Orange County NC Website
Approved 11/14/2011 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 6/13/2011 Page 6 of 44 <br /> <br />1 <br />2 <br />3 <br />4 <br />5 <br />6 <br />7 <br />8 <br />9 <br />10 <br />11 <br />12 <br />13 <br />14 <br />15 <br />16 <br />17 <br />18 <br />19 <br />20 <br />21 <br />22 <br />23 <br />24 <br />25 <br />26 <br />27 <br />28 <br />29 <br />30 <br />31 <br />32 <br />33 <br />34 <br />35 <br />36 <br />37 <br />38 <br />39 <br />40 <br />41 <br />42 <br />43 <br />44 <br />45 <br />46 <br />47 <br />48 <br />49 <br />50 <br />51 <br />52 <br />53 <br />54 <br />Sabrina Hanson: My name is Sabrina Hanson and I hope I am not stoned on the way out of here. I have lived in this <br />community for 14 years. I have been sworn in with the group of people. Long term residents and some of you may know me <br />from the school system. I’ve been very active in our Orange County School system, Grady Brown and AL Stanback. I am <br />also; in addition to that, this was my idea, as far as Fall Days and Ag Wag… the three events that is in question in this <br />hearing. In addition to my passion to children and education, my other passion is great Danes. I represent a rescue, the Mid <br />Atlantic Great Dane Rescue. I am not only an adopter, I am a foster and help them raise money wherever possible whether <br />that means standing in the 100 degree heat at Pet Smart or coming to Allison and saying, you know what, the beautiful facility <br />is built and nobody knows anything about this facility, can we hold a community event? It would benefit not only Maple View <br />as far as having the community come there but it would benefit the great danes. We do a couple of things with the great <br />danes and that would be one to educate people about great danes, about our needs for fosters. We have placed hundreds of <br />dogs this past year and we have been doing this for 31 plus years. We are in seven states and we do this all over. We are <br />self supporting. We pay for spay, neutering, heart worms. All these things for these huge animals and I have to say in times <br />like these, we are full, we can’t even take owners’ surrenders any more so in an effort to help our rescue, Allison say let’s think <br />about it and pick a day to do it. I enlisted many in the community, in Hillsborough that needed help. Everything from Wimpsy <br />to the Bison Farms, invited all the community. They paid a nominal fee to the rescue, not to Maple View. In fact, Maple View <br />incurred a huge expense. They paid for the electricity, air conditioning, all this stuff to help our animals because of their long <br />standing commitment to animals, to respect and to their community and all the people there were community members. The <br />music in question, this was in October, started at 12:00 and was done by 6:00. We had Steven Toll, who is a folk singer, <br />come out. It was one single guy with a guitar. We had a high school band play because they were out there jamming there <br />tunes. They played for an hour and wrapped up with Rootsy, who many of you know, is a folk singer. We are not talking loud <br />bands and noise. In fact, the second event, because of impending weather was not as successful as the first event and <br />ended at 4:30 in the afternoon so as far as the loud party and noise, it wasn’t that. This happened in the fall days in 2009 <br />when we did an event in 2010, like eight months later, are the two events that are in question. Told you about the <br />entertainers. We also had clowns. Maple View also supplied the educational component. We did classes inside. We had <br />Sudie Raspin who came out... she did the book Savanah Blue. She was our author there signing books for the kids. This is <br />all about community. Keeping it local, we want to keep our dollars here, spending in Hillsborough. This is all that was about. <br />Keeping our local community. Having a day of fun, family, animals and all my friends from school brought their dogs and <br />everybody had a great time and it was wonderful. Both of these events were to aid animal rescue, to teach children about <br />animals, to help us find fosters for so many animals. We all watch the news on how many animals die every day and we go <br />out every weekend and try to prevent it. Of course, not at Maple View and pending your decision, maybe never again but they <br />did a really great thing for a non-profit organization that was very grateful. In fact the community was grateful to Maple View, <br />for not only their long standing support in education with Ms. Nichols and her family. I have known Allison since she was <br />scooping ice cream, but also the Nutters commitment to the reading foundation; they have a long standing commitment to <br />children, to animals and the respect of both of them in educating them. As a rescue and as a beneficiary of their kindness and <br />generosity, I am very grateful to have them in my background. One of the things I really wanted was for our community to <br />come see what a wonderful center they have… and having been there on several field trips because they are a great learning <br />center for the school systems. I can only say that on a personal level, I think it’s really sad in a litigious society and the things <br />that have been said and are not true. It is just really sad we are in this position. They tried to do a really great thing for a <br />really great cause and we are all here. <br /> <br />Lynne Jaffe: My name is Lynne Jaffe and I have been sworn in. I have been a resident of Orange County for over 25 years. I <br />have lived on the backside of Maple View Farms for sixteen and a half years. I am speaking on behalf of my husband, John <br />Hartley, who passed away 12 days ago. Two days ago, we had his memorial service. We would have had that service at the <br />Agricultural Center if it had not been too small for the number of people we knew would come so I want to speak on his behalf <br />because I know he would also be standing here and speaking his heart out about this. So I live in walking distance of the Ag <br />Center on the backside of this farm. Like they say, farm is not the quiet pastoral place people like to imagine. The Agricultural <br />Center I realize is something of an exception to what a normal farm has but I think it is a really good exception. I know I don’t <br />need to speak to the Nutters reputation here but what I really want to point out here is that when they could have sold off the <br />land for hundreds of thousands of dollars, they chose to protect and preserve it not for their benefit but for the farm and the <br />community the farm exists in. When they built the Maple View Agricultural Center, they used their own money. They spent <br />hundreds of thousands dollars to build this community rather than sell the land and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. <br />They are not going to live to see a lot of what could happen with this Agricultural Center but it is there now and it would be a <br />real shame for it to go to waste and for all their energy and intention they have put forward in this community all these years to <br />go to waste. The Nutters are what comes forward out of this is the legacy of the Nutters in this community. I only just this