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The other night District 2 County Commissioner candidate Steve Yuhasz said something to me that I found so incredible that I determined to do a little bit of research on the subject. Steve maintained that in 2006 there were only 3 farms in all of Orange County that claimed more than $20,000 farm income. He said that farming for a living was no longer viable. The implication was that if farming was not economically significant, then the county might as well be subdivided into more neighborhoods and strip malls. Steve said he got that info from something circulated by the Economic Devolpment subcomittee. How scary.
My first thought was how in the world would anybody get such information? Individual and corporate tax returns are considered so private that when the various gov't agencies that report on income sectors make their reports, they go to some lengths to make sure that nothing that could identify a specific person or farm can be gleaned from even a very careful reading of their summaries.
OWASA, Durham, & Chatham County have agreed to jointly explore the possibility of installing a water intake on the west shore of Jordan Lake where OWASA owns property. Our local Orange County governments have some misgivings about the project and these were discussed at the Orange County Assembly of Governments meeting last night, which was also attended by Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Chatham County Commission Chair George Lucier. The following is a statement that I prepared for presentation at that meeting. (I actually ended up talking off the cuff to avoid repeating points that others had previously made.)
I would like to give a big raspberry to the hooligans who stole the bicycle and cart used by two local volunteer food programs. Boo, hiss.
I didn't even know about these two efforts, so the silver lining is that we all get a good reminder that there are hungry people in our own community, and we can always be doing more to help.
The cart is silver-colored, made of aluminum and is about eight feet long. A person pulling one on a bicycle can haul about 300 pounds on it.
[...]
Two groups use the cart and bike in their work, Ryans said. One group called Comida no Migra, which means food not border patrol, uses them to distribute free food in the Abbey Court area, where many Hispanic people and day laborers live.
That group has been distributing food to that area for about two years.
The second group, which shares some members with Comida no Migra, is called the Northside Free Grocery Program, Ryans said. That program was started about five or six months ago, he explained.
Here are some hastily scribbled notes from last night's forum to meet the new cast of county commissioner candidates hosted by the Dem Women of OC.
From the DWOC handouts :
OC is going to a 7 member CC Plan; D1 = 3 members, D2 = 2 members + 2 "At Large" members. District 1 is the 71,389 people in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District. District 2 is the 44,142 of us that make up the rest of the rest of the county. In 2008 4 commissioners will be elected. D1 gets 2 seats, D2 gets one seat and one "At-Large" seat. 3 Commishes are not up for re-election until 2010: Alice Gordon, Barry Jacobs and Mike Nelson.
From notes:
Valerie Foushee D1 - (D-CH) uncontested "safe seat" - spoke on community mental health needs and diversity in housing, said state offered current county commissioners only 2 choices in raising taxes: land transfer tax or sales tax, which she sees as more regressive
Mary M. Wolfe - At Large -- absent
Thanks to the VIllage Project's blog for reminding us about three community meetings in April for the public to comment on Orange County's new draft Comprehensive Plan.
Open House*
April 3, 2008, 3:00-7:00PM
Planning and Agricultural Center, "Food-Lab"
306-F Revere Rd., Hillsborough
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