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x , <br /> property owners of rural Orange County. You have <br /> increased the property taxes over 100% during the <br /> past five years. The only change we see is an order <br /> • of magnitude :increase in the size of the county <br /> government staff . You have made no effort to increase <br /> the tax base--iri fact just the opposite. The anti- <br /> industry, and anti-business, anti-private property <br /> mentality still prevails. Is there no limit to the <br /> burden which you will ask the property owners of rural <br /> Qrange County to bear--even as you further attempt to <br /> deny them their rightful vote on the future through <br /> the arbitrary and capricious decisions of you managers <br /> and planners, some of whom own no property and pay <br /> little or no taxes. <br /> *The. parks program, a luxury item, would be developed <br /> at the expense of higher priority programs; e. g. <br /> schools and education, security (police and fire) , <br /> and water , sewer and waste programs; or taxes would be <br /> raised even further. <br /> *Current parks and recreation facilities in Orange <br /> County and nearby areas are not fully utilized; e. g. for <br /> example, University Lake, Jordan Lake, Cane Creek <br /> Reservoir , Eno River State Park, Meuse River Park , and <br /> many other smaller ones. They should be, or else <br /> - returned to private ownership. Use fees should be <br /> levied for use of these Park facilities to cover cost <br /> for operation and maintenance. <br /> *It is premature to build a network of parks such <br /> as proposed in your Master Plan. There is no <br /> evidence that the location and distribution of the <br /> park system proposed is optimum. This is analogous <br /> to building walks on a college campus before the <br /> students have established a path and told you where <br /> they are going to walk. <br /> *The operation and maintenance of parks is not a <br /> proper function of county government. It is a <br /> functgpn of municipalities and communities. The <br /> proposed Master Plan is an effort to usurp the rights <br /> and power of the people at the community level . It <br /> is an exercise in empire building. If the county <br /> government has a role it does not go beyond a <br /> budgetary function. <br /> The proposal to build swimming pools at the schools is <br /> a reasonable one. The priority is secondary compared to the <br /> educational facilities, but is much greater than the pork <br /> barrel items included in your current budget. The operation <br /> and maintenance of the school swimming pool facilities <br /> should be the sole responsibileity of the school staff. <br /> Attempting the share the responsibility, and authority, under <br />