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Approved May 20, 2015 MINUTES Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Board of Directors Meeting April 15, 2015 The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau met at PHE, INC in Hillsborough Board Members Present: Anthony Carey, Libbie Hough, Lee Storrow, Debbie Hepp, Rosemary Waldorf, Karen DeHart, Aaron Bachenheimer, Lee Pavao, Michelle Johnson, Nitin Khanna, Mike Gering, Penny Rich, Annette Stone, Meg McGurk Not Present: Jill McCullough, Mark Sherburne Staff attendance: Steve Brantley, Laurie Paolicelli, Tina Fuller, Martha Shannon, Amanda Garner Also present: Sara Stephens & Kim Tesoro, Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce and Eric Hallman, Town of Hillsborough. Call to Order Chairman Anthony Carey called the meeting to order at 8:14 a.m. Approval of Minutes Mr. Carey requested a motion to approve the March 18, 2015 minutes. Lee Pavao so moved and Penny Rich seconded. With all members in favor, the minutes were approved as submitted. Welcome from Host After introductions from members of the board, Adam & Eve’s Director of Public Relations, Katy Zvolerin, gave a brief overview of PHE’s community involvement and the organizations history Town of Hillsborough/Hillsborough Orange County Chamber of Commerce Update CEO Sara Stephens shared some upcoming new endeavors by the Chamber: new website, Riverwalk, event focused initiatives i.e., Connect the Dots promoting weekend happenings and Chopped – Local Food Meets Chef, a business expo with Chapel Hill/Carrboro Chamber, as well as a strong Christmas holiday destination promotion. Kim Tesoro commented that their first point of business is to spread information; the Chamber is in a good position to help Hillsborough. Sara added that 28 new businesses just joined. Eric Hallman commented that Sara is doing a great job. Mr. Hallman talked about Riverwalk and the connecting greenways in Alamance, Wake and Durham counties, stating that the gap is Orange County. He is hoping that this could be a topic of discussion at the next joint meeting, noting that Durham did a study on the economic impact of greenways and trails where the findings were very positive. A comment was made that there has been discussion on what type of trail(s) it should be, such as, should horses and bikes be allowed as well as walking. Penny Rich added that now is the time to talk about it as an item for the upcoming bond referendum. Hallman reported that a bridge connecting to Occoneechee Speedway will be completed by this fall. In other news, Mr. Hallman spoke on Hillsborough’s growth factor, stating that they predict a 31% increase in population over the next 5 years; the Town received a request to annex the property behind Daniel Boone; DOT has proposed to provide funding for the new rail station off Orange Grove Street which would be served by Amtrak – looking at 2018- 2019.