Four Square plays major role in county

By Marcia Barnes

Staff Writer

Clay County Commissioners met on Thursday, Aug. 1 for a regular meeting of the board. Immediately following opening formalities and the public comment segment, Dr. Sue Lynn Ledford made a presentation on the critical issues facing clients in Clay County who are served by Four Square Community Action, Inc.

Ledford heads the organization as its executive director and HUD director which serves Clay, Cherokee, Graham and Swain counties in western North Carolina. Ledford said that there were four things she wanted to bring before the board.

“I want to give you a quick overview of the services we’re providing in your county and the other three counties,” Ledford said. “I want to make you aware of some efforts we’re making with the Head Start program here in Clay County and make you aware of the Weatherization Assistance Program cuts that impact your county directly and also ask who might be able to be a board of commissioners representative on our board. Clay Logan did that for quite some time and we would welcome your participation. We’ve added a lot of services in the last two years,” Ledford said.

“One of the programs I wanted to mention is Head Start. Currently, we provide services for 3 to 5-year-old children right down here at the foot of the hill. We only have one classroom there. Our goal this year is to open a second classroom which is desperately needed. The second thing we’re hoping to do with Head Start is begin to offer an extended day because often times our parents can’t work if they’re trying to pick up their child at 2:30 in the afternoon.”

Ledford said the other thing that’s new is called Healthy Opportunities Program for Medicaid clients and the purpose of HOP is that with no additional funding from the federal government it is a mechanism of how you use the money that comes down.

“So what we attempt to do is address those things that are real barriers for families that keep them from being healthy and keep them from being able to live productive lives,” Ledford said.

She said that some of those things like housing repairs could be covered up to $10,000 plus per Medicaid client if approved, if they have a health need.

“We have calls, ‘My kid fell through the floor, can you help us?’ We have some desperate situations,” she noted.

Ledford addressed the commissioners at length and presented details of how Four Square Community Action helps with transportation to vital medical visits, helps with utilities during the coldest part of the year, helps with move-ins and helps with supplemental food boxes if families don’t have quite enough to make it through the week.

“Of course, you know about HUD Section 8 rental assistance,” Ledford said. “We have reached our capacity for the first time. We now have a wait list.”

Clay County Commissioners were given copies of a letter Ledford sent to Sen. Kevin Corbin about pressing issues in the Weatherization Assistance Program which has been cut from $880,080 to $357,370 in the budget for July 1 to June 30, 2025.

Ledford said that significantly cuts weatherization home repairs, installing heating systems and making homes energy efficient so people aren’t paying $300 to $400 a month for their electric bill. This is predominately for the elderly and disabled.

“This weatherization program saves a tremendous amount for each family that gets it. We spread that money out last year and we served everybody we could serve with it. We were cut by the Department of Energy Quality by 59.4 percent. There’s a lot of federal guidelines that are spilling down to our state level. We do urgent repair programs, trees through roofs, someone falling through a bathroom floor because the floor is rotted out and they’re elderly and disabled and they need help. Fortunately, so far this one has not been cut,” she said.

Ledford’s list of services presented to the board included help that Four Square gives in single family home rehabs for people who own their home which is in such disrepair that the family can no longer stay in it unless something is done. The agency assists with home grants, a 50/50 grant helping landlords to provide housing, Duke Electric grants and education grants.

“These are kind of the highlights,” she said. “We’re a hidden gem in the area. We want people to be aware of what we do and to be able to refer those who need us. We’re doing fundraisers, we’re doing a pickle ball tournament so that if we have a family in need and restricted funding, we can say ‘yes’ we have money that is not restricted funding.”

In a request to the board, Ledford asked if they would consider appointing another Clay County Board of Commissioners person to the Four Square Community Action board. Chairman Rob Peck said that they would certainly consider that.

Commissioner Randy Nichols said, “We surely appreciate everything you do and I didn’t realize how good Four Square was for our area. A few years back I started to do some assist installations, most of the time calls came from “Miss Connie” that somebody was hurting. It’s really humbling to help, go see what some of these people are living in.”

Nichols asked Ledford the reason for the Department of Energy Quality to make the budget cut. Ledford responded that the DEQ has been the most troubling agency and requiring Four Square an excessive amount of effort in order to serve the community.

“There are questions we want answers to,” Ledford said. “Why did the cut happen, why was the cut disproportionate to the rural and most under served counties and did DEQ factor in the tier of the counties, the tier rating? We’re trying our best to get clear answers from them.”

Ledford concluded the information on Four Square in saying that there’s been a shift. The services are obviously for low income, disability, elderly and dire situations which were previously under the Department of Health and Human Services because it was seen as meeting the needs of the people.

“There’s has been a big shift in the energy efficiency, but the equation should not be 70 percent leaning toward energy efficiency and only 30 percent leaning toward the needs of our communities,” Ledford said.

Nichols asked if it would be helpful if the commissioners reached out to Corbin and Rep. Karl Gillespie. Ledford responded saying that it would be helpful. Peck asked Ledford if she had heard back from Corbin and she has heard from both Corbin and Gillespie.

“There will be a public event in Raleigh and a press conference in front of the Department of Environmental Quality building in August and I’ll be there,” Ledford said.

One more question was raised about Head Start concerning student capacity by Peck. Ledford said that they are at the maximum 17 to 18 children in a classroom manned with one teacher.

“If you know people who love children and want to work as a teacher or teacher assistant, send them to me,” Ledford said.

Further business conducted by commissioners included:

• Health and Human Service fees schedule was presented by County Manager Debbie Mauney. She stood in for Public Health Director Clarissa Rogers who was out-of-town and asked for the board to approve the master fee schedule as there were no changes from the last fiscal year as the rates are still in line with the updated Medicaid reimbursement rates. The fee schedule was approved.

• There is a six week backlog according to the environmental supervisor on issuing new on-site waste water permits; there is a two week backlog on issuing well permits.

Prior to the commission meeting, Dusty Beal, director of Water and Sewer said that on Friday, July 26 there was a meeting about the meter switch out project with Ferguson and a company called Software is going to update the software to accommodate the project. Beal said that the DEQ representative was here to do the inspection. “The state has to make sure we’re spending the money the way we say we are,” Beal said. The district is still working with the new school on getting their water and sewer up and going.

County commission meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. the first Thursday of the month following the Water & Sewer District meeting in the multi-purpose room of the courthouse.