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13 <br /> PUBLIC COMMENTS: <br /> Amanda Hawkins said she is an attorney with Brooks Pearce in Raleigh. She said she is <br /> speaking on the NC Cable Telecommunications Association and one of its members is <br /> Spectrum and Charter. She said that a colleague spoke to them previously and noted that North <br /> Carolina law only allows counties to award broadband grants to unserved areas. She expressed <br /> concern that the NorthState grant service area would include a large number of locations that <br /> are already served by Spectrum. She said that after the April 261h meeting, they have worked <br /> with the county's legal staff to identify a subset of location from the prior list that are presently <br /> served by Charter. She said that these conversations have resulted in the amendment that is <br /> before them tonight. She said that there are over 3,000 addresses that need to be removed. <br /> She said that this amendment does not solve the legal problem. She said that the law only <br /> permits counties to issue grants to unserved areas and this project does more than that. She <br /> said that to fix the legal issues, the amount of the grant needs to either be reduced by 36% or a <br /> new 3,528 unserved locations need to be identified to add to the grant. She said the <br /> amendment attempts to address this by requiring NorthState to serve any unserved locations <br /> that it is building to, but the law does not allow a county to overbuild. <br /> A motion was made by Commissioner Greene, seconded by Commissioner McKee, to <br /> approve and authorize the County Manager to sign the amended Network Development <br /> Agreement and any amendments that do not exceed the contract amount with North State <br /> Communications Advanced Services, LLC to construct, operate, and maintain a fiber to the <br /> premises network in unserved parts of Orange County. <br /> VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> d. Regulation of Gatherings on and near School Property and Public Playgrounds <br /> PURPOSE: To present for second reading an ordinance regulating picketing on or within 1,000 <br /> feet of school property and public playgrounds. <br /> BACKGROUND: The Board of Commissioners requested information on how the County may <br /> regulate protests or large gatherings in Orange County. The Board initially received information <br /> on this subject at its February 1, 2022 Business meeting. At that meeting the Board discussed <br /> many aspects of this type of regulation including prohibiting large gatherings on certain public <br /> school properties. The Board further discussed this topic at its May 10, 2022 work session. At <br /> that work session the Board determined parades would not be regulated and provided further <br /> direction to the County Attorney to be brought back to the Board for future consideration. At the <br /> June 2, 2022 work session, the Board determined to move forward with an ordinance <br /> prohibiting picketing on School Property. The agenda materials for each prior discussion may <br /> be viewed at the links above. <br /> Pursuant to the Board's prior discussions and input, the County Attorney revised the draft <br /> ordinance which generally provides as follows: <br /> • Only covers Picketing conducted on, or within 1,000 feet of, School Property and Public <br /> Playgrounds; <br /> • Declares violations to be subject to a monetary fine, equitable relief, or trespass <br /> depending on the facts and circumstances. <br />