This week, we speak with Debra Henzey, Chatham County’s director of community relations.
Talk to us about your background, your previous roles and what brought you to Chatham County.
Born and raised in Alabama, I followed my older sister to North Carolina when I was 27 years old. I first worked for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners for 16 years as the Director of Communications, where I enjoyed working with officials from all 100 counties. I developed a special place in my heart for the rural counties and decided that someday I wanted to work in one. I still remember how much I loved Chatham County the very first trip to North Carolina when we drove right through Pittsboro. I recall a huge old holly tree on West Street in Pittsboro that was a state or national record.
I found that when I was at conferences of county officials, I often ended up spending time with Betty Wilson, Margaret Pollard and Mary Hayes Holmes because they were so much fun. I also got to know former County Manager Charlie Horne during a very intense three-week training at the School of Government at UNC-CH. Years later, I was excited when a position opened up with Chatham County and was able to get started on my work here. Immediately, this felt like home.
One of my first big projects in Chatham involved designing and launching a new county website in 2006. I convened a group of local people to get feedback on what it should look like, how it should be organized and what content was most important.
My role has evolved every year to include a new area of focus, such as helping secure a stable provider of local mental health services, but I much of each day is devoted to communicating with the public on an array of county issues. I am the webmaster, write and disseminate all news releases, help with public surveys.
What are the unique challenges of information dissemination in this digital age, particularly in Chatham County?
We still have a large number of residents without internet access or who have very slow access. The 2018 Chatham Community Assessment conducted by the Chatham Health Alliance found that about 30 percent reported either no internet access or very slow/poor access. Just over 10 percent do not even want internet access. This contributes to many residents lacking information on available services and how issues facing the county or towns impact them personally.
In our Chatham County biennial survey of residents in late 2017, residents said that they mostly still get local news from newspaper articles (67 percent access newspapers regularly), while about 49 percent said that also access the county website regularly for information. However, we have to remember that they may not read the same newspaper or read more than a one or two short items. And, TV news almost never covers any Chatham issues unless they are highly controversial or a disaster of some type.
This means that local governments have to work harder to get information out. We have sometimes put flyers in beauty parlors, tiendas, community centers, Chatham Transit buses, libraries and many other places. During the 2010 Census process, we sent also information to local churches to post. We are always trying to think and use new options. The Code Red system in Emergency Management does give us a way to call impacted residents, but it can only be used for serious situations.
Let’s talk about broadband. We’ve reported about broadband extensively in the past, and the challenges in bringing it to Chatham. What will county-wide broadband bring to the people of Chatham County, and what are possible timelines?
The lack of widespread quality broadband in Chatham has been the number one resident complaint for many years. Even some of our more densely populated areas do not have it, but it is by far worse in the western half of the county. We have two major barriers.
First, there’s a lack of provider competition to serve areas that are sparsely populated, because it is expensive for them to serve those areas. And second, state legislation passed in the past eight years has greatly restricted what local governments can to do to either offer broadband or even partner with private providers. Counties are even more restricted than towns and cities.
Darlene Yudell, our director of Management & Information Systems, has taken this issue on over the past two years. She worked with Keith Medlin in the Chatham County Schools to look at ways the two entities could partner to expand access to broadband. They produced a report presented in August 2018 that outlines opportunities for collaboration on this issue (see attached). Some of the recommendations are already underway, but we continue to fight for changes by the N.C. General Assembly to give us more options to partner with private providers to expand broadband. We proposed that the N.C. Association of County Commissioners again make this a priority legislative goal for 2019-20 and we’re happy to report it is the number one item in the five priority goals. http://www.ncacc.org/734/2019-2020-Legislative-Goals
Chatham County has a very robust e-notifier system. Can you explain what it is and how it’s used to provide information to citizens?
For those who do have broadband or cell service, we have a large menu of items that you can choose to receive via email, such as agendas of upcoming Board of Commissioners meetings, job postings, library events, and RPFs of interest to local businesses. Our most popular categories are news categories: County Government News (all major news releases) and Sheriff Office News (arrest blotters and events). To sign up, visitwww.chathamnc.org/enotify It is very easy to unsubscribe by clicking on a link in any of the emails you get from the website.
Let’s talk about the upcoming census, and its importance for Chatham County.
The 2020 Census will be coming in April 2020. Why is it important to have everyone complete the Census form? Federal funds, grants and support to states, counties and communities are based on population totals and breakdowns by sex, age, race and other factors. Your community benefits the most when the census counts everyone.
When you respond to the census, you help your community gets its fair share of the more than $675 billion per year in federal funds spent on schools, hospitals, roads, public works and other vital programs. Also, businesses use census data to decide where to build factories, offices and stores, and this creates jobs. Developers use the census to build new homes and revitalize old neighborhoods. Local governments use the census for public safety and emergency preparedness. Residents use the census to support community initiatives involving legislation, quality-of-life and consumer advocacy.
This is going to be a particularly challenging Census process, because some parts of the Census questionnaire are tied up in court, so we may not even know what the final questionnaire looks like for months and may not know when promotional materials will be finalized. Chatham County had the best response rate in 2010, but that involved a lot of hard work from community members. We had a strong local committee that included representatives of all parts of the county, churches, racial/ethnic groups, school system, towns, etc. We will have to convene another great team for 2020 Census soon. If you are interested or know someone who is, please email me at debra.henzey@chathamnc.org or call 919-542-8258.
About Debra Henzey
Henzey
Henzey