Orange County NC Website
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6 <br /> 1 Assembly of Governments Meeting <br /> 2 <br /> 3 Agricultural Economic Development <br /> 4 • Orange County Food Council working to build a local food system that ensures: <br /> 5 o Health <br /> 6 o Sustainable agriculture <br /> 7 o Access for all local residents <br /> 8 • Piedmont Food & Agriculture Processing Center (PFAP) <br /> 9 o Continues to incubate new food processing businesses <br /> 10 o Now offers expansion potential at the County's newly renovated "Cedar Grove <br /> 11 Park & Community Center" <br /> 12 • New Initiatives - Efforts underway to have the County: <br /> 13 o Potentially lease the 400-acre "Breeze Farm"agriculture training facility <br /> 14 o Create a public-private partnership to facilitate a higher level of effectiveness <br /> 15 19th Annual Orange County Agriculture Summit - February 27th 2017 <br /> 16 <br /> 17 Orange County Visitors Bureau <br /> 18 • N. C. Department of Agriculture collaboration to develop a new smart media App <br /> 19 (called North Carolina Farms) highlighting Orange County's: <br /> 20 o Fresh food markets <br /> 21 o Farm tours <br /> 22 o "Pick your Own" produce farms <br /> 23 • Launched the "All Are Welcome" LGBT friendly campaign <br /> 24 (Won Platinum award from Destination Management Association of N. C.) <br /> 25 • During the year: <br /> 26 o Served 12,000 walk-in visitors <br /> 27 o Distributed over 50,000 visitors guides and maps <br /> 28 • Tourism services provided to the Towns included: <br /> 29 o Hillsborough Handmade Puppet Parade <br /> 30 o Carrboro's Music Festival <br /> 31 o Chapel Hill's Festival <br /> 32 • Launching North American Travel Journalists Association conference to bring 100 <br /> 33 national travel writers to the County spring 2017 <br /> 34 <br /> 35 Small Business Promotion <br /> 36 • LAUNCH Chapel Hill <br /> 37 o Lease was renewed for 3 more years <br /> 38 o Will double in size to add more co-working space <br /> 39 o Assisted 63 entrepreneurial start-up firms since 2013; <br /> 40 o Currently hosting the 6th cohort <br /> 41 o 23 full-time and 55 part-time jobs were supported by 7 LAUNCH firms in 2016 <br /> 42 • Orange County Economic Development's new web-based searchable database listing <br /> 43 all identified Orange County firms. <br /> 44 • Article 46 financial programs to support the growth, expansion & retention of Orange <br /> 45 County's small businesses. (1/4 cent sales tax for economic dev.) <br /> 46 <br /> 47 Business Recruitment Efforts <br /> 48 • Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. recruitment by the County & Town of Chapel Hill <br />