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F~: MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS AUGUST 17, 1977 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on Wednesday, August 17, 1977, at 7:30 p.m., in the Superior Courtroom of the Courthouse in Hillsborough, N. C. The purpose of the meeting was a public hearing to hear the proposed Secondary Roads Improvement Program for 1977-78 by the Department of Transportation. Present were Chairman Richard Whitted, Commissioners Norman Gustaveson, and Norman Walker. Absent were Commissioners Jan Pinney and Donald Willhoit. S. M. Gattis, County Manager, and Neal Evans, Finance Officer were also present. Chairman Whitted opened the meeting and introduced to the public John Watkins, from the State Highway Commission, who introduced Sam Jones, District Engineer, and Michael Fleming, a newly. appointed member of the State Board of Transportation. Mr. Fleming made same introductory remarks regarding the North Carolina highways and Roads system. . John Watkins stated that the General Assembly had allocated slightly less than $27,000,000 for the 1977-78 Secondary Roads Program in the State. Allocation to counties is broken down based on the unpaved mileage of roads in each County. Orange County's allocation under this formula is $312,100. This year, all Orange County Secondary Roads were re-evaluated, which is done every two years. A change, concerning the rating of roads has been initiated this year, specifically regarding dead-end roads. The old system of rating dead-end roads has been to cut the traffic county by 50 percent. The new system will not cut the traffic count in half. This will change the priority listing of many roads in the County. Mr. Watkins stated that this is a policy decision made by the Board of Trans- portation and this Board would welcome input from the local Boards of Commissioners. Mr. Watkins stated that 10 percent of the $312,1D0 allocated to Orange County would be held in a Contingency Fund for Rural and Old Subdivision Additions, Overruns, Property Owner Participations, Rural Fire Department paving and Spot Stabilization. This leaves $281,000 to be used in the Secondary Roads Program. He stated that the top priority of Secondary Roads in Orange County was improvement to paved Secondary Road 1009 (Old 86) at a cost of $5D,000. The length of Old 86 which is yet to be improved is 0.6 mile. Mr. Watkins continued to review far the Board the priority listing of unpaved Secondary Roads. Piney Mountain Road was listed as having priority number one. This road is proposed to be paved at a cost of $88,000. Linden Road, a dead-end road, was listed as priority number two, at a cost of $90,000. The Will Wade Loop, Road Number 1368 was listed as priority number three. This road is 1.4 miles in length and is proposed for paving at a cost of $53,000. Chairman Whitted asked Mr. Watkins to explain the point system for rating roads in the County. Mr. Watkins stated that the rating was based on three major categories. In the land use and public service characteristics, homes counts 3 paints, schools count 15 points, churches count 5 to 10 points, depending upon the membership, businesses count 5 point, industries count 5. points. A11 points are added and divided by the mileage on the various roads, showing ar. average of pints per mile of road. Under the area of traffic characteristics, school buses count 10 points and the average annual 24 hour traffic volume counts 1 point. General route characteristics, County thoroughfare counts 10 points. Mr. Watkins stated that the rating of dead-end roads had changed because same members of the Board of Transportation felt that the old procedure paralysed many dead-end roads statewide.