Minutes 03-26-2015 - Town of Chapel Hill

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greater access. He said that Durham Tech would be amenable to moving, depending on the location. Town Council Member Palmer said the Durham Tech Orange Campus is not serving its students adequately. She said in order to best serve the community there must be greater partnership in order to provide sufficient options as well as better services and technology. She said this will better prepare students to enter the work force. Council Member Ward said skills development activities should be arm in arm with an innovation center, and there is a synergy that can be achieved. He said working as a partnership can be more complicated, but involving UNC, Durham Tech, the Town and the County together leads to a higher investment in the outcome. Commissioner Price said the location of the Skills Development Center is good in some ways but is inconvenient for parking. She said Durham Tech would be happy to move if able to stay in the same general area. She said the current satellite offices of Durham Tech need to be consolidated into a campus in Orange County at Waterstone, in addition to Durham and RTP campuses. Chair McKee said these two properties have possibilities. � Joint Parks and Recreational Opportunities David Stancil noted the lateness of the hour and said he is happy to answer any questions. Council Member Ward asked if there was access to summary information on artificial turf and its success. Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Director Jim Orr said with the joint partnership between Orange County and Chapel Hill, an artificial turf complex was opened at Cedar Falls in December 2013. He said in the first year there was an increase of 67,200 participants using that field compared to the prior year when condition was subpar. He said the participants rented the field, and it was opened to the public as well on Fridays and Sunday afternoons. He said approximately 7500 people used the fields during that time. He said the fields offered greater use due to the artificial turf and it brought in $80,000 in revenue compared to $2,000 of maintenance cost. He said every two to three years the field is lightly top dressed at an expense of approximately $10,000. He said the fields are not booked to capacity, and additional users for the field are being explored. He concluded that the partnership between Orange County and Chapel Hill regarding the artificial turf seemed to be beneficial and should continue. Commissioner Jacobs said he hoped staff could continue to talk about doing fields across from the Town's Operation Center. Council Member Ward said this is a piece of land that the County owns, and he asked that staffs be instructed to move forward with a plan for this site and how it may play to the bond issue. David Stancil said the Millhouse Road Park is in both of their master plans. 3. Update on Roqers Road Proiect Mary Darr from Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) said they have been working with the Towns and the County on sewer projects. She said engineers went out in the field to verify the table top plans previously created for the project in 2012. She said that a consulting engineer, the Jackson Center, as well as the stakeholders in the Rogers Road area have been consulted. She reported that this preliminary engineering report showed no surprises. Some items from the table top report have been improved. She said the estimated