HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 02-17-2004-6aORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: February 17, 2004
Action Agen a
Item No. -
SUBJECT: Outstanding County Program Awards Presentation
DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Sharron Hinton, ext. 2300
TELEPHONE NUMBERS:
Hillsborough 732-8181
Chapel Hill 968-4501
Durham 688-7331
Mebane 336-227-2031
PURPOSE: To present the Outstanding County Program Awards for (1) School Adequate
Public Facilities Ordinance (School APFO) and (2) Outreach and Education for Solid Waste in
North Carolina.
BACKGROUND: The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACG)
sponsors the Outstanding County Program Awards which honors counties for their support of
excellence. The intent of the award is to recognize programs that involve a uniquely innovative
process, solution or idea to address a county or multi-jurisdictional issue and/or prevent a future
problem from developing, The major criteria for the award are: innovation, success, effort and
difficulty, and collaboration.
Orange County has been notified that two programs are award winners for 2003.
Representatives from the NCACC will attend the meeting to acknowledge the programs and
staff, including Craig N, Benedict, AIGP, Planning Director, for the School APFO, and Gayle
Wilson, Solid Waste Director, for the Outreach and Education far Solid Waste Program.
Highlights of School APFO
School APFO began in early 1999 when Orange County, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough,
the Orange County School District and Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District began discussing
the need for a School Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance. School funding, which is regulated
by the Board of County Commissioners for the two school district county, had become an
increasingly dominant element of the County's general fund and capital investment plan (CIP).
With housing growth accelerating in all jurisdictions within the County, and the ensuing student
membership growth creating a burgeoning demand far new schools, a regulatory program such
as a School APFO was necessary to synchronize the available and future supply of school
capacity with the demands of new housing. A School APFO ensures, to the maximum extent
feasible, that new housing developments will be approved only when it can be reasonably
expected that school capacity will be available to accommodate such projects.
The development of this type of ordinance took the highest degree of intergovernmental
coordination and cooperation among the jurisdictions and school districts, This is a unique
program in its complexity and authority in the State of North Carolina, Although the County is
receiving the award, the credit goes along with the patience and diligence of many elected
officials, board members, attorneys and planning and school administrative staff of the various
County jurisdictions,
Highlights of Outreach and Education for Solid Waste in Orange County
The Orange County Solid Waste Management Department places strong emphasis on
educating the public about solid waste management and waste reduction in the County,
Beginning in 1987, the foctas of solid waste management changed from strictly landfilling to
include waste reduction, recycling and other alternatives to landfilling, The scope of public
education broadened dramatically to increase public involvement in these programs and to
ensure proper use of the landfill,
For the first ten years of the recycling program, educational efforts focused primarily on the local
public schools with some emphasis on educating the general public as well. The effort included
regular classroom presentations, teacher training, providing resource materials in each school
library, technical assistance with the schools' internal recycling programs and providing some
food waste recycling services. The recycling message is now firmly embedded within the
school systems and teachers handle it more than adequately. The Department provides
assistance on request in the form of landfill tours, establishing compost and waste reduction
projects and other technical assistance. Departmental emphasis has shifted to broader media
exposure, community programs and services as well as specific target populations such as
homebuilders, bars and restaurants, and apartment dwellers.
Other ongoing efforts in public education have
• Annual newsletter published and mailed to
now reaches 55,000 locations;
included:
every address in Orange County since 1991; it
• High quality signage and information boxes at all twelve recycling and solid waste centers
(now bilingual in Spanish);
• Distinctive, professionally designed and produced brochures for each program including
urban curbside, n~ral curbside, multifamily, hazardous waste, electronics collection, landfill
operation, mulch/earth products;
• Special events such as festivals and street fairs at which the Department provides recycling
services and staffs information booths and provides technical assistance;
• Regular print advertising of all recycling and waste reduction programs including 550 ads
placed during FY 2002-03;
• Presentations to professional groups such as Homebuilders Association, Chambers of
Commerce and civic clubs;
• Monthly articles in four local newspapers and national magazine coverage of our innovative,
unique programs that others use as models;
• Annual bus placard advertising one or more aspects of program;
• Interactive web site that is updated regularly with pertinent solid waste information:
www,co,orange. nc.us/recycling;
• Annual calendar card mailed to all 10,000 households on rural biweekly recycling routes;
Winter holiday route change reminder cards mailed to affected routes;
• Fifty or more landfill tours annually;
• Preconstruction meetings and on-site education of builders to decrease construction waste;
• Large signs on the sides of County waste collection vehicles advertising the programs; and
• Education of workers in government buildings on use of in-house recycling programs,
FINANCIAL IMPACT: None
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board accept the awards,