Minutes 04-18-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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21 David King said he is representing a group, convened six months ago by GoTriangle, called The Funding and Community Collaborative. He said this group was made up of both the public and private sector, representing medicine, the universities, businesses, etc. He gave a letter to the Board from the private sector members of the group, expressing complete support for the LRT. He said this group met on April 7th, and made a commitment to raise $100 million for light rail project from the private sector, if the project gets into the engineering phase. He said he hopes this commitment inspires confidence. He said since the vote in 2012, nothing has really happened to change the equation of funding for the 15-501 corridor. He said these projects take a long time to complete, and he commended the BOCC for its stamina. Linda Haac said she was a proponent of light rail 33 years ago, but finds that this route fails to serve most of Orange County. She has seen data as a member of the Carrboro transportation board, and public transportation may slow the amount of cars, but it will not stop them. She said the plan does mainly benefit the UNC Medical Center, Duke, etc. She said the main concern is the fiduciary responsibilities of the BOCC as the elected body of Orange County. She said the business plan from GoTriangle makes her question them as a partner. David Carpenter said he is against light rail, and the debt that will be incurred. He said to imagine what could be accomplished by investing $3.3 billion into other elements of the County. Heather Brutz reviewed the following email: Public transportation has always been important in my life. When I was a child living in Cleveland, OH, my mom and I were supported by my father's minimum wage income. The cars we owned were unreliable and I often had to take the bus with my mom to do errands. I started working when I was 14 and only applied to jobs that I could walk, bike, or take the bus to. Access to transit was literally the difference between employment and unemployment for me. When I moved to Chapel Hill for grad school, my boyfriend (now husband) moved here with me. He had recently gotten his undergrad degree and was looking for work. As often happens when you don't have experience, he had trouble finding work in his field and ended up working part-time jobs to help make ends meet. This was tough but manageable until our only car broke down. With neither one of us employed full-time, we could not afford to buy a new car. So he had to search for new part-time work in areas that was transit-accessible to Chapel Hill until he found full-time employment and could afford a car. This was very limiting. One of the part-time jobs he found was in downtown Durham, where the proposed light rail will eventually go. It takes well over an hour to get there by bus and if my husband worked a late shift and missed the last bus, it was an expensive cab ride home. Eventually, he was able to find a full- time job but that was a stressful time in our lives. Lack of access to transportation is a major barrier to getting out of poverty. The proposed light rail and improvements in bus service in the transit plan will help connect people to jobs. Rachel Willis said she supports light rail. Ally Clonch said she is a grad student at UNC, and is in support of light rail. Edmund Tiryakian said he comes to praise light rail, not to bury it, and said this concept's wisdom may shine eventually, but its many shortcomings confront us now. He said the LRT will not serve the entire County. He said he does not trust the word of GoTriangle, and he is not in support of this light rail plan. Gary Saunders said he won the Golden Ticket award for riding buses. He said he brings 40 years of experience with environmental engineering, and has been a transit user