Orange County NC Website
Communitv Health Assessment Priority Areas <br />Alice White added, as an At-Large member from Northern Orange, that Hillsborough is <br />not Northern Orange. A lot of people think that this is true. <br />Rosemary Summers said that she knows Commissioner Brown and Commissioner <br />Carey were at the presentation of the Community Health Assessment. She has copies <br />of the full document and it is also online at the Healthy Carolinians website. She asked <br />if Maria Hitt could come to one of the Commissioners' meetings to present this with <br />some PowerPoint on results of the assessment so that the community would have a <br />broad exposure to the results. <br />She made reference to the grid and said that these priorities were selected by over 700 <br />community members as being the top priorities. She made reference to the executive <br />summary and said that it is with a graphic designer to be developed into a brochure that <br />will be distributed across the County. <br />Maria Hitt said that they were in the preliminary stages and she would appreciate ideas <br />from the County Commissioners on people that could provide some leadership on some <br />of these issues and who should be involved that are not involved at this time. They need <br />community partners in this process. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to the breast cancer rate in Orange County and <br />that it was the highest in the State from 1996-2000. He asked what this was attributable <br />to. Rosemary Summers said that it might be that they have better screening than other <br />places in the State. Tim Carey said that there is not a lot of geographic variation on <br />breast cancer rates. <br />Commissioner Carey recommended that this presentation be shared at a County <br />Commissioners' meeting. <br />Commissioner Brown asked about #6, air quality, and said that they work on this in land <br />planning and transportation issues. She said that they are trying to convince the schools <br />to reduce parking for kids who are driving in order to meet air quality standards. She <br />suggested connecting with some of the efforts that are already underway. <br />Maria Hitt said that one of the priorities of the community was air quality and people are <br />concerned about this. <br />Alan Rimer said that he sees all of this as, "Pay me now or pay me later." He said that if <br />you do not pay it now, we are all going to pay as a society later. He does not want to <br />pay higher taxes later when he can pay laver now for prevention. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to air quality and said that Orange County has not been a <br />leader in addressing it. He said that he read that the Republican Party is advising its <br />members in Congress that there is no relationship between childhood asthma and air <br />quality. <br />Chair Jacobs said that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are rated as the top <br />achieving school district in the State, but not in terms of minority achievement. Also, <br />there are 14% of people living below the federal poverty level. A lot of this is University <br />