The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners approved several items on its agenda at its meeting Tuesday.

In other action, the board:

• Held a public hearing on and unanimously approved an application for $157,345 in state funds for a Rural Operating Assistance Program. The program, administered by the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Public Transportation Division, provides funds to counties to provide transportation services for the elderly and disabled, job-seekers and the public. The program is operated as the Beaufort Area Transit System.
• Unanimously approved the WorkFirst program application as presented by Theresa Porter with the Beaufort County Department of Social Services. Under the program, Beaufort County will try to exceed the minimum requirement of placing 10 people in the work force using services that include child care, transportation, food-stamp help and other assistance. The county will work to provide employment services for those in the program, according to the plan. Commissioner Hood Richardson praised the department for its efforts to hold people in the program accountable for their actions. “I’m delighted to see the progress you’ve made in holding people to standards,” he said.
• Voted unanimously to approve the purchase of three Dodge Chargers for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office to use as patrol vehicles, replacing three older patrol cars. The county’s 2011-2012 fiscal year budget includes $67,920 to purchase the cars.
• Voted 6-1 to approve $6,590.76 in travel requests, with Richardson casting the sole dissenting vote.
• Unanimously approved the following appointments: Mark Hamblin to the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council and a slate of some 50 delegates to the Southern Albemarle Association’s annual meeting Oct. 20. The commissioners delayed appointments to the two governing boards of the former Beaufort Regional Health System, now University Health Systems, Beaufort Hospital.
• Voted unanimously to approve new requirements for the retention and disposal of records for the tax administration, veterans-services, register of deeds and sheriff’s offices.
• Voted unanimously to approve a resolution presented by George Bright, director of the Food Bank of the Albemarle, designating September as Hunger Action Month in Beaufort County with the theme of “30 Ways in 30 Days.”