Agenda - 11-01-2018 8-a - Minutes

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5 1 Craig Lloyd said this will be the 36th year of Hog Day, and 5 years ago he and his friends 2 created an Optimist Club to promote positive events and programming in the community. He 3 said some time after the creation of that club he learned that the Hillsborough Chamber no 4 longer wanted to run Hog Day. 5 Craig Lloyd said he used to be the Director of the Chamber, and thus knew the workings 6 of Hog Day, and the so the Optimist Club decided to take over this event. He said the first 7 couple of years were a struggle as it is a 100% volunteer led organization, but there was a 8 desire to keep the tradition alive. 9 Craig Lloyd said there are families on the Hog Day committee that have been in Orange 10 County for over 250 years, as well as newcomers that are just interested in the event. 11 Craig Lloyd said hundreds of volunteers make this event happen, and there is no 12 overhead. He said the funds that are raised are used to provide grants in the community as 13 well as donations to schools and other organizations. He said the group has brought back 14 some of the old traditions, and the people who are involved love the community and the event 15 dearly. 16 Craig Lloyd said he talked with the Chapel Hill Orange County Visitor's Bureau, and a 17 small Hog Day brought in $1 million of economic impact; and a big hog day can bring in $3.4 18 million of economic impact. He said they are good stewards and they work with other 19 organizations, businesses, the Town and the County. 20 Craig Lloyd said they want to be accommodating in any way they can, and they need 21 the County's help to make this event happen. 22 Al Hartkopf said he wanted to go over the timeline of this process. He said the planning 23 committee has been in constant contact with the Orange County Parks and Recreation and the 24 Town as soon as the event was canceled due to Hurricane Florence. He said a meeting 25 occurred on September 19th to discuss a plan to reschedule, which included Hillsborough Police 26 Department, Orange County Sheriff's Department, Orange County Parks and Recreation, and 27 the Hillsborough tourism bureau. He said this group met under the David Price Pavilion, 28 looked at dates, and settled on November 2nd and 3rd, and Parks and Recreation said that date 29 worked, as did the rest of the group. 30 Al Hartkopf said he has provided the short answer, and is happy to go into further detail 31 as to why Saturday and Sunday are not good dates. 32 Chair Dorosin said he wanted to know why Saturday and Sunday (November 3rd and 33 4th), or any other Friday and Saturday could not work. 34 Al Hartkopf said the reason other weekends do not work is because all of the volunteers 35 were booked up, or the facility was booked up, throughout the months of September and 36 October. He said Hog Day needs to happen in early November, or it will have to be put off until 37 next year. He said November 2nd and 3rd appeared to be available, and were agreed upon by 38 the group. He said there was a desire to stay away from the holiday season. 39 Al Hartkopf said the group discussed moving the event to the Saturday and Sunday 40 (November 3rd and 4th), but River Park was already in use for November 4, ruling this option out. 41 He said, additionally, the cooking teams are not available to cook on Saturday nights. 42 Al Hartkopf said bands can be secured for most Fridays and Saturdays, but the well is 43 getting dry. He said Sunday events are generally lightly attended, and are not good for 44 fundraisers. 45 Al Hartkopf said when he was approached to join the Optimist Club and to be part of this 46 event, there were ground rules, and one was that the event was to be kept local. 47 Al Hartkopf said his team looked into doing the event on a Sat/Sun, but trying to turn the 48 event venue back to its normal state is not viable on a Sunday evening. He said Friday night is 49 usually a locals' night. He said they proposed many things to help mitigate the concerns with 50 the early voting issue, and he referred to the access management plan in the abstract.