Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Gaston County, NC (WNN) - On August 11, 2026, Gaston County held its work session for the month. It opened with several proclamations and certificates of appreciation. The board recognized the 250 Anniversay of the Founding of the United States and proclaimed August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month. After announcing the certificates, it moved on to a fairly short section on citizen recognition.
The first of two speakers raised what she felt was a misstep in the county's selection. Teresa Weyeneth's husband, Brian Weyeneth, has been serving the county in various roles since 2010. During this time, he has served on the fire advisory board, the equalization and review board, as secretary of the industrial pollution and control financial authority, and in several other positions. When it came time for reappointment, he was overlooked and now seeks to support Charley Killian, the write-in candidate for Riverbend Township in Gaston County. They feel the county now needs new leadership because of this.
The next speaker was Sean Bates, the president of the Gastonia Branch of the NAACP. He noted there was some improvement in not being asked to provide his address before speaking. However, he feels that there was a pointed attempt to under-provide for Gaston County's black student population. This is due to Hunter Huss High School and Ashbrook High School, which have predominantly black student populations, not receiving Chromebooks this year. He wants to see equal representation for all Gaston County citizens and currently does not feel this is being met.
The Gaston County Future Land Use Map
Gaston County
The Gaston County Future Land Use Plan is under a new proposal that will go before the zoning board and then be voted on by the commissioners. This would not be a mandate but rather a guide for moving forward in growing Gaston County. The full plan is currently available for public review and comment and can be found here. The comprehensive plan included extensive research, totaling 590+ hours, with over 6,500 data points. The map included shows how much of the county is planned for conservation, totaling around 1700 acres. It also shows current areas of interest for growth.
Focusing on a smaller area, Gastonia wants to make its downtown one of the main hubs for recreation and business outside of Charlotte. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, downtown areas, and this should lend itself to being a heavily traversed area. The plan was last updated in 1999 and has accomplished many of the outlined goals, but as time goes on needs to change. One of the larger citizen complaints is about parking. Despite having plenty of parking, it lacks parking near many attractions, so a portion of this plan outlines which spaces could be dedicated to this. It also plans to connect two of Gastonia's larger neighborhoods directly by providing better walkways along Franklin Blvd. and “the ditch”. It is recommended as a public-private venture, meaning it may attract outside investment rather than relying solely on the county's general fund. Much like the land use plan, this is not a mandate but rather a guide that can be adopted and used, in conjunction with current needs, to make decisions.
The next item discussed largely concerns the county’s insurance, but also focuses on the county's pharmaceutical costs. Currently, 0.08% of pharmaceuticals account for 33% of the cost. One of the primary spending areas is GLP-1s, which the county has been working to reduce by decreasing staffing in weight management programs. However, they have also discussed spending alternatives and seem to have arrived at a workable solution. Blue Cross Blue Shield NC has agreed to obtain special approval for the county to enter into an integration concession with Liviniti. While Liviniti will fund the integration costs, BCBSNC has waived its contractual rebate loss, resulting in a $2.7 million reduction in projected costs. This would result in a total projected cost of approximately $7.9 million, significantly lower than current spending. This can happen due to international pharmaceutical sourcing lowering costs. The potential downside being medicine may need to be delivered instead of picked up, which could result in a lapse for some employees. BCBS will need 8 months to integrate, and new cards will need to be issued to all employees if approved.
The Ad Hoc Board was formed to look at how staff communication takes place, how information is distributed, change capital improvement information availability, and revise the code of ethics for Gaston County. County Attorney David Goldberg led much of the discussion. The first change would be that commissioners would direct all questions to department heads. The department heads would then report this information to the county manager, thereby streamlining the flow of information. The county manager would also be required to make judgment calls about whether information needs to be distributed to all commissioners.
Anything deemed important must be shared with all commissioners under this new policy. It also outlines that the county manager would be responsible for the Board of Commissioners. This means everyone reports to the county manager, with very few exceptions. Commissioner Chad Brown worried that this would remove the commissioner's ability to communicate information freely to the public; however, Assistant County Manager Brian Sciba said this is not the intent.
The next change would be to include an ongoing report of all capital projects in the agenda packet for each meeting, from start to completion of each project. This would ensure that the public has regular access to all of this information and provides stronger information for the commissioners themselves to review before making decisions.
The last proposal is to adopt the UNC School of Government's code of ethics. This would outline how disagreements are to be handled and adapt the process for handling ethical violations. The commissioners suggested voting on this at the next meeting, to be held on August 25, 2026.
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