Judy Hills has certainly climbed some hills in her career with Eastern Carolina Council of Governments before recently being named to the top spot in the nine-county agency.
First hired in 1994 by a director of then-Neuse River Council of Governments who was asked by the board to leave the day Hill showed up from Florida to assume her post, Hills is a former registered nurse, workforce development administrator and commercial Realtor.
The COG’s director cut her job in about six months, but Hills decided to stay in the area anyway and used her master’s degree for a teaching job at Mount Olive College before coming back to ECCOG in 1999.
“At its peak, the number of employees was in the 50s,” Hills said of the agency, which serves to create synergy between Craven, Pamlico, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Carteret, Greene, Duplin and Wayne counties, primarily for dealing with federally funded programs for human services and economic development and regional aspects of state transportation projects.
Things as diverse as Big Rock, Neuse River Certified Development Company and Coastal Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention were started by the ECCOG.
There are now nine employees dealing in fiscal year 2011-12 with more than $7 million that passed through the agency’s hands, about $3.2 million in state, $3.2 million in federal and about a quarter million in dues from member counties.
The Area Agency on Aging, headed by Tonya Cedars, operates under the council for programs designed to develop programs for seniors and their families.
Hills said about $5 million of ECCOG’s budget is pass-through money for that agency, which last year hosted a regional conference in New Bern on “Living Wise and Aging Well” and, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, provided ongoing assistance for some Pamlico County older adults. It also coordinates senior-focused programs on disease prevention, family car giving nutrition and transportation.
Hills said the agency also operates an ombudsman program, mostly using volunteers, to work with residents and their families on long-term care. It also coordinates partnerships between agencies which serve older adults and some with disabilities.
Transportation-related programs have been a growing part of the agency’s work, she said, like coordinating Rural Transportation Planning mandated by the federal government for transportation-related activities from matching grants for highways to transit systems like Craven Area Rural Transportation Service, CARTS, for which ECCOG maintains the route match servers.
“The things we do for local governments sometimes change,” Hills said. “Much of it is slid under the radar, really behind-the-scenes help for which there is continuing need.”
The agency provides information local governments would often have to hire consultants to do, she said, and do it on a reimbursable basis that lets ECCOG be repaid when grant money comes through.
“As regional coordinators, we help educate the community on the bigger picture,” she said. “Sometimes local governments get caught up in individual programs and the day to day and we help show how it all fits together.”
ECCOG has assisted with Small Town Economic Prosperity, or STEP, initiatives for economic improvement for Bayboro and Maysville and a STEP Retiree Attraction study for Bayboro, and assisted with a Parks and Recreation Plan and grant application for Maysville.
It has hosted the ethics workshop required for all elected officials, conducted the search for a new police chief in Trent Woods, managed the money for the multi-county Coastal Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention of which Onslow County is also a member, assisted River Bend with getting a stormwater conveyance system grant and comprehensive plan, facilitated planning retreats for local governments and hosted a regional water summit, and assisted in getting Defense Department funding from the Office of Economic Adjustment for more work on the Joint Land Use Study aimed at protecting Cherry Point air station.
For nonprofit groups in the area, ECCOG has conducted a planning retreat for New Bern Historic Preservation Foundation, helped Boys and Girls Clubs apply for grants, assisted Coastal Environmental Partnership find a new director and helped PlanIt East complete a HUD grant funding application.
Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com.