and out-of-pocket costs.

A family of four needs in the state of North Carolina needs about $87k annually to afford necessities, according to the report.

Moore County is a Tier 3, which means it is one of the top twenty wealthy counties, but the health data shows the county gaps in serving its people.

Picerno said it was interesting to see mental health as the number one need and that serving on Trillium Health Resources’ board was a waste of his time because there was no work for him. He said the government was not the “fixer,” but made the problems.

Commissioner Kurt Cook said children with long-term mental health needs were being farmed out to Kentucky and other states.

Schools face the brunt of mental health care disparities.

“It starts at home,” Cook said.

Commissioner Tom Adams said the problems were cumulative and that they’d asked the schools to do more and more. He said about the Affordable Care Act, “we added 600,000 people” but not more doctors, which increased the costs.

Vice-Chair Jim Von Canon said he wanted the health department to investigate why Head Start and Help the Children in Taylortown and Vass closed. He said Robbins needed help with a high influx of non-English speaking children. “Get back with us…we can call our legislators and representatives,” Von Canon said about knowing “who dropped the ball” on funding.

Commissioner John Ritter said he would communicate with Trillium Health Resources to collaborate with the health department.

Picerno said the county had a multimillion-dollar building sitting vacant in West End after the director made the Sandhills think it would include East Point but instead they were absorbed by East Point. “They were supposed to address mental health.” He blamed the higher ups and said they did not need to send more funding but needed direction.

The board approved a resolution for the North Carolina General Assembly to make all state and local elections be held on even-numbered years and to be partisan elections.

The board approved a joint resolution with the school district to ask the General Assembly to restore state funding for school enhancement (dance, theater, art, physical education) funding formula for teacher allotments to meet state requirement for graduation and pay for currently enrolled enhancement teachers or, allot funds to support funding for enhancement teachers and to address the unfunded requirements.

Two years ago, the boards made the same request and received no response.

During a request for a public hearing, Senior Planner Danielle Orloff asked the board to consider Unified Development Ordinance Amendments to Chapter 5 – Dimensional Standards, Section 5.1, Table of Area and Setbacks to reduce minimum front principal building setbacks from 40’ to 30’ in all residential zoning districts. In comparison on setback requirements, Lee County has 30’ and Harnett has 35’.

“Why”? Adams asked.

A planning board member had suggested the change to prevent people from looking into other people’s backyards and setbacks used to be shorter.

“We are getting ready to look at the entire UDO,” Adams said about the reasoning of waiting for when the Uniform Development Ordinances are reviewed next week.

Picerno said he assumed a builder ran into the issue of constructing more front yard than backyard and consulted a planning board member.

The public hearing is scheduled for the next meeting on April 21 at 5:30.

April 8, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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