Minutes 01-24-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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do not necessarily work that close together. He said that they are basically talking about two very different transportation plans. PUBLIC COMMENT: Ed Flowers said that the County Commissioners need to address a current need. He is a farmer in Hillsborough and he shared some concerns about transportation for the senior population and it needs to be expanded. He said that seniors have physical issues such as diabetes and hypertension, which require diuretics, and these people would be unable to ride a bus for an hour because of the effects of the diuretics. He spoke in support of expanding the transportation service for seniors. Alex Castro, Jr. lives in Bingham Township and is the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board on Aging and a member of the OUTBoard. He said that he will speak about his own personal opinions. He said that he has gathered much information on transportation and it concerns him that the transportation planning involves two MPOs, six counties, and one RPO. He applauded the Planning department for trying to track of all of this. He said that all of this is burdensome on the staff. He thinks that there needs to be some consolidation in this area to deal with the transportation. He agreed with Ed Flowers on the need for expansion of transportation service for senior citizens. Bonnie Hauser spoke about the controversy on the Mountains to Sea Trail running through Bingham Township. She said that the State is looking at combining the Mountains to Sea Trail with cycling trails in certain places. She asked if this might be an option in Bingham Township. Commissioner McKee said that this is a NCDOT plan but Orange County does not have a lot of control of this plan. He assured the Board that the other counties involved have been more than fair in the allocation of funding and the project, etc. Chair Jacobs made reference to the first page of the abstract and said that the plan is not fiscally constrained. He said that at this point this plan is not grounded in fiscal reality yet. He said that his opinion is that NCDOT wants to make NC 86 a boulevard from Caswell County, which is now a two-lane road. He said that this will be a bottleneck. A motion was made by Commissioner McKee, seconded by Commissioner Rich to: 1. Receive the draft Comprehensive Transportation Plan (Attachment 4); 2. Conduct the public hearing and accept public and BOCC comment on the proposed Plan; 3. Refer the matter to the OUTBoard with a request that a recommendation be returned to the BOCC in time for the March 7, 2013 BOCC regular meeting; and 4. Adjourn the public hearing until March 7, 2013 in order to receive and accept the OUTBoard's recommendation and any submitted written comments. VOTE: UNANIMOUS b. North Carolina Community Transportation Program Administrative and Capital Grant Application for FY 2013/2014 The Board conducted an annual public hearing on the North Carolina Community Transportation Program (CTP) grant application by Orange Public Transportation for FY 2013-