HomeMy Public PortalAbout03-24-2008 Workshop Meeting
March 24, 2008 Workshop
Approved: April 14, 2008
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MINUTES
Board of Commissioners Monthly Workshop
Town Barn
Monday, March 24, 2008 ? 7:00 p.m.
Present for the Workshop were Mayor Tom Stevens and Commissioners Mike Gering, L. Eric
Hallman, Frances Dancy, and Brian Lowen.
Absent from the Workshop was Commissioner Evelyn Lloyd (excused).
Water & Sewer Advisory Committee Members present were Dan Barker, Joe Phelps, James
Watts, Cheryl Thomas, Ron Butler, and Paul Kimple.
Staff members present were Town Manager Eric Peterson, Assistant Town Manager/Public
Works Director Nicole Ard, Planning Director Margaret Hauth, Town Engineer/Utilities Director
Kenny Keel, Public Works Supervisor Ken Hines, Utilities Analyst Julie Vance, Assistant
Utilities Director Will Baker, and Town Attorney Bob Hornik.
1.Open the Workshop
Mayor Stevens opened the Workshop at 7:04 p.m.
2.Agenda Changes & Agenda Approval
Town Manager Eric Peterson indicated that Closed Session Item #1 could be removed from the
agenda as the issue had been resolved.
7:05:03 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Hallman,
the Board moved to approve the Agenda as amended by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared
passed.
3.Interview Tree Board Volunteer and Consider for Appointment
7:05:58 PM Elizabeth (Liz) Waters provided the Board with information regarding her
background and interests, including caring for trees in Hillsborough.
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7:07:28 PM Commissioner Hallman remarked that the trail at Cameron Park was wonderful.
Ms. Waters said she had worked on the trail in the 1980?s and in the 1990?s several others had
developed the trail back into the woods.
7:08:32 PM Commissioner Gering stated Hillsborough was quite protective of its trees, and
asked if she had any experience with the Tree Board and just how protective they could be. Ms.
Water responded no, but that would be her inclination as well since she was a conservationist.
7:09:35 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Dancy, seconded by Commissioner Hallman,
the Board moved to appoint Elizabeth Waters to the Tree Board by a vote of 5-0. The motion
was declared passed.
4. Receive a Report/Information from Loryn Clark of the Chapel Hill Planning
Department regarding how a Housing Trust Fund could be implemented in
Hillsborough.
7:10:07 PM Ms. Hauth introduced Ms. Clark, noting she would provide the Board with
information on Chapel Hill?s Housing Trust Fund and how it operated, and how Hillsborough
might begin such a program.
7:10:44 PM Ms. Clark provided the Board with copies of Chapel Hill?s guidelines for its fund.
She said that Chapel Hill had two local funding sources that they used for affordable housing
activities: the Housing Loan Trust Fund and the Affordable Housing Fund. She said she would
focus on the Affordable Housing Fund, formerly called the Revolving Acquisition Fund, since it
was the more current of the two.
Ms. Clark said the Fund had begun with some local funds and later added to with payments-in-
lieu for affordable housing. She said to receive assistance from that Fund you had to earn less
than 80% of the area median income as well as live and work in Orange County for one year
prior to receiving assistance. Ms. Clark said there were three eligible activities the Fund could
be used for: acquisition of property, rehabilitation of property, and homeownership assistance to
help reduce sale prices of homes to make them more affordable.
Ms. Clark said the acquisition funds were provided as a short-term, 180-day loan that was
interest free. She said when the non-profit purchased the property with these funds and it was
then sold to a low-income family, the funds were then repaid to the Town, hence the revolving
nature of the Fund.
Ms. Clark said the rehabilitation funds and the funds to reduce the cost of the homes were
provided as a grant. She said the main requirement was that the funds be used for projects that
provided permanent affordability. Ms. Clark said to date all of the funds had been used by
Orange Community Housing and Land Trust, because they had permanent affordability as a
component of their homeownership model.
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Ms. Clark said that staff generally administered the funds via approval by the Assistant Town
Manager, but any grants above $40,000 had to be approved by the Town Council, and that
quarterly status reports for prepared so that the Town Council would know of any use of the
funds and the balance of the Fund.
Ms. Clark said to capitalize this Fund would likely only be through any payments-in-lieu
accepted by the Town Council for affordable housing, with no annual allocation from the Town.
She said not having an annual allocation was the biggest disadvantage at the present time, since
the Town Council did not often accept payments-in-lieu of affordable housing, making the
funding source limited. Ms. Clark said some of the advantages were that the Town Council
could establish and change guidelines as times and conditions change in the community, and that
it was not subject to the federal regulations such as those tied to Community Development and
HOME program funds. She said another advantage was that they could administratively approve
many of the transactions for a quick response to the applicant, since these were not federal funds.
7:16:07 PM Mayor Stevens asked for an example of a success story. Ms. Clark said there
were many. She said the Land Trust was working heavily in the Culbreth Park neighborhood
which was an affordable housing development the Town had provided funds for in the late
1980?s and early 1990?s. Ms. Clark was many of the homeowners had stayed in their homes for
15 or more years, and some of those homes were coming on the market. She said because of the
Fund, the Land Trust had been able to step in and purchase five homes and make them
permanently affordable.
7:17:18 PM Mayor Sevens asked what one thing she would change if given the opportunity.
Ms. Clark said perhaps having a little higher threshold as far as administrative approval, because
what they were learning from the Land Trust experience was the cost to subsidize homes and
rehabilitate homes was often higher than $40,000.
7:17:44 PM Commissioner Gering asked if they accepted funds or grants from the federal
government. Ms. Clark said the Town did in general, but not for these funding sources since
they were local funds. Commissioner Gering said then they were limited in the funds because
they were not accepting such funding. Ms. Clark said that was correct.
7:18:27 PM Commissioner Gering said that Robert Dowling of the Land Trust had told this
Board that some of the difficulties they were having with the Land Trust was not with putting
houses in the affordable housing stock but keeping them maintained. Ms. Clark said that was a
problem, and they were currently participating with a task force that was working on that issue.
Commissioner Gering asked if they collaborated with organizations such as Habitat. Ms. Clark
said not yet, primarily due to the way the Fund was set up and that it did not mesh well with
Habitat?s model of development. She said the largest issue was that when Habitat purchased
land, for instance, they likely would need a larger sum of money. Ms. Clark said Habitat was
eligible to apply for funds if they met the Town?s guidelines, as would EmPOWERment or any
other qualified non-profit.
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7:20:10 PM Commissioner Gering asked about the sum of Chapel Hill?s Fund. Ms. Clark
responded that currently it was at about $190,000, with about $400,000 in outstanding loans to
the Land Trust. She said they were also expecting additional payment-in-lieu funds from
projects that the Town Council had approved.
7:20:48 PM Commissioner Hallman said in Hillsborough?s case, he would anticipate the
Town would have applications that were not large enough to support affordable housing so could
accept payment-in-lieu funds. Ms. Clark said that Chapel Hill was very hesitant to accept
payments-in-lieu, but when they did accept them it were generally for very small projects such as
for three or four unit subdivisions.
Commissioner Hallman said when funds were provided for homeowner assistance, were liens
placed against the property so they could be removed when the home was sold. Ms. Clark
responded that they generally used restrictive covenants recorded against that property, but if
other non-profits such as Habitat or EmPOWERment had a different model then they could use a
Deed of Trust and a Promissory Note.
7:22:43 PM Ms. Hauth stressed that Chapel Hill used the 99-year affordability restriction,
which was a local choice to assure the long-term affordability of the property. She said that may
be why the Land Trust was predominantly the one using the Fund since they had the mechanism
to assure that long-term affordability through its model. She said that would be something for
the Town Board to think about if they chose to move forward.
7:24:32 PM Commissioner Gering asked Ms. Clark how did she believe the Fund would work
since the Town Council was not contributing to it and the payment-in-lieu funds were
unpredictable. Ms. Clark said that was a great concern, and was not sure what the long-term plan
was to capitalize the Fund.
7:25:36 PM Commissioner Lowen asked what number of employees staffed the program. Ms.
Clark replied herself and one other full-time staff person who mainly worked with the requests,
with participation from the Town Attorney and the Assistant Town Manager when necessary.
7:26:13 PM Mayor Stevens thanked Ms. Clark for her very helpful report. Ms. Clark said she
was available in future for any questions the Board might have.
7:26:30 PM Commissioner Hallman said he would like the Board to consider this and obtain
more information as to how to move forward with such a program if the decision was made to do
so. Mr. Peterson said he would place this on the list of ?Hot Topics.?
5. Joint Meeting with the Water & Sewer Advisory Committee
7:27:13 PM Dan Barker said the Committee wanted to update the Board and renew its charge
to make sure they were moving forward in the right direction as a committee that advised.
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Mr. Barker said the Committee wanted to discuss the FY 2009 budget and were interested in
making sure that the Water and Sewer funds were well cared for and that funding was included
in the infrastructure to maintain the current high quality of service. He said as a part of that, they
would need to look at the rates charged for next year, and wanted the Board?s feedback.
7:28:45 PM Commissioner Gering said when the water model was created, one of the
objectives was to build into the model a smoothing function so that predictable future increases
could be evened out over a period of years. He was curious to know the state of that model and
how it could be applied this year. Mr. Peterson said once they got the budget requests, that
smoothing process would come into play and the Committee and the Board could then discuss
and decide any changes that might need to be made.
Mr. Peterson said he knew the desire was to have one model that combined the water capacity
model and the financial forecasting/rate model all into one. He said that was not easy because
you had diametrically opposing methodologies as to how to forecast water versus rates. Mr.
Peterson said that was one of the big issues they would work on in the near future.
7:31:27 PM Mr. Barker said the spreadsheet included growth projections, and asked had they
been updated. Mr. Peterson said the model would be updated once the budget was completed
and the budget components were inserted into the rate model. He said it would be more
challenging this year because they were changing to a 10-year model. Mr. Peterson said the rate
model had been updated at least annually, and believed what they had now was acceptable. But,
he said, if they got a large development proposed then they would need to update it again.
7:34:37 PM Mr. Barker said the Committee would like to see that rate model, as well as the
spreadsheet when it came time for them to comment to the Board. Mr. Peterson provided a
summary, and said the plan was to provide the draft budget sometime in early to mid-May.
7:36:03 PM Commissioner Hallman asked could the Board be provided with updated
information regarding water usage, noting he believed it had dropped by 10%. He said with the
increased conservation, how permanent was that expected to be. Commissioner Hallman said he
would like to discuss how to balance that conservation versus driving revenues. Mr. Peterson
said everything they were discussing that dealt with forecasting would be re-evaluated in the
budget.
Commissioner Hallman said his concern was more on the rate model side rather than the water
capacity side. Mr. Peterson said in September and October of last year they were actually ahead
in revenue, but now they were behind budget. He said he was anticipating not meeting revenue
expectations in water and sewer, and were holding off on some projects although some would
still move forward. Mr. Peterson said they had not had to use any of the $150,000 in
contingency funds, but he would recommend using $55,000 to purchase a jet wash machine to
make sure that daily operations were not negatively affected. He said he hoped the remaining
$95,000 could be used to absorb any shortfalls.
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7:40:07 PM Mr. Barker said existing in the shadow of Durham would likely mean they would
continue conservation, even though it was not ?income positive? for the Town.
7:40:56 PM James Watts, a member of the Committee, stated they were using a 3,000 gallon a
month linear model, and that certainly had more and more come to the attention of the
Committee in that there were not as many one-time charges, and that was an area they saw as an
issue or weakness in the way the revenue system for the utility was put together. Mr. Watts said
they were not interested in gouging systems, but they did see that relying so extensively on the
sale of water and seeing that spiraling downward concerned them.
7:42:14 PM Commissioner Gering said the kinds of rate models he would like examined was
to move towards a progressive model from the linear model. He said another factor was the rate
differential between in-Town an out-of-Town users, and he believed the methodology to justify
that differential still stood, so they needed to consider other ways to mitigate the cost.
Commissioner Gering said they needed to consider those who could not afford it, and the water
assistance program was one way to mitigate it. He asked the Committee to provide information
on how effective it was and how it could be made more effective; what the right funding level
should be; where funding sources could be identified; and, any other programs that would
mitigate the inevitable higher cost of water. Mr. Barker said the assistance fund seemed to be
serving its purpose quite well, noting it stayed fairly even in its use and in its funding.
Mr. Watts noted the reason that fund had remained successful was because the Board continued
to provide yearly subsidies from the General Fund.
7:44:26 PM Commissioner Hallman reminded people that while thinking about affordability,
that while a progressive rate model might help fixed-income dual family households, it hurt
larger families. He said if the model was redone, they may need to take another look at the water
assistance fund to specifically help those large families.
Commissioner Gering said as well, it was possible to figure out how many multi-family
households would be affected by whatever changes were made in the rate model.
7:45:31 PM Commissioner Dancy said she was thinking of the recent email the Board had
received.
Mayor Stevens said Commissioner Dancy was referring to an irate customer whose water had
been shut off but was still being charged, and it was clearly an out-of-Town water user because
of the minimum rate being charged.
Mayor Stevens said he believed one of the key things the Board was interested in was some
stability in the rate structure, and to keep it as low as possible effectively for customers. He said
they wanted to determine how to keep the rates from being excessive, and they wanted to make
sure they were not robbing the future by keeping the cost low.
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Commissioner Gering noted they had a $30 million challenge ahead of them, with the
wastewater treatment plant expansion and upgrade.
7:47:36 PM Joe Phelps, a member of the Committee, said he knew the Town Board struggled
with the water rate every year, but there had been a slight increase in the number of users. He
said even though everyone did not use the 3,000 gallons, the Town still got that minimum and it
did not decrease the Town?s budget. Mr. Phelps wondered if the reduction was coming from
users who were above the 3,000 gallon minimum or from all users in every category.
Mr. Phelps said if conservation continued and the water was not used, then the Town Board
would have to increase the rates. He said he believed the use projections over the next year or so
would help make those decisions. Mr. Phelps wondered were there any projects that had been
delayed because they were not going to use that amount of water. He said knowing that would
help determine a long-range plan for rates. Mr. Peterson said he believed they would have all of
that updated when the budget was completed. He said there were no major projects that had
expired that would have made a dramatic impact as far as capacity.
Mr. Peterson said they were projecting that the first year they would need to purchase any water
on a peak day was FY 2012, and with the storage capacity in the tanks that may not be needed.
But, he said, the projection was that by 2015 they would need to have Phase 2 of the reservoir on
line and the plant upgraded. Mr. Peterson said then in FY 2020, they projected they would be at
peak day capacity at 91% but average day capacity would be 63%. He said that was 11 fiscal
years away and they were talking now about using up all the capacity. He said Waterstone was
being pushed back, but the economy was the driver on all of that.
7:53:01 PM Mr. Phelps said he was sure that projects such as Waterstone, Kenyon Grove, and
Churton Grove were affecting the projected revenues. Mr. Peterson said forecasting and
budgeting were entirely different things, and they were not getting hurt based on those forecasts.
He said they were not over budgeting their expenditures.
7:55:09 PM Commissioner Gering asked where they stood regarding current ordinances that
obligated the Town to provide water services to anyone annexed into the corporate limits. He
said they did not have an effective mechanism to allocate water with an expiration date attached
to it as far as projects. Mr. Barker said that was definitely of interest, but it was more for the
Town Attorney and the Planners to determine. He agreed to would be preferable to be able to
expire some of the planned projects that did not move forward.
Commissioner Gering stated they were undertaking a Zoning Ordinance rewrite, and that could
be added to the long list of possible changes.
7:56:50 PM Mr. Barker said regarding the wastewater treatment plant, one of the concerns of
the Committee based on feedback of some who lived near the current treatment plant was to
make sure they had good odor and noise control with the new plant. He said that was sometimes
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value engineered out. Mr. Barker said it was not a requirement by law, but encouraged the
Board to value engineer sound and odor. He said the plant was not that far from the downtown,
and they would not want noise or odor to affect the economic health of downtown. Mr. Barker
said the $30 million price tag in today?s dollars was coming up, and as the costs came in, that
would be a hint of rate increases to come. He said the question would be did they start
borrowing from the future in order to not have a dramatic increase in rates in three to six years.
Mr. Barker asked should they begin to forward fund that. Mr. Peterson said that was a major
policy decision that was in the Board?s hands.
7:59:02 PM Commissioner Gering said he generally liked the idea that future customers would
pay for the needed improvements to supply them services, but not if it meant doubling or tripling
rates in a short period. He said it was not something they needed to burden all customers with
now for something that would only be effective or needed ten years from now. Mr. Barker said
at the same time it was some of their current users and delayed improvements on the plant that
they were paying for.
8:00:08 PM Town Engineer/Utilities Director Kenny Keel said they had current budget
funding for a sewer capital facility fee study that had not yet been started because they had been
waiting for the comments from the State. He said they now had those comments and had almost
completed the final revisions to the study to address those comments. Mr. Keel said as soon as
that study was ready it would be used to redo the capital fee study. He said if those fees were
increased, that would mean more capital into the fund that would be used to provide the plant.
8:01:37 PM Commissioner Dancy said this was an important issue not only for Hillsborough
but were everyone in the region, because systems were aging and would need to be upgraded or
replaced at a high cost. She said more and more people were looking at ways to regionalize such
services to reduce that high cost, and suggested that perhaps now would be the time to consider
that.
Commissioner Gering asked what kind of regionalizing was she thinking of. Commissioner
Dancy said everyone in Region J had been looking at issues of water and sewer, and the
suggestion was to interconnect in some way and possibly getting legislative funding to do that.
8:03:25 PM Mayor Stevens said they were seeing such regional cooperation with bridges and
roads, but that infrastructure funding from the federal government and the State had been
diminishing because the costs were so heavy a burden.
8:04:18 PM Mr. Barker said the Committee wanted the Board to know how appreciative they
were of Mr. Keel and his staff for their help and expertise.
Mr. Peterson said, referencing the NC League of Municipalities, that using in-Town water rates
for 3,000 gallons per month there 110 systems in the State that had higher rates than
Hillsborough. He said five years ago that figure was only 28, so the Town was gaining ground.
Mr. Peterson said for out-of-Town rates it was not nearly as good; out of 275 systems that
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charged out-of-Town rates, 27 had higher rates than Hillsborough so they were in the upper five
percentile. Mr. Peterson said on sewer, for in-Town there were 127 other systems that had
higher rates than Hillsborough, and for out-of-Town customers there were 55 systems with
higher rates.
8:08:11 PM Commissioner Hallman asked was the positive news something they would want
to release to the public. Mr. Peterson said the numbers were rough numbers, but Hillsborough
had made a lot of progress over the last five years. He said it also helped to galvanize the issue
that if you were an out-of-Town customer using 4,000 to 5,000 gallons of water, you were
paying a very high price.
8:09:20 PM Commissioner Hallman said the message was that the Town was doing a good job
of managing their resources, and their prices were stabilizing while others continued to go up.
Mr. Barker said what they did not always talk about was that some other communities had a
different method for how they maintained their infrastructure. For instance, he said, others had
their sewer infrastructure under Public Works which allowed the rates to be hidden in property
taxes. He said that would make it appear cheaper on paper.
Mr. Peterson said his feeling was that for the long-term outlook, they would be better off on the
water side, and they were accruing capital reserve from capital facility fees. He said when they
eventually had to expand Phase 2 and the water plant, they would have two major options. Mr.
Peterson said they could lessen the amount of money borrowed or they could use it as a sinking
fund where they would take money out to ease the impact of future debt.
8:11:26 PM Mr. Phelps asked what year they were in as far as the debt for the reservoir. Mr.
Peterson said the Town had about 11 or 12 years left on the first debt financing of $10.3 million,
with another $3 million borrowed since that time that had 14 years left.
8:12:12 PM Mr. Watts said as the rate study and other pieces for the budget were being
prepared, did finance and engineering play a role in providing household numbers for gallons
used per day or per month. He wondered if 3,000 was the right benchmark number. Mr.
Peterson said when the last analysis was done it was determined that about a third of the users
were using 3,000 or below. He said as far as forecasting, Billing and Collections would be asked
to pull random samples to gather some data on average users to see if the numbers were moving
up or down. Mr. Peterson said there had been some interest in the past in doing a base rate, but
the question was what benchmark number to use. He said the advantage of using 3,000 was that
it provided some insulation against large financial hits to the revenue.
8:15:49 PM Mr. Barker said tied to that was the question of whether the newer homes were
using less than average, because in theory the homes built before 1990 would have different
plumbing equipment, and those being built today would have low flow/low flush systems. He
asked was the growth estimate based on average of all or average of new. Mr. Barker said that
was an interesting question as they tried to estimate for the future. Mr. Peterson said they had
not had enough homes built that could be used for such an analysis. He said what they had used
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for the water capacity model was Cornwallis Hills, and at that time in 2002 they were at 4,500
gallons per month.
8:17:17 PM Mr. Barker asked what direction the Town Board had to offer, that is, what they
should be paying attention to and what did the Board want the Committee?s input on.
8:17:50 PM Commissioner Hallman said specifically, as the Town went through the ordinance
rewrites the Committee should be thinking about such things as hot water recirculating devices,
and whether such things should be included in the ordinance.
Mr. Barker asked what the status was of the ?green? rules the County was discussing. Mr. Watts
said a projected date had been set for June. Mr. Barker said those rules should be contained in
the ordinance was well. He added that an irrigation metering policy would be on the
Committee?s agenda very soon. Mr. Barker added that one of the issues was whether such rules
should fall to the Town or to the County.
8:20:07 PM Commissioner Gering wondered if what they were doing was adequate to deal
with the variation in supply being experienced with prolonged drought periods, and whether they
needed better tools to give them greater predictive value for answering questions such as what
was the probability that they would not be able to supply their customers if the rainfall decreased
by some amount. Mr. Barker said they had had such discussions recently, and had gone back to
how the current policy was created. He said from that they could not find a reason to doubt the
current system. Mr. Barker said obviously there were more factors that could be included in the
model in more detail, and that was of interest. Commissioner Gering asked what policy he was
referring to. Mr. Barker said the policy regarding the various levels of restrictions during water
shortages.
Commissioner Gering said what he was asking was slightly different. He said if they assumed,
that even given the current policies, how long would it have to not rain before they could not
supply the demand even at the projected levels of conservation targeted with drought restrictions.
Mr. Barker said he had taken a look at the rainfall averages for the last 20 years, and had
calculated what would happen if they had half of that for a year or two. He said once that was
calculated, it had not caused him any great concern.
Commissioner Gering said what he might not have considered was that so much water went over
the dam that they were not able to take advantage of that when a dry period began whatever was
in the dam was all they had. Mr. Barker said that was actually easy to factor in, in that they
never had more than ?x? days.
8:23:22 PM Mr. Phelps asked Mr. Keel how long had he been measuring rainfall at the
reservoir. Mr. Keel responded fairly soon after the gates were closed in November 2000, likely
in January of 2001. Mr. Phelps asked was that data retained. Mr. Keel said yes, and it had
recently been input into a spreadsheet for easier access. He said that data was usually contained
in the budget document.
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8:24:24 PM Commissioner Gering said that data was interesting and they could all gain
something from it. Mr. Keel said that several years ago OWASA had done a probability matrix
that help to track the probability that they would go dry if a certain amount of rain did not fall
and that it would happen at a certain time of year. He said it was a good chart for information
purposes, and OWASA used it to make decisions regarding water supply and levels of
restrictions. Mr. Keel said he would eventually like to accomplish that for Hillsborough, but did
not have the staff or the expertise to do that without outside help.
Commissioner Gering said first they would have to determine if that kind of model was desirable
for Hillsborough, and if it was then what sort of measurements did they need to begin taking and
what additional equipment might be needed to do that. He said he would be curious to learn
more about OWASA?s model. Mr. Keel said the data they were keeping up with now may be
adequate, but one issue was that they did not have a long history of data to draw from.
Mr. Barker said he had compared Hillsborough?s rainfall amounts to Chapel Hill rain totals, and
they were very similar. He said that data went back to 1940, so that data could be used to
provide that history.
8:27:21 PM Mr. Peterson suggested that Mr. Keel contact OWASA and get some additional
information on their probability matrix, the type of resources the Town might need to do such a
matrix, and put that in his budget request for the Town Board to consider.
8:27:51 PM Mayor Stevens said they still had unaccounted for water, and although the staff
was working on that perhaps the Committee could provide some assistance. He said in this era
of conservation, it would be helpful to know where that water was going and what they could do
to recapture or account for it. Mr. Barker said there had been some extra steps taken to account
for the unaccounted water.
Mr. Peterson said once the meter replacement was accomplished, he believed that would have
some impact and provide more reliable data.
8:29:17 PM Mayor Stevens said one thing the Committee had done and he would like to see
continued was communication of their work and communication about water and sewer in the
Town. He said it was very helpful when citizens asked about water and sewer and rates to know
that there was a citizen?s board who was very involved in those issues. Mayor Stevens said it
was helpful that citizens knew that the Committee was looking over everyone?s shoulder, had
positive remarks about staff and what was happening, and that the Town was making good
decisions. He said it was also important for citizens to know that the Committee was doing a
good job. Mr. Barker asked should they be suggesting topics to be publicized by the Town.
Mayor Stevens said he believed that made sense.
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8:30:37 PM Mr. Peterson said he believed the Committee had a lot of leeway, and if there was
an issue they wanted to publicize then staff would provide the resources to get whatever message
out that the Committee felt was important.
8:31:38 PM Ron Butler, a member of the Committee, said one of his tasks with the Committee
was developing a response to Governor Easley?s proposal regarding increasing emergency
powers during droughts. He said he would like some feedback from the Town Board about that
so that he could formulate a draft response.
8:32:06 PM Commissioner Hallman said his nightmare was that they would be made to give
their water to Durham and Raleigh. Mr. Butler said that was their main concern. Mr. Watts said
the Committee shared his nightmare.
Commissioner Hallman said the State had done that before with revenue, where they had just
taken their money. Mr. Butler said he believed that either a letter or a resolution coming from
the Town Board should be sent to the Governor relating that they believed on the local level they
could better manage their water resources than having the State tell them what to do. He said
then again, they needed to decide if they wanted some sort of collaborative or adaptive approach
to that versus reactive and restrictive.
8:33:52 PM Commissioner Gering said he agreed with the things said so far, and they should
be related to the Governor. He said what the Governor had said in the past about State-wide
restrictions had alarmed him because every water system was different. Commissioner Gering
said Hillsborough now had 270 days of usage and were conservative, and did not need to have
someone come in and tell them how to conserve more. He said they had agreements with
connected water suppliers and had been generous with sharing their water. Mr. Butler said in his
research he had discovered that there were 13 different State agencies that dealt with water
management, and believed the State needed to focus on better and more effective and efficient
management. He said another approach could possibly be working with State Representative
Ellie Kinnaird and try to get towns like Graham, Mebane, and others to say they were better
managing their resources on their own and did not want to get thrown into a situation because
towns like Durham, Raleigh, or even Charlotte were not doing a good enough job and believed
they could come into smaller communities and ?suck them dry.?
8:35:27 PM Commissioner Lowen said he believed it was important to mention in that letter
or resolution that although their growth and development was moving at a slow pace now, that
they had projects already approved like Waterstone that would use available water supply, so if
the State came in and demanded they share their water then it would impact those already
approved developments and would limit any future possibility of growth or development.
Commissioner Lowen said the possibility of that happening was frightening.
8:36:15 PM Mayor Stevens said there should be more emphasis on proactive planning in
advance as opposed to retroactive restrictions when they were doing well so that they would not
be held hostage when other communities were not doing as well. He said they needed State and
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regional planning, funding for infrastructure, and the ability to use the power of local control to
management resources well.
8:36:54 PM Commissioner Hallman asked had this subject come up at the Triangle J Council
of Governments meeting. Commissioner Dancy said she did not recall it, but it may come up
soon.
8:37:03 PM Mayor Stevens they would be meeting with Congressman Price at Wednesday?s
Council of Governments meeting, and would bring it up then.
8:37:14 PM Mr. Phelps asked if the Committee could find out what was the status of the water
line between Hillsborough and OWASA. He asked was that for emergency purposes only or
could it be used for other purposes. Mr. Phelps also wondered was it flushed regularly. Mr.
Peterson said in short it was primarily for emergency transfers, noting the connection was at the
Exchange Club Park at the bridge. He said that he and Mr. Keel had had informal discussions
with the OWASA Director regarding that connection, in that it would provide the Town
flexibility and save them some money if they were able to buy a section of that line at Exchange
Club to where the other connection was at Cornwallis Hills. Mr. Peterson said that had not been
pursued further.
Mr. Keel said a few years ago they had needed some emergency water on short notice, and they
were able to purchase it from OWASA and receive it through that line. He said it was a 16 inch
line with a pump station just on the other side of Cornwallis Hills and a meter near Exchange
Club Lane. Mr. Keel said that meter was where OWASA?s line ended and the Town?s began.
He said if the Town could purchase that line back to the pump station that could save them from
having to lay some additional line needed to help funnel water down to the southern end of the
Town?s boundary.
8:40:44 PM Mr. Phelps said they also had the Durham/Hillsborough connection, and the Town
had spent a lot of money doing that voluntarily. He said they needed to include in the
communication to the Governor that the Town would voluntarily look out for each other and did
not need to be mandated to do so.
Mr. Butler said such a mandate would be like a punishment for good conservation practices. Mr.
Phelps agreed.
8:42:15 PM Commissioner Hallman said regarding monitoring the outfall of Lake Orange, the
County had agreed to look into that. He asked had any response been received. Mr. Peterson
said not as yet.
8:43:26 PM Commissioner Lowen thanked the Committee for the work they did, noting it did
take a lot of their time and it did not go unnoticed. He asked that they continue to look for ways
to increase revenue through such things a reconnection fees or others.
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8:44:34 PM Mayor Stevens added his thanks to the Committee as well and for bringing
important issues to the Board?s attention. Mr. Watts said he believed he spoke for the entire
Committee when he said they could not do a tenth of what they did without the support they
received from the staff, noting that what they provided on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis
was nothing short of phenomenal. He said it was invaluable to what the Committee did, and they
very much appreciated it.
8:45:47 PM Mayor Stevens called for a short break.
6. Consideration of a Resolution Supporting the US 70/Cornelius Street Business
Incubator Funding Assistance Request
8:49:14 PM Mayor Stevens announced that Commissioner Lloyd had injured her knee and had
been unable to attend tonight?s meeting.
8:50:00 PM Commissioner Dancy said she had discovered several typos in the resolution that
should be corrected
?
in the first ?Whereas? paragraph, sixth line, ?U.S,? should be ?U.S.?
?
in the last ?Whereas? paragraph, first sentence, the word ?jogs? should be ?jobs?
?
in the ?Now, Therefore? paragraph, last line, ?us? should be ?U.S.?
th
?
the last line of the resolution should read ?Resolved this the 24 day of March, 2008.?
8:51:29 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the
Board moved to approve the resolution as amended by Commissioner Dancy by a vote of 5-0.
The motion was declared passed.
7. Consideration of a Resolution Permitting Orange County?s Ordinance Prohibiting
Tobacco use to be Applicable within the Town
8:52:28 PM Mr. Peterson said he saw no issues with adopting the resolution as it pertained to
the action on the County?s side. He said the County had provided a model ordinance for
consideration, but he was not ready tonight to recommend adoption of that ordinance. Mr.
Peterson said in the past the Town Board had adopted a policy saying there was no smoking on
Town premises, and had mentioned earlier that they had an issue of some employees smoking in
Town buildings. He said they had reminded the employees of the policy.
Mr. Peterson said with a policy there was no ability to cite and fine someone, although
employees could be dealt with administratively. He said with an ordinance, there was the ability
to cite and fine, and he would like an opportunity for staff to study the model ordinance in more
detail and bring it back to the Board at a later time.
8:54:55 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Gering, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, the
Board moved to approve the resolution by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed.
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8. Committee Updates and Reports
8:55:56 PM Commissioner Hallman said a couple of meetings had been held regarding
making the Land Trust affordable, and to also deal with the fact that there were properties in
need of repair for which there was no funding available. He said the impact did not hit the Town
until they dealt with the Waterstone townhomes that the Land Trust would eventually build
there, but there would be the issue of how to maintain that long-term affordability. He said they
would have a report in June.
Commissioner Hallman said he had also attended a series of transportation-related meetings. He
said they had had their one-on-one meeting with their DOT board member which had been
somewhat positive. He said they had agreed to add to the language after some discussion among
staff to add bike and pedestrian access to all major highway projects. He said he believed that
was significant for Hillsborough.
Commissioner Hallman said the funding situation was bad and had gotten worse, which was not
a surprise. He said the good news was that the I-40 pedestrian bridge had moved into feasibility
study now and was moving ahead despite the fact that the TIP had slowed it down.
Commissioner Hallman said with the 2009 TIP, the following highway projects were ranked:
?
South Churton Street improvements were first on the unfunded list, so it would be
beyond 2015 before it was even considered.
?
Eno Mountain/Mayo Street/Orange Grove Road realignment, ranked fourth and
unfunded.
?
Elizabeth Brady Road extension was ranked sixth, and partially funded.
?
U.S. 70 Bypass widening, Orange Grove Road extension, and western bypass were
ranked tenth, eleventh, and twelfth on the list.
Commissioner Hallman said the Nash Street project was eighth under the bicycle pedestrian
ranking, and at sixteen was the bike route along NC 86. He said the good news was that at a
meeting last week they were trying to decide how to allocate the STPDA funding, and about $4
million of that was allocated per capita to the MPO every year. Commissioner Hallman said the
discussion was how to allocate that among the different municipalities, and about 34% of that
would be allocated to local discretionary funds. He said what it then came down to was how to
allocate that local discretionary and after some discussion about whether or not to do it on a per
capita basis, it was decided that the minimum allocation would be $500,000 to each
municipality, and the rest would be allocated per rata. He said in addition to that, they had a pro
rata portion of the remaining 34% of the local discretionary funds, so there was another bigger
piece of the pie to be allocated to Hillsborough.
9:01:43 PM Ms. Hauth said one issue was that the MPO needed to spend a lot of that money
quickly, so unless something terrible happened she believed a full 80% of the Nash Street
sidewalk project would be funded from those sources in FY 2009.
Commissioner Hallman said there was a 20% match.
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9:02:54 PM Commissioner Hallman said at the joint meeting, local control for transportation
funding for highways was brought up because the municipalities knew what they needed and
would like to have more say in the funding. He said with the administration changing in
November and with all the board members turning over, now was not the time to bring that up.
Commissioner Hallman said for that reason they had not discussed it during the one-on-one
meeting with the DOT board member.
9:03:39 PM Mayor Stevens said it appeared that Commissioner Hallman was having a very
positive impact as the Town?s representative, and thanked him for his hard work on the Town?s
behalf.
Commissioner Hallman said after five years of meetings, this was the first time he felt like they
had actually made some notable progress.
9:04:03 PM Commissioner Lowen asked how soon those funds could be applied for. Ms.
Hauth said they had already been applied for, and they should be available shortly after July 1.
9:04:20 PM Commissioner Gering said that should help Mr. Peterson with budgeting. Mr.
Peterson agreed, noting that not having to pay debt financing on that gave them great flexibility
and took some pressure off the budget.
9:04:40 PM Commissioner Hallman said there still needed to be a line item for public
transportation included in the budget. Mr. Peterson said that had been done.
Ms. Hauth said she was also attempting to get an answer from Durham staff regarding exactly
what those DA funds could be used for.
9. Closed Session
A.Closed Session as authorized by North Carolina General Statute Section 143-
318.11(3) to meet with Town Attorney regarding potential Litigation arising from
delinquent Food and Beverage Tax Payments and failure to file Food and Beverage
Tax Reports (REMOVED)
B.Closed Session as authorized by North Carolina General Statute Section 143-
318.11(5) regarding Property Acquisition (1. Riverwalk, and 2. General
Government Purpose)
C.Closed Session as authorized by North Carolina General Statute Section 143-
318.11(6) regarding a Personnel Matter
9:06:41 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the
Board moved to go into closed session by a 5-0. The motion was declared passed.
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Upon returning to Open Session, and upon a motion by Commissioner Hallman, seconded by
Commissioner Lowen, the Board moved to direct the Town Manager to state the Town?s
conditions for a possible property purchase for possible general government purposes by a vote
of 4-0. The motion was declared passed.
10. Adjourn
Upon a motion by Commissioner Dancy, seconded by Commissioner Gering, the Board moved
to adjourn by a vote of 4-0. The motion was declared passed.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna F. Armbrister, MMC
Town Clerk
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