Minutes 12-15-2020 Virtual Business Meeting

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4 a. Presentation of The Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award to Former Orange County Commissioner Dr. Alice M. Gordon The Board recognized former Orange County Commissioner Alice Gordon for receiving The Order of the Long Leaf Pine award from Governor Roy Cooper, the highest honor the Governor can confer on individuals. The award recognizes her significant contributions to the state and her community through her exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments. BACKGROUND: Dr. Alice Gordon served as an Orange County Commissioner for 24 years, 1990-2014. Her most outstanding contributions recognized by this award are in the areas of environmental protection, school excellence, and improved regional transportation. Of these contributions, the most memorable are as follows: (1) She created Orange County's innovative and national award-winning Lands Legacy Program, which has now protected over 3000 acres of Orange County's most precious natural and cultural lands (2) She championed excellent public schools, with special attention for many years to the renovation of older schools, for which she was recognized when the "Alice Gordon Science Building" at Culbreth Middle School was named in her honor and (3) As Chair of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization Board, she was co-leader of a successful cooperative effort to craft a multi- jurisdictional agreement, the Triangle's first ever joint Long Range Transportation Plan, which received a national planning award. She was also known as a public servant with integrity, who always remained true to her core values. Environmental Protection. With the approval of her fellow commissioners, Alice Gordon created the national award-winning Lands Legacy Program in 1998, the first comprehensive county land acquisition program in North Carolina, which won a national planning award in 2007 for its innovation. The program has protected some of Orange County's most critical natural and cultural resources, such as forests, watershed riparian buffers, prime farmlands, and future parklands. Also with the commissioners' approval in 1998, she created a new environmental department (now part of the Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation) so that environmental protection would be a separate function and focus of Orange County government, a special advantage in this era of climate change. The Lands Legacy Program and Alice's other initiatives to protect the environment will be among her most enduring contributions to Orange County. Having the institutional structure for environmental stewardship in place to protect critical resources, such as clean air and clean water, will help Orange County mitigate some effects of a warming planet. School Excellence. Alice was a dedicated champion of high quality education for all public school children in Orange County, and consistently supported the funding necessary to foster school excellence because of her commitment to the success of all students. She led the effort to pass the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance so that new schools would be built when needed. She also promoted a systematic program to renovate all of the older schools in Orange County, and worked toward that goal for many years. For her achievements, the Alice Gordon Science Building at Grey Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill was named in her honor in 2014. Improved Regional Transportation. Alice promoted public transit and improved regional transportation planning, and she served as Chair of two multi-jurisdictional regional transportation boards, Triangle Transit (now GoTriangle) and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization. As Chair of the latter board, she led a cooperative effort to