A love-fest was evident Tuesday night when Kinston council members and Lenoir County commissioners got together for their annual meeting.

Neither group voiced serious complaints. All was cheery as they congratulated each other on the mutual cooperation and congeniality they say has become the rule over the last few years.

If any sour note was struck, it was a plea by Commissioner Wayne Pittman for the city to find a way to work with operators of the Neuse II and settle their differences.

Kinston inspectors have asserted the boat falls short of building codes for the central fire district. Ted Sampley, representing the non-profit veterans group that operates the boat, contends the boat is not a building and, therefore, is not required to meet building codes. The Neuse II’s board of directors has discontinued official tours of the boat in view of the city’s expressed concerns about safety.

“The city has a responsibility to protect the public,” City Manager Ralph Clark said. “Our requests have not been unreasonable.” Clark later added, “There is no building code for a boat.”

The city wants the boat’s builders to place electrical wiring inside conduit, he said, and add other basic safety features.

Council member Alice Tingle said she remembers the West Pharmaceutical Services explosion caused by dust and the New Jersey nightclub fire, for which that city is being sued.

However, firecrackers were ignited inside the nightclub. Sampley has said similar incendiary devices would not be used inside the boat. The Neuse II also does not contain fine plastic power, which caused the West explosion.

Council members and commissioners also explored an idea to combine vehicular maintenance work as a way to cut costs; and
Turning to the Council on Government to examine other ways to consolidate services for residents. Commissioner Chris Humphrey said Larry Moolenar, former development director here and now director of COG, once offered to examine ways for the city and county to combine some services. Humphrey said a third party with no vested interest in the outcome might be able to come up with ideas.

“Our population is getting older, poorer and, in some pockets, blacker,” county Board Chairman George Graham said at the end of the meeting. “They have little income and no prospects for jobs.”

Life in Kinston, which Graham called “the face of Lenoir County,” and in the county is improving, he said, but “still has so much further to go.”

Leaders must be “dissecting our community and find what is festering,” Graham said. “We’ve got some real work to do. When we turn it around, people will want to move here.”

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