Minutes 03-19-2024 - Business Meeting

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5 suggestion was the development of a fiber optic/broadband tech position. She said the community wants good paying jobs for people living in Orange County. Commissioner Fowler said that earlier in the day the Strategic Plan Performance Measurement Subcommittee met and discussed the first two priorities, climate and health. She said there were two more meetings scheduled, on March 22 and April 2. Commissioner Richards said at the awards breakfast that she and Vice-Chair Greene attended, one of the awards was for a childcare program that shares costs with employers, families, and the government. She said she attended the Lumos update and the Orange County Emergency Services awards program. She said she shared the information with the Partnership for Young Children. She said the Jordan Lake board met on March 14. She noted two events for World Water Day on March 23. She said one is a cleanup day at Jordan Lake and honors former Orange County commissioner and Chapel Hill mayor Pam Hemminger. She said there will also be an event at Umstead Park. She said she attended an ABC Board meeting that day and heard reports from grant recipients. She said El Futuro presented as well as two students from Orange County Schools on the ADAPT (Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Team) program. She said that Orange County family court, Orange County drug treatment court, and reentry house were also there. She said that she also attended the Burlington Graham MPO meeting. She said there was grant funding available for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. She thanked everyone who was in attendance. Commissioner McKee read a portion of a statement that he found objectionable from John Stock of RFP, the management company for the Sportsplex: "The very original proposal to the Hogs was that we "merge" efforts with us taking the lead on registration administration, player development, and scheduling ice slots directly. In essence that part of hockey where we have full-time highly qualified staff. The Hogs Board could continue to do the rest." He said the statement shows a move towards doing things in-house and displaces an organization that has evidently been very successful. 4. Proclamations/ Resolutions/ Special Presentations a. Eno-New Hope Landscape Conservation Plan Presentation The Board received a presentation of the Eno New Hope Landscape Conservation Group's "Strategic Action Plan" and updated spatial analysis results. BACKGROUND: Several years ago, a group of experts and staff within the conservation community from Orange and Durham counties, Duke University's Duke Forest Teaching and Research Laboratory, Eno River Association, Triangle Land Conservancy, NC Natural Heritage Program, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC Botanical Garden, and other practitioners/experts began meeting to discuss the need for collaborative conservation planning across jurisdictional lines for a four-county area (Orange, Durham, Chatham, and Wake counties). These counties share many of the same watersheds and wildlife corridors/open space networks, and all have conducted inventories of natural areas and spent significant time and resources documenting and working to protect conservation lands. In discussions, the concept of the multi-county plan was centered on the importance of connections between existing conserved lands for wildlife, natural communities/habitats, and ecosystem services. The collaborating group met on several occasions and agreed that the focus of the plan should be built around one of the most important shared areas, the connections of the New Hope Creek and Eno River conservation networks, and that this plan be made available to local counties and municipalities, public and private institutions, and nonprofit land conservancies in the four-county region for use in prioritizing conservation efforts inclusion into local policies and plans.