Hamlet approves trailer donation to search and rescue effort

HAMLET —The Hamlet City Council approved a motion last week to donate an enclosed trailer to the North Carolina Search and Rescue Advisory Council (NCSARAC) community partnership.

“The Hamlet Senior Center requests approval from the city council to donate the enclosed trailer to the North Carolina Search and Rescue Advisory Council community partnership. This donation aligns with our mission to support safety, emergency preparedness and aging well. It will enhance search and rescue efforts across North Carolina, particularly for individuals with dementia and other vulnerable populations,” said Amanda Kempen, director of the Hamlet Senior Center.

Kempen emphasized the growing need for search and rescue resources, noting recent cases of missing elderly individuals in Richmond County.

“We are very well aware of the growing needs for the search and rescue resources as we have recently had missing elderly here in Richmond County,” she said. “Also, this donation aligns with the efforts of Richmond County Aging Services for the silver alerts with the elderly population.”

She further detailed the importance of the NCSARAC’s work.

“The NCSARAC provides trained search and rescue teams for missing persons, which does include seniors living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, individuals with autism or mental health conditions and diagnosis … It covers a wide variety, but it especially speaks to the Hamlet Senior Center’s already partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association to educate and to help our community and caregivers that are affected by the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia,” Kempen said.

Kempen urged the council to approve the donation, stating, “We do ask for this donation so that one, we can enhance a needed service, enhance a partnership that is already there and to also show our community that we do care and we want to help not just our county, but the surrounding counties of North Carolina by allowing this donation.”

The trailer, previously listed as a senior center trailer, had not been used in multiple years. According to city officials, it was previously utilized by a handyman for transporting supplies from Sam’s Club and serving as a luggage hauler but had since become underutilized.

Kempen shared that a member of the Hamlet Fire Department, who is passionate about search and rescue, expressed interest in expanding available resources.

“Their desire to expand, being able to offer resources such as the home alarms and things like that, to be able to go out and further their community impact. Because we do not use this trailer,” she said.

She concluded by echoing a sentiment shared by council members: “I’ve heard you guys state ‘let’s make the best use of the resources that we have, place them where they need to be placed’ and this trailer would best serve as their resource for them.”

In other business, the council reviewed interest from a party looking to purchase two adjoining parcels of city property totaling 64.99 acres, located across the industrial park off Cheraw Road.

“It’s in our ETJ, but we would be able to voluntarily annex that. The parcels are split-zoned right now, they’re split between I-1, which is light industrial, and I-2, which is heavy industrial,” said Assistant City Manager Mackenzie Webb.

If the city decides to move forward, they must follow the upset-down bidding process.

“The initial bid would be presented to the city council for review and their approval. If you were to accept it, that would then be subjected to a 10-day public advertisement in the local paper. From there, each upset bid would have to raise the original bid by 10 percent, and this could continue as long as it continued to be raised by 10 percent. The council would have the right to reject any and all bids at any time throughout this process,” explained Webb.

City Manager John Terziu further outlined the process.

“If you all were to be willing to accept an offer, that offer would have to come back to the council, and you would make a motion to accept that offer and go into the actual upset process,” Webb said. “Then it gets advertised, stands for 10 days, and somebody else has the opportunity to come in and bid on that land as well.”

The city council members proceeded to make a motion to begin the bidding process for the potential buyer.