Civil Municipal Magazine - Nov 2023

29 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11 BERT I E COUNT Y, NORTH CAROL INA he says, “We’ve been meeting with our largest employer, Purdue which has 2,700 employees. Offering employees special rates regarding interest rates on housing, and attractive long- term mortgages to draw developers into our county is what the County needs. “We have developers that are trying to get started in this county now, and now we’re going to try to create that client base through the USDA because it gives people the opportunity to become homeowners in Bertie County.” The housing challenges rural areas face are often compounded by what Trent refers to as “rural discrimination.” He offers the example of the policies of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, which allocates state tax credits to developers based on specific criteria. In this case, the agency requires that a grocery store or pharmacy be located within three miles of a housing project. Given Bertie County’s vast size of 741 square miles and limited resources, meeting this requirement is a significant hurdle. Trent says to encourage future development these unrealistic policies need to be reworked. “Change the rules so that it makes it fair and equitable for all people, not just people that are in urban areas. You will see the change, and you will see the developers come to this area,” he maintains. “Ecotourism for Bertie County is one of the strongest assets’” Trent remarks. “You have hunters that come into town, and there is nowhere to stay. You have fishermen that come into town, again, nowhere to stay. What ends up happening is they build these little campsites wherever they can, but we want to try to put our fingerprint on that and make it a lot easier for people that are coming from out of state to come into Bertie County to enjoy the eco-tourism that we have.”