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<br />of us were that local money would at some time have to be appropriated. And what
<br />I discussed was. were we interested in the total nine acres or were we interested i
<br />in only half of it, because Chapel Hill was replying to the Council of Governments
<br />notification by saying that they wanted some of the land for recreational space.
<br />The Board of County Commissioners instructed me to go the the Council of Governments
<br />meeting and say that w8 indeed wanted the who18 nine acres. I did that November
<br />20th, and the soard of Region J approved the request stating that we were applying
<br />for the grant, sometime before this November 19th meeting, and was a committee ap-
<br />pointed by the Board of County Commissioners; Mr. Sam ~atti.s and Mr. Norman walker
<br />to pursue some kind of agreem8nt or lease or whatever, for the Northside School
<br />property. This committee was formally in action, I feel that every member,
<br />by Mz. Whitfield, and Mr. Walker, Mr. Whined, and myself, all of us were aware
<br />of this grant; we knew that it was being asked for and we also knew that local
<br />money was indeed part of the downward toad towards the procedure."
<br />(Comments between Chairman Garrett and Commissioner Walker were deleted
<br />from the minutes at this point.)
<br />Commissioner Gustaveson asked, "I wonder if I could address soma question to
<br />Mr. Webb? This deals with the application, I wonder if you could go over your
<br />understanding of the application again? I heard in your comments that the appli-
<br />cation, the form was correctly submitted and that is your understanding of it?"
<br />Mr, Webb replied, "Yes Sir."
<br />Mr, Gustaveson asked, "Could you briefly comment on the nature of appli-
<br />cations from other units, other Boards? This is a kind of problem there, I think
<br />as Mr. Lewis said you would be trying to dovetail a number of different things at
<br />on time. Namely, this Hoard was responsible to negotiate for property. And 2
<br />think that you, or that the Mental Health Hoard, assumed in good faith, that this
<br />Board was proceeding to negotiate for property; and se they hoped that the property
<br />would be leased or purchased about the same time of the grant. Is this the common
<br />practice that Area Boards have to try to dovetail their applications with a series
<br />of other kinds of negotiations? It's an understandable kind of thing that you may
<br />have some items in a grant application that is intentional good faith,"
<br />Mr, Webb stated, "I have always found bureaucracy to work in Raleigh you know
<br />to such an extent, that its nice to see it working in reverse here, And usually
<br />we can't get the State or Federal money, we always have plenty of local money or donated
<br />money; so 2'm glad to be here and I will answer any questions you ask as far as.the
<br />intent of the application, it's accurate. If you will look at the notifications of
<br />the Clearinghouse, that was one of the first steps that occurr8d in September; and
<br />it reads Notification to Clearinghouse of Intent to Apply. We had many discussions
<br />prior to this with your Area soard. The Area Board by law can acquire and hold pr
<br />property in its own right. So its proper that it was the applicant for this pro-
<br />ject, Following the intent, of course, the application itself, we then asked
<br />that it gave initial approval and said proceed with the final application. That's
<br />a lengthy document. 2 don't know how many have seen it. First, there's an initial
<br />application and then the final application and we have right much in that process.
<br />In this case when we sent the award of the grant it says in response to the request
<br />made by the orange~Person-Chatham Mental Health Center. There was a copy of this
<br />letter sent to Ralph Lewis as your Area Board Chairman. The law that establishes
<br />Area Boards, states there is a purpose behind it having it require a County
<br />Commissioner on Area Boards. That purpose is so that they will be aware of what
<br />kind of commitmer_ts are being made. If there are commitments at that time or they
<br />will be informed if it's just a matter of information and I don't disagree with
<br />any of the comments as you see them but if you had been involved in the process as
<br />most of us. were through th8 two years, I think you would see everybody we tried
<br />to keep informed of what we were doing,' We 10oked at property. We talked about•
<br />the possibilities of leases. I felt it was all done in good faith and to ask the
<br />State to rescind the appli4ati:on - I would - as Dr. Coley said, the commi^~ment is
<br />not here. This is what we're all seeking, is a commitment for some local funding,
<br />in Order to get you the $350,000,00. There was a request to continue funding for
<br />construction €rom the present Legislature for next year, This did not even get out
<br />o£ Human Resources. The economic impact, the funds are not that plentiful, we
<br />prpbably won't even have additional funds for many things that we have going, so 2
<br />would say we have money in hand if it doesn't come to Orange-Person~hatham Mental
<br />Area Health Center then it may well revert and I would hate to see the citizens
<br />o£ this county lose and in support of what the County Commissioners certainly have
<br />done in their support of the local Mental Health Center, I think Dr, Coley s point
<br />is well made and I hope you all heard it and that is that presently the State cannot
<br />use matching monies to support your rental expense but here's a chance to get eighty
<br />five percent matching, much higher than your ordinary matching, to build a building
<br />or to renovate one, howev8r you so choose. The Area Board has given you suggestions
<br />to d8ai with, so I hope you wo..ld see that as an alternative, as a choice you may
<br />never get again and certainly will not get in two years because the Budget that the
<br />Legislature is now considering is for 1975-1977. So any new applications for
<br />funding would have to be looked at again and set a new priority after 1977, if there
<br />should be money made available."
<br />Commissioner Gustaveson asked, "So as you see things, from the State perspective,
<br />that relation to this grant that there was no sense that the State was misl8ad on
<br />this application?"'
<br />Mr. Webb replied, "No, we fully expected to get local funding, meaning County
<br />Commissioners, whoever was going to own the building. As you see, you haven't
<br />resolved that yet. That once the application and we could giv8 assurance to the
<br />Area Board that the State has awarded the funds - now we want the assurance of what
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