Agenda - 01-23-2007-9d - Laserfiche WebLink

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?cerrP???,?? l oll QID? OCG /l?,n s A 7 debt. The ads on television are showing that new schools will be built as a result of this, and he said that this is not true. He did not vote for this. Commissioner Gordon asked for clarification on this. Rod Visser said that if you have a district with a tax base of $10 mil lion, and certain improvements are made and a few years later, the tax value goes up to $20 mill ion, the county tax rate that would be applied against the original $10 million would still come to the general county coffers. However, the tax revenue that would come from the increased val ue of $10 million would be sequestered and would be used to pay the debt service on the bonds. Chair Jacobs pointed out that in the News and Observer today there were three pieces on this. One was very critical in saying that there is not necessarily any guaranteed payback. Commissioner Carey said that he recognizes that if this passes, the language has only changed slightly from the past two failings and this does not require local governments to take action, but only enables them to. He thinks Orange County would never use it because there are other options. He recognizes that smaller counties may need this option. He said that the NCACC has to represent all entities in the state and they typically support things that give counties options. ' c. Library Services Task Force Final Report The Board received the Final Report from the Library Services Task Force and provided feedback and direction to the Task Force and/or County Staff. Chair Jacobs served on this task force. H e asked the members present to stand. He introduced the Chai r of the task force, Evelyn Daniel. He said that the last time the Board specifically visited this issue was in 2000. There were iss ues of access at that time, as well as finance, and they were brought up short with the Governor's sequestering of funds. I t was only this year that the bra rich library in Cedar Grove and the Cybrary in Carr boro were opened. These were outgrowths of the 2000 report. He pointed out page 15 and the statement, "Orange County's current central library facility was opened in 1981; since that time the population exclusive of the Town of Chapel Hi II has grown 59% from 45,017 to 71,429 in 2000, w ith no expansion of the library. Even in 1981, the facility did not meet the standard for an adequately sized central library." Evelyn Daniel thanked the Board for allowing her to serve on this task force. She said that they were able to hi re a consultant, Dale G addis, who is the retired Director of Durham County Public Library. She said that the task force was charged to review the November 2001 report and to recommend improvements to Orange County libraries, particularly to examine the co-location option for a central library and to consider combining some branches in C arrboro. The task force endorsed the minimum standard for library services from the 2001 report. The report recommended increasing fundi ng for the central library to the state average by 2004, and the County Commissioners were able to increase this. It is still somewhat below state average, but it is progress. The third recommendation was to add a library in the northern and southern parts of the County, and this was done with the Cedar Grove branch and the Cybrary in Carrboro. The fourth recommendation was to create an Orange County Heritage Center to collect historical materials.. This has not yet been done. She said.that, with their consultant, they examined library services very thoroughly. They met with a number of groups. She summarized the findings. Findings: There is confusion with citizens about the current system of library governance and funding responsibilities. There is also confusion about the Chapel H ill Library, which is municipal, and the H illsborough library, which is a County library.