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APPROVED 1114198 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET PRESENTATION AND PUBLIC HEARING THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1998 7:30 P.M. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Thursday, May 28, 1998 at 7:30 p.m. in the Judge F. Gordon Battle Courtroom, Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Margaret W. Brown, and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., William L. Crowther, Alice M. Gordon and Stephen H. Halkiotis. COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Rod Visser and Albert Kittrell and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. BUDGET PRESENTATION: County Manager John Link summarized his recommended 1998-99 proposed budget. PUBLIC HEARING Mike Allison, Counselor at Orange County High School, spoke in support of an additional nurse at Orange High. He expounded on the need for this position to handle a variety of health related issues and situations that they face each day. They have one nurse for 1500 students. They did a survey and 53% of the students indicated that they could not see the nurse when they needed to. They indicated that the nurse was very helpful. He hopes that funding will be available to meet this need and provide additional nursing coverage at Orange High School. Margaret Anne Dow asked for support of the budget as presented by the Orange County School Board. She is a school nurse. Her primary role is to advocate for all children. Their goal is to have a school nurse in each school. She feels that the current disciplinary methods are not working and that we must not let disruptive children disrupt the learning. They also need an assistant principal in the middle schools. She asked that the County Commissioners look at the entire budget and to cut the tax rate but not to shortchange their children. A copy of her letter is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's Office. Fred Black, Chair of the Chapel Hill Library Board of Trustees, said that last year the Chapel Hill Public Library continued to lead the state in the number of books loaned to residents (19 books per resident) with 46% loaned to Orange County residents who do not live in Chapel Hill. He outlined the reasons Chapel Hill is requesting additional funding. His recommendation is that Orange County provide additional support to library services countywide; the percent of County library service money distributed to Chapel Hill should increase and that the County commit to a long term incremental plan to increase library funding to Orange County libraries in general and to the Chapel Hill Public Library specifically. This increase will allow them to pay for the cost of technology. A copy of his letter is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's Office.