“Courts and Jails.”

That was the answer that Halifax County Commissioner Chenoa Davis gave when I asked her in a Facebook Live Q&A what services Halifax County provides for Roanoke Rapids residents that do not qualify for income or age-based social services.  

Our largest line on the tax bill is our county tax; they charge us 70 cents – 6 cents more than we pay the city.  Additionally, we pay the county 2% of our ad valorem collections as a fee just for them to write us the check for our portion of the property tax.  That fee added up to nearly $200,000 last year.

At the same time, Halifax County is offering and expanding services throughout all other areas of the county.  

They built a water treatment system and are providing water to much of the southern half of the county. Does anyone remember how many water main breaks they had this year?  

I wonder whose tax dollars paid for those.  We get our water from the Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District, which is not affiliated with the city or the county budgets.  

The county recently financially partnered with an internet provider to expand broadband access to the most rural areas in the southern part of the county.  

The county built a new industrial park near Enfield that Josh Stein recently visited.  

The county continues to invest extensively in the infrastructure of the town of Halifax, which has a population of just 165 people.  

Trillium Health awarded Halifax County a $500,000 grant to build a new playground, and Halifax County awarded the playground to Scotland Neck, even though the last census counted less than 250 children under 12 living in Scotland Neck.  Roanoke Rapids has over 2,250 children under 12.  Why not us?  That park is beautiful and extremely under-utilized; I have been there a handful of times and each time my children were the only children playing there.  

The county has a county-library system with 5 branches, all located in the city limits of municipalities, but fully funded by the county.  The Roanoke Rapids public library is not supported by any county funds and has significantly higher circulation numbers than the entire county system.

Finally, and really this is my enough is enough moment, last year the county announced a new Parks and Recreation Department.  Shortly after the announcement, they put out a request for proposal to build a new million-dollar recreation center at the 4-H site in Halifax.  

I reached out to the county and asked why they weren’t partnering with Roanoke Rapids to build a facility there, and they told me that the new site is being funded by a 50% grant that required a new structure to be built.  I went to a commissioners meeting and spoke on Roanoke Rapids’ behalf, asking them why they would build a recreation center in a geographic location with very few children when statistically the Roanoke Rapids area would be utilized the most.  

This evening the county is unveiling its comprehensive Parks and Recreation plan.  I will be at the meeting, and I hope the rest of you come too, but based on history, I have no reason to believe that the county has anything positive planned for the city of Roanoke Rapids.

Government salaries are a matter of public record.  I implore you all to see how much the county workers earn — https://govsalaries.com/salaries/NC/halifax-county .  In 2024, they had over a dozen people earning over $100,000.  The city of Roanoke Rapids had one, and the next closest wasn’t even at $90,000 —  https://govsalaries.com/salaries/NC/city- coof-roanoke-rapids

Our Mayor doesn’t think that Roanoke Rapids needs a full-time city manager, he doesn’t see the value. 

Halifax County employs a County Manager, an Assistant County Manager, and a Deputy County Manager, all of whom earn a salary higher than our city manager.  

Why aren’t we talking about waste and abuse in the county budget?  Why is the conversation always about the city?  

When the mills were operational and the city was booming, the county was struggling. 

In 1980, Kennametal wanted to build a factory here, but they did not want to pay a city tax to Weldon or anyone else for that matter.  

They knew that if they built their facility on the outskirts of Weldon that Weldon would involuntarily annex them.  Roanoke Rapids stepped in and annexed the land directly around the Kennametal site, freeing them from the municipal tax burden.  

In 2025, that tax line generated $230,100.54.  Based on the time value of money, that generated the equivalent of over $10 million dollars for Halifax County since Roanoke Rapids stepped in to assist.

That isn’t all we gave the county.  I spoke in detail about the close to $3 million we paid the county for 911 services that we weren’t obligated to pay them.  Despite this, we continue to be overlooked and ignored by all county initiatives.

When people choose to live in a city over living in an unincorporated area in a county, they’re engaging in a value proposition with the city: they pay a separate city tax in exchange for enhanced city services.  Halifax County is cheapening this value proposition by offering parallel municipal services in unincorporated areas and in smaller municipalities at the County’s expense, while offering no similar programs for the residents of Roanoke Rapids.

When the Roanoke Rapids Police Department was founded, there was a need for enhanced police services in our city because the Sheriff’s department only had a handful of deputies covering a large geographic area.  As recently as the 1980’s the Sheriff’s department employed less than a dozen deputies.  Well, the times have changed.  The Sheriff’s department has continued to expand throughout the years, their budget has doubled over the last decade and they’re paying their deputies more than we pay our officers.  They have a stellar reputation in the region.  The county just authorized a 5% raise for all employees and a 10% raise for all law enforcement officers.  I work in the private sector for one of the five largest private employers in North Carolina – we had a good year last year, and we’re all getting 3% raises.  The county is giving significantly larger raises than the private sector.  

Our city stands at a crossroads. We can continue allocating $4.5 million annually to maintain a municipal police department while the infrastructure crumbles around us, or we can make the bold choice to invest in the future our residents deserve. Because we have a municipal police department, the Sheriff does not respond to calls in the city limits of Roanoke Rapids.  Over 50% of Halifax County lives in unincorporated areas covered by the Sheriff’s department.  If we dissolved our municipal police department, our public safety would be managed and paid for through our county taxes.  If we don’t like the direction the Sheriff is taking, we can vote them out of office.  I believe the path forward is clear: dissolve the municipal police department, free up $4.5 million PER YEAR and redirect those funds toward rebuilding our community.

Drive down any street in our city and the evidence is undeniable. Potholes swallow tires, sidewalks buckle and crack, and our aging water infrastructure fails with increasing frequency. Our community center, built in the 1970s, desperately needs repairs that we cannot afford. We lack basic amenities that neighboring communities take for granted—updated playgrounds, well-maintained parks, adequate public spaces for families to gather. Our residents pay taxes but receive diminishing returns as we watch our city deteriorate year after year.

Adding insult to injury, the county has embarked on an ambitious expansion of municipal services—but not for Roanoke Rapids.   Every single one is being built outside our city limits. County residents in unincorporated areas will enjoy these modern amenities funded partially by our tax dollars, while city residents are left with nothing. We're paying twice: once for county services we cannot access, and again for parallel city services that consume our entire budget.

The solution is both practical and transformative. By dissolving our municipal police department, we free up $4.5 million immediately. This isn't about eliminating public safety; it's about providing it more efficiently while finally addressing the infrastructure crisis that threatens our community's viability.  That $4.5 million could repave our worst roads, repair and renovate our recreation center, rejuvenate our civic center, and build the parks and playgrounds our children deserve.   It could transform our city from a place people leave to a place people choose to stay.

Other municipalities have successfully made this transition, maintaining public safety while dramatically improving quality of life. We can too.

Our city leadership keeps asking us to be patient, they tell us to wait until 2032 when the debt is clear, then everything will be better.  Why should we believe them?  A couple of years ago the city was flush with Covid funds and higher property values due to the revaluation.  Our city council – this same group that keeps telling us to wait – opted against funding our needed maintenance, instead choosing to lower the tax rate 2 cents which led to us raiding the fund balance for $2.2 million since that tax decrease, while our buildings and roads continue to crumble and our services continue to struggle.  Is the 5-year plan really to wait 6 years, keep your fingers crossed, and pray for the best?

Our city manager presented a budget proposal with 6 different tiers, one for each level of taxation.  At the highest level, there was an increase of $826,000, but at the department meeting, $6 million was requested by department heads to make needed repairs.  My question is, do any of the tiers presented by the city manager fund any growth, or are they all effectively different versions of purely operational budgets balanced with the $3 million remaining in our fund balance?

Halifax County hosts board meetings in many communities – they recently held one in Tillery and one in Hollister – but not in Roanoke Rapids.  Their calendar doesn’t have anything scheduled in Roanoke Rapids.  If you listen to a commissioner’s meeting you might forget that Roanoke Rapids is even part of Halifax County, we are rarely mentioned.  

We live in a small community.  Everyone knows everyone.  Half of the county commissioners including the chairman of the board live in Roanoke Rapids.  One is married to one of our city council members.  The Herald published candidate questions for the upcoming commissioner’s race and Roanoke Rapids was not mentioned in any of the questions or the responses.  Why aren’t they advocating for us?  Why does Roanoke Rapids exist only as a revenue stream for Halifax County, why aren’t they investing in us?

I presented this idea to the city council in March ( https://www.youtube.com/live/YWTAmx9F7pg ), it isn’t new.  I urge our city council to seriously consider dissolving our municipal police department and essentially forcing the county to spend some of our tax dollars locally. 

I understand that it seems like I’m calling to defund the police.  I assure you, I am not.  I simply do not believe that we should be funding our municipal police department as well as the county’s police department while the county continues to build and expand services in every area of the county that isn’t Roanoke Rapids.

I call on my fellow residents to demand better. We deserve a city that invests in its future, not one that watches opportunities pass by while our streets and buildings crumble. The $4.5 million question isn't whether we can afford to make this change—it's whether we can afford not to.  I will be at the budget meeting on May 19th.  I hope to see you all there.

Ephraim Brodsky

Roanoke Rapids