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4 <br />6. The committee felt that traffic considerations would be sufficiently addressed by <br />the construction of the new entrance into the new county garage. . <br />7. The criteria that was used in selecting this area was a large enough acreage to <br />accommodate the Rural Education Center and possible future construction of county <br />Agricultural Offices. It is thought that the site should be in the Hillsborough, and the <br />County Manager has indicated that Orange County likes to keep county owned buildings <br />relatively close into town so that travel for maintenance will be minimized. <br />A site close to town would also be desireable so that the multi - purpose Rural <br />Education Center could be used by a large number of citizens for a variety of educational <br />activities. A site far out in northern Orange County would not lend itself as well to use <br />for trade shows, farmer's markets, youth educational activities, 4 -H activities and other <br />uses for either people in Hillsborough or in the southern half of the county. <br />Several sites have been considered over the years, including land owned by Duke <br />University in Hillsborough, as well as privately owned land. Negotiations about these <br />properties have never worked out or the cost of the land, particularly that close to <br />Hillsborough, was cost prohibitive. <br />The second half of the question was about the original livestock market. The old <br />livestock market property was sold by GoldKist in 1987 to a development company. The <br />possibility of purchasing that property was never considered because it was so expensive <br />and such a prime commercial property for development. The property has not been <br />developed as of yet. <br />In addition, the county is not proposing maintaining a weekly livestock market as <br />a part of the Rural Education Center. The livestock aspect of the center included a cattle <br />weighing and sorting facility that could be used by farmers to sell cattle from farm to <br />farm and also to put together some truckload lots of cattle to be able to sell .them for <br />higher prices. In addition, the facility would also be used for some local 4 -H and FFA <br />livestock and dairy shows. <br />8. The criteria for selecting the site has already been mentioned. The concept of the <br />Rural Education Center is one that is patterned after a site in Kinston, NC. Their site <br />is in a town type setting and includes a multi - purpose type arena located beside the <br />agricultural offices for the county. In addition, on the site there are demonstration <br />gardens and a demonstration greenhouse. <br />The committee felt that this type of overall Rural Education Center concept, with <br />a possibility of adding a farmer's market to it would be a good resource for Hillsborough <br />and would be something beneficial and not detrimental to any community where it was <br />located. The livestock uses for this facility have been continually emphasized as the <br />main function of the center, but in all likelihood will not be utilized on an everyday, <br />regular sort of basis but rather a sporadic basis. We do 'not feel that the cattle <br />component of the facility will be large enough or intrusive enough to cause problems <br />with flies, odors, noise, etc. <br />2 <br />