Green Park board to have 7 members

Board to include UNC scientist

By Jennifer Preyss
Staff Writer

Thursday, July 09, 2009
Camden — 

Camden County commissioners plan to appoint a seven-member advisory board to help recruit businesses to North Carolina’s first-ever “green commerce park.”

Although Peter Thomson, of the Elizabeth City-based nonprofit Green Eco Institute, Inc., will primarily be responsible for recruiting green technology businesses to the park’s “incubator,” a board appointed by the Camden Board of Commissioners will be counted on to assist him, commission board Chairman Phil Faison said.

“We would want the advisory board to be as diversified as possible so they can assist ... Thomson with the green park and help identify companies that would best suit the county,” Faison said. “We’re going to use it as a checks-and-balances system.”

Members of the advisory board will have specific backgrounds, Commissioner Sandy Duckwall said. One member will be a medical professional. Another will be a education professional. A third will be a banker and a fourth will be a professional engineer. A fifth will be a scientist in either the life, environmental or biological sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“We wanted someone from UNC because they were the ones who did the initial feasibility study (for the green park),” Duckwall said.

County Manager Randall Woodruff and Faison will also be members of the advisory board.

At Monday’s commissioners meeting, Commissioner Mike McLain suggested adding an at-large member to the board, possibly someone with an accounting background.

Faison said that may be considered at a later time but “for now we’re keeping (the board) at seven (members).”

Though the money is not included in this year’s county budget, Faison said advisory board members may be paid some type of stipend for their services.

“It’s a volunteer job, so before we make any decisions on (payment) we’ll have to see how much time it takes up to serve on the board,” he said.

Rather than recruiting members, Duckwall suggested the county come up with an application and then ask persons interested in serving to apply.

“We didn’t specify the board members live in the county, but I doubt we’d consider someone who wasn’t — except for the UNC representative,” Duckwall said.

Duckwall wasn’t sure when members of the advisory board would be appointed, but said it would be sometime “in the near future.”

Thomson said in an earlier interview that approximately 10 start-up “green” companies would be sought to occupy the incubator, which will be the largest building in the Camden Green Commerce Park.

In a related matter, Camden commissioners voted to approve an infrastructure master plan for the Camden Green Commerce Park presented by Todd Tripp, of the engineering firm McGill and Associates. McGill engineers are currently working on designing a system of water and sewer lines along U.S. Highway 17 that will serve the green park.

“We want and need a master plan that would show where the roads, streets and gutters are in relation to the water and sewer lines,” Duckwall said.

The cost of the master plan shouldn’t exceed $25,000, commissioners said. The plan will be paid for either with a portion of the $2 million in Golden LEAF funds the county is receiving or other grants from the N.C. Rural Center.