New Bermuda Run Community Officer Dep. John Hudson. — Submitted photo

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By Jim Buice

For the Clemmons Courier

BERMUDA RUN — In the previous Bermuda Run Town Council meeting in June, Town Manager Andrew Meadwell said he hoped a decision involving staff making a recommendation to the board on how to proceed with gate operations could be made in the next 30 days.

However, in last Tuesday night’s meeting, Meadwell said he has decided to take “a more deliberate approach to this to be sure the best long-term outcome for the town is achieved.

“I previously shared with council that I hoped to bring a draft of a finalized contract for our gate operations sometime at the end of July. The timeline may shift just slightly, but the goal still remains the same: that we want to select a partner or a solution that aligns with the town priorities. As we start these negotiations, I’ll keep you updated as to exactly where we are.”

The town has been in the process of “getting out of the gate operations business” going back to last year when a specific committee, including council member Jeff Tedder, was created to explore next steps.

Bermuda Run had been operating on a legacy-type contract over the years with certain amendments, such as levels of service, staffing and similar issues when Meadwell requested consent on pursuing a request for proposal (RFP) process for gate operations that included a staffing-only model and a staffing/administration (all-inclusive) model in the January meeting.

“But because this contract has been in place and essentially month-to-month and then year-to-year,” he explained at the time, “it behooves the town to go out on the open market to really see how this pricing actually compares to what we’re paying now or to see what a new vendor may be able to pay for those same types of services.

“A RFP is not a contract. So whatever the council decides on a proposal, you would still approve that, and it would have to be part of a budget process. There are some statutory requirements we have to follow. We just can’t continue to just add on because at some point of time it gets out of the original scope.”

During that meeting, residents lined up to speak in support of the gates and keeping Allied Universal in charge of them.

Responding later to a couple of those who spoke in the public comments portion of the meeting — with one person saying he “didn’t want anything done with the gates” and the other stating he “liked the gates just the way they are” — Tedder said there was “no intention to remove the gates. It’s just a matter of how we manage the gates. That was the intention that came out of the gate committee.”

Meadwell added that Allied was welcome to participate in the process, and Mayor Mike Brannon said, “Nothing really is in place that would allow us to move forward with an existing contract. We would need to establish a new one anyway, and this is the time to bring in other players to at least ask the question of what does that look like in terms of the cost.”

Meadwell said that there were three bidders for the all-inclusive plan and two for the staffing plan — with both of those also bidders on the all-inclusive side.

Also in last Tuesday night’s meeting, the town announced the official launch of its new redesigned website at www.townofbr.com.

“It should be a seamless changeover,” Meadwell said. “We are really excited. It’s been a long time coming.”

Some of the new features include improved navigation, mobile-friendly design, updated news and announcements and an interactive calendar.

Brannon said that the vendor is Civic Plus, adding, “I believe Clemmons and Lewisville are using this. The layout seems to be designed more for municipalities.”

The new Bermuda Run Community Officer, Dep. John Hobson, also was introduced in the meeting.

Hobson started his work in law enforcement with the Lexington Police Department before coming to the Davie County Sheriff’s Office in March this year.

Hobson, who said he is a native of Davie County and has a wife and two small boys, spoke on several safety concerns that will be part of his focus: speeding, underage children driving golf carts and residents not closing garage doors and locking vehicles.

During his mayor comments, Brannon said he and Adam Howard (of the Smith Grove Fire Department) recently spent “a quality afternoon together over on Ivy Circle on the inside of the fence as someone decided to do a bit of a NASCAR move through our fence there off of 158. 

“We continue to remind people that we have gates and that we encourage you to go through the gates, not through the fence. There was no serious injury, so that’s why I was joking about it, and while our Nellie Stephens (holly tree) appears to have withstood the blunt force trauma, the fence not so much.”

Brannon noted there have now been two similar incidents on N.C. 801 and this was the second one on U.S. 158, all in the last 18 months.

Meadwell said that the town received the Highway Patrol office report on the most recent incident and has already made contact with the insurance company.