Orange County officials work to define goals for 2016

CLARIFICATION: The original version of this story was not clear enough in describing those present at the Orange County Board of Commissioners' retreat. The retreat did not include town council members. The story has been updated to reflect these changes.

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The Orange County Board of Commissioners recently held a retreat in order to clarify and finesse their goals and priorities for the year.

Board member Barry Jacobs said he wanted to clarify the board’s aims for the coming year, as well as come up with specific objectives.

“I personally brought up things that I felt we needed to pay more attention to, like agriculture and open space,” he said.

Jacobs also discussed goals pertaining to education and the living wages within Orange County.

“A more aggressive social agenda was discussed for employee living wages, especially employees that live in the area due to job restrictions,” Jacobs said. “We also talked about issues like families that can’t afford pre-K or community college in the context of our budget.”

Both Jacobs and fellow board member Penny Rich said keeping up and implementing these goals both depend heavily on the year’s budget.

“We’re working on a lot of goals and trying to incorporate them into the budget,” Jacobs said. “Not everything is affordable, and we have to balance what you can and can’t afford.”

Rich said the Orange County Board of Commissioners is looking to revamp how they form the yearly budget.

“The main thing that needs to happen is that we need to discuss our priorities then work our budget around what we think needs to happen first,” she said.

According to Rich, social justice is a theme that has continued on into this year.

“I think even though it is a general theme, we need to be more aggressive about it and work to connect all of our goals to this issue,” Rich said.

The efforts being made to improve the community and to establish goals for the coming year don’t stop with the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

Though she and other town council members were not present at the retreat, Chapel Hill Town Council member Maria Palmer said she hopes to see county projects that had been previously approved come to life in the coming year.

“From our old goals and ongoing work, (my number one goal is to) see the road enhancements implemented and development projects we have approved built,” she said. “I’m hoping we can bring an infusion of investment and jobs to Chapel Hill.”

Palmer is working to have her goals accomplished within the next two years before she seeks re-election — she has begun efforts to reach her goals by recruiting businesses and working with the school board.

“New goals of mine are focused on working with the school board to get excellent career and technical programs that lead to really good job offerings to all our students and residents,” Palmer said. “We’re recruiting businesses to improve the quality of life here and working with the school board to dream big.”

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