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Anna Mercer-McLean spoke on behalf of the Community School for People Under Six <br /> and read the following letter to the Commissioners: <br /> "Community School for People under Six, a nationally accredited child care program under the <br /> National Association for the Education of Young Children and 5-Star licensed by North <br /> Carolina will be dislocated from the Northside facility due to the construction of the Chapel <br /> Hill/Carrboro Elementary School #11. With our current Orange County lease agreement <br /> expiring on June 30, 2009, we are requesting: 1) an extension of our lease agreement until <br /> June 2010; and 2) financial support in the amount of $150,000 to complete the necessary <br /> repairs and renovations on the proposed site at 102 Hargraves Street in Carrboro that will be <br /> leased to CSPU6 upon approval at the Carrboro Town of Alderman's meeting. <br /> CSPU6 has struggled financially since the announcement that a new school would be built on <br /> our home site of over 38 years at Northside; and to learn that we would have to find a new <br /> "home". Families have terminated their care and/or not enrolled due to the uncertainty of the <br /> program's status. It took 6 months to bring our status back to a calm; but now we are at the <br /> same point again of uncertainty; and families again are terminating care. We lost good <br /> teachers during the year due to the economic status that this unforeseen change caused for <br /> the school. We have served the community, and we met the needs of a diverse population. <br /> We want to help our families to feel more secure; and to reassure them that we will continue to <br /> exist in Orange County to provide the best early care and education for their child (ren). <br /> An extension of our lease will allow us time to raise the other$100,000 to achieve our <br /> renovation goals (Total $250,000). The current site has 7 classrooms; and the proposed site <br /> only has 3 classrooms. We are working to develop a plan to reconstruct office space and <br /> patio space into two classrooms; and to modify bathroom space into usable office space; while <br /> repairing other areas that are needed to meet building, sanitation and licensing standards. <br /> Thank you for your consideration. Our 56 children, 15 teachers and 3 support staff appreciate <br /> you for your work and commitment to young children." <br /> David Dusto is a library student at UNC and he asked the County Commissioners not to <br /> close the Carrboro Library. He has worked there and he received a scholarship from the <br /> Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library. He said that this opportunity would not be provided to <br /> other students if the library is closed. While working there, he viewed the library as an <br /> educational and economic engine. He said that jobseekers, teachers, students, and <br /> immigrants who want to learn English all used the library. He said that it is a theft of library <br /> services from the Carrboro taxpayers. <br /> Gerry Christmas spoke on behalf of the Carrboro Branch Library. He said that a library <br /> is an essential for any town even though we are going through hard times. He said that a <br /> library is the most practical and economical institution. He said that the County Commissioners <br /> must not allow this to happen and they must hold on to their library and their little arts center. <br /> He said that both are only little in the physical size. Mentally, both are enormous in their <br /> emotional, spiritual, cultural, and intellectual impact. He said that when his family first came to <br /> Carrboro in 1992, they had to struggle and they lived without a computer and they did without <br /> until, though teachers expected students to type homework, they ended up using the <br /> computers at the branch library. They never left the library without a book or a movie. He said <br /> that the library played an important part in his daughters' getting into their first choice colleges. <br /> Krista Bremer spoke in support of the Carrboro Branch Library. She said that she has <br /> been at the library almost every weekend for the past six years. It has given her a sense of <br />