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are waiting an the bleachers before they commit to a start-up date. He continued speaking <br />about his background and Mr. Agee's. <br />Commissioner Foushee arrived at 8:30 pm. <br />Chair Carey said that with mental health reorganization and funding, they are going into <br />a crisis mode because they were told that the Secretary was going to create aten-region area <br />and also would cut $28 million from the mental health budget. Several meetings have <br />convinced the Secretary to reduce the cuts by $14 million. There is an email dated today from <br />Judy Truitt that will be forwarded to the County Commissioners. <br />Commissioner Jacobs asked if the possibility that they may be combined with other <br />counties is still on the table and Chair Carey said yes. The difference is that the Secretary has <br />given the counties until January or February to do the reorganizations among themselves. OPC <br />will have to re-discuss how its role will evolve. The question is who would be the regional <br />agency. <br />Commissioner Foushee - na comments. <br />4. County Manager's Report <br />John Link asked their new Executive Director of the Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitor's <br />Bureau, Laurie Paolicelli, to come forward. Her past position was as the Senior Director for <br />Corporate Communications for the American Heart Association in Ohia. He described her <br />background. She also has experience in the visitor's industry. <br />Laurie Paolicelli said that she has been here for one week and she hopes to produce a <br />tourist package. <br />The County Commissioners welcomed her to Orange County. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that he was glad far her to be here to hear the presentation <br />about the acquisition of the speedway. He was talking to Dianne Reid about the economic <br />impact of sports in Orange County, and that retail sales went up 20% after UNC won the NCAA <br />basketball championship. He hopes to be able to build on the sports prominence and attract <br />more tourists. <br />John Link said that there has been increasing interest in the flu season and the flu <br />vaccine and Health Director Rosemary Summers was present to bring them up to date on this <br />issue. <br />Rosemary Summers said that they are now vaccinating high-risk individuals far seasonal <br />flu. The categories include people over age 65, residents of long-term care facilities, people <br />age 2-64 with some high-risk conditions, children age 6-23 months, pregnant women, <br />healthcare workers, and household contacts and out-of-home caregivers for the very young <br />children. These are being vaccinated until October 24t". This year, there will be two large flu <br />vaccination events -one an November 5t" at Smith Middle School and one November 12t" at <br />Cedar Ridge High School. This will also be practice for the mass vaccination protocol that has <br />been developed. They hope to vaccinate 700 people each of these days. <br />She described the flu vaccine and the viruses that it protects against. She then <br />described the avian flu, which is limited to three birds -turkeys, chickens, and ducks. The <br />strain that is of concern is naturally occurring in all wild birds. It is just confined to the bird <br />population and the human cases have occurred in poultry workers. There is no or very little <br />human-to-human transmission of the avian flu virus. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked for an explanation of the concern of the avian flu and if it is <br />because of the mortality rate. Rosemary Summers said that they are concerned about the <br />mutation of the virus to humans and they do not have a vaccine to prevent it. She said that <br />there has been a history of an avian virus mutating, and sometimes they never da. She thinks <br />