Minutes - 20050816 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is meeting with the Manager and staff on Thursday on an energy conservation program for County government and to highlight some of the sharing that took place at the NACa conference. He wants to do something creative with the renovation work at the Northern Human Services Center. He mentioned Story County, Iowa, which put together a gea-thermal system and same solar pieces and have developed a model justice facilities program. He said that Orange County needs to do something similar and drive the architects. He would like to set up a standing energy conservation committee and start doing some creative things. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there was also a session at the NACo conference about the NACo prescription discount card. This is a card for those citizens who cannot afford insurance and it even covers pet medications. Anyone can get and use these cards. He obtained some information about this and gave it to the Manager. Commissioner Foushee said that the annual Orange County Human Services Forum will be held on September 14t" from 8:00 a.m. -1:30 p.m. at the United Church of Christ in Chapel Hill. The forum is in collaboration with the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness. Commissioner Jacobs said that he supports Commissioner Halkiotis' and Chair Corey's request to get the information on school funding from both school systems. He would also like to know what is going on with the recycling center that is supposed to be moved from the old Wal-Mart to the new Wal-Mart. Also, the sign for the upcoming park at Twin Creeks is still leaning and still has the wrong name on it. He asked that this be resolved. Commissioner Jacobs said that he attended several meetings over the summer, one of which was the Small Business Work Group. The main topic of conversation was the re-opening of the Orange County Speedway and the re-constitution of the small business loan fund. There will be another meeting soon and there should be a report with a recommendation to the County Commissioners. The space needs group also met and they talked about where the Recreation and Parks Department would be headquartered, as well as Environment and Resource Conservation. There will be another meeting at the end of this month. Commissioner Jacobs said that he and Commissioner Halkiotis met with a member of the Orange-Alamance Water Systems Board. They decided that the Manager would get in touch with the President of Orange-Alamance. Commissioner Jacobs said that he also met David Russell, who replaced Gay Eddy as Representative Price's public outreach representative. He brought Mr. Russell up to speed on the activities that Ms. Eddy was working on for Orange County. Chair Carey thanked all of the Orange County residents that participated in the recent Board of County Commissioners Listening Session. Chair Carey said that he has heard that the Schaffer House, which serves the youth and is operated by Lutheran Family Homes, closed its doors and went out of business over the summer. He has asked the Manager to work with staff and others in the community to help determine what can be done to keep that service in the County. John Link said that Social Services Director Nancy Calton is working on this project. Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey said that she talked with Nancy Coston today and there was to be a meeting today with Orange County staff and Durham County representatives. Durham County is using a therapeutic model with an outside provider and this may be appropriate for Orange County. Commissioner Halkiotis asked to include in this report haw many students from both school systems were using the Schaffer House. He cautioned about the model that is adopted in the future for this service because it can become very expensive. Chair Carey said that during the break, he read about the one case of domestic animal rabies and he commended staff on how they handled this and kept the public aware and informed.