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APPROVED 5/6/2010 <br /> MINUTES <br /> ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> REGULAR MEETING <br /> April 20, 2010 <br /> 7:00 p.m. <br /> The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, April <br /> 20, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, NC. <br /> COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Valerie P. Foushee, and Commissioners <br /> Alice M. Gordon, Barry Jacobs, Pam Hemminger, Mike Nelson, Bernadette Pelissier, and <br /> Steve Yuhasz <br /> COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: <br /> COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts <br /> COUNTY STAFF PRESENT County Manager Frank Clifton, Assistant County Managers <br /> Willie Best and Gwen Harvey, and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff members <br /> will be identified appropriately below) <br /> 1. Additions or Changes to the Agenda <br /> NONE <br /> PUBLIC CHARGE <br /> The Chair dispensed with the reading of the public charge. <br /> 2. Public Comments <br /> a. Matters not on the Printed Agenda <br /> Pat Leighten said that she represents Citizens for a Coal-Free Community (she <br /> provided handouts). She said that their goal is to urge UNC-Chapel Hill to phase out coal and <br /> its co-generation plan on Cameron Avenue in Chapel Hill. She presented a petition asking for <br /> the County Commissioners' support for the request to Chancellor Thorp and his Energy Task <br /> Force to mitigate coal use as quickly as possible and to eliminate the burning of coal by 2015 <br /> for the good of the citizens of Orange County. She said that the UNC plant is the largest <br /> source of air pollution in Orange County, putting 320,000 tons of greenhouse gases in the <br /> atmosphere annually. The petition sites medical studies of the effects of toxic chemicals <br /> emitted by coal. She said that UNC is a leader in research in global warming and public health <br /> and acknowledges the effects of coal burning on public health and the environment through its <br /> promise to eliminate coal completely by 2050. This is much too late a date. She said that <br /> UNC will cite its bottom line, but there are more costs in public health and environmental <br /> damage. <br /> Claire Home is a Chapel Hill resident and a neighbor of the co-generation plant. She is <br /> part of the Citizens for a Coal-Free Community. She said that without real pressure from the <br /> Town and the community, UNC will continue to burn coal, citing costs and its obligation to use <br /> the cheapest available energy source. She said that the date set by UNC to eliminate coal is <br /> not acceptable. She said that UNC will say that the amounts released into the air are well <br /> below EPA limits, which is not the same thing as being undeniably safe. She said that she <br /> lives close to this plant and burning coal in the middle of a town is bound to have some public <br />