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468 MINUTES OF THE ORANGE COUN9'v BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS August 1, 1966 The Ora? a County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Monday, August 1, 1961 at ten o'clock A.M. in the Commissioners Room at the courthouse in .Hillsborough, North Carolina. Members Present: Chairman Harvey D. Bennett, Commissioners William C. Ray, Henry S. Walker, Gordon Cleveland and Carl M. Smith. Members absent: None Upon motion the clerk was instructed to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the July meetings, as each board member, had been mailed copies of said minutes. Vance Martin, Engineer for Duke Power Company, George I. Johnson, Jr., Manager of the Hillsborough office of Duke Power Company, and Joe Mann, District Manager for Duke Power Company presented the following letter: "We appreciate the opportunity of appearing before you on a matter we feel you will desire to study and take under consideration. orange County has an excellent record of endeavor in the field of electrical inspection: We of Duke Power Company have appreciated your assistance in our various programs of promoting adequate and safe wiring throughout our service area. Extensive research, development, and professional effort has gone into the revision of the National Electrical Code, 1965. It incorporates the experience and recommendation of Inspectors, engineers and professions of all fields related to the electrical and fire protection industries and agencies. Its orgin is from the National Fire Protection Association and is subsequently adopted by the American Standards Association and published as the National Electrical Code. It has been adopted by the North Carolina Building Code Council as the standard for North Carolina. Laws relating to the North Carolina Building Code Council have been enacted which require any alteration of its adopted code to be approved by the Council before they can become effective. In that the Orange County Electrical Ordinance, adopted Feb. 1, 1958 contains technical provisions relating to the Code= we recommend that study be given to a revision of the Ordinance to eliminate any possible conflict with present State law. Your Electrical inspector needs full legal backing of his guide rules in the difficult job of protecting the public in the field of adequate electrical installations. The North Carolina Department of Insurance is charged with the responsibility of the Building Code Council. They likely have model ordinance laws that can be used as guidelines. Specifically, your Section 5, Miscellaneous Supplemental Requirements, contains items that relate to the Code as adopted by North Carolina. We recommend your consultation with the State officials on any necessary revisions. One item of specific interest to Duke Power Company relates to the present practice of using conduit risers from the meter box to the point of attachment of the overhead service lines to residences. Your present ordinance does not require the use of conduit for the purpose; however, we have cooperated with the wishes of your Inspector on this in its installation. The National Electrical Code calls for service entrance cable for this use. Vast improvements have been made in the quality of new cable presently available on the market and being used today. We feel you will desire the citizens of Orange County to..,benefit from this savings and that the economy of the electrical industry in Orange County will be stimulated and benefit from this step through the result of more electrical installations and use of electrically operated appliances and apparatus. Other points of interest in your technical requirements relate to circuit requirements in the kitchen now covered in the code, soldered and taped'joints which now can be made electrically and mechanically equivalent or better, use of "approved straps or staples" not generally rated by approval boards, use of screws to attach out- let boxes that can now be done suitably by nails under certain conditions, comercial building ceiling outlets requirements changed by modern methods and code application, and use of a double pole switch or oil burners that could break a desired ground connection in detriment to the intent. You may perhaps want to consider the fee schedule of inspections in light of its revenue production history and the changing cost of living as relates to adequate compensation of your inspecting personnel. Work loads, technical developments and competition In the labor market make this a timely point to consider the importance of insuring the stability of your inspection program. "Please pardon our infringement into your area of responsibility. Our interest in pointing out several of these areas if from our companyts motto of "Citizenship - Service" and the desire to offer you the benefit of our operating experience and professionally qualified personnel. We will be specifically benefited by those recommendations; however, these will be small in relation to the overall benefit to all the citizens of Orange County and to your inspection system through adoption of uniformity with State and National Codes. We stand ready to assit you in any manner you may desire in implementing these recommendations and ask only that we be permitted to present our position on any matters that relate directly to utility installations for any proposed changes."