Planner enters race for commissioner's office

• BY DANIEL GOLDBERG dgoldberg@heraldsun.com; 918-1046
• Published in: Chapel Hill Herald
• Page: 1
• Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008

HILLSBOROUGH -- The list of candidates for seats on the Orange County Board of Commissioners grew to three on Monday.

Bernadette Pelissier, a member of the Orange County Planning Board and a former chair of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, filed to run for one of two at-large berths in the Democratic Party primary. She joins current Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board chair Pam Hemminger and Tommy McNeill on the ballot.

Hemminger is seeking the Democratic nomination in District 1, which largely covers the southern part of the county. McNeill is a candidate for the Democratic nod in District 2, the northern and western part of Orange.

Pelissier said she thought that water was an important concern for the entire county.

"Water is a major issue for Orange County right now, and I think my background will enable me to provide strong leadership on problems related to the drought as a commissioner," she said.

An OWASA board member for six years, Pelissier served during the last major drought in 2001-2002, and was the chair when permanent conservation measures were adopted.

"I think we need to come up with more long-term water conservation goals, look at all the water resources across the county and plan as one county, one entity," she said.

Other priorities include transportation and expansion of the tax base. Pelissier thinks Orange should take advantage of opportunities in the "green collar" sector, which may include businesses related to recycling or light industrial jobs.

She also would like to see more attention given to the county's rural roots. There's a healthy market for goods produced by small, local farms -- they just need more promotion, Pelissier said.

"Stores like Whole Foods and Weaver Street Market are saying we have more demand for local products than there are local products," she said. "So let's get local products."

A retired social scientist who worked for more than 20 years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pelissier lives in rural Orange County.

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