ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday returned Jeff Smart to the chairman’s seat and elected Jason Gainey as vice chair at the December meeting.
Commissioner Jamie Gathings nominated Smart for chairman, while Commissioner Andy Grooms nominated Rick Watkins. Gathings, Gainey, Dawkins and Smart voted for Smart, giving him a 4–3 majority. Smart also served as board chairman in 2024.
For vice chair, Gathings nominated Gainey and Commissioner Robin Roberts nominated Grooms. Gathings, Dawkins, Gainey and Smart voted for Gainey, securing the majority needed to make him vice chair.
“I’d just like to thank commissioner Watkins and Vice commissioner Grooms for their leadership this past year. We will move forward as a team, as a board of seven,” said Chairman Jeff Smart. “That is my hope, we have a lot of positive stuff going on in this county and my hope is that as a board of seven, we will continue that positive way of Richmond County.”
County Manager Bryan Land followed with his monthly report, highlighting progress on the Amazon Web Services project. He said more than 350 acres have been cleared and grubbed, 4.5 miles of silt fence installed and 700,000 cubic yards of material moved. More than 80,000 tons of aggregate base course—sourced locally from the Vulcan quarry in Cordova—have been laid, along with more than 55,000 square yards of asphalt.
On-site utilities are scheduled to begin Dec. 15, Land said, and foundations for the first building at the Amazon campus are set to start Jan. 15.
“So when we say this project has been fast tracked, it certainly has,” Land said.
Before adjourning, commissioners offered closing remarks.
“I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Be safe. Hopefully we’ll see you back here this time next month,” Grooms said.
Gainey reflected on the holiday season and the board’s growth over the past year.
“I just want to thank you also for the opportunity to serve. This December reminds me that this time last year, I hope that you’ve seen that we’ve grown up. I have your grace and mercy to do that and allow us to do that, and you’ve seen that in us,” he said. “Nothing more promising about giving mercy and forgiveness could be remembered better than this time of year. Thank you for the opportunity and Merry Christmas.”
Roberts echoed the holiday wishes, saying, “I also want to say Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone. I look forward to this next year of us being together as a board of seven as Chairman Smart said.”
Gathings, marking his first anniversary on the board, again apologized for last year’s meeting.
“I’m on my one year anniversary here. Some of y’all come in here thought ya’ll were going to see something, but you didn’t. I apologize to my fellow members again for last year. [I] didn’t want to miss no meetings, but I had to miss them. I wanted perfect attendance, but I didn’t get it, but it’s okay. Made some good bonding with some other members on this board, so once again, thanks,” Gathings said.
Smart closed the meeting by thanking Watkins and Grooms again for their leadership and stressing the equal importance of each board member.
“I just want to say again, a huge thank you to Dr. Watkins for your leadership. I really appreciate it. I know you’ll be full support of this board. And as commissioner Grooms as well, I appreciate you in the leadership role you did as well. So, we look forward to going together as seven. Everybody’s vote, doesn’t matter your title, folks— everybody’s vote counts up here. It’s all counted the same.”
Smart also expressed enthusiasm for what’s ahead for the county in the upcoming new year.
“…With all the excitement going on with obviously Amazon we brought up and we have a race again at the speedway here in April. We also got some good news from the drag strip as you know… Big times, big things happening up in that area,” he said.
“I’ll just say behalf of all the board, we have a really good relationship with all of our industries, not just Amazon. I don’t want to undercut anybody. We’re very fortunate here in Richmond County with all the industries that we have and we look forward to hopefully adding more as we go here in the near future,” said Smart.