Caldwell restructures CPS, eyes Sawmills property purchase

Two months after assuming control of the Department of Social Services, the Caldwell County Commissioners approved a restructuring of Child Protective Services that eliminates five vacant positions and gives remaining CPS staff a 10% raise to compensate for the shifting workloads.

“Child Protective Services (CPS) is one of the areas that we focused on shortly thereafter the board governance change, an area which has had some issues with keeping staff,” County Manager Shane Fox said during the Sept. 28 meeting. “We’ve had some vacancies and some other things over the course of a number of years now.”

Fox presented the proposal alongside DSS Director Kim Arnett, explaining that the goal was to enhance community service, reduce workforce caseloads, elevate staff experience levels, improve training and supervision, and become an agency of choice.

CPS previously operated with the capacity for 36 employees, from the deputy director to the social workers. Each team has a supervisor who oversees the cases of their subordinates.

According to Arnett, social workers carry about 20 cases on average, meaning the supervisors over investigative teams are responsible for 100 cases each.

There are currently nine vacancies across the 36 potential slots.

“When you’re talking about having vacancies, this is not a Caldwell County problem,” Arnett said. “I don’t want anyone to think that is the case. This is across the state. This is across the nation, I will say. We have a social work shortage.”

According to Fox and Arnett, once all positions are filled, the county expects social workers to average about 10 cases each. With three investigators per supervisor, that would reduce each supervisor’s oversight from about 100 cases to 30.

Until the remaining four vacancies are filled, however, social workers are expected to continue handling about 20 cases each, leaving supervisors responsible for closer to 50 cases.

A reduced oversight load would give supervisors time to be more hands-on with their employees’ cases, increasing the amount of experienced personnel directly involved and allowing for better training opportunities, Fox and Arnett explained.

Arnett said CPS social workers stay with the county an average of about 1.4 years, which she said is still longer than in surrounding counties.

All CPS employees will receive the 10% raise, which county officials said is intended to compensate staff for changes in workloads and responsibilities under the new structure. The raises will be funded by eliminating five of the vacant positions.

“The overall hierarchy of this is looking to do more with what we have, and the resources we have,” Fox said. “It’s an effort we hope and pray works.”

LAND PURCHASE

The commissioners held a public hearing on the purchase of approximately 6.87 acres in Sawmills at 4054 Lower Cedar Valley Road, the second such purchase in less than six months focused on the development of a single economic development project — a new industrial park.

“This is adjacent to some property we already own, which is going to give us a bigger footprint to potentially lure an economic development business in there,” said Chair Randy Church. “We’ve already got some knocking on the door, I think, for the location because it’s well-suited with water, power, and sewer is already in place.”

The commissioners reallocated about $320,000 from the Sales Tax Reinvestment Fund (STRF) — $300,000 for the negotiated purchase price and $20,000 for the costs associated with the transaction, such as taxes, legal fees, and closing costs.

“To protect the county’s interests prior to closing,” said Interim Economic Development Director Jesse Trivette, “the property must satisfactorily pass geotechnical soil compaction testing, confirm that we can use the property for industrial investment, and must also be completely surveyed without issue, and that survey report issued before we are able to close.”

The STRF consists of taxes collected throughout the year from municipalities across the county and funds the county’s economic development efforts, according to Church.

“It’s a use of taxpayer money, but it’s taxpayer money that’s on services or goods that are bought within the county that everybody helps with,” said Church. “We eventually get our money back out of property that we sell after we develop it.”

Commissioner Jeff Branch weighed in, explaining that the county put up another property for sale — the 24.64-acre Evergreene Industrial Park property near where Helton Road meets U.S. 321-A in Sawmills — to purchase this one.

“We’re not out buying up property all over the county,” Branch reiterated.

In 2024, the owners of the 4054 property and the neighboring property at 4016 proposed combining the two parcels for a “high-density single-family residential neighborhood,” according to town council records. The Sawmills Town Council approved the request and the rezoning needed.

The county stepped in and purchased the 15.56-acre property at the 4016 address in May 2026 for $525,000 using the STRF.

According to former Economic Development Director Ashley Bolick at the April 27 commissioners meeting, the county decided to pursue the purchase for the development of a new industrial park of buildings on the property.

The properties are accessible less than a quarter mile from U.S. 321, a major route for transport across the state.