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Orange County decides to pursue a branch of Durham Technical Community College in Orange <br />County. He asked the Board to support this resolution. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to <br />approve and authorize the Chair to sign the resolution as stated below: <br />RESOLUTION IN SUPPORTOF <br />COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY BONDS <br />WHEREAS, The North Carolina General Assembly has approved Senate Bill 912, signed by the <br />Governor and enacted as Session Law 2000-2, placing on the ballot a proposal to issue $3.1 <br />billion in general obligation bonds, proceeds from which are to be used to improve facilities within <br />the state's university system ($2.5 billion) and community college system ($600 million); and <br />WHEREAS, higher education has historically played a tremendous role in building the State of <br />North Carolina into the thriving economic, cultural, and social leader it is today; and <br />WHEREAS, North Carolina's community colleges and universities allow citizens of this State to <br />learn the skills necessary to compete in today's and tomorrow's competitive economy; and <br />WHEREAS, in the next decade, our community colleges expect more than 57,000 new students <br />to enroll, and enrollment in our universities will grow by more than 48,000 students; and <br />WHEREAS, our higher education campuses must upgrade and construct academic, residential <br />and administrative facilities, including critical laboratory and classroom space, to accommodate <br />the growing numbers of students; and <br />WHEREAS, the $3.1 billion bond package approved by the General Assembly will assist our <br />community colleges and universities in meeting their significant facility needs; and <br />WHEREAS, proceeds from the bond issue will provide great assistance to North Carolina <br />counties in improving these community college facilities and in assuring quality facilities for our <br />citizens attending the state's universities. <br />NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />strongly supports the passage of the community college and university bonds on the ballot <br />November 7 because it will enable our systems of higher education to better educate tomorrow's <br />students and maintain North Carolina's place as the national leader in higher education learning <br />and training. <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />c. Inter-Faith Council (IFC) -Project HomeStart <br />The Board considered an amended resolution to reconvene the 1994 Emergency <br />Family Support and Shelter Task Force to discuss future financial support for Project HomeStart. <br />Pamela Smith, President of the Board of Directors of the Inter-Faith Council, thanked <br />the Commissioners for their support of the IFC. She said that the issue was that IFC would not be <br />able to assume full financial responsibility for Project HomeStart after the Department of Housing <br />and Urban Development (HUD) funds are exhausted in March 2002. She said that the IFC needs <br />help from its concerned partners to continue this service. <br />Chris Moran, Executive Director of the IFC Community House, gave some background <br />about Project HomeStart. He said that in the original correspondence with the County, the IFC <br />asked the County to reconvene the task force because they wanted to bring all of the partners <br />together again to make recommendations to HUD for future funding. The IFC would like to <br />change the original request that was made to the County (in bold in the draft resolution) to ask for <br />