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the impact on people with fixed incomes and citizens struggling financially that a lot of the folks from the County district are worried about? How can they afford this tax rate? I've heard that the merger is about the children, but it seems to be about same, not all, of the County students at the expense of a wide variety and a majority of students across the rest of the County. As a wrap up, even though I don't have a complete list of issues that need answers, with no in-depth analysis you can't begin to assess the weighting of the pros and the cons on doing a merger. So what I would ask is, given the magnitude of this irreversible decision, take the time, really determine the problem, assess what the passible solutions and alternatives are, look at the pros and cons and the impacts of each of those solutions, and you know what, the right answer will be obvious from that assessment. Peter Morcombe: Goad evening. Thank you for this opportunity to express my opinion an the merger. My name is Peter Morcombe and I've lived in Orange County since 1987. I have one son attending New Hope Elementary in the Orange County schools. Citizen opposition to this merger is overwhelming, and neither of the school boards involved has expressed support. The merger issue has come up several times during the past elections, but not a single board member or County Commissioner advocating merger has ever been elected. If popular support is lacking, why is the merger even being considered? On November 4, 2003, new members will be elected to four-year terms to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Board of Education. A law enacted in 1991 gives County Commissioners the power to overturn the will of the voters by recalling these school board members before the completion of their terms and to remove bath of our districts superintendents. This may be the law, but can a law that permits such highhanded action be constitutional? While the 1991 law has seldom been used, it was the basis for the 1993 merger of the Durham school systems. As with the Orange County merger, the action was proposed in an off year, with no County Commissioner elections, without proper support or the backing of either pre-existing school board. The result was two years of complete chaos in the Durham schools and a dysfunctional school board that continues to this day. The promised economies of scale never materialized and while the Durham schools have improved in some respects, well informed people such as Meyers, who supported the merger; do not attribute these improvements to the merger itself. In Durham a scandal involving the misappropriation of funds persuaded many people to support merger. In Orange County, there are no such scandals that would justify the decapitation of the existing administration. If the Commissioners decide to ignore the voice of the people and the school boards, the result will be divisiveness even more strident than occurred in Durham. Please do not drag our children through this briar patch. Now every cloud has a silver lining. The best thing that came out of the 1993 merger of the Durham school systems was that the voters were still angry in November 94. Bill Bell last his seat on the Durham Board of County Commissioners and two republicans were elected -Tommy Hunt and Ed Devito. Great. I have the greatest respect for Moses Carey and it grieves me to see him committing political suicide. What a shame that he's doing it for such an unworthy cause. You Commissioners have the paver to bring about this shotgun wedding. You also have the power to cut it off. And that is what the community is asking you to do.