Orange County NC Website
Commissioner Jacobs asked if it was too early to make a comment to the legislators and <br />Chair Carey said no. Commissioner Jacobs said that the Board should share the information <br />about the fiscal impact to Orange County. <br />Donna Coffey said that the $11 million is just the amount that the County might lose. <br />This does not include the amount far the towns, schools, and the local fire departments. This is <br />the worst case scenario. <br />Chair Carey said that the Board will send a letter to the legislators. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that the County Commissioners do support improvement in <br />the Homestead Exemption for eligible seniors. <br />Chair Carey asked the Manager to draft a letter for the Board to the legislators. <br />Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the Medicaid relief and said that there is also a <br />proposal that this be partially paid for with some sales tax revenue. He asked that this be <br />included in the letter. <br />1. Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) Elementary #10 Update <br />Laura Blackmon made reference to the blue sheet, which is an email from the Chair of <br />the CHCCS. She said that there are some options about Elementary #10. The Board was <br />notified on February 2"d about the total budget, which was a little over $24 million and was over <br />budget. She said that the staff came up with some pros and cons far each option. <br />Commissioner Nelson made reference to option 1 and said that, as he reads it, there are <br />two options under option 1. Laura Blackmon said that there are two options -pay the amount in <br />the bid -or not pay it. Under the first option, the County can approve the full amount, or approve <br />funding for sewer construction only and have CHCCS re-bid the construction bids for <br />Elementary #10. <br />Chair Carey asked for a rationale for separating the infrastructure from the school <br />construction part. Laura Blackmon said that this is budgeted with the debt issuance under two <br />line items. One is the $22.1 million for Elementary #10, and the other is $1.2 million, which is <br />the County's share of infrastructure, which is for the school and Twin Creeks Park. The sewer <br />construction bid came in much lower than the amount that was budgeted. Staff is <br />recommending to accept the bid and value engineer down the $1 million, or accept the sewer <br />portion and re-bid the school portion. <br />Option 2 is accepting the bid as is - $24.3 million -and then coming up with the <br />difference. The Chair of CHCCS has indicated that they would be willing to make up the $1 <br />million shortfall in option 2. Because of the bond issuance, the only way the County could make <br />up the shortfall would be to delete $1 million from one of the projects in the debt issuance. <br />Donna Coffey said that historically the CHCCS has used an increase in the district tax <br />for things such as this, but there will probably already be a sizeable increase in the district tax <br />with the opening of Carrboro High School and other issues. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that there should be two options under option 2. One is that <br />CHCCS figure out how to deal with and pay for the shortfall, which is the school system's <br />proposal, and the other would be that the County Commissioners figure out how to deal with the <br />shortfall and pay far it. <br />CHCCS Board Chair Jamezetta Bedford said that her Board is meeting tonight and they <br />have not formally approved this proposal, but she has talked to everyone except one member, <br />and most members agree on this proposal as stated in the email. She said that the school <br />board would prefer to have the flexibility to make up the $1 million. She said that the board <br />does not want to use the district tax for this. Their other options are pay-as-you-go dollars and <br />fund balance. <br />Commissioner Jacobs asked about the amount of the fund balance and Jamezetta <br />Bedford said that it is just over $5.5 million. The school board could take'/ million dollars from <br />the fund balance and '/ million dollars from pay-as-you-go. <br />