By Thadd White

Bertie Ledger-Advance

WINDSOR – Bertie County has a new manager.

In late June, the Bertie County Commissioners unanimously chose Scott T. Sauer as the next top executive in the county.

“We were able to get a man with a lot of experience,” Commission Chairman J. Wallace Perry said. “We feel fortunate to get him.”

Sauer comes to Bertie after having served for the past four years as Harnett County Manager. He served in that capacity from February of 2009 through December of last year.

He has also previously served as County Manager in Sampson County, Scotland County and Caswell County.

“This is an excellent opportunity to work with a board that has a vision of change and improved services to citizens,” Sauer said. “I look forward to working with a board that is not afraid to make difficult decisions.”

During his most recent tour as county manager, Sauer helped the county leaders accomplish several projects. They included the support of construction of a new Osteopathic School of Medicine at Campbell University, including the securing of a North Carolina Rural Center grant for extension of utilities, and facilitating financing for Harnett Health System’s new central Harnett hospital in Lillington through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development agency.

Sauer also worked in collaboration with Harnett Forward Together Committee, a private economic development organization, to construct Brightwater Science and Technology Campus, facilitated by its donation of a 20-acre parcel for a new hospital.

Those are just a few of the accomplishments during Sauer’s tenure in Harnett County.

Sauer also served for five years as Sampson County Manager. There he led a Capital Improvement Plan to build three new high schools, a new jail and law enforcement center and community facilities that included Human Services and an Animal Shelter.

Before that stint, he served as Scotland County Manager from 1994 through 2004.

Among his accomplishments while leading that county were voter-approved bond financing of a $2.2 million water district in 1995, an $18.6 million school construction bond in 1996 and a $5.3 million Water District in 1999.

He also helped initiate Paramedic and Emergency Medical Dispatch programs, as well as prison land acquisition, sewer extension and state construction financing and “Spec” building financing, construction and successful marketing.

He also helped with the successful industrial recruitment of FCC, MSD, Ebrex and the retention of KordsaUSA while in Scotland County.

Sauer was also honored with the Laurinburg Jaycees Distinguished Service Award, the Lumber River Council of Government 1997 Outstanding Manager Award and the Scotland Ministerial Alliance Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award.

Commissioner John Trent made the motion to hire Sauer and offer him a five-year contract with Commission Vice Chairman Charles L. Smith offering a second. The motion passed without objection.

(Story and photo printed with permission of the Bertie Ledger-Advance.)