The Orange County Board of Commissioners plans to adopt the 2021-22 fiscal budget at its upcoming meeting next week, however, a big education project that was set to receive millions of dollars in funding is now on the chopping block.
Tuesday night, the Orange County Board of Commissioners backed a $50.9 million budget for construction projects and big-ticket purchases next year – voting 6-1 to adopt the final budget at the June 15 meeting.
Commissioner Mark Dorosin was the one dissenting vote, saying he plans to reject the budget after the board cut more than $26 million initially allocated for Durham Tech’s long-planned Orange County expansion.
“Budgets are a reflection of your values, and I don’t think this budget really reflects the values of the community,” Dorosin said. “I think cutting the Durham Tech program is irresponsible and unjustifiable and so I’m going to vote against this intent and vote against the budget on Tuesday.”
Each year, the Orange County Board of Commissioners creates a Capital Investment Plan to establish a framework for the next five years of local spending. At a board meeting in December, the group voted 5-2 in favor of a funding plan to expand the community college in the next five years instead of ten.
Now, the expansion to the single-building campus on College Park Road in Hillsborough is set to be put on hold.
Commissioner Jamezetta Bedford said, while a second building for the 20-acre campus would be great, the county budget is already being stretched too thin, especially during the pandemic.
“It’s not about quality of projects – these are all good projects – I just think that during this pandemic we need to wait and prioritize health, safety, hunger and shelter first,” Bedford said.
President of Durham Tech, J.B. Buxton said the school began its planning phase for expansion last year, with a million dollars already having been allocated by the county government. Buxton said he was hopeful this expedited timeline for expansion, and necessary funding, would be approved by the local government as “the needs are immediate.”
“The second building would give us a chance to focus that building on healthcare and then repurpose our existing building to add skill trades and IT to pathways we don’t currently offer there and put the kind of equipment we need in that building,” Buxton said. “So, it’s a major capacity boost for this region.”
As the county’s proposed budget in April indicated that more funding would be given over the next five years, Buxton said he is “disappointed” by the decision to delay expansion.
“We were prepared to begin construction this coming year on a facility designed to meet the critical education and employment needs in Orange County and the region,” Buxton said in a statement following the commissioner’s decision. “That said, we remain committed to the people and employers of Orange County. We will continue to look for ways to address their needs and hope to see progress on this needed facility sooner than later.”
Located in the Waterstone Development, the Orange County Campus currently consists of a 40,000-square-foot brick structure with 22 instructional spaces – including classrooms, computer and science labs, and a library.
Lead photo via Durham Tech.
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