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Mr. Lewis stated, 'M rs. Walton has stated the facts as they occurred. I wish to go
<br />over what she said. Because there has bean no engineering drawings there was no way that
<br />the Area Board or even the Administratorof the Orange-Person-Chatham Mental Health could
<br />determine the cast for each county. In the Grant application she used an educated guess
<br />as to what each County could come up with -- now, as Mr. Bradsher and I as Commissioner
<br />representatives at that time, when this first came up we felt that it was our responsibility
<br />as well as the other Commissioner members on the Area Board, to inform their Boards of what
<br />was taking place, of what was happening. Since there was no formal request for the funds,
<br />we took no formal action, but the Person County Board of Commissioners was aware that this
<br />project was underfoot and that they would be called on for some money with the definite
<br />amount to be determined. I believe the letter raised some charges about whether I was
<br />aware of the certain legal re-gairements of this Grant. I assure you that I am not. we
<br />have a very capable Administrator that is aware of the procedure and I am sure who follows
<br />all procedure but X would like for you to keep in mind one factor, that is, we are trying
<br />to dovetail the approval of the Grant application with the availability'of the building
<br />hoping that the two would come together at the same time. As ix turns out, the Grant money
<br />is available but the building isn't. That's where we stand right now."
<br />Item 3: Role of the County, both in his involvement and the Board of County Commissioners
<br />in the Northside School property, by Mr. Sam Gattis.
<br />Mr. Gattis stated, "Madam Chairman, 2 will have to do this from memory because I don't
<br />have any real documentation. Sometime after the fire at the'school and 2 don't really know
<br />how long, we got feelers, 1 suppose, form the Chapel Hill School Board to the effect that
<br />they would be interested in making th~.s property available to the County if we had any use
<br />for it. This must have been in early 1973 or about because from time to time, we had dis-
<br />cussed with the Health Department the possibliity of them leaving their site on University
<br />Campus and we had the Health Department look at the facility. It is my recollection that
<br />they felt that the old Orange County Training School building was too far gone and beyond
<br />that I am not sure whether they felt the newer burned building was too large oz not. There
<br />wasn't any great interest on the part of the Health Department in going to the site. Then
<br />according to some notes that Mrs. Walton has in July of '73, we had a meeting at that site
<br />with some representatives of the State. Obviously, we had spme contact prior to July to
<br />arrange this meeting and I don't really know how long that was before July of '73, but as
<br />two people from the State came over. One was with the Mental Health Agency and one was
<br />probably not but was from the Department of Administration or an Engineer, whose function
<br />being to look at the building and see if there was any possibility that it might be prac-
<br />tical to salvage it. This report, back to Mrs. walton, did come to us indicationg that it
<br />was a practical thing to do. This was in the summer of, well, it was really done, according
<br />to her notes, in the late Fall of '73. It was my understanding, at that time, that there
<br />was no monies available from the State. They had a precedent of providing money in this cater
<br />gory, but it had all been committed. Then that's about the extent of the involvement. bast
<br />- year at Budget time when the Mental xealth people presented their Budget, I did query Mrs.
<br />Walton on the point while we were at a Commissioners' meeting one night to review their
<br />_ sudget, whether they had anything in their request for renovation of this building. Mrs.
<br />Walton replied, as T recall, that no, it was not in that Budget request that they felt that
<br />project was still sometime in the future and that it would be more appropriate that this
<br />request be made the fiscal year that is to come up in the next few months. That's about
<br />the extent of the involvement that the County has had directly (Unable to Decipher) several
<br />occasions, we have had some negotiations with the Chapel Hi11.5chool Board over the possi-
<br />ble'trat~sfer of -the property; and that's approximately the extent of our involvement."
<br />Item 4: History ox the Regional and State involvement in the Grant Application by Mr.
<br />Pat Webb, Regional Director.
<br />Chairman Garrett recognized Pat Webb, Regional Director of the North Central Region.
<br />Mr. Webb stated, "I have served in the capacity for the last twelve months as your
<br />Regional Director far the North Central Region. This is a sixteen county region, called
<br />North Central Region. Prior to that, I was AsSj.stant Director for Administration, in the
<br />Central office in Raleigh, working as an Assistant to Dr. Zazzar. It was my responsibility
<br />of one of the many that 1 had, to supervise the Construction Grant Program. The name,
<br />Mrs. Sally Cameron, that was one of the participants, that came a yeaz or so ago; that
<br />Mrs. Walton referred to was directly under my supervision. So I am aware of the complete
<br />process that has gone into the present Grant that has been allocated by the State to the
<br />Orange-Person-Chatham Mental Health Center. The Grant was confirmed by the State in December
<br />as indicated in a letter by Dr. Zazzaz which you have on record, T believe. The initial
<br />process as explained by Mrs. Walton is accurate and is correct. Originally, she did not
<br />know the program here did not rank in the tog priority for two of the Construction Grants,
<br />therefore, the request from this program was carried over into 1974. Considering the
<br />request in July of 1974, we then initiated efforts to look at the application and to have
<br />it submitted. We had had, at that time, had an intent filed with the Division of Mental
<br />xealth Services. So we followed up work with the local program. Following that, the
<br />actual application was submitted in September of '74 and was authorized by the State in
<br />December. It does authorize 5350,000 in the State funds of an appropriation of three
<br />m111ion dollars that was given for this purpose by the State Legislature. It does requier
<br />15% local funding. We have had three such grants in thin region in the last two years.
<br />The second one just went under bids last week and we are anxious to get under way with this
<br />- one. The funds that have been obligated fbr this program were, I feel, correctly done by
<br />the, or correctly submitted by the Area Board. The Area Board is o.ir authority that we
<br />relate to. The applications were submitted by them. I think as to any question of commit-
<br />ment from County Commissioners that has been satisfactory with us to come after we give
<br />you the letter authorizing the Grant and I feel that the sequence of events that are occuzing
<br />now are in order and we, certainly, support the approval of the Grant that has been awarded
<br />and we hope that we can help you get underway quickly because the Grant, State funds, will
<br />revert if we don't spend them during the fiscal year. We must get the funds obligated.
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