The Orange County Board of Commissioners held a retreat last weekend at Rigmore House in Chapel Hill to discuss local policies as they relate to the current political climate.

Mark Dorosin, the chair of the board, said the retreat was held with the future of the county and the wherewithal of the municipal government in mind.

“One of the themes of the retreat was resiliency and how do we really — not maintain all of the values and the quality of life that we’ve worked hard to establish here — but also how do we keep that moving forward,” he explained.

Dorosin noted that the topic of housing received particular attention at the retreat, with county voters having already approved a bond to create 1,000 low-income domiciles within five years.

“Affordable housing is a big priority in the community,” he stated. “It has been for a long time, but it’s really gained momentum, I think, in the last year — we passed the $5 million bond in November.”

On the topic of education, Dorosin explained that a federal predisposition toward charter schools may augment academic funding at the county level.

“The administration’s push on education is toward private schools — charter schools — and developing those [comes] at a cost to our traditional public schools.”

Commissioners also discussed the federal promotion of infrastructure projects and how government loans could facilitate a plan to connect Chapel Hill and Durham with a commuter rail.

“The Trump administration has been talking about infrastructure as a priority, but there are still a lot of questions,” admitted Dorosin. “The light rail issue is going to be a feature of probably a board meeting every few weeks from now through the spring.”

According to Dorosin, the topic of local property tax assessments will be broached at an upcoming board meeting to account for changes that occur every 8 years.

“One thing that is coming soon is the property tax reevaluation, so that’s always a controversial issue,” he offered.

That meeting may be held as early as February 7 at 7:00 PM in the Richard E. Whitted Building on West Tryon Street in Hillsborough.

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