Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · August 11, 2025

gaps that will occur um throughout the country um because those resources aren't there. So Keith gave a very high level overview. We'll not take our full 10 minutes and we will entertain questions and if there are any dollars that you wish to give, we will take those as well. Thank you, manager Hager, and good morning to all the elected officials and city and county management.

Nice to see you. Uh, manager, county manager Hager asked the budget office to collect some information that she said. I want to thank budget office staff for helping with this. We did this process in uh FY2122 as well.

And so, we're going to show a little bit of comparison information about how much we spent roughly five years ago compared to today. Uh but talking about the budgeted amount that the county has in general for youth spending. That's a broad definition for the current fiscal year. It's approximately 276 million. Um that's approximately 40% of our general fund budget. That's not an insignificant

amount. 40% of the entire general fund budget is related to youth services of which the by far the biggest part is funding for Durham public schools at $224 million. What's not included in that 40% is the amount of debt service we also support for Durham public schools which is 42526 is approximately $61 million in debt service. What does that mean?

That's the money we pay for uh the debt on buildings for new high schools or renovations to elementary schools. That's not a a insignificant amount of money every year. Just like you have to make debt payments on your house, the county has to make debt payments on a lot of houses. They just happen to house children.

Okay, go to the next slide real quick. And this is just a graph. It's a tree map. And you see the total scope of $276 million roughly in youth related funding for Durham County. But you can see in that dark blue box that DPS dominates that amount of funding, but there are significant amounts in other areas. 12 plus million dollars in

public health, n plus million dollars in social services. We also have some strategic partnerships with DTCC and the Museum of Life and Science. Each of those have significant amounts at $2 million each roughly for those areas and it gets progressively smaller. There's more detail in your sheets that you can see, but just wanted to kind of give you a scope.

8% of the general fund budget. And we're sticking to that level, but we've increased almost $70 million in youth related funding over five years. We're at 40% funding the general fund for that. Some specific direct related uh services provided by the county largely through the library and cooperative extension.

These are type of afterchool programs, before school programs, summer enrichment. I won't go through all of these, but just wanted to give you a list a list of some of them. Uh also through our human services, our human

resources department, we have a summer intern program where high school students can come and work in general services department, maybe in the county admin department depending on their interest and what's available. So we do a lot of specific programs as well. I'm going to move quickly now to ARPA funding unless county manager have any additional statements. Great.

Thank you. 6 $6 million of ARPA funding that of the $62 million the county has received is going to youth related programs. 2 of interest earned on those ARPA funds. 6 million high levels $6 million for school capital investments. That was last year's funding for DPS. 1 and I

won't go through the rest but you can see them. 1 million that was related to support initiatives for direct instructional support and supplementary made in Durham. 1 million will support 17 individual grant programs and this is where the manager speaks of when this money goes away these pro the needs won't go away but the money will be as one-time funding but St. Jose's Historical Society at 200,000 and you can see the other ones.

And finally, I think we have $830,000 for of ARPA interest income to support five individual grant programs. And you can see the list of those. So again, as we sum this up, and I'm trying to go through this quickly, you're looking at 17 plus million dollars in ARPA funding, $276

million in direct annual expenditures in the general fund. And I talked about debt service for the schools. There's also 10 plus million dollars in debt service. We service this year for Durham Technical Community College and a couple of million dollars for the Museum of Life and Science.

So on top of the $276 million in annual ongoing costs, there's approximately $75 million in annual debt service payments for those areas that directly support or indirectly support youth. That is a quick summary. A lot of money, $350 million if you add it all up in youth related support from Durham County for FY2526. Any questions?

Thank you, >> Chair. >> Um, thank you for this presentation. It was really helpful to see all those

investments kind of put in one place. Um, helpful to see how across different sectors that they're all still impacting youth. I did wonder, do you all know how many of these programs have daily afterchool programming or daily before school? I know some are more kind of once a week or some of that, but I just wanted to know if you had a sense of what was daily happening to support kids.

>> Can you repeat the question? I'm sorry. I thought that was a general question to to you all. I was talking to staff.

I'm sorry. Try. >> It's all right. I'll um skip all my thank yous at the beginning and just want to know how many of these programs are kind of having daily programming for students. Um, I know some of them are more like oneoff or summer or book clubs that don't maybe not meet as regularly, but wanted to know which ones meet regularly. >> You're getting into a level of detail that I honestly can't answer, but I will say that that group of those things that the library does and that cooperative extension, those are a number of daily

programs with online tutoring and things of that nature. I'm not prepared to answer specifically Claudia, excuse me, county manager Hager. Have to be a little more formal these days. I'm always glad to.

Um I I will say many of the ARPA funded now this is where I needed glasses. 1 million for afterchool programming was about 17 um different nonprofits. Many of them had most of those were after school or summer type programs. The challenge is most of them have expended almost all of their dollars.

So there's a funding gap. So for those who were able to um provide those services, their their programs and activities are winding down. And so from a public policy question, it becomes, you know, one, we we don't we've been very clear there is not a backfield

approach to cover these dollars. We also know that um student success requires lots of partners. So the question is, and I know that's why we're here today, is how do we support those that um still need resources and what is the community response for that? I I do know that it is our desire to revisit how we do our nonprofit allocation process.

again don't have a lot of dollars but uh we do know from a support system these resources are mo most important as we um try to aid students who often don't have support systems beyond what's happening in their um learning environments at school. >> Thank you. Good morning everyone. Um, is there a way we could get information on

how many youth were served in these programs, whether they've been I understand some of them wound down or or they're no longer >> We certainly can. We have um some reporting that's required by US Treasury um definitely for the ARPA ones and we can get the others as well. >> That would be great because I think it would be helpful for DPS I think maybe to see how many how many youth are being served and so it lets us kind of understand the scale as well. >> Absolutely.

>> Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning to everyone uh in chamber. Uh so this is a conversation that is not unfamiliar to our to us at city hall. How are we going to continue some of the great work we've done without ARPA uh funding?

There's any number of initiatives that that we're uh looking at as well. I'll cut straight to the chase though. Uh yes, we we're I think it's safe to say we're interested in in partnering particularly um with programming for our children. There's been a much to do about what's going on in cities like Baltimore and other American cities that have had a profound impact on lowering youth

violence rates and and gun rates. And of course, much of that work is tied to programming and uh resources for our young people after school hours. So, I can say unequivocally the city is very much uh interested in partnering. It will be perhaps the lion share of our whatever strategic plan we come up with to further combat uh violence in our city.

So, I'm excited about this work. Um, we're all looking for money uh for all uh kind of important things, but I know this this county and this city, as we always have, will work and and DPS, our partners, we'll work together and and make this work. This is issue number one as far as I know the mayor is concerned and I'm concerned uh with respect to our children. Thank you, >> Joy. Council member or no, board member Joy the There we go. Um, I just wanted to, uh, I'm sitting in a unique position because I have a nonprofit that has received some of those ARPA funies, ARPA funding from the county, um, which was

very impactful, um, especially right after COVID, um, using those dollars and we're in that process now of all the reporting and getting thing all things tied up as the money is leaving. And so I just wanted to speak up for those nonprofits that um with the reporting and things like this, a lot of the funding, which we really appreciate, went to nonprofits that don't have like uh the staff of some of these larger organizations for doing all this reporting and getting the things turned in. Um but they're very grassroots. They're they're deep in the communities working directly with youth on a regular basis, sometimes weekly, sometimes every day. Um, and so th those dollars were incredibly significant and as many of these organizations and and I was very proud of Durham for recognizing the work that's being done on that level and not just recognizing the larger scale organizations, the ones who are working directly and have those kinds of relationships with kids in the

community. So, as we're thinking about um what some of those needs are as those dollars are leaving, we can think creatively about spaces in Durham as well. I want to lift that up because a lot of uh the nonprofits on that level that were receiving those ARPA fundings are having the same struggles with um serving their youth, which are around having access to space in Durham um and having access to transportation for our youth. So, those are things that we've been saying over and over and over.

Many organizations throughout Durham who are serving youth. Um, and when I'm saying small, um, I don't want to diminish the work that they're doing. I I'm I'm only saying that in the scale of, um, organizational size, like how many staffed people they have doing the work. um some of these organizations are very very doing serving you know hundreds of kids with staffs of like two to four people. So um

just wanted to lift that up um and to say thank you and to um just really appreciate how Durham recognizes um the strength of our communities to serve our youth. Thank you >> Commissioner Jacobs. and Commissioner Britain and then we got to move to the next one. >> Um well, I know this is only the first part of a bigger presentation.

Um and I feel like that we're this is our first stab at it. >> Um I I do have a lot of questions about additional information I think that we all need. But I agree with what we what um two of our um elected officials just said about um the importance of this issue and um you know the strengths that we have but also the challenges. Um our board recently sat down with participants in project build which is funded by the city and the county. It's

our gang prevention program and these are our really most at risk youth now s starting at age 10 this year. um referrals from Durham public schools, from DSS self-referrals and it and what we heard listening to um the uh participants um and by the way the the social the the the workers in project build are amazing. the CA they are doing case management wraparound case management and are amazing and we heard resoundingly from the participants how much they love the program but um the things that we heard from the kids were what you just said or what some of the barriers that first of all there's they complained about there's nothing for kids to do in Durham they complained about not being able to get access to Durham parks and wreck programs. They

can't afford them. Um or just I don't know the hours, I don't know what, but just the barriers to even accessing those. Um they their issues with being in gangs and being able to go into different parts of the community. They complain that we don't have a teen center or a youth center.

They asked for that somewhere in downtown Durham. Um, so they asked for tutoring for help with with their schoolwork after school to help them in school. So I just want to lift up some of the things that we directly heard. any of my board members if I please if I left anything out.

But those were the things that really stood out and them wanting to be able to whether it's at the at night during the day be able to play play basketball, go to our parks, they want to be engaged, they want to do things. Um they want help with their schoolwork. So, we we

really need to come together with the resources that we have and work together and make sure that they get what they're asking for. Thank you, >> Commissioner Burton. >> Thank you, Chair Allam. Um Wendy Jacobs just pretty much took what I was going to say that we bu met with project build a couple of weeks ago and they said everything that she said that is particularly this age group between 10 and 18.

There's really nothing to do in Durham. And I think we need to look for things for that's a tricky age group because you're not a little kid. You're in this in between stage. You don't want to do these little kid things, but you're not old enough to do I mean to go to I think some of the places like box car, you got to be 21 or something.

You can't go to box car. So we have to figure out that middle group because that's the age group that when there's nothing to do, you get in trouble, you do things. And so that was basically all I wanted to say. Thank you.

>> Thank you. Our next presentation is from DPS and we have Dr. Danner who will be presenting. And again, we have 15 minutes and we're running a little bit over.

So, when we get to questions and comments, let's try to be to the point. Good morning. Today I will provide an overview of the Durham public schools community education after school program including the enrollment trends program initiatives and partnerships. Tracy Super Edwards is also joining me. She is director of community education.

The elementary before and after school programs are licensed by the state of North Carolina division of child development and early education. We currently operate 28 programs with eight of these programs participating in our newly non-licensed afterchool pilot. More details about the pilot will be shared later in the presentation. The middle school encore program is a long-standing collaborative partnership between Durham public schools and Durham County that began in the early 1990s to provide quality after school programming for middle school students.

The programs this program is fully funded by Durham County and operates at eight middle school sites. The program operation hours for the after school program are Monday through Friday. m. and ends when the first

bell rings. m. The monthly tuition for before school care is $60 a month. The monthly tuition for after school is $25 monthly.

We do have financial assistance available and the Department of Social Services vouchers are available for qualifying families. The Encore program operates Monday through Thursday. m. and ends when the first bell rings.

The monthly tuition for the Before Care is $85. m. daily. Transportation is provided for the program. The yearly tuition is $100, $50 per semester. So, you'll see our after school three-year enrollment data.

The total enrollment data for the three years was 4,94. There was a significant increase of 431 students. The middle school encore three-year enrollment data was 653. There were there was excuse me a slight increase of 47 students.

The overall enrollment for both after school programs was 4,94 students. There are 28 Elementary sites based on staffing, the elementary after school program capacity is 1,608. Currently, there are 1,608 students enrolled in the afterchool program. There are 52 students on the wait list. Once additional staff are hired, the weight list will decrease and overall capacity will increase. Currently there

are 40 elementary after school vacancies. Recruitment efforts are ongoing. The middle school Encore program currently has eight sites. The Encore after school program currently has an enrollment or capacity of 375.

The current enrollment is 90 and there is no weight list for the Encore program. We are excited about our palletine non-state licensing program in eight of our after school programs. We will pilot these programs in eight of our programs. AK Pole, Forest View, Morehead, Murray, Massenberg, Pearson Town, Spring Valley, and Southwest. The pallet provides the opportunity to increase enrollment capacity, reduce weight list, increase staff recruitment, and hire additional

staff. One of the barriers we found was that employees could not pass or attain the North Carolina criminal background check qualifying letter. So with having a non-licensed program, we can obtain the qualifi there is no need for a qualifying letter. And newly off the press is our most recent partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Durham.

We are excited about the partnership. It will provide high quality after school programming at February Elementary and Lowe's Middle School. This partnership will support students academically, socially, and emotionally. A total of 100 students will have the opportunity to participate in the program. The Low Grove program supported and funded by the DPS middle school encore program. The Bedwell Street program will be

funded by the Boys and Girls Club of Durl. And we've had previous previous partnerships with the city of Durham. The department of community education after school program received funding from the community development block grant corona virus program. The program provided academic enrichment for over 200 students across six elementary schools.

The program ended in 24 and yielded measurable gains in student achievement. Program participants were also provided virtual field trips and families also participate in meaningful meaningful engagement activities. And years ago in 2005 we had the lowcost afterchool initiative. This program provided families at Eastway Elementary School the opportunity to participate in afterchool programs. These families paid $40 a year. The program increased access for working families and provided

equitable access for after school programs. Are there any questions? >> School member, Vice Chair Rogers. >> Thank you so much, Dr.

Danner. Um, there are a couple of questions particularly around your uh three-year enrollment data. Uh you did a total of 4,94 students over the course of three years. Um is that unique students?

Are you tracking >> what was your question again? >> If it was it unique students or were there some folks and families that returned to the program over and over and is there um any tracking around how long students stay with a particular program? So these students were not unique. These are continuous students who enroll every year in the program. We have a lottery system and two years ago we implemented

a lottery system where students have it creates equitable access for our programs. So students have an opportunity to come through the lottery system >> and so all students have access and right now the this trend shows those students involved enrolled in the program. And is there any demographic data around those families that are enrolled in the program? Particularly, are we seeing certain families have access over and over and over again and other families not having that access or being weight listed?

Does that make sense? >> I'll let Mrs. Super answer that question. No, we do not have any data on um the um students that are enrolled in terms of the demographics.

We can certainly, you know, that's something that we can get, but we don't we don't track the demographics of the students enrolled in the program. >> That's helpful. Um any tracking on the neighborhoods that they're from, anything like that? >> Not on the neighborhoods. They attend

the school that they um are registered for. So, elementary school that they attend. That's the program that they attend. >> Okay.

And do we have um what percentage of this is of elementary and middle school students? >> So for elementary students um over the three year we we had 4,251 students and then the middle school we had 653. >> Okay. So does anybody have the total number of elementary school students and then the total number of middle school students in DPS?

>> Yeah, so we're currently serving about 4% of our middle school students in our after school program is around 10% of our elementary school students. So elementary have about maybe 14,000 and for our middle school u a little over 5,900 middle school students. >> Thank you. That's all my questions.

Uh, Commissioner Burton. >> Thank you, Chair Allam. Thank you all for

this really great report. Um, brief comment, then a couple of questions. As a person who worked in the buildings for 30 years, 21 in Durham public schools. I can honestly say that DPS does a really good job with this before and after school program.

I've worked in two other school districts. They don't do this. So, I want us to understand that DPS is doing a really good job because sometimes we can get into this bubble and think this is just happening in Durham. No, doing a good job.

With that being said, I wanted to know about the YMCA. Do they do any afterchool programming within Durham public schools? >> Um, we have Y learning that um occurs in some of our schools. Yes.

>> Which schools are those? we can give you that information. >> Thank you. And then also understanding the staffing situation because I was at a school where we had a before and after school program and the coordinator,

wonderful woman, phenomenal job, but it was a challenge to get people um to staff. I wanted to know does the before and after school program do they get paid once a month like regular DPS employees or do they get paid twice a month? >> They get paid once a month >> because that could probably help with that because a lot of them were like young college students. So I just want to lift that up.

So thank you so much. >> Thank you vice chair Dr. Lee. >> Well let's do the members of the committee first.

So Dr. and then commissioner. >> Okay. Um just really quickly here, I just want a little clarification on the um non-state licensing aid programs. Um the barriers bullet point, can you can you talk about the differences? I I would imagine

there's some sort of background check, some sort of clearance. But here it looked like you're eliminating that background. But I just want clarification because it it didn't quite come out right. >> Okay.

So, yes, they still they go through the Durham public schools hiring process, which includes the criminal background check. For a license program, there's an additional fingerprint and additional steps that you have to get with the state. Um, and they send out a quantifying letter. So there's an additional those additional step steps takes about two additional weeks outside of what DPS requirements. So they will go through the hiring process which includes the criminal background check and everything else that we do with Durham public schools. the state being licensed requires additional >> so that barrier is because of the time um in getting >> okay I appreciate that clarification because that can be taken the wrong way

and I just wanted to make sure we're aware of that. Thank you >> Freeman. >> Thank you. I I had a similar question, so I appreciate you asking it.

And um just following up, I guess, is there a tracking for folks who do have a record? Like is there something that you're doing to make sure that you're not um excluding folks who might have traffic violations that have led to, you know, an arrest or something? Like is there is is that level of detail available? >> Yes, that's done through human resources.

our human resource department handles all of the hiring process >> and I would assume that that would include in the reverse anyone that's had like a child abuse or some type of you know child negligence would have that level of detail as well. >> Yes, that's all handled through human resources. >> Thank you. And um just following up, you

said you're doing a lottery system and you're making it equitable because I know a simple lottery is not equitable, but you must be doing something specific to make it equitable. What is that exactly? So we implemented the lottery system because before that it was a first come first um way to sign up and so we heard from the families that if they were not able to register on that particular date that we open registration at that time a lot of our slots filled up within minutes. And so when we say equitable access because we hear that some people couldn't didn't have weren't able to register online if there they were sick different issues everyone wasn't available to register at that time and so the lottery was implemented so everyone could at least apply and then it's a random lottery that we work with our student assignments the same system school net >> does that mean that you like take all of the applicants in and then run a lottery is that what you're saying >> yes we have a window that we're open for

several weeks and we publicize it to the public that we have this window and everyone can apply at that time and then the lottery actually runs >> and there's no like differentiation based on you know a parents inability to pay or >> no everyone can apply for the lottery. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Council Member Caviierro. Then Commissioner Jacobs and then we have >> Thank you.

>> And I may have missed this missed this. I know somebody asked about the the YMCA after school programs. What who can we get a list of who else is providing because I know that this was many years ago. I know that um if you didn't get a spot as a parent, you know, then you were often trying to figure out what else to do, which is basically why we're having this conversation. Um because we know there's a lot of limited spots. Um, so I know at the time the Y did, but I would I think Emily Kay does, but I would love to know what what what programs are there, and I understand that DPS may not know all the programs, but I know some of them do actually

offer transportation to the school, so there's at least an awareness of those programs. How many students are they serving? because this is just a small piece of the total and it's going to be really hard if we're having a conversation on scalability and funding. We don't even know who the total numbers period.

So this is not for DPS. Um so I guess if DPS has that information from the afterchool programs that they're aware of or have to interact with because that after school program is providing transportation to that home school uh numbers from the county. Um, and yeah, I think that would be really, really helpful. Uh, and then from on the city side, I know Durham Parks and Recck is in that space, but again, if we don't have all of the information, we're not going to get to a space around, you know, how are we funding a thing, how are we run, how are we going to make it bigger, how are we going to serve more families. One thing in response or not in response but in addition to for both of the data that we're asking for from Durham County

and the district if we can have it separated out by age. I think one of the um gaps that we see in Durham public schools is around elementary school. Elementary school ends early and those students are less cannot be home by themselves right while parents are working till five or six o'clock. And so if we can have all this kind of separated by age, I think we'll be have a better sense of where the gaps are, where the needs are, and how where we need to fill in.

>> I'm on the same um same line of thinking that um has just mentioned. Um I I feel like this is really really important. I'd like to see this issue be part of our um when we meet court I don't know how often we meet jointly is it twice a year but I feel like this issue we need to stay on top of and I'm just wondering how is that going to happen looking at our leadership with um our city and county manager and

Dr. Lewis. Um I think it's really important that all three of our bodies and staff are working together on this to get all the information really need need to map out what how things are currently functioning. What is the need?

what is the capacity and how we can really come up with a system for before and after care where we're really using all of the resources that we have including the community nonprofits um you know county you know our library you know cooperative extension things like that um years ago we talked about having a goal that we all of our kids would be involved involved in some type of activities or volunteering or a job, we would have goals. We would track it. I mean, we're we're nowhere near that, but this is so critical. So, I think

some of the requests for information. Um, I still don't, like I said, I feel like this is the first stab um that there's still a lot we don't understand about um what the need really is and what our capacity is. So, I don't I know we don't have time to dig into that. So, I'm really interested in hearing from I guess on my end the county manager like how can we keep this work going and all of our staff working together on this issue.

So, that's my question. We're getting a lot of hands coming up now, but just be mindful. Are there any questions that we think will come after the city's presentation also has to present uh parks and recreation? >> Yeah.

So, >> okay. I forgot there's another presentation >> and then >> I I will answer um pretty quickly. I I do feel like all three governing bodies and jurisdictions have a desire for

upward mobility for all of our youth. All um all of our investments lead there. And so I will say that I'm sure there will be a coordinated effort between the superintendent, the city manager, and myself to look at what does the the overlap looks like for data collection, where the gaps are. I know we've done some restructuring in the county for looking at um organizational effectiveness and investments in a different kind of way so that we can do intercepts um of information so that we can get to some of these root cause and policy issues that are are being talked about.

But I do know we each entity has robust um um infrastructures that can help us get to this goal of having better information. Let us come back to you with a strategy of what that looks like. Um but I I do feel we're much closer. I think today's conversation was great to show context. Um but it also

shows opportunity where not only the jurisdictions can support but where in a rich community where we have um corporate partners and many others that can help us um reach higher levels of success for our youth. >> Thanks Chair. Yeah. So I just want to echo the comments around the table.

Um first of all I want to thank the staff for the presentations for informing us of what is what's what we're doing right now. Um, but I also want to echo the comments here that we sort of were seeing like bits and pieces, but what seems the lack is the sort of bigger view of what's really what are the what's the availability overall and what are the gaps. So, I want to ask a very tactical question. I know there have been conver conversations in the past about some kind of out of school time survey that the county would do with cooperative extension.

I know Wake County has done that to get input not only from our public folks and staff but also from parents. So, is that a conversation that's continuing at the county? Is there are there plans or can we develop plans for doing some kind of comprehensive out of school time survey

to really get a better handle on the larger larger picture and not just individual programs and sort of jurisdictions? >> I can say yes, we can do that. This is my first time hearing that particular survey. depend on cooperative extension.

They do lots of different surveys and so but we can follow up on that to see sort of what that looks like and and from what you're seeing Wake County >> has done >> has done it. So yes and I I will say Donald Rewald is always on top of things but we can coordinate that so it's a successful um in result. >> I'm gonna Can we do the parks and recreation >> one sentence? So so thankful for the leadership behind us. I wonder while y'all are visioning whether we include this beyond we the scope beyond after school and it includes intercession camps summer and dare I say wrap care for prek like if we

if we bring the whole picture of youth um to bear to and yours planning but thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Now we have the parks and recreation department from the city with uh Rakia Wik.

>> Good morning to everyone again. My name is Rakia Wulmarmac, assistant director with Durham Parks and Recreation. Thank you for having us. I also have Danielle Haynes who is our recreation manager over all of our care programs.

And we will talk about intercession and fun days and our presentation. We don't have a nice little PowerPoint, but we do have some good numbers to present. Um, we can follow up with all that in writing and a summary if you guys would like. So, first we will start with kind of our youth programs.

Um, that is ages 5 to 12. We have five afterchool sites for that. Each of those sites serves 30

kids. uh transportation is provided to all those sites except the Edison Johnson site because DPS partners with us and drops off directly there and has been doing that for quite a long time. m. Uh revenue we get about 75,000 um that comes in from that.

Uh, typically the weekly, no, I'm sorry, not weekly. The 20day cycle price is hundred whatever $132 per 20day cycle. And I will say 98% of our students that come to our after school are on a sliding fee scale. So most of them play less than $10 a week. Um, those are kind of the highlights for youth which

is 5 to 12. We also have youth fundays and intercession. Um for our fun days we have one site that rotates from different uh locations and that serves about 210 kids. And then our inter session which we have fall, winter and spring in three-week sessions uh which is also $130 per week serves 150 participants.

Moving to our teens which we call my Durham is 13 to 18. We have three sites for that. Um I heard someone mention earlier about a teen center. We have a teen center.

It uh is right next door to the community and family life center at Lion Park. Uh these programs run from 3 to 7. They are free. Students do not pay anything to go to these afterchool

programs as teens. They are drop in programs. We that's one thing that we have changed all of our teen programs uh to be more drop in because we've noticed that teams have a short uh attention span. They don't like to commit.

They want, oh, I I like it today. I don't like it tomorrow. So, they want to be able to just drop in when they get ready. So, that's how our program is structured.

and we've seen increases in numbers by doing that. Um, as far as numbers, I can give you our last fiscal year, which we had six th 6,380 check-ins, and that was with 127 unique users. Um, I can't give you the numbers right now because we're still in the cycle, but we could give you if I went back and give you up to date right now, but we have we are on track to surpass the 6,000 uh check-ins for this fiscal

year already. So, we are really excited about that. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about challenges. Uh, because I've heard a few things and I echo one of the challenges that was mentioned which is staffing.

Uh, we the city has gone through a restructuring with uh, comp and class with pay. And so our folks are getting paid pretty well, but we're not seeing that that helps. There has been a shift in mentality in the workforce that we're finding that we're offering more money, but it's still extremely hard to get people to work in our afterchool programs. Another challenge to that is that we can't offer it to high school students because when the times of after of school getting out that kind of eliminated any opportunities for high school students

to participate in after school programs because they don't get out in time. So you now have the younger siblings and kids that are getting out but the high schoolers are still in session. Um, also another challenge I would name is our increase in special needs and accommodations. Um, we've seen a huge uptick in requirements and requests for accommodations from students.

Um, it's affecting us uh monetarily as well as staffing. We're trying to uh keep up. We are trying to do more trainings. We are looking into uh grants opportunities for monies as well as we'll probably be presenting something for a budget item to request more funding but uh it it it is affecting uh the workforce and not everyone is ready to handle that or you

know what I'm saying it's it can be difficult and so we are working on that. We do have a lot of success stories. Um, one that I was sharing with my director previously a couple of weeks ago, we had a student that was deaf and we didn't find out that the student was deaf till like maybe two weeks before camp was supposed to start. And so we were scrambling like how are we going to accommodate this kid?

And so we were able to get an ASL um instructor that came in and was with the child the whole day every day. But on the first day of camp, I went to every site to see the kids, the students, everybody. And I wanted to spec specifically see how this child was interacting and how it was going. And it really was just a classic success story of

inclusion in our program because this young kid, his instructor didn't even have to like prompt him. She gave him his instructions in ASL and she stepped back and the kids did the work. Like by the time they went in the gym and by the time it was maybe five minutes, they were playing a game and by the time they were done, all the kids were doing the signs to clap for him and it was he was just a regular kid. And that's what it's all about.

We want to make sure that, you know, kids have access to these programs. This was in summer camp, but it's still care programs. Um, kids have access and that they're they feel like everybody else and they're included and there's no difference. And so that was a success story that I like to tell cuz and I didn't cry today telling it.

So, I'm proud of myself. Um, let's see. I think that's about it. We covered youth after school.

We covered intercession. We covered some fun days. and we covered our teen programming. We do have a host of other programs.

Uh we have the bump program at Holton that happens. Uh thank you for one of our local groups that provides those programs at the Holton Career Resource Center. We have um of course our summer camp and those types of programs in the summer that we could provide other information and things but I think today you guys wanted to uh focus on afterare. So those were the numbers and things that we bought for today.

>> Thank you so much for the presentation. I'm going to yield now to colleagues for any questions or comments. Uh Commissioner Burton. >> Yes.

Thank you so much. Um, I just wanted to say thank you for all the work that you do and I had a a quick comment. Um, going back to the discussion about

all the afterchool programs that we do. Um, I know at my old school there were like three churches that would pick up kids after school for afterchool programs. There are a lot of private programs. They might may not necessarily use DPS or the city of Durham's programs.

There are a lot of private programs. So, we need to locate those. But I had a question about the you said at the beginning 30 sites that the city of Durham had um five sites for after school. We have five sites and we have 30 slots at each site.

>> And which are the what are the schools? >> What are the locations? Yes, ma'am. >> Those are Holton, WD Hill, Walltown, Campus Hills, and Edison Johnson.

Thank you, Commissioner Collies. Council member Cavier, >> thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation. Um, first, I would love a summary with the with the information that y'all shared today and if that

could be shared to all um, electeds. Um, secondly, I think that to I have I have several questions. I think we're hearing data from each entity and so if we can start building that picture of total youth served um that's going to be you know collaboration between city county and schools. So total numbers served if we can get any sense of locations of the city or county like where where are we serving the most families um so it can start building that picture around where are the gaps um and I think that the other thing I think we we are supposed to meet all again all together again but I think there was conversation of ensuring that those meetings are at a in a and scheduled in a timely way to impact bud budgets. So, if our staff uh from city, county, and schools can start building that picture of total numbers, where is everything as much as we're able to? I understand there's lots of private programs and then information can be provided back to electeds

with enough anticipation around decision-m which is uh which is our budget and that starts in January for the city essentially. And so, whatever the next conversation is needs to be lined up with that. I don't want to get a presentation in April because in April it's too late. Um I want to get that information early enough so that we can have conversations again potentially here and then within our own budget retreats.

And so you know today is August 12th. Uh, I think we need to have some real clear timelines of when we can expect information back so that we uh know what we're doing and how we're setting ourselves up and can start making really impactful decisions knowing that we're not going to be able to solve this in one budget cycle, but at least moving in a way that the community broadly knows that we're taking this seriously, that we have um some clear direction and not just, oh, it's informationational. information has to be clear and actionable or it doesn't do anything. Thank you. >> Thank you, council member. Um I'm

grateful that the we've had an opportunity to kind of showcase the city of Durham's engagement in in this area. It's not it's not cursory. It's deep. It's long.

Um some things, you know, we've done in the past. I I always have to remind myself when I repromoting academic and learning. PL when I was growing up, PAL was police athletic league. So I have to Anybody else?

Yeah. I have to I have to keep reminding myself. I do, Mr. Manager.

um from the city. Uh uh Manager Lee, I just wanted to yield if you had a couple of minutes. I know we've had some conversations about significantly increasing the city's uh footprint uh in these areas for the sake of of of youth engagement. Um I know you may not have any specifics, but if you wanted to at least uh give a framing of of uh the possibility of future city engagement and uh the staff's openness to direction in that area. >> Uh thank you, Mayor Valentine. Uh just for clarification, you know, I know we've uh had conversations uh more in the space of at risk youth uh particularly and how that might uh speak

to some of the conversations around violence intervention, violence prevention. Uh that's the area I'm most familiar with and the conversations I've referenced to you that I've had with manager Hager in that space and the potential for the city and county to collaborate there. I would differentiate that a little bit from some of the broader conversations about about afterchool care and or just uh uh youth support. Uh welcome direction from uh from this this body on that topic.

But I I do believe this group at its next meeting in October uh we have uh made a commitment to come back and talk about uh some of the efforts around violence intervention uh and at risk youth. Is that >> no >> address your interest? >> Absolutely. It's a fair differentiation and and I I you know, I don't want to put too fine a point on it because I if we help if if we get all of them, that's good for everything.

Um you know, so I I but I appreciate that. Yes. and and um I know the conversations we've had have been particularly um focused on uh

violence interruption, but the to be clear and I I want our residents and citizens to know that we believe that if we do this just for all of our kids, it'll it'll address all uh areas. So, thank you so much. The chair is back. Madam Chair, I'll yield back to you.

I think we've exhausted this particular issue. Well, you want another council cabier and I'm yielding back to chair alone. >> Thank you. And just just to follow up with the data that we get, it would be great to have that breakdown in in age as well as if possible because we understand the needs of like 5 to 8 year olds are real different than 12 13 year olds.

Um and then finally, I would love to have an understanding. There's a lot of high school students who are not I mean most of my kids by their junior year, my my own children weren't on a full schedule. And so what are the opportunities? Yes, high school does not end till 4:15, but there are a lot of high school students who are getting done at 2 and three. and there is an opportunity to get certified through Durham Tech and get your early childhood credential. So the in my mind there are a lot of 16-year-olds that that you know they're going home and they don't got a

lot going on and uh not keeping kids busy is not a good outcome. Um and regardless of whether they're identified at risk or not. Um, and so what are the opportunities there within our high school students um, who aren't, you know, they're they they walked in nth grade, they they're two, three, four credits ahead. They're taking classes at Durham Tech, but we we want to also give them the opportunity to have gainful employment.

Um, and and is there, to your point, uh, some students who could potentially be staffing uh, some of these afterchool programs? And I don't think we've answered that question because we don't know who those kids even are. Thank you. Chair alum.

Um just a followup. I I do want to make sure that we're not being ableist in this conversation, acknowledging that some children have um different abilities. Um and so breaking it down by age may not necessarily be as clear-cut. Making sure that you're also including abilities and especially when

there is need for accommodations. like all of that is is crucial information to have when you're planning for children or adults who are still in our schools. Thank you. >> Council member's point is well taken.

I think Rakia spoke to a um increase in request for for special needs and accommodations. So your point is is well taken. >> Thank you so much to the city staff questions. Okay.

The next presentation we have is we're moving into our update on transit infrastructure near schools. We have Ellen Beckman presenting and we have uh 45 minutes aotted for this item. And also just want us to be mindful that I know that there is a hard stop for some folks at 12:30 or they have to be at another meeting at 12:30. So let's keep that in mind while we're asking >> question.

Just one question. Are you inviting also public comment on agenda items or just public comment at the very end? >> At the end >> on any agenda item at the end. Okay.

>> Right. Good morning. Uh my name is Kristen Brookshire. I'm a transportation planner at Durham Public Schools.

Um we don't have a presentation today. We're here for discussion. Um, happy to be invited here along with with Ellen and Sean from the city of Durham. Um, when I've been before some combination of this body in the past and talked about transportation issues, a commissioner has always asked if I know Ellen Beckman and if I work with Ellen Beckman and I do in fact.

So, I'm glad to be here together today. Um, so I understood the this agenda topic to perhaps be an update on the topics that came before this joint body in February. um pedestrian infrastructure near schools, crossing guards, um transit infrastructure, and safe routes to school, um educational encouragement programming. If if there's anything else that was expected to be covered, I don't know if anyone wants to to offer that. Okay. Um so on the topic of transportation

infrastructure um one of the ways that DPS collaborates um especially with the city is through the annual CIP project uh request process. Um those are often lowhanging fruit type projects for for um pavement markings, crosswalk beacons, um changes to crosswalks, things that already exist. And so those sound lowhanging fruit. um but they do take a long time to come to fruition.

And so since we were last since I was last before you in February, um one of the projects that has gone in is the crosswalk flashing beacons at nine elementary schools. Those were identified as part of the 2223 request. Um all nine of those elementary schools are schools that have family responsibility zones. So that's an an enhancement at existing crosswalks um at our elementary schools. Um, but I'll this spring I think the the most noteworthy thing is the collaboration on the the bikewalk uh plan. That's a city

and county plan. I've been really grateful that the DPS has had a seat at the table along with city and county staff from the very beginning. Um Sean and Ellen might have more of an update on where we are in that process. Um but it's about to go out to public engagement again this fall.

Um DPS has been able to bring to the table what we know in terms of where students live, what the travel mode shares are at each of our schools, what we understand to be the gaps in terms of our own professional um expertise and what we've heard from families and staff over the last few years, last few years that I've been here. Um and bring that to the table along with all the other data that the city and county have um that's informing this this um unified bike walk plan. Um, on the topic of crossing guards, since we since we were last here, um, Sean will share more of an update on this as well. Um, but I had mentioned the possibility of a pilot program to

test out a few new locations for crossing guards. Um, that's coming to fruition. We actually have the kickoff meeting in like an hour and a half with the contractor. Um, and so I do expect that, you know, it's a it's a short time frame for this pilot.

It's just for this fall semester. And so I think in short order, there will be a conversation between all of the bodies about the best way to continue forward, what we learn about those new locations, what we learn about the new contracting method, what we understand about the existing crossing guard locations, and see if we can come up with a unified plan moving forward um with the city through the transportation department, the school district, and the police department as well. Um and keeping in mind the infrastructure that's in place there families do have choices in how they get to school. Um and so through the safe routes to school program, a lot of that work is about helping families consider their options for getting to school with what's in place right now. So our team is working on our vision. We've got one full year

of programming under our belt this past school year fully staffed up and running with our grant from NC DOT and so setting the vision for this next school year. Um but probably most um timesensitive is that in preparation for the new school year, what we've been putting together is physical packets for every school to have at their open house that include all the transit guides. So for middle and high schools, making sure that they all have copies available of the transit guides in English and Spanish that we prepared during the last school year. And then new since we um since I was before you in February is uh plan your trip to school walking maps that the city is hosting on the transportation web page.

We have that for the 21 elementary schools that have family responsibility zones. And if we we can certainly develop those for middle and high schools as well, but we want to wanted to make sure and have those out to elementary schools first um so we can uh ramp that up as well. And then also um information for the principles about crosscurricular

connections um how walking, biking, and transit can fit into some of the topics that they're already going to be teaching throughout the school year. Um, and we have lots of ideas there, but it's really exciting to think about. That's part of how we're bringing youth voice into safe routes to school and I think bringing this topic to students. Um, hopefully future planners, engineers, and architects, all all the built environment professions.

Um, so I don't know if Ellen want to give any updates or Okay. Yeah. So, I'll do short term uh and Ellen will do long term. So, I'm Sean Egan.

I'm the city transportation director. Uh thank you for uh inviting me to come here today. So, uh in some over the last several months, we've heard a lot of interest about uh improving safety particularly with respect to uh students and families walking to elementary schools. Uh and one of the schools that

we've heard a great deal about is Hope Valley Elementary. So, I wanted to give a quick update on some of the improvements that we've made around Hope Valley Elementary. Uh, so, uh, earlier this year, we installed posts with reflectors on the northwest corner of the intersection of University Drive and Chapel Hill Road to improve visibility for motorists approaching the intersection. Uh the city uh transportation staff also worked with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to get approval for the implementation of a school zone along University Drive from Monroe Avenue to the east to Old Chapel Hill Road to the west.

Uh so this will reduce the speed limit from 35 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour around the bell times for school. Uh and there will be uh school flashers uh activated during those bell times uh to alert motorists to the presence of school children. Uh so the school flashers are going in hopefully weather permitting either this week or

next week. Um so uh we're moving that forward as well. Uh we also uh know that many of the pavement markings and crosswalks were worn down u and were striped with the two traditional vertical bars rather than the high visibility ladder style horizontal bars used elsewhere in the city. So as part of the school zone implementation, city transportation staff will be refreshing pavement markings and adding high visibility crosswalks at the following intersections.

University Drive at Chapel Hill Road, Dixon Road, University Drive at Academy Road, and University Drive at Old Chapel Hill Road. Uh so, uh the school zone expansion will uh uh include both Hope Valley Elementary and a combined zone with the Durham Academy Middle School on Academy Road. In terms of the crossing guards, uh we have a new contract. Uh the contractor

is hiring and training staff right now. Uh and we're working to get staff uh at four new sites. The four sites are Hope Valley Elementary, CC Spalding Elementary, Sandy Ridge Elementary, and Ye Smith Elementary. And we're working to have those uh positions staffed by the end of this month.

>> What were those positions again? Those are uh school crossing guard locations. I can I I can follow up with the exact uh intersections, but the schools are Hope Valley, CC Spalding, Sandy Ridge, and Y Smith. Uh and then on the uh public transportation front, uh we are making service changes to the Go Durham uh route 5 on August 23rd.

uh that will provide a much better connection for students at Jordan High School. Uh so students at Jordan will now have a 15minute frequency uh to get to and from school all day. Uh and we are also

working uh to increase the service frequency at Southern High School. Uh right now the uh Southern is only served once per hour by the end of this calendar year. Uh we're working to make that every 30 minute service at Southern High School. So, those are some of the immediate and uh near-term changes.

And then uh I'll just say that it is u it is really a privilege in Durham to have the partnership that we have with Durham Public Schools. Durham Public Schools is one of the only school districts in North Carolina to have a dedicated transportation planner uh on staff. Uh and Kristen's been tremendous to work with. Um, and so we really want to uh express that appreciation uh for the partnership uh with the the county as well as DPS.

So with that, I'm going to hand it off to Ellen to talk about the bike and walk plan. >> Great. Uh thank you everyone. Uh Ellen

Beckman, Durm County. Um so Durham County and city are participating in two studies right now that both involve long-term planning around biking and walking infrastructure. Um one is the bike and walk plan and the other is the Durm to Roxboro rail trail planning study. So the bike and walk plan um has traditionally been a city plan.

Uh the current bikewalk plan is a city plan done in 2017 when I was at the city. Um, and this is the first time that the county has participated in funding and development of the new plan. Um, as Kristen said, uh, DPS has been part of our steering committee and, uh, prioritization committee and just definitely, uh, strongly involved in the development of this plan, um, and prioritization of projects. Um, the plan includes kind of a long-term comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian network. um also the development and identification of some more near-term priority projects and policy recommendations.

Uh so we are about to start our second round of engagement. Um that will happen uh starting midepptember and in that uh there will be um what the public would see would be um the identification of 50 corridors, 50 sidewalk gaps and 50 intersections. uh that are kind of our draft priorities. Um this will be further narrowed down to 25 each for the final plan.

Um so that list is still in development so I really can't say exactly what's in it yet but there definitely are a number of um school related facilities that have come up in discussion uh that are that are being highly considered. Um, of course, like around all of the high schools, you know, we get requests. Um, you know, high school students have a lot more independence, often are taking the bus, often going places after school. So, those definitely are hotspots for, uh, pedestrian use. Um, you know, Jordan

High School at dismissal is crazy, right? The number of kids crossing the street there, uh, but also, uh, hillside, northern, Riverside, Southern, they've all come up in discussions. Um there's also um you know as Sean said the the the Hope Valley Elementary type area and those areas around the um family responsibility zones that are being considered um and places like Cheek Road, you know, out by Merrick Mill more meer Moore Elementary School. Um there are also um locations that are right on the city and county boundary that um perennially come up as as areas of concern and where we need to figure out um a city county coordinated uh approach on this.

So places like that are like NC98, you know, headed out east. There's a lot of new subdivisions and then there's also Neil Middle School, Oak Grove Elementary School. Um, a lot of those residents moving into the new subdivisions want to walk to school,

but there's county areas in between. So, uh, that's an area of that we've we're discussing. Um, we have areas like Lions Farm Elementary School right on the southern end. Also, uh, between Hearnden Park, American Tobacco Trail, and the school, there's a desire for kids to be able to walk between those facilities, but again, you have to go through the county to get there.

Um, and then, um, one of the One of the topics that's come up quite a bit is uh Forest View Elementary School. So again, right on the city county boundary, there's a lot of existing sidewalk. There is um ambiguous responsibility for sidewalk maintenance in that area and some of the sidewalk there is in very bad repair um and it's been in bad repair for years and we haven't figured out a solution for how to approach the repair and maintenance of that sidewalk. So, those are some of the issues that, you know, we're we're discussing um and areas of concern through the bikewalk plan. Um the uh like I said, this is the first

time the county has participated and one of the main uh reasons for the county participation is to provide some more clarity in those areas of city county boundary and maintenance responsibility. Um there are about six miles of sidewalk in the county that's outside of municipalities and that is not maintained by a private entity. Um but Durham County does not have a sidewalk maintenance program. U most counties do not you know in North Carolina most counties don't maintain roads.

Um most counties don't maintain sidewalks. Um many many counties do develop and maintain greenways though. So, um, the the maintenance of sidewalks and how these sidewalks exist in the county is a long story. Like, you can go deep into a rabbit hole on this and I'm going to try not to go down there. Uh, but the the to make a long story short, um, you know, the the creation of these sidewalks has been both a city and county creation, you know, through the UDO requirement

for sidewalks inside the urban growth boundary. Um, And um so we we are desiring a joint you know city county solution on this. Um it would make the most sense for us to coordinate our resources in that way because it's really a very small amount of sidewalk in the county compared to the uh 700 miles of sidewalk that the city maintains. So we will be developing some policy recommendations on that through this plan.

Um there's other policy recommendations too though um such as a project delivery study looking at ways to speed up the construction of projects which I know is always a concern is how can we get these things built more quickly um as well as the long-term network. Um the identification of a long-term network helps us because we can then um have a a document that we can show to developers and NC DOT and and that's really the mechanism by which we get free sidewalk built uh through those through the development process. So that's that's a key part of the plan as well.

Um so the um just briefly the Durham to Roxboro rail trail planning study is looking at the conversion of a 18 mile uh unused rail corridor from central Durham all the way up to the Pson County line uh into a greenway. So it' be like the American Tobacco Trail but headed north through um all of northern Durham County. Uh again, DPS is part of our our committee and part of our um our planning effort and looking at ways that that we could that this rail trail could provide uh better connections to some of the schools up in northern Durham County. So, it goes near Mangum Elementary School, Little River, uh Sandy Ridge, Lake View, Lucas Middle School.

So, um, a press release just went out while you were all sitting in this meeting about our second round of engagement that's starting on the rail trail planning study. We have a public three public workshops scheduled. One started, uh, next Monday and then two the following week. Um, we'll be sharing

the some of those draft recommendations with the public for feedback. um and with the intention of using that fe feedback to finalize the plan and make a uh a final plan recommendation uh later this year. So that's the long range effort. It is a team effort here and I would echo Sean's comments about uh having DPS um at the table and having a transportation planner that can participate in all this fun planning and um policy development.

Well, thank you all so much um for this amazing presentation. Uh I think it would be great also, I know we didn't have like slides and stuff, but some of the information and numbers and you know y'all if you can send it to all of our bodies so that we can also have it to just look at and review. Um that's always helpful. Um I did have a question and this kind of ties into the pieces that we've already discussed about the afterare and maybe I should have brought it up also when NC dot was here because it also impacts them of like of not just

infrastructure near schools but we were talking about also infrastructure near like these afterare programs and spaces that our youth need and want access to and I serve as the liaison for both the memorial stadium and u museum of life and science and that's been a big topic of discussion in both of those boards um about how youth don't have easy access to those spaces and like the Museum of Life and Science has free Durham Community Days, but the closest bus station to both of those is Duke Hospital. Um and then it's not really safe for kids to walk from there to either of these two locations. So, and I know that with Duke Road that needs NC DO's involvement. Um, but as a part of the conversation around infrastructure near schools, I think also incorporating in other youth spaces of just making our city more and county more accessible for kids to be able to access all this.

Um, and then I know, oh, Council Member Caviierro had some she said lots of questions. >> Oh, yes. Uh if I can just respond quickly, the uh one of the changes that we've made recently uh with the support of the Durham County Transit Plan uh has been to add the Museum of Life and Science to our North Durham microtransit zone. Uh and so we've developed some materials to explain to folks who are visiting, families that are visiting uh that they would essentially go to the uh regional hospital uh by fixed route bus and then they can request a ride, a free ride from uh that hospital location to the museum.

So the microtransit is a a really flexible tool that allows us to make some of those last mile connections uh that we weren't able to and u the Durham County transit plan funding uh enables us to do that. >> That's really great. If you could send me that information because we have a museum board meeting I think next week so I can also bring it to the board in

that space too because I don't think that they're aware that that exists. Thank you. and Council Caviierro, then Chair Umstead, and we have 10 minutes to and then Commissioner Jacobs. >> Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all. Thank you for being here, number one, and I'm glad that all three of y'all are working so closely together. Um, we know that transit is a key component to improving residents quality of life.

Um, and we all are committed to that belief in a 15-minute city, and that doesn't happen if you don't have good bike and ped infrastructure and good transit. So, uh, appreciate all of the work. Um, really quick, it was 50 corridors, 50 intersections, and what was the third one? >> Sidewalks, >> uh, sidewalk gaps.

>> Okay. Sidewalk gaps. >> Smaller smaller projects. >> Then y'all are narrowing it down to 25 >> for the final plan.

For the final, the second round of public engagement will show those 50 each. >> And then, okay, we're getting feedback to help us narrow down. And then this is

a question more probably for city staff. How is that how with the bike ped plan? How are we fitting that into vision zero? And then how are we fitting it into the CIP?

What can I expect? When can I expect it? How's what's informing what? >> Uh so uh we've definitely uh incorporated uh our u vision zero coordinator into the bikewalk planning effort.

Uh and many of these improvements are are called for in our vision zero action plan uh where uh our our focus right now is really on uh delivering all of the projects that were funded in the bond uh and that have had uh federal funding through the no or other sources associated with them. So uh we are prioritizing the delivery of those projects to kind of clear uh the pipeline. Uh but what the recommendations coming out of the bike

and walk plan will then refresh that pipeline. We'll need to go through a project development process uh to identify how much uh right of way is needed uh go through uh some design elements. So that uh will place through our our CIP process, we have uh programmatic funding for sidewalk construction uh in the CIP. Uh so uh once those locations are identified, then then that allows us to move forward with the project development process.

>> Thank you. Um, could we at some point, this is again for city staff, get a work session that kind of uh agenda item that kind of highlights, okay, we're going to clear the like a prioritization once we get more information from the bike ped plan. This is bond, this is federal, this is what's coming next. Um, so I I I really want to I want this I want our community to see where their dollars are going. I want them to understand what is moving forward and I want them to understand that we are moving very

aggressively uh in response to their demands. Uh so that's one request I have. >> I'll just respond to that. We we do have uh on the list of presentations we've talked about an update on the bond program.

we could add kind of a conversation that augments that with other transportation priorities and certainly seek the council's direction on on whether or not those priorities match your expectations or if you want to see those rearranged. >> Thank you. I would that would be amazing. I appreciate that.

Um secondly, I think um hold on, let me make with the with the conversation around sidewalks in the county and for you. , and making it as straightforward as possible again with that attitude of what are we getting done, when are we getting it done, and when community can see the outcome. And I think that that just kind of needs to be our orientation. Um, and I know it gets complex when we're talking about

separate jurisdictions or how it's been done historically, but I think uh we've raised taxes a lot on folks and they need to see uh outcomes on that. Um, so I I I think those are all my questions. I appreciate the time. >> Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs.

Uh, school board member UMstead, Vice Chair Lee, thank member Wrist. >> Well, thank you. Um, this is another great example of collaboration. Um appreciate you all working together and also the outcomes because this body raised the issues um specifically around the um responsibility zones and also improving um you know access to transit for high school students and it's great to see that you all have taken action on that. Um I'm my question one of my questions is have you done analysis of on the ground conditions at all of the family

responsibility zones? Um I I appreciate that the the safety concerns at Hope Valley have been addressed. I appreciate also the proactive work about crossing guards which came up as an issue. But um you know how many family responsibility zones are and have we has a detailed again onsite kind of safety concerns that need to be addressed been done of each of those sites and what is the plan to address all of those.

So let me think best way. Um, oh, so I'm what I'm hearing you describe is perhaps like a a walk audit, like an actual and maybe not just as a a team member of one, but maybe, you know, intergovernmental or I mean, we we also have some ideas for how to involve students in a walk audit process. Um, that's very time consuming. So to do that 21 times, that's not in the books already. um you know there's a lot of institutional knowledge um from

transportation and from safe routes to school that went into the recommendation around the family responsibility zones um and I will say the previous year when um I worked with transportation to update that where the neighborhood stops are we had done a lot of that you know street view and in person inventory work um because everywhere that's included that has a family responsibility zone right now there was already students students walking to school bus stops, you know, one, two, three, four blocks away. That none of those areas had conditions where transportation had previously deemed that students would be picked up at their at their residence, what transportation calls a doors stop. Um, so yeah, I throughout the the bikewalk prioritization process, I I will say I had a very specific focus on the family responsibility zones without losing sight of what's needed at our middle and high schools as well. Um, we where all the gaps are around transit at the high schools. I know Sean mentioned service improvement at Southern High

School. Um, but the bond is also accelerating closing some sidewalk gaps at Southern High School. And since I had previously mentioned, I think I think I gave Southern in February as an example of a school that just has a a sign in the road. And now that that is in the queue for a full, you know, bus stop infrastructure in terms of shelter, landing pad, trash receptacle, all of that.

So, um, So yeah, we I would say my standard would be to go through a few schools a year as part of a bigger process and doing a walk audit. Um, and that's something that the vision zero action plan has called for as well. So working really closely with Lauren at the city to make sure that safe routes to school and DPS is ready to help and not have like two parallel processes if if conducting walk audits. It was identified as a high priority action as part of the vision zero plan as well. Well, I would recommend using groups like BPAC who are willing people are willing to volunteer and put in the time to do that. Um, and obviously I would

think there are some schools that you know of right away that are priorities. Um, but anyway, this it seems like this is really important and urgent because this, you know. Okay. Um and then um the uh the issue around sidewalks.

Um I'm sitting here, my my oldest child is now 33 and you know getting to Forest View was a problem 23 years ago. Um, so I really hope with um, you know, that with the UDO and also um, with the plan that we're all working together and we need to solve this issue. It's ridiculous. This has been going on for so long. So, are you working directly also with the planning department on the UDO um, process because that is something that should be addressed as well through the UDO revisions.

Um, yeah. Well, Durham County transportation staff definitely has been participating in the UDO development process, and I know the city stuff, too. Um, uh, we haven't gotten to the I think the sidewalk module yet, but I know it's coming. Um, and yes, I think, um, having, uh, we we do expect that the recommendation from the bikewalk plan could inform what's in the UDO in terms of what sidewalks we're requiring, um, how they would be maintained, what options maybe developers have in those areas.

Um, and maybe even um, you know, we haven't we haven't uh fully fleshed this out yet, but like sidewalk payment in L in the county like that doesn't currently exist, but I believe we are we could do that. We just have not done that yet. >> Right. Thank you. And my last I just wanted to comment on the Durham Roxboro Rail Trail because I'm not sure how much the school board and city council folks know. Um this is a huge priority for the

county. It's been in our plans for decades. Um thanks to our awesome transit staff. Um we've just got a half a million dollar grant for this.

We are partnering. NC DOT is taking the lead on this project which is amazing. and the North Carolina Conservation Fund is also providing funding for this. So, this is another partnership model, but it will this will be a way for people in our community.

This will be a transportation option for people to get to um it goes through one of the city's new um uh industrial park, Durham Tech, um cultural sites like Stagville, and then many of the schools that you heard. So, this is going to be an amazing alternate transportation system that will connect into the American Tobacco Trail. So, um we're really excited about the city being a partner on this as well. Thank you.

>> Um I really appreciate all the updates from today. Uh we talked about this in February and a lot of action has already taken place which is really great. Um, I'm really grateful to hear the talk around improvements in schools and knowing our schools so well. I often hear from educators at Southern that they worry about their students who are walking to and from school around that windy road.

So, hearing about the infrastructure things that are already on the list feels really good and helpful. Um, y'all shared a lot that's really good. How is this getting communicated to schools, to families? Um, I imagine somebody might take the bus now because it's going to be an increased route at Jordan.

So, how are we getting this information out to the appropriate people? >> So, for um DPS, I mean, we're trying all communication methods available to us. I know email is not enough. That's why this school year we're trying to just get physical copies to the schools. Um and that's not the only time that we'll continue linking to these, sharing these, posting these resources. Um we've

updated the transit guides because there have been route changes. Um, we even have a microtransit guide too because you know the zones serve many schools like in the east and the north and so the transit microtransit guide is available although I don't know if it talks about the museum maybe we should try to update that one. Um so um and now and also I will say now that I'm realizing how close I'm sitting to Miss Cooper here um public affairs has really helped the safe routes to school share out some of these uh efforts that Ellen mentioned. So sharing out opportunities for DPS staff and families to chime in on the Durham to Roxboro trail.

Um chime in on neighborhood bike routes and but I will but the bike walk plan I think is going that this is the this is the headline. So now that we are scheduling some of the the fall engagement um sessions we'll be working closely with with OPA to get that out to families because we hear from some families but we don't hear from all families. So I really want that um to be spread widely within DPS. um because we've all been

looking at at maps and and data and certainly we all have experiences, you know, that are shared with us by by residents um by families, but um yeah, sharing that widely will be really important um to get that engagement. So, thanks Sheena. >> I love that. I think um I mean we have students who are in our buildings all day.

So, if there are ways that we can have staff do some engagement in our schools with our students who are the writers that we want to see that we talk about often. And I also I'm just giving you all my ideas now. Um I mean our students listen to our students around bus transportation and all those things. So is there ways to get Tik Toks around how to drive the bus that our students are talking to each other around hey this is what I do to get to and from school which I think will they will listen to each other more than they listen to us.

We all know that for sure. And so how do we get that engagement using our students because we know they care a lot about all of this different work. So I push it out as much as possible so that people are aware because I I'm sitting here taking copious notes like how can I share this

with everyone? Uh my last question is around the bikewalk plan. It's amazing. Sounds really great.

What's the timeline from now I guess starting with the engagement to completion of the plan to starting construction? plan. Um, you know, I we're entering we'll be entering our second round of engagement. I do not have the schedule in front of me, but I would expect that it probably will conclude uh within the next six to nine months or so to have the final plan uh ready and for adoption by boards.

Um so that's that's the timeline for that. uh bikew walk plan. Um now the development and construction of projects um takes quite a a while typically. Um I I think uh city is working on many of the projects from the 2017 plan. So but this helps get get it get projects in

the queue to get going. Um you know I really it depends on the complexity of the project. Um right ofway acquisition is often a reason that projects are delayed. Um so uh I would say your typical project is five to plus years to from planning to construction.

>> Not not a speedy process. Okay. But that's good to know. Um it's good to know and I'm glad we're at DPS is at the table.

Thank you'all. >> U thank you all for this. I've actually really enjoyed learning about the different plans, the the ideas, you know, the bike walk, all of those sorts of things. And um mine is more specific. Well, a couple things. So, how does a particular project get on get in consideration for the um bikewalk plans?

You know, you you said you're there's these ideas. you're gonna kind of boil it down to actual plans that go forward. I'm I'm specifically asking about Northern High School. Okay.

And so, um, when we initially developed the plan for Northern High School, there was a in the plan, there was actually a road to go out of the back of the school onto Denfield, right? It was it was a plan to do that and it actually would give access to all of those kids back there who are now zoned for Northern which I'm part of. My my house is kind of back there. My kids will be going to Northern and they could actually they would actually be able to ride their bikes.

The all of those neighborhoods, Summer Mills, everything like that and are now zoned for Northern and they could actually walk they would actually be able to walk from that extension from Northern to Denfield. They can ride bikes, scooters, whatever it is that they do, right? But now we have have to

go out on Monk onto Roxboro, not even a quarter of a mile to get into Northern and the same thing come back around. Traffic is crazy. Um, I'm curious about how I like, you know, can I join a session and add that to the consideration or something like that because that was actually already in the plans, but it was canceled from what I hear from the city. And so, I'm curious about that sort of thing.

>> Sure. Sure. So, I can't speak to how the Heban Road extension, the road that you're talking about, I'm not sure how that came off of the regional plan um as a new street. Um but you will see something I think on the plan or on the the list of projects that are out for for public engagement. So um as you know different entities were negotiating transportation access to the new northern site knowing that it wouldn't be oriented towards this extension um one of the things that was put in place was an easement with the two property owners behind the school for access from

Northern High School to um Denfield. right right near Hein Road where it hits Stenfield, right? >> Um and I mean it was written for potentially for bus access but um that will be um one of the right now it's one of the 50 gaps. So the three types of projects so corridor, intersection and gaps that will be one that's shown for public feedback.

Um and similarly there's uh Marie Massenberg is another example of a new school that's on a large site um that it's very ciruitous if you live right behind the school. So that's another school where we have an easement in place during public schools. Um if there were to be a future pedestrian connection to Cook Road. Um so those will both those are both considered gaps.

Although I will say the majority of those projects would be on DPS property with a very small portion on uh city streets or NCDOT streets. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks, Chair Lum. Um I want to echo my

colleagues and just say thank you for the collaboration we're seeing here among staff. Um it was a great conversation we had six months ago, a kind of urgent conversation, so I'm glad to see the progress since then. Um, I serve with Commissioner Jacobs on BPAC and I know we have a meeting coming up next Tuesday and I know this conver this conversation is going to come up and so just want to be clear with Miss Brookshire just to be like high level. I know we talked about those 21 family responsibility zones when when we first talked back in February and as I understand some of those were paused initially because of concerns about safety.

So, so can you confirm how many of the 21 family responsibility zones are are good to go are fully >> so Hope Valley Elementary is the only one that was not implemented at the time that the the board voted for family responsibility zones. >> Okay. So, that one that and appreciate the comments from Mr. Egan about the the work we've done there.

So, thank you for that. That's great. We can report that back to BPAC. Um my second question I think council member Cavier wanted to piggyback on my question and just had a conver had a question about can we just get an update for all the high schools

by what's by what date by end of the year or by start of school or like just on the sort of the bus schedules at each of those high schools >> just an update in the summary that you're going to send us about what because you gave Jordan and you gave Southern but what everybody else's um Thank you. Sean's nodding I'm talking about Thank you. Sorry, I I didn't want us to lose um track of the crossing guard conversation. I know you all said you were having a meeting in an hour or so, Tik Tok.

Um I'm curious, a couple of the schools that you named as new pilots are actually year round. So, they're already in session, right? Hope Valley and I think we Smith were No, >> Sandy Ridge. >> Sandy Ridge. Yeah. Anyway, um I wonder as as all things staffing that we will struggle like to staff after care that we're going to staff a struggle to staff these crossing guard positions just as you all continue to dream and vision

with us. Let's be clear like what the city's paying folks, how you know what compensation we're all at together so that um we can recruit well together and make these jobs attractive and sustainable jobs for people to fill and come back to within our community. So um I'm interested to hear back from that pilot and how that contractor um pays compensates staff and whether it's effective or not. So that's so the competitiveness of compensation uh and recruitment uh success is definitely one uh part of the evaluation that we'll be doing of the pilot uh and also effectiveness in providing coverage.

So right now at our traditional locations if someone is sick there's not a substitute there's no coverage in place. So sometimes I'll see a police officer with a patrol car at the crossing where my kids go. uh Lakewood Elementary School. So, uh coming up with better uh

a better way to address those needs, those coverage needs uh and recruitment and retention. All of that's going to be part of the evaluation. >> I'll just add um after we have the kickoff with the contractor today, I think there will be some staff level conversations about how to communicate this to the schools because it is a pilot program and it's through December. So, there's no permanence of the position.

that's guaranteed as part of this pilot. So, we'll we'll talk at a staff level about how to um share that the presence of these crossing guards with the schools. >> Thank you all so much again the presentation and we look forward to receiving this information emails. Now, we have our last uh agenda item, the update on tropical storm flood recovery coordination and we have our deputy chief of emergency management, Nathan Sanders.

Good morning everybody. Uh my name is Nate Sanders. I am the deputy chief of

emergency management. Um and I'm going to provide you a brief update on the response and recovery efforts for tropical depression. Sean on July 4th. >> Chief, would you pull the microphone just a little closer to you?

>> I'm sorry. How's that? Is that better? >> Good.

Thanks. >> On uh July 4th, 2025, a tropical depression uh developed off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. The system drifted north where it strengthened into tropical storm Shantel making it the third name storm of the 2025 um Atlantic hurricane season. It then made s excuse me it did then made landfall in South Carolina on July 6 where it was then downgraded again to tropical depression chant prior to impacting our community in the early morning hours of July 7th. Rainfall from the storm resulted in historical flooding in the Eno River um with the areas of greatest impact along the in the River Forest and Old Farm neighborhoods as well as the 700 and 800 block of Felicia Street. Our initial response started on July 6th.

Um, after we received the initial National Weather Service update about the impending storm, the EOCC sent out a weather briefing to our EM weather notification group indicating that Durham was currently under a flood watch. A watch means that the conditions are likely that something could happen, the potential for inclement weather or an event to happen. A warning means the conditions have increased where the out the event is likely to to occur or is actively occurring. Um, we continue to monitor the storm throughout the day.

m. that night. 28 ft. Um, we have concerns for flooding into res residential areas at 22 feet.

Um, 18 ft we will monitor the we will monitor the river. At 19 to 21 ft, we will see minor flooding where the river has overflowed its banks into the area. At 22 feet, we'll see impacts into residential neighborhoods. m. that

22 ft. We did not receive any additional flood gauge notifications through the entirety of this event. m. Monday morning, the on call emergency manager was contacted by Dur, excuse me, Durham Emergency Communication Center.

um in reference to the first email um basically providing us an additional notification that this that the flood gauge had change or the stages had changed making us aware of the situation. Um at 1110 excuse me I'm sorry about 10 minutes later we re received a call from Graham Somerson at the city indicating that the ENO was approaching a 100redyear flood level event. What this means is that this is a 1% chance per year that the flood level will have risen to this to to this height. Um our on call emergency manager pro proactively responded to the area for potential flooding and then when the flooding was confirmed contacted

Durham's emergency communication center and initiated the fire and police response to the area. The fire department arrived on scene shortly after and conducted 81 water rescues while performing their initial damage assessments. During this time, emergency management remained on scene with the fire department. We identified five households that were in need of emergency housing.

At the time, we coordinated with the American Red Cross to provide those individuals with with emergency housing. 63 ft. Um, the incident was then stabilized by 8:30 that morning. Um, I'd like to point out that this is a historical level of flooding for the Eno River, for this area.

The last time the ENO flooded, um, it hit a little over 23 feet in 1996 with Hurricane Fran about 29 years ago. Um, ongoing covering through July 12th with excuse me, ongoing recovery. Um,

July 12th through 30th, we continued with uh, I'm sorry, I'm a slide ahead. I apologize. July 8th the 11th for our initial recovery. Um the morning of July 8th, uh one of our local Boads, which is a volunteer agency, our volunteer organization active in disasters, Baptist on Mission, then contacted us about services that they are able to provide.

They offered mucking and gutting services for the residents, which basically they go in and they clean out all the flood damage material and clean up the houses for the residents. They don't offer the repair, they offer the initial cleaning services and debris removal to the curb for pickup. Um the county managers um excuse me then we were contacted by Senator Chitlick Senator Chitlick um regarding additional citizen concerns. Um EM chief Shrader and EM coordinator Hayden Smith then responded to the area performed the initial canvasing canvasing and identified additional recovery needs from residents in the area. We then coordinated with the city neighborhood improvement services, the department of

social services and the city heart team to try to determine what additional resources were available. We coordinated again. We held a coordination call later with public safety and our human services partner to formulate a plan for response. The following morning, a team consisting of Durham Police Department, Durham Community Safety Heart Team, and the Durham County Sheriff's Offices conducted um door-to-door canvasing for the neighborhood where we again identified an additional 15 households that required ongoing emergency housing.

Emergency management then provided the non- congregate housing for these families while we worked with um the American Red Cross for their case management services. Excuse me. Um while this was occurring, we were also conducting preliminary damage assessments to meet um our our damage thresholds for disaster declarations, continued to monitor the weather while also working with the Durham County Libraries to operate our cooling centers um due to the heat

warnings extreme heat during this time period as well. ongoing recovery July 20th through the 30th. Um after coordination continued throughout the weekend and into the following week on Wednesday, July 16th, um representatives from FEMA, US Small Business Association, North Carolina Emergency Management, and Durham Emergency Management conducted a joint pre preliminary damage assessment. These damage assessments are necessary to determine the dollar value associated with the event in order to meet our thresholds for reimbursement.

Um for individual assistance and public assistance. Um that evening a state of emergency was issued by Governor Stein for multiple counties which included Durham. Um this allowed for the SBA to begin offering services within Durham as well. We were then contacted about from the state about the potential for a disaster recovery center. Um and we began looking for a potential location um which and to

coordinate support efforts which include parking, transportation, operations staffing support for the site as well as security for the site as well. Um on July 28th, the no cost agreement that's required by the SBA was signed by the by the board which then allowed us to open the disaster support center. Um and on July 30th, the disaster support center was opened at the North Regional Library Branch. Um only the SBA was allowed to be on site at this time and I'll explain here in just a moment.

Um, Governor Stein then signed on August 5th signed the state type one disaster declaration for individual assistance. This allowed North Carolina emergency management that to be on site at the disaster recovery center and to provide individual assistance grants to the public. Prior to this signature of the signed declaration, only the SBA was allowed to be on site. Now, North Carolina man, excuse me, North Carolina Emergency Management is allowed to

participate as well. Um, we continue to have ongoing discussions with our partners that are on site. We continue to provide the support for um the SBA, NCM as best that we're able to answer any needs and pop and assist the community as best we can. To date, we've had about 40 individuals that have taken advantage of the disaster recovery site.

Um, We've also coordinated our communication efforts with the county communications departments, our city communications department and neighborhood improvement services. City communications developed a flyer, neighborhood improvement services, then went back out into the neighborhood and then provided that flyer to residents making them aware of the site. We've sent messaging through Alert Durham to our Alert Durham subscribers making them aware of the site as well. And our county communications um helped us with a joint press release for the media. Um, I'd like to talk a minute about individual assistance, um, since it's most recently become available. Um,

there's six categories for individual assistance. Crisis counseling assistance, training programs, disaster case management services, disaster legal services, disaster unemployment assistance, mass care and emergency assistance, and individual and household programs. Um the individual and household programs is the primary programming for providing financial direct assistance to disaster survivors. It provides financial support for housing and other basic needs to support recovery efforts but it does not compensate disaster survivors fully.

Um it it will not reimburse them for all losses and it's not intended to be a substitute for insurance. On August 7th, we conducted an afteraction review with our partners involved in the response and identified some strengths as well as some opportunities for improvement. Um, some of the strengths from our response that were noted were the revisions to our mass shelter care plan which allowed for a scalable and costeffective operations.

Um, the utilization of Durham one call for residents to call in with concerns um and to identify specific areas that we needed to target. Um the city of Durham's inclement weather dashboard was instrumental as a single point of contact point references to to disseminate information to the public. Um as well as the Durham Heart team. Um I can't say enough about the Durham Heart team.

They were instrumental in our recovery efforts. Some opportunities for improvement that we identified were is are an enhanced standardized situational reports. Um we recognize the need to put together situational reports in a more standardized format to provide to leadership of both city and county governments. Um an eno river alert gurm specific SOP for notification.

While the SOP itself is still in process, we have implemented the framework by adding an opt-in group within the alert gurm for residents to choose to opt into to receive this targeted messaging. To date, we've had about 22 residents sign up for this. um as well as a joint city and county crisis communication plan which is currently in progress

and as well as expanding emergency manage emergency management capabilities to allow for 247 active monitoring. I tried to be brief in the interest of time. So that's all I have. >> Thank you so much Nate.

This was a really amazing presentation and also just thank you to you and your entire team for all of the work and effort that you all put into keeping our community members safe and responding so effectively and quickly as you did. Um I had a couple questions before I bring it to the board. I just wanted to ask on your last points about the heart team. I'm really glad that you know thank you to the city for having that resource and partnership with Durham County. When did was Hart mostly utilized within the city limits or were they able to support in the county? Because I know >> the incident took place primarily within the city limits with only one small area outside with 700 blocks of 800 blocks of street which are just outside of the

city limits. So their primary response was in the affected area within the city limits. >> That's good to know. Um, and then I had another question, but it slipped my mind, so I'll come back to it after I see the words.

Questions from folks, Commissioner Jacobs and then Mayor Valentine Middleton. >> Um, thank you so much uh for this presentation. Again, I appreciate the collaboration between the city and the county. I first want to shout out to the fire department, the city fire department.

81 water rescues within six hours is incredible. Um, also want to shout out to Senator Chitlick who really advocated to get state and federal resources on the ground in the neighborhoods. I think that really helped and supporting you all as well. I appreciate people doing lessons learned. Um we always want to

learn. Um this was such an unprecedented situation, but this is the new normal, right? Um one of my questions is related to what um Chair Allam just said. Um if this was more in the county, um would the heart team have been able to um also help?

And also like shout out to the heart team doing disaster relief. Unbelievable, you know. So, um I'm just wondering about that for the future. That's my first question.

>> That's not a question. I can't really give you a concise answer right now. Um we are meeting with the heart team in the next in the I think the 27th of this month to have further discussions as to how they can assist in emergency emergency response, disaster response, and what that looks like, what their current cap, what their capabilities are. Um and I would probably be better to answer that question after we sit down and meet with them. I know

specifically because this was primarily in the city limits. They are a city team. They're able to um provide that response. But I bet manager Ferguson has a better answer than I do.

>> Does the green light on my microphone tell you something? Um I I think the most factual answer is I would want to limit uh the participation of heart outside the city limits at this point because they're uh city provided service obviously in a disaster and an emergency uh we always collaborate but you know but for the after response roles um you know I would I would want to limit I think primarily in this case uh we thought it was an appropriate role for HART to participate because we understood there to be some, you know, potential mental health impacts and uh just sensitivity needed for the individuals who are impacted by the flooding. Um my direction, unless uh corrected by my uh council, would be for that to be a fairly limited engagement for HART. Most recently, uh and this is

an update uh Mr. Sanders may not have yet. We had staff from our new engagement department go out uh on two nights uh over the weekend to provide as much updated information as we did about federal and state assistance. Um so for ongoing engagement, I think that is a model that I would like to to see uh perhaps a handoff from HART who have uh very uh heavy workload just responding to 911 calls.

So I think in this case I I would say under our current model HART's activity in the city and outside the city would be limited but other city resources may be able to backfill there. >> That's very helpful. But I think it also points to why we need to expand HART countywide um and obviously the county paying for that expansion. But um you know when a crisis like this happens um you know there's the immediate response but then there's the ongoing how people navigate through the what

happens afterwards that's so critical and helping people recover and that's the really hard part and we know that case management is is so critical getting access to the information the handholding and all that. So, um I hope we'll really again with the like what how do we plan for this in the future? We know that we're going to have more of these types of extreme events with climate change. Um and um my other question is whether you all will have any recommendations for how we go forward in planning infrastructure.

Um because you know again as we look at our land use planning, our UDO, um you know, we've got to be able to build and do things to re be able to re be more resilient. And I don't know if >> that's a big question. I I think from from our perspective, the

one of the most important things to do is is definitely pay attention to the science specifically involving climate change because we will expect to see these types of events. It's only going before it gets better, it's only going to get worse because climate change does exist. It does happen. And the last two hurricane seasons, the number of storms we've seen, the impacts that we've seen.

Um only in my opinion prove that to be true. This is a historical level of flooding. We haven't seen flooding to this degree in 29 years. Um that's that's significant. um what some of the things that we identif we have identified um are some of the processes and procedures and the technology that we have from before may not be adequate for the future. So that's some of the things that we are um examining particularly working with again Graham Summerson at the city um to determine you know what other technology flood gauge monitor monitoring is out there monitoring available this is well outside of my area of expertise

just to be clear um for river flow, how how fast the water is flowing, how fast it's rising versus the current gauge technology that we have now, how those notifications, what's the available funding that's out there. I would my advice on professional and personal level is pay attention to the science, know what it says, know what it's doing, see the direction that it's taking, and then adjust accordingly. Um, and be willing to pivot and say, "Okay, maybe this technology didn't work. We need to take into consideration something else, something different, additional technology, additional processes, additional procedures, and additional funding.

Um, which may include strengthening our infrastructure. Um, strengthening our sorry, not used to the microphone. Um, strengthening our infrastructure, um, particularly when it comes to debris management. Part of the some of the flooding that we did see downtown, um, was related to debris from the initial flooding event. Um, how do we how do we clear that out? Do we have debris

management contracts? Um do are our storm water and storm drain um partners are they capable of removing this removing this debris and if not how can we assist them? What can we do to improve that process? Just I mean things like that.

>> If I can add one additional comment you one of the things I think it's important for our local elected officials to understand is flood maps are are maintained by the federal government. I don't want to oversp speak, but I think there is a general frustration that those maps aren't updated as often as they should be. They don't currently reflect some of the conditions we're seeing. And yet those flood zones are triggers for the National Flood Insurance Program.

Uh whether or not you're in the flood insurance program greatly impacts the availability of impacts and federal benefits that come after an event like this. I think we are seeing properties that uh were flooded that were not within the flood zone. uh therefore they weren't required uh or and may not have even been eligible for the highest level of flood insurance and so that will impact them. Um I think that's an area of advocacy to our

federal partners to make sure those maps are updated especially if climate change is a significant factor in flooding. >> I would second that. >> Thank you for both those comments and I would add I don't know if this is true. I did see some comments that we saw things not be as bad in Durham because some of the investments that we have made in protecting the Eno River wershed and pointing to the importance of investing in protecting the watershed so that those areas are not built on when there is flooding.

So something else for us to keep in mind. Thank you. >> Thanks chair. Thanks for the presentation.

And I appreciate your comments about following the science. It's really critical as climate change is happening and as we can expect more of these intense storms. Um I want to follow up on that also ask about you mentioned that this was an historic storm at the Eno haven't seen this before 100red-year storm potentially and I guess the question is for you or maybe the county your city manager. I know

that that we model these hundredyear storms based on data. I think that comes from Noah. Is that correct? the Atlas model is that the And I guess so my question is like I understand that atlas model is being updated by the feds.

So at what point and how do we incorporate that new data into our plans and our modeling for what is considered a 100red-year storm because that may not be 100year storm anymore that may be a 25 year storm, right? >> This this year this storm is um it's a 300 to 400 year event is what we're looking at for this storm because >> but that is that based on past models or what the current models are going to show the new updated models? It's based off of what the current models are going to show. Um because we current this is this is new data and so it has to be incorporated.

>> Right. My question is as I understand again Noah is updating that atlas model which I think is a basis for estimate. I think that and other data is used to estimate these hundred-year storms. So when will we incorporate that new data from these new models that's coming out from the feds?

Because I think that's going to tell us then that's going to help us update what it really is aundred-year storm and what is >> I don't know. >> Yeah. I wonder if that that's a question

maybe for city or county managers. Uh we have our street and environmental affair environmental and streets department. Uh Marvin Williams is here. Marvin, I don't know if you have an answer to that question.

If not, perhaps we can connect back with our storm water team and get an update. >> Yeah, I think Marvin Williams with environmental street services with the city. So it really depends on when Noah would make that data available. They may be working on updates to the model, but it could take years potentially for that to really be vetted and released.

So when that does happen, we can start incorporating it into our, you know, storm water modeling, but it also would have to be impacted into private development storm water modeling when they submit that for any new development or redevelopment plans that come to the city or the county. So it won't be an immediate action that you'll see updated models that will be taken into account with any of the infrastructure that we currently build and maintain on the city side. >> That's helpful. And so as those as those models become available, then we have access to that. It's not not something

we have to purchase. We have we have direct access to those Noah models. Correct. >> Yes.

>> Once it's available. Okay. >> Thank you, >> Mayor Valentine. And then Council Member Cabero.

And that's the last. >> Yeah, that's it. Yeah. >> Thank you, Chief, and thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, I I'm grateful this opportunity to say in this chamber what we've had opportunity to say in the city council chamber and I want to say on behalf of our entire city, we cannot overstate how grateful we are to our first responders um in this emergency. It it is not uh an overstatement to say lives were literally saved even by our Durham Fire Department, our police department, and uh all of our emergency responders both from the county and the city. So, if they didn't hear it the first time, I hope they're listening. Uh the entire city, this entire county is county is just eternally grateful to the the acts of heroism um just throwing themselves into situations that most of us would run away from uh to save lives of our fellow residents and and neighbors and friends and and family

members. So I'm I'm truly grateful to them and I know the entire city is. So I want them to hear that again uh today in this chamber. Um and you touched on a couple of things, Chief.

I want to ask some uh just maybe two specific questions about when I was uh moving about neighborhoods. And shout out to Hart when I was in those neighborhoods walking and meeting. I saw HART folk out there uh talking to folk and and it was just very heartening uh to see uh our HART uh team out and and doing such great work after the storm. So, a couple of things, one of the things that neighbors um talked to me about that you alluded to was the emergency notification uh the the derm alert.

Was it actually activated that e the evening of the storm? I know we were getting alerts from the weather service and our regular um texts, you know, that you when your phone blows up, but was our actual alert system activated that even? >> Yes, we did not send out. So, we sent out 11 notifications throughout the the entirety of the event. Um there was a flash flood warning that went out. Um,

m. m. Um meaning during that time frame in that geographical location you are in an area that is subject to a flash flood a flash flood um because it is about to happen it is likely or it is actively occurring meaning once you receive that flash flood notification that flash flood warning you should take action um and that action would be up to you and depending on what your your individual plan is what you have decided to do. We did not send out an evacuation notice. We did not send out an evacuation warning because when we arrived on scene, the it was 2 o'clock in the morning and the area was actively flooding. We did not feel that it was

safe for our residents to send out an evacuation notice um to wake them up in the middle of the night with a notice that says evacuate into an active flood. Um at that point, life safety um was a primary concern. So residents were remaining sheltering in place while the department went and performed those water rescues. >> That's that's very helpful and I and I hope residents will will hear that.

So based upon that, who would need to opt in? What who is not captured by that alert that it would require them to opt in? >> So, so it's a couple of things. com and they they click on the sign up for emergency notifications link that where you create an account um at Smart 911. Smart 911 part RA partners with Smart 911 for your excuse me your personal account. You enter your personal information, your phone, your phone number, your address, the types of alert notifications that you'd like to receive and how you receive those

notifications. Um text, email or phone. You can choose to receive all three or any combination of those when an alert notification goes out. Um, if it is if it is just a normal text or email notification, you have to have opted into your emergency weather alerts to receive those.

>> Um, if it is an IPA notification, the message that flashes on your phone and beeps real loud and warns everybody when it goes off. >> Um, >> you may or may not have to be opted into that depending on if we send that notification out. If you are if we send that if that e if that notification goes out through Alert Durham, you have to have signed up and have an account and opted in to receive those. If the National Weather Service sends that notification out, which they will do independently, and we have no control over that, then you do not have to be opted in. You may receive that notification if it's sent independently through the National Weather Service. The problem is that we don't always know or or the average resident or or alert Durham subscriber may or may not know if

that notification came from us or if it came from the National Weather Service. if it is an eye notification. Text and email, it'll definitely come from us because it'll say so. >> Um, but an IPA notification may you may or may not know.

With that being said, our recommendation is for everyone to go to Alert Durm and sign up for an emergency notification. >> Yeah. Um, now I also recommend that you log into your account um, every six months. Make sure your information is updated and make sure that you have selected the types of notifications that you want to receive.

If you don't want to receive phone calls, then I would uncheck that selection. If you only want to see receive texts and emails or if you would like to receive all three, make sure that you make the appropriate selection. >> Thank you. Final question.

the uh the joint the joint city county crisis communication plan under uh uh opportunities for improvement. Do we mean communication inter agency or to the public? Because I'm I was under the impression that we have

>> all of the above. We we mean all of the above. We we are formulating a plan working with our vendor to create a joint joint plan for city and county pios within the city and county all not just the communications department but all respective organizations to create a framework for communicating within a crisis that includes internal communications inter agency communications as well as communications to the public as well also. >> Okay.

I'm glad to hear that. I was under the impression that we had these pretty advanced protocols through ILAS and practicing and all that stuff that when crises do this. This puts it in a standardized framework, a standardized form. >> Okay.

Thanks much. I appreciate it. >> Thank you so much, Nathan again. And I think um just maybe a feedback to our managers that if we can also incorporate in future years, I know our tax bills have already gone out, but like incorporating a information into like every mailing that we send out to residents, even send it home with students of like this is how you sign up for Alert Durham notifications. >> Yeah, >> we we support that.

>> Right. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Now, the next item is public comments.

Uh, Clerk Wallace, do we have anyone signed up? Okay. Is anyone here? Okay.

Seeing none, then I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Oh, Council Member Kier, just real quick, there is there had been conversation about making sure that the meetings with the school board were at times that made sense for for them. like we we set this in August and I can't remember the other one, but there was conversation around making sure that the rhythm um aligned well with decision-m and so I just wanted to raise that we don't have to solve it today. Um but just um if our DPS partners can let us know when those meetings would make the most sense for y'all, that would be helpful because then we can adjust it. And then the other thing was a conversation around um really getting in a rhythm around topics because there's big conversations um that that need to happen. I think one of the conversations that I know I've teed

up with city manager Ferguson was our interlocal agreements and streamlining that. I think that's also something that manager Hager has been made aware of and so I want to go ahead and say for our next agenda item if we could have that um and I don't want to not all of us are involved in agenda prep and so I don't want to miss the opportunity to go ahead and raise that. Thank you. That's all.

Thank you. >> Okay, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn >> the next meeting >> for >> Yeah, there >> no there was a conflict for the for the joints county. >> Yes, we need it was today. >> Yeah, it was supposed to be today and that was switched to this meeting and so now we have to schedule our replacement meeting for just counties.

>> Just follow up on council member Cavier's point. When is our next joint meeting with all three bodies to We don't know. >> Council member Cavier is saying that we're going to talk to that we'll have the clerks get together and confirm. So just real quickly, it was just decided

that it will be twice a year in February and in August. That's the combined meeting with all three. >> February is too late for the budget. >> Yeah.

>> Okay. >> So we'll the clerks will come together to talk about and with management early. >> I move that we adjourn. >> Thank you, Commissioner Burton.

>> Second. >> Thank you. Uh Council Member Wrist. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? We are adjourned. How are you? You're doing

Good. How are you?