Agenda - 11-09-2005-0 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Vice Chair Barry Jacobs, and Commissioner Stephen Halkiotis, and another service route proposal was painstakingly sought, The following November 4~h western route is a better alternative in many ways and permits all parties to achieve their goals of timeliness, lower shared cost, higher environmental sensitivity, and less paperwork, The new route (which harkens back to the original pre-I-85 alignment) accomplishes the following: 1) Shortest path route that can be accomplished in the proper timeframe for the projected school opening, 2) Exemplifies the collaboration and cost saving synergies between the Board of Education and Board of County Commissioners to locate school and park facilities together by sharing common electrical infrastructure (as was also achieved with water, sewer, and road access). This collaboration is similar to joint projects such as Twin Creeks Park, where the Board of County Commissioners and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education are locating joint facilities with joint responsibility and will be sharing costs to pay for water, sewer, and collector roads. 3) Uses existing underground electric conduit installed between proposed facilities already provided by Orange County Schools at a cost of approximately $20,000, 4) The western Gravelly Hill Middle School property route parallels the high power electrical transmission route, thereby removing the need to cut trees along the I-85/I-40 buffer, It also avoids conflicts with the upland swamp and vernal pools along the other east-west route, This new route is more environmentally sensitive. 5) The new western route eliminates the old proposal to place overhead electric on the County property where there would have to be site plan adjustments or sensitivity to underground water, gas services, street and future ball field lights and existing and proposed trees and landscaping and the need for easements. In addition, if and when the overhead electrical lines were requested by the Board of County Commissioners to be placed underground, there would be a cost to change the facility system of at least $100,000 in construction and associated document preparation, 6) There is no need far a Special Use Permit major change because on site electrical service to the school and park facilities are underground and only a small portion of the sub-feeder electrical distribution system that services the larger Duke service area is above ground, This arrangement provides a 'loop' system, improving the integrity of the system in times of emergency. 7) The original estimates discussed at the September 26, 2005 joint school boards meeting for underground electric service and distribution have been cut in half from approximately $250,000 to under $125,000, This number is in the process of being refined lower by Duke Power. Because the underground utilities will also benefit the County's soccer complex as Hated above, both entities will share equally in the cost at approximately $60,000 each,