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2 Strange Horizons, Tar River Poetry, Literary Mama, poemeleon, The Black Boot, Vestal 1 Review, The Mom Egg New World Writing , Dogplotz, Nailpolish Stories, and most recently in 2 the anthology Red Sky. In addition to her story “Lungs once pink and fragile” being nominated 3 for a Pushcart Prize, she received an Emerging Artist’s Grant from the Durham Arts Council in 4 2005. She has served on the Orange County Arts Commission Advisory Board since 2013. 5 6 Chair Dorosin introduced Todd McGee, Community Relations Director, who recognized 7 the “graduates” from the first County Government Academy. 8 9 2. Public Comments 10 11 a. Matters not on the Printed Agenda 12 Susan Walser read the following comments: 13 14 Good Evening, 15 I’m Susan Walser. Thank you for your time this evening. I’d like to thank the County for 16 coordinating the Keith Arboretum Community Meeting last Wednesday, May 30th. 17 18 Ms. Livingston presented information from the County at this meeting, and David Harper 19 presented information from Unique Place to Save – his presentation lasted about 45 20 minutes. The community found Ms. Harper’s presentation not relevant to our goals for 21 the meeting. Instead we were subjected to a lengthy presentation on what Unique 22 Places to Save is, what projects they have completed throughout the state, possible 23 future programs on arboretum property, and requests for the audience to join the 24 arboretum and financially support Unique Places to Save. The community, at several 25 points, asked for clarification on the corporate structure of the arboretum and why they 26 were presenting instead of the owner. The explanations were always lengthy, 27 convoluted, and confusing. 28 29 A reference to debt restructuring was made in relation to the corporate restructuring. We 30 looked into some of this. There are 3 note holders on the 143 acres and the Keith 31 Arboretum jointly – with Pickoretum, LLC, registered as a real estate and rental business, 32 as the borrower, with deeds of trust totaling over $845,000. The total purchase price of 33 all these parcels was $770,000. 34 35 During the County’s presentation, we heard that no violations of the Keith easement were 36 found. However, as you can see in the presentation the community made: 37 • The deck (with no permitting) was built to support wedding events – see page 6. 38 • As shown on page 13 of our presentation, in April the County believed that ROMR 39 was inactive or gone…yet ROMR is still active and is now an approved activity. 40 • The Easement Amendment submitted to you in April requested permission to 41 have bees on the property. However, bees had already been on the property for 42 months, and are a commercial venture, which isn’t allowed under the easement. 43 See page 15. 44 • The Keith home is used as an Airbnb, but the easement states that the property 45 can only be used for recreational, educational, and scientific purposes, under 46 non-commercial use – this commercial Airbnb use may fit under the Pickoretum 47 LLC’s business purpose of real estate and rental. See page 5 of our 48 presentation. 49 50