Orange County NC Website
Susana Dancy also spoke in support of an auditorium at Carrboro High School. She <br /> said that it may be easy to see this as a frivolous request, but the school districts and Board of <br /> County Commissioners adopted standards about what new high schools should look like. The <br /> standards include auditoriums and sufficient space for arts education. She said that the school <br /> system decided to move this item up on the funding schedule as of this week. <br /> Alexandra Brown spoke in support of keeping the Carrboro Library and the Cedar Grove <br /> Library open. She said that she has worked at both libraries and she has insight on the need for <br /> these branches. She said that a lot of families that came to the Carrboro branch library did not <br /> have transportation or internet access and would come to the library to use the computer to look <br /> for jobs. There are also story times for children. She said that if the Carrboro Library closes, <br /> the Chapel Hill Library will surely start charging a user fee for those people who live outside the <br /> town limits, maybe as much at$100 a year. She said that the new library in Hillsborough was <br /> passed without input from the community or even the Library Task Force and apparently without <br /> thought for extra staffing. She said that there is no free transportation to Hillsborough. She said <br /> that if these two branches close, the relatively small community of Hillsborough will still enjoy a <br /> beautiful new library, but many more Orange County residents will be left with nothing. She said <br /> that everyone has a right to this service. <br /> Aurora Boyer said that she has worked at the Carrboro Library. Her job was to attract <br /> the Hispanic community to the library and promote literacy and a healthy community. She said <br /> that she got so much support from the community and other entities. She said that she would <br /> put directions in Spanish, organize events to publicize the library to Hispanics, increase the <br /> number of library cards for Hispanics, and increase Hispanic books. She said that she hopes <br /> the County can find a creative way to keep the library open. <br /> Roberta Dulong said that she is one of those residents who will be affected by the <br /> increase in the water and sewer rates. She said that 210 people will assume these costs and <br /> she asked that the County allow these residents to keep the same rates and maybe put on an <br /> add-on fee over 20 years and maybe the costs could be absorbed by then. <br /> Eric Dingfelder spoke about the 48.1% for the schools. He said that this is asking both <br /> school systems to take a smaller piece of a smaller pie. He said that the schools most likely will <br /> be cutting staff members at the schools if the funding percentage stays at 48.1% of the General <br /> Fund. <br /> Melanie Rio spoke in support of the arts wing at Carrboro High School. She works in the <br /> Theater Department at Carrboro High School. She said that there was an awards ceremony <br /> last week and it was held in the gymnasium, where the acoustics are terrible, and it was <br /> televised so that everyone would be able to see it because there is not enough room for <br /> everyone in the gym. The lack of an auditorium also poses problems for the band program. <br /> She said that this should be part of the initial plan for a school and it is not optional. <br /> Blair Pollock said that he is celebrating 22 years of public service to Orange County and <br /> Chapel Hill. On behalf of the employees of Orange County, he asked the County <br /> Commissioners to reconsider the contribution to the employees' 401(k). He said that the other <br /> governmental entities are keeping their contributions. He suggested freezing it rather than <br /> discontinuing it. He said that the commitment to employees is important in retaining good <br /> employees. He said that, as the County Commissioners talk about solid waste convenience <br /> centers and the discontinuance of hours, some people would end up working every weekend of <br /> the year and this may put a burden on some staff. <br /> Allison Coleman lives in the Efland area and is the HOA President of the Richmond Hills <br /> subdivision. She said that there was a group of people that have attended from the <br /> neighborhood to protest the water and sewer rate increases. She said a lot of people in her <br /> community cannot afford the increase in these rates. She suggested putting more people on <br /> the system to lower the rates for all. <br />