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Brian Decker thanked the Board for considering the bicycle action sports facilities. He <br />asked if there were any questions that he could answer and stated that he would really like to <br />see a bicycle action sports facility at this park. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis asked if there were any dirt jump sites within 100 miles of here <br />and Brian Decker did not know. Commissioner Halkiotis asked if the dirt jumps were the least <br />expensive facilities to built. Brian Decker said that dirt jumps would be the least expensive to <br />build, but they would require maintenance over time. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis asked what the action sports users would want that is different <br />from the Chapel Hill skating facility. Brian Decker said that the Chapel Hill facility provides a <br />wooden ramp style skate park. They would like some kind of concrete bowl. The nearest one <br />of these is in Greenville, North Carolina. Commissioner Halkiotis would like to know if this <br />facility in Greenville is public or private, how many people use it, and if it is making money. <br />Commissioner Faushee said that there would be indications for liability, and she would <br />like to know how much this would cost if it were run by the County. Brian Decker said that his <br />understanding is that this type of facility would fall under the same type of liability for a <br />basketball court or a baseball or a soccer field. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked about the demographics of who uses this type of facility. <br />Brian Decker said that, out of 271 signatures on a petition, 31 were female and ages ranged <br />from 13-53. <br />Andrew Farris distributed a printout of the petition. He said that there are two clusters in <br />terms of age -one being 16-18 and the other mid-30's. He said that he does not believe that <br />there is a fully public dirt jump park in North Carolina. A lot of them are built on the axiom under <br />the thinking that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. He believes that there is one <br />that exists in Swannanoa, North Carolina, which is near Asheville, and it exists at least with <br />some municipal permission. He said that some are run by charitable organizations, such as the <br />YMCA. He said that for most that are run by municipalities, the municipality constructs and <br />insures the facility, but the day to day operations are run by a private contractor. This is how the <br />skate park is run in Chapel Hill. He said that one of the big reasons that the Chapel Hill park is <br />not on the table for this is that they do not allow bicycles. He said that the concrete bowl could <br />be used more than for bicycles in that it could also be used for in-line skates and skateboards. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked Dave Stancil to confirm that it was the Tawn of Carrboro <br />Plan that they utilized as the basis for the Twin Creeks plan and that it had a school in the <br />northern part and a park in the southern part. She thinks it was the Northern Transition Area <br />Plan, which was adopted by Carrboro and Orange County. Dave Stancil said yes, and then the <br />County's existing parks plan shaved along Eubanks Road and Old NC 86 the Chapel Hill <br />District Park location. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis asked why the original study group recommended placing the <br />schools in the northern end and the park facilities in the southern end. Dave Stancil said that it <br />was because they were directed to use the preliminary concept plan that was adapted by the <br />Board in 2001-2002 and therefore it was one of the guiding parameters for the CHATPEC <br />Master Plan. It delineated Jones Creek corridor as the dividing line between the schools and <br />the parks. The school system had previously looked at acquiring the northern piece for schools <br />and the County had looked at acquiring the southern piece for a park. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to the attorney, Jay Bryan, that spoke on <br />December 6th about this, and he talked about the suitability of the land. He asked if this was a <br />big consideration, what the land lends itself to. Dave Stancil said that they did do a lot of site <br />assessment far park sites. One of the primary reasons this was their target site for the southern <br />end was because it had a number of different components suitable for parks. <br />