Orange County NC Website
<br /> <br />Commissioner Marcoplos said Durham Tech, the school systems, UNC facility 1 <br />manager, builders and developers in the area, homebuilders associations, etc. are 2 <br />involved. 3 <br />Commissioner Price asked if any of these entities are providing matching funds. 4 <br />Commissioner Marcoplos said no. 5 <br />Commissioner Price said she was interested in the funding. 6 <br />Commissioner Marcoplos said he is not aware of any identified funds at this time 7 <br />other than the County’s funding. 8 <br />Commissioner Bedford said the proposal sounds very interesting, but she would 9 <br />prefer to wait until September to discuss it. She said it is hard to write grants when the 10 <br />option has not been determined. 11 <br />Commissioner Bedford said if the process does move forward, she would 12 <br />support hiring a professional grant writer, but that is getting ahead of themselves. She 13 <br />said it is premature to look at grant funds, when it is not clear what is needed and what 14 <br />is the best option to pursue. 15 <br />Commissioner Marcoplos said he disagreed, and if the BOCC reads the report it 16 <br />would be able to see the options have been narrowed down to just a few viable ones. 17 <br />He said the first step is to know which grant opportunities are worth pursuing, and the 18 <br />initial report writer has grant writing experience, as well as connections to this 19 <br />community. He said the Covid funding could be crucial to jump starting this project. 20 <br />Commissioner Bedford said she read the report, and there are four options. 21 <br /> 22 <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Marcoplos to approve Amendment 021. 23 <br /> 24 <br />Commissioner Greene said she has not had a chance to read the full report, and 25 <br />the pros and cons are not clear to her. She said she would be happy to consider it in 26 <br />the fall. 27 <br />Commissioner Marcoplos said the report was sent out a while ago, and he 28 <br />should have flagged it more strongly to have the BOCC read it. 29 <br /> 30 <br />NO SECOND 31 <br />Motion failed. 32 <br /> 33 <br />Commissioner McKee asked if staff could monitor these Covid-19 grants. 34 <br />Chair Rich said staff is already doing so, and tracking all Covid related expenses 35 <br />and funds is critical. 36 <br />Commissioner McKee said he meant to monitor the grant deadlines, and bring 37 <br />this topic back in September. 38 <br />Commissioner Marcoplos encouraged everyone to sit in on these meetings, to 39 <br />observe the level of commitment and progress. 40 <br /> 41 <br />School Amendments – none 42 <br /> 43 <br />Commissioner Dorosin asked if the BOCC wants to make a motion to use the 44 <br />$191,000 for schools. He said he would be open to give these monies to the schools, 45 <br />with a 60/40 split. 46 <br /> 47 <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Dorosin, seconded by Commissioner 48 <br />Greene to give the $191,000 to the schools at the 60/40 split. 49 <br /> 50 <br />Commissioner Bedford said given the schools’ fund balances, she would suggest 51 <br />moving the monies to the social justice fund. 52 <br />Commissioner Price asked if the 2020-21 social justice fund balance could be 53 <br />identified. 54 <br /> Travis Myren said $180,000, given Commissioner Greene’s earlier amendment. 55 <br />13