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Jay Burns said there are clearly dedicated staff and volunteers at the shelter and the Piedmont Wildlife Center and he suggested that the County support both of these operations. He thinks that both groups need to work together. Kendall Page is an APS Board member and lifetime resident of Orange County. She requested that the Board move forward to work with the APS and to commit collectively to establishing a first class shelter in the community. She feels very strongly about implementing the recommendations from HSUS. In the process of waiting for this report, the operations of the shelter have struggled in her opinion due to bad press, individual agendas, and delays by the County. She said that it is unfair to the workers at the shelter to not know from one month to the next what will happen. She said that the longer this goes on, the more the shelter will suffer. Cathy Nakayama is in the Nurse Practitioner's program at UNC. She is very interested in the physical needs of the animals as well as the emotional needs. She has adopted dogs from the APS. She spoke about the wonderful treatment of the animals by the staff. She is disgusted with Orange County because the facility is horrible and the pay for the staff is very low. John Guibert is an APS Board member. He said that their request for funding was based on several factors. The annual costs of operating the shelter have increased. The bad press and the controversy have also prevented them from obtaining adequate funding from the community. Also, continued subsidization of the shelter by APS over the years has led to a dwindling of their cash reserves. He said that APS provides a number of animal welfare programs and services to the community separate from the shelter. He said that the APS is not going broke, but the ability to provide these other programs would be threatened if the current situation were allowed to continue much longer. They are asking the Board of County Commissioners to make a decision no later than January 31, 2004 about the operation of the shelter. Dian Fowle said that she has adopted four animals in four other states. She applauded the APS. She told her story about adopting a dog at the APS and the positive experience she had. One of the workers came to her home to help her with two dogs that she adopted. She encouraged the Board of County Commissioners to take into consideration the dedication of the staff and the volunteers. Daniel Textoris said that he was on the APS Board in the early 90's and he is again. He said that they want to see the best come out of this. He and his wife volunteer with various organizations. He spoke about his experiences on other boards where he has visited sites. He suggested that every member of the Board of County Commissioners visit the shelter. Amy Eller said that she is a new staff member at APS. She is the Volunteer and Education Coordinator. She said that there was a very strong volunteer program at APS and the volunteers are really dedicated. Regarding education, she just spent some time at the Orange County Schools doing programs for the children. She said that the staff was wonderful and also very dedicated. She wants APS to have the chance to continue to grow. Pat Sanford said that she had been employed by APS since 1989. She was speaking as an advocate far the emergency animal rescue service. She spoke about her on-call experience over the years. She urged the Board not to scrap this program. Cynthia Wise said that she was the longest serving APS Board member -serving for over 25 years. She said that in the 1970's APS had animals in foster homes and the headquarters was