Minutes 19880705 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~~ tightening by the school boards and superintendent. The county is growing and the needs of the schools must be met. The climate is right to ask for a larger bond issue than is proposed. i~ HORACE JOHNSON, Hillsborough Town Commissioner, supported the proposed issue in general and in particular the one million dollars for land acquisition for a reservoir. He asked specifically that the area for the reservoir be designated as Seven Mile Creek. He outlined several reasons for this request to designate a specific site. MARY BUSHNELL who lives in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District spoke in support of the proposed bond referendum. However, since the pay-as-you-go monies will not be available to fund the projects not funded by the bond issue an amount of fifteen million for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools is needed from the bond referendum. The population growth and the demands placed on the system from the Basic Education Plan will have the schools asking for additional funds for temporary classrooms just as in the past. She asked that the school be funded at a level that will meet the current and future needs of the school system. The survey shows that the public supports education and improved schools in this county. There will be broad community enthusiasm and legwork in support of a bond that is set at a level that will propel us out of inadequate and overcrowded schools districtwide. If the bond amount is not high enough, the system will find itself right back in the scrap along from crisis to crisis mode that it has been in the past. She asked that it be done right and that the schools be funded adequately. JOYCE BROWN, an Orange County taxpayer, spoke in opposition to the bond issue for land acquisition far a reservoir. She asked how much of the water from the proposed reservoir would be for our present needs and how much for ;.~ development. She feels the County needs to look at the present problems brought •;=>-~~ on by growth and the future problems that will be associated with growth and in particular environmental problems. She expressed concern that a new reservoir would be as much for new development as for current needs. She stated that the County recently has been engulfed with problems as a result of, or intensified by, the recent. growth. Transportation, solid waste disposal, crime, affordable housing, homelessness, poverty and other problems have been brought on by growth and the County has not begun to solve these problems. The most enormous .consequences have been environmental yet environmental considerations are hardly ever part of our public dialogue much less part of the decision making process. She asked several questions about what happens when a new reservoir is built. She emphasized that the Gounty must stop its present course and seriously address the present problems in an environmentally sound way before making plans for new development. In the process we must develop a new way of looking at ourselves and our relationship with the earth and all living things and begin changing our patterns of behavior toward our environment. She stated that as long as this new reservoir is tied to development that she will vote against it. LARRY WAKEFORD spoke on behalf of the Chapel Hill Carrboro Association of Educators. He spoke in support of the bond referendum but specifically spoke to the gap that existed between what was requested and the amount that is proposed for the bond. He spoke of two scenarios - one where the amount proposed will cover those projects necessary, or one which will be inadequate. The latter has generally been the case. He related his experience with the overcrowded conditions at the high school and Culbreth Junior High: Another scenario is that