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MINUTES OF THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS September 2, 1969 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, September 2, 1969, at 10 o'clock A.M. in the Commissioners Room at the Courthouse in Hillsborough. Members Present: Chairman Carl M. Smith and Commissioners Harvey D. Bennett, William C. Ray, Henry S. Walker and Ira A. Ward. Members Absent: None Minutes of the previous meetings were read and approved after corrections. Chairman Smith advised the Board that he had received a letter from Robert L. Dietrich, President of Fiber Industries. Chairman Smith read the following letter to the Board: "Thank you for sending me the enclosures in your letter of August 4, 1969. Your statement was very complimentary to Fiber Industries and we appreciate it. I am sorry that things worked out the way they did. In response to your questions, let me advise that., 1) There are no strings on the site. We own it in fee simple and are free to hold it or dispose of it. We have no current Dlans or decision in either direction. I 2) In retrospect, it is evident that the original negotiations and pro- curement of this site were premature. This was not anyonets fault, but was the result of the march of events. We do not intend to repeat the error, and while we will look for another site, we will make neither decisions nor announcements until construction plans are in hand. 3) We will look throughout the entire southeast for the best available site. We will not rule out Orange County for you have some fine people and some very desirable features. You can appreciate that we will be a bit "gun shy". i You and the Orange County Commissioners have been marvelous and we appreciate it. We will be glad to hear from you in the future. At the moment, we want to keep quiet and go about our business." Chairman Smith then read his reply addressed to Mr. Dietrich. Same being as follows: "Dear Mr. Dietrich: Sincerely appreciate your letter of August 7th and its contents. We understand fully that you would be "gun shy" about Orange County but we hope to be able to convince you in the days ahead that you are wanted here and that Orange County is strategically located for you. We also respect your statement "At the moment, we want to keep quiet and go about our business". However, there are two things that prompt my wanting to write you at this time. First, Dr. William C. Friday, President of the University of North Carolina and Dr. J. Carlyle Sitterson, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did today try to reach you to let you know that they are hopeful you will come to Orange County at another location. I am sure they will put this in writing if you feel it is necessary. Dr. Friday will likely call on you on one of his trips to the Charlotte campus. Second, I wanted to let you know that many faculty people have been to see me to state their embarrassment at the turn of events that promoted your decision. The Negro community is still in a state of shock that such action would be brought about by action of the liberal Universities that they felt were always on their side. As to the upper part of our county, they are going through a slow burn which will not be helpful to the University at Chapel Hill over the long pull. Thus it is necessary that we continue to do what we can to resolve all these differences by having Fiber Industries in our midst. Nothing else will bring these people together in the foresee- able future. I have sent Dick Sahlie maps on the C. W. Davis property which is centrally located within the county. In addition, we have had offers of two other sites on I-85 and another one close to I-85. None of these are the ones that some of the local realtors have written to Dick concerning. Any time, you feel it appropriate, we will be glad to show any of your people over these sites. As you know, we had planned to go ahead and rezone your site in Orange and felt that we should do nothing toward attempting to interest you in another site as long as you wanted to go ahead on the Blackwood Station site. Now, that you have made that decision, we hope you will give us the opportunity to show you what we have. I-85, as the Main Street of the South from Washington to Atlanta, should have advantages for you, the Research Triangle Park close by should be appealing, and we feel that our area is a fine place for people of good taste to live. In the meantime, we will go ahead as ouietly as we can to build another reservoir above the Hillsborough treatment plant and to build a water storage tank on a high point on 2-85.