Minutes (Summary) - 20091130 - AOG

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Mayor Foy said the bonds run out in 2010, and can get renewed for up to three years; so the Council still has a window of three years, assuming the local government commission approves. He said what the Council has to confront in the next coming months is whether there is the convergence of interest rates, and construction costs that are favorable, that make it a desirable time to spring into action. He said if they were not going to do it, it can be deferred. He said the real question was will the Chapel Hill Library continue to be an essential part of fulfilling Orange Country's needs. He said if it was, let's figure out a way to make it work. Vice Chair Nelson said they were up against their debt ceiling; schools, the Southwest Library, expansion of Carrboro High School, and enormous capital pressures. He said he believed it would be a little disingenuous to make promises today, to give false hope. He said this isn't to say they are not interested,just that was where they are. Mayor pro tem Ward said they have had 10 to 15 years of the county saying the same thing to Chapel Hill; that they are not funding them adequately, but they can't do anything about it. He said he wants to come out of this meeting with a commitment from Orange County, and Carrboro to put money into the library services they were using in Chapel Hill. He said they were not the bad guys here; this was just more of the same discussions they have had, and the same conclusion for almost two decades. Alderman Slade said what he saw basically is equity; they have different systems going on, and there was a missing translatability between them. He said he believed Chapel Hill was ready to build this expansion, and includes a projection of the continuation of the services they do provide to Carrboro and southern Orange County. He said there was an assumption, or expectation there that they will be able to pitch in; however, the reality was they don't have the money to do that. He said building southwest would be an alternative to increasing the size of the CHPL. Mayor Chilton said no one ever talks about the more obvious, and equitable solution of having one county library system; it would be fairer to Chapel Hill taxpayers, and Carrboro residents to contribute in a fair way. Alderman Broun said she agreed with Mayor Chilton that it would be a way for them to use limited tax revenue. She said they need to be thinking long term about a unified system that would work better; short term what does Chapel Hill want to do. She said they can live with that decision. Chairman Foushee said Orange County needs to determine what they believe equitable library services looks like throughout the county; if Chapel Hill decides to do something outside of that, then there was not a lot they could say to influence their decision. She said she did think all of them felt, that at some point, a formula should have been developed to determine what the county's contribution should have been to the Chapel Hill Library system; but absent of that, they were at a place now, where they cannot just say they can commit more to the Chapel Hill Library; that was not going to happen. She said the county has a responsibility to provide services to southwest Orange County that