Orange County NC Website
APPROVED 5115!2007 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />MEETING <br />April 13, 2007 <br />(re-convened from April 10, 2007} <br />2:00 p.m. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners reconvened the April 10, 2007 Regular <br />Meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, April 13, 2007 at the Government Services Center in <br />Hillsborough, N.C. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr., and Commissioners <br />Barry Jacobs, Alice M. Gordon, and Mike Nelson <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: <br />COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Laura Blackmon, Assistant County <br />Manager Gwen Harvey and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff members will be <br />identified appropriately below} <br />COMMUNITY SOCCER REPRESENTATIVES: Melissa Suarez, Cameron Tew, Deanna <br />Venable, Patrick Sullivan, Robert Smith, Pete Sadin, Robert Smith, Mike Strand <br />COUNTY STAFF: Recreation and Parks Director Lori Taft, Economic Development <br />Director Dianne Reid, Environment and Resource Conservation Director Dave Stancil, and <br />Budget Director Donna Coffey <br />NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE <br />PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S <br />Chair Carey explained that this is a continuation of the meeting from April 10, 2007 <br />because there were more than two County Commissioners interested in attending for this item. <br />He said that this meeting was designed for information sharing purposes and trying to help <br />everyone understand the County's plans for soccer field development. There will be no <br />decisions made by the Board at this meeting. <br />Introductions were made. <br />1. County Wide Proposed Soccer Facilities <br />Laura Blackman said that in February several soccer people came and spoke at a Board <br />of County Commissioners meeting about some concerns, and this is a follow-up meeting. She <br />went through a timeline with the history, beginning with the Soccer Symposium. <br />Economic Development Director Dianne Reid said that in the fall of 1999, Rick Kennedy <br />came to a Board of County Commissioners' meeting and raised the issue of the absence of <br />soccer fields in Orange County. In the latter part of 1999, the County Commissioners appointed <br />a task force to survey facilities in the County, number of people interested, etc. In April 2000, <br />there was a symposium and 80 people attended. She said that the task force did a lot of <br />research and discovered that there was one publicly available field at Efland Cheeks Park. The <br />group came to a consensus on several recommendations, the chief among them being that <br />there should be fields throughout the County and that they should not be concentrated in one <br />geographic location. Also, the task force agreed that there should be multiple fields at each site <br />and that all fields should be irrigated and lighted. She said that after the task force completed <br />its work, it still continued to meet. Also, everyone agreed that if County funding was going to be <br />