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Orange County government: Official county pages.Open the sourceAll sources
Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–39.Back to highlights
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Recent decades · 1976–2026
- 1980s
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Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County bought the Greene Tract as a possible landfill site
The three governments purchased the roughly 164-acre Greene Tract, just north of Rogers Road inside Chapel Hill's extraterritorial jurisdiction, for a future landfill. The county's landfill site search committee did not choose it, and its future use was argued over through the 1990s.
- 1990s
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The solid waste interlocal agreement set 60 acres of the Greene Tract aside as Headwaters Preserve
The 1999 Solid Waste Management Interlocal Agreement set the terms for disposing of the 104 acres that stayed in joint ownership and allowed 60 acres to be deeded to Orange County, which became the Headwaters Preserve. In 2002 the three governments adopted a resolution identifying acreage on the joint portion for preservation and affordable housing.
- 2000s
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Census counts Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro in
Census 2000 counted 118,227 people in Orange County, 46,798 in the Orange County part of Chapel Hill and 16,782 in Carrboro, according to the county's published table.
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Orange County agrees to build a new construction and demolition landfill tied to a recycling ordinance
Because the construction and demolition landfill on Eubanks Road would fill around 2003, the Board of Commissioners agreed to build a new one only if certain bulky materials had to be recycled. The Regulated Recyclable Materials Ordinance took effect on October 1, 2002.
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Cedar Grove Branch Library opens in northern Orange County
Orange County opened the Cedar Grove Branch Library in two rooms of the Northern Human Services Center, a former school, to serve Cedar Grove and northern Orange. Budgets describe books, Spanish-language materials, children's and adult programs, computer classes and materials borrowed from other regional libraries.
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County library begins offering downloadable videos
The FY 2007-08 county budget added funds for MyLibraryDV, letting regional library patrons download videos in the library or on their own computers.
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Orange County's 2030 Comprehensive Plan places county growth within the Triangle economy
The Land Use Element of Orange County's 2030 Comprehensive Plan says the county, as an integral part of the Triangle, grew nearly 50 percent from 1980 to an estimated 121,991 in 2005, and names the Research Triangle Park as part of its region, calling jobs and economic conditions a frequent catalyst for changes in population and land use. It also records the 1984 Joint Planning Agreement with Chapel Hill, extended to Carrboro in 1987, and the 1986 rural buffer plan.
- 2010s
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Orange County Public Library begins lending eBooks and Kindles
In the 2010-11 budget year the library added an eBook collection and Kindle readers, provided through donations from the Friends of the Orange County Public Library. The next year it added an OverDrive eBook collection for download to patrons' own devices.
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Orange County Public Library forms a Teen Advisory Board
The library completed its first year of teen programming in the 2010-11 budget year and established a Teen Advisory Board.
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Orange County closes the Cedar Grove Branch Library
The county closed the Cedar Grove Branch Library, northern Orange County's only staffed library, effective August 1, 2010, citing 502 registered borrowers and a cost per patron far above other branches. Its materials and computers went to the main library and the Cybrary, and some Cedar Grove items were reused in 40 Literacy Bag outreach kits.
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Commissioners drop a proposed bookmobile and fund year-round Sunday hours at the main library
The manager's recommended 2011-12 budget included $317,315 for a new bookmobile, $252,500 of it to finance the vehicle. Commissioners did not approve it and instead allocated $128,500 to expand service, including 60 hours a week with year-round Sundays at the main library from September 1, more Kindles, and more money for books, databases and programs.
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Hyconeechee Regional Library is dissolved
The regional library Orange County had shared with Person and Caswell counties closed on July 1, 2012, ending the county's annual matching contribution and leaving the Orange County Public Library to operate as a county system on its own. In the following budget year the county moved library software costs into its IT department, absorbed a lower state aid estimate, and replaced the Polaris catalog system with Sierra.
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Orange County Main Library introduces RFID self-checkout
During the 2012–13 fiscal year the Main Library in Hillsborough put radio frequency identification tags and self-checkout stations into service. Patrons used self-checkout for 63 percent of transactions, above the library's 50 percent goal, and the next year's objective was 70 percent.
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Neighbors form the Rogers Road Community Unity Board
The Community Unity Board brought together leaders from every sub-neighborhood of Rogers-Eubanks, among them Historic Rogers Road, Billabong, TallyHo, Meadow Run, Phoenix Place and Sandberg, for continuing talks about the area's future. RENA and the Jackson Center reconvened it in 2015 for the planning work the three governments had asked for.
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Orange County Public Library adopts its first strategic plan
The FY 2013–14 county budget reported that the library was creating a strategic plan, and county capital documents later refer to the approved Library Strategic Plan 2013–16, which charged the library with serving rural residents. The county called the 2017–2020 plan the library's second.
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Orange County Health Department reports serving clients in almost 20 languages
The county's 2014 State of the County Health Report said the Health Department served clients in almost 20 languages through bilingual staff and interpreters and bought translation memory software. It also described the Orange County Latino Health and Refugee Health Coalitions working on access to care.
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Orange County Public Library begins lending Wi-Fi hotspots
In the 2015–16 fiscal year the library and county IT staff piloted lending Wi-Fi hotspots to residents of southern Orange County and added hotspots to the lending collection at its libraries. Federal CARES Act money later doubled the hotspot inventory to meet pandemic demand.
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County capital plan budgets a Southern Branch library at 203 South Greensboro Street
Orange County's FY 2016–21 capital plan scheduled $6,375,000 in FY 2017–18 to design and build a Southern Branch library replacing the Cybrary and the Carrboro branch at McDougle School, after commissioners directed staff to work with Carrboro on siting it on the town-owned 203 South Greensboro Street property. The plan projected ten staff positions, two of them moved from existing Carrboro library operations.
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RENA and the Jackson Center published the Rogers Road community plan commissioned by the three governments
In July 2015 Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro asked the Marian Cheek Jackson Center and RENA to run a community-first planning process as sewer design advanced. The resulting report, built from nine Unity Board sessions and two rounds of interviews, set four priorities for the neighborhood and became the reference document for the later zoning districts and Greene Tract resolutions.
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Orange County's library branches are merged into one catalog
Preparing for the Southern Branch, the library merged the holdings of the Main Library, the Carrboro branch at McDougle School and the Cybrary into a single catalog during the 2017–18 fiscal year and added the Cedar Grove kiosk's items. Staff reported an immediate rise in circulation at all three branches and in items sent between locations by courier.
- 2020s
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Orange County Public Library closes its buildings and sets out a free book shelf
With its buildings closed, the library kept the Hillsborough and Carrboro book drops and phone reference running, stopped charging late fees, and from March 18 set out a free book and DVD shelf outside the Main Library in Hillsborough.
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Orange County Health Department identifies the county's first COVID-19 cases
The health department announced that Orange County residents had tested positive for COVID-19 at the State Laboratory of Public Health and were isolating at home. Health Director Quintana Stewart said the response was shifting from containment to mitigation.
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Orange County and its three towns issue a joint stay-at-home order
Orange County, with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, ordered residents to stay home except for essential needs from 6 p.m. on March 27, 2020, three days before the statewide order took effect. Set to run until April 30, it was extended to May 8 to match the state order.
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Orange County reports its first COVID-19 death
The health department reported that a resident in their 70s under hospice care at PruittHealth-Carolina Point, one of two long-term care facilities with outbreaks, had died of COVID-19 complications. The county then had 104 confirmed cases, and PruittHealth had at least 86 positive cases among residents and staff.
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Orange County Commissioners adopt a countywide Language Access policy
The Board of County Commissioners approved a policy requiring free interpretation and translation for residents with limited English across all county services, and directing each county department to keep a language access plan and train its staff.
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County budget closes the McDougle branch and consolidates Carrboro service at the Cybrary
Orange County's FY 2021–22 budget closed the Carrboro branch library at McDougle School, moved its staff to the Cybrary and lengthened Cybrary hours from 44 to 54 a week to match the Main Library, whose hours were cut from 68 to 54. The two changes together saved $143,083, and the same budget ended support for the Cedar Grove library kiosk.
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Orange County commissioners proclaim Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett Day
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously proclaimed Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett Day, honoring the county native who grew up in Cedar Grove and attended Orange County Schools; she accepted by Zoom.
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Orange County Health Department launches a health equity website
The health department launched a health equity webpage to stay accountable to residents on racial equity, citing the county commissioners' June 16, 2020 declaration of structural racism as a public health crisis.
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The three governments adopted an interlocal agreement on the future of the Greene Tract
The agreement required Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro to act jointly in hiring consultants, entering development agreements and taking public input, put the mayors, chair and managers in a working group to negotiate the ultimate uses, and stated an initial intent covering mixed use and affordable housing, a school site with recreation, a joint preserve and connectivity. A November 2021 resolution then approved the recombination plat and the conceptual plan for the 60-acre county tract and the 107-acre joint tract.
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Orange County Public Library adds Spanish-language classes and bilingual storytimes
Beginning in the 2021–22 fiscal year the library offered Spanish-language computer basics classes with the Family Success Alliance and UNC's Community Workshop Series. By 2023–24 it held storytimes in English and Spanish at Carrboro's Century Center, added Spanish interpretation to free computer classes and ran a health series for Spanish speakers with El Centro Hispano, and in 2024–25 it added bilingual storytimes at the Carrboro Farmers' Market and monthly conversational Spanish programs.
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Lucinda Munger resigns as Orange County library director
Munger resigned as director of the Orange County Public Library in October 2021, and County Manager Bonnie Hammersley named assistant director Erin Sapienza interim director while the county searched for a successor.
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Journey of Reconciliation convictions are vacated
On June 17, 2022, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour vacated the disorderly conduct convictions of Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Andrew Johnson and Joseph Felmet. The four Journey of Reconciliation riders had been arrested in Chapel Hill in April 1947 for refusing to leave the front of an interstate bus.
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Erin Sapienza is named director of the Orange County Public Library
County Manager Bonnie Hammersley named Erin Sapienza library director after she had served as interim director since October 2021, when director Lucinda Munger resigned. Sapienza joined the library in June 2013 as a branch manager, became community services librarian in October 2015 and assistant director in March 2020.
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Orange County Main Library begins sensory-friendly browsing hours
After staff training with the Autism Society of North Carolina, the library started a Sensory Friendly Browsing Hour during the 2023–24 fiscal year. In 2024–25 it installed sensory-friendly furnishings in the Youth Services area and held monthly sensory-friendly browsing hours for families.
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Orange County Public Library starts DELIVEReads home delivery
The library and Orange County Transportation Services began delivering library materials to residents unable to visit because of illness, disability, physical limitations or transportation problems, with up to ten items a month and staff selections on request. The service made 180 deliveries in its first fiscal year and later extended to caregivers.
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A bilingual book walk is installed at Efland-Cheeks Community Park
The county parks department and the library installed a bilingual English–Spanish book walk at Efland-Cheeks Community Park during the 2024–25 fiscal year, paid for by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library. It brought a library reading program to a rural part of the county without a branch.
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Interlibrary loan returns through UNC-Chapel Hill
Working with UNC-Chapel Hill, the Orange County Public Library restored interlibrary loan during the 2024–25 fiscal year at no cost to patrons. The county had charged $1 plus library costs, raised the fee to $3 in October 2013 and cut it from $4 back to $3 in 2018 before the service lapsed.
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Tropical Storm Chantal floods Orange County
Chantal dropped up to 10 inches of rain on Orange County on the night of July 6, 2025. Chapel Hill crews made more than 50 water rescues around Camelot Village and Eastgate Crossing, Carrboro's Weatherhill Pointe flooded, and the Eno at Hillsborough set a record crest on July 7. The county declared an emergency that day.
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Food pantries open at the Main Library and the Southern Branch
During the 2025–26 fiscal year the library built a permanent food pantry in the Main Library lobby in Hillsborough and worked with a local Girl Scout troop to establish one at the Southern Branch in Carrboro. The Main Library also collected 424 pounds of food for the Orange Congregations in Mission pantry.
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 4, 2026.
