Live tweeting waste transfer hearing at the Commish

Among other things on the County Commissioners agenda tonight the siting of the proposed waste transfer station. John Rees, an avid cyclist who lives in Dogwood Acres, is there and posting updates via Twitter. Here are his updated posts in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest):

Comm Jacobs feels they need to procede, but is also advocating a paralleled track. to find alternatives 
Comm Pelissier feels she is in the minority regarding continuing the process. Cites the potential lawsuit as delaying the process anyway  
One of the speakers was a Dur attorney apparently representing several clients, threatened a lawsuit if a decision is made, BOC discussing 
The TV in the lobby just went dead (on a timer? Its 11PM) But I can still hear the speakers in the halway. Will have to guess who is talking  
Comm Nelson speaks up about his concerns of some recent consideration using the existing OWASA site as a colocation to the transfer station. 
Comm. Jacobs Is proposing that even if they vote tonight, there is the potential of a parallel track in the development on alternatives. 
Mike Nelson is now talking about how the selection process has already been restarted before, and is opposed to re-opening the process  
Commissioner Jacobs appears to think enough time has been spent, but Com. Hemminger seems to think we should look at it more. Applause. 
WOW! Another board member has just abruptly corrected Bernadette Pelissier on something, but I didn't catch it. Man I wish I was inside. 
@orangepolitics Interesting, the TV monitor outside has a delay from the PA system, similar to the delay between Woody and TV on BB games. 
Lester Ray "My family has been through the depression, two world wars, droughts, hurricanes,but this is a knife in the heart of my community  
on the 12'th public speaker. Applause after each one, last three are local cyclists concerned about getting knocked off the road by trucks 
Boy, the residents and land owners really feel targeted by the BOC: OWASA, the airport and the transfer station.  
Maybe I should have stayed at home and watched on TV. The chambers are full, and there are still a lot of people standing outside the door 
There are people still standing right out chambers for about 2 hours now. Waiting for the transfer issue. Is it important to them? You bet?  
I know it's juvenile, but there is a 'Commissioner Gordon' on the Orange County BOC. I keep waiting for the Penguin to disrupt the meeting 
@tbeckett A trash transfer station in rural orange county. It affects the land owners and also cyclists like me  
People watching the county commissioners meeting from the hallway. We were asked to be quiet or they'd have to close the doors to the c
It's going to be a long night. We just started item 6a on the agenda, " Efland Sewer Rate Schedule Change"
There are speakers in the restrooms so I can hear the proceedings if I wanted to hang out there, but not outside the chambers. ?? 
Sitting in a near by room, watching the meeting on TV monitor with no or little sound. No torches and pitchforks, but a LOT of people here 
SRO at the county commisioners meeting. I just got kicked out because it was too crowded. - http://bkite.com/02Vws

 

Issues: 

Comments

The BoCC decided to go ahead with the transfer station tonight at the Howell property (and to also pursue the OWASA site in parallel). They think that the going after the OWASA site too will give them more leverage with the Howell trust :)

I don't understand what purpose it serves to set out design requirements, such as environmental impact on a single community and access to utilities, and then totally ignore them. The Howell property, as I understand it, is outside of the urban services boundary so it won't have water or sewer service from OWASA. According to the fire inspector I spoke with earlier this week, that means they will have to build an elevated water storage tank with a capacity of 1-2 million gallons along with all the back up generation needed to ensure pumping availability under any weather conditions. That's in addition to the cistern they will need for storing non-potable water and the well for potable water and the waste disposal for all that water (filtration ponds I assume). We should expect to see the total cost in dollars of this facility significantly exceeding current estimates.

From what I understand the owner wants 22K per acre, for 140 acres of land that will not perk and likely has polluted wells. As well, the owner wants another piece of their adjoining land (8 acres) rezoned to commercial/industrial. Originally they wanted only to give access from Teer road, but my understanding is that they have backed off from that requirement. In classic, do what I say, not what I do mode, the rezoning would break the current zoning model and flies in the face of everything the county has said out of the other side of their mouths for years.In other stupendous demonstrations of "I don't get it". The county commissioners want to build a *%$%* park on the property! I got Pepsi up my nose when I heard that. Another one was to have the folks out here join SWAB, obsessively to affect the trash truck traffic flow. They seem to conveniently forget (or cynically remember) there are only two ways in and out from that site.What amaized me was Bernadette's assertion (and the others agreement) that the process had been followed and that they had not *already* changed the criteria mid stream. Her assertion that considering other sites somehow "lacked transparency" Her assertion rang patently false to me and showed either a lack of factual knowledge or a deliberate obfuscation of the BoCC failure.I am almost thinking we should join SWAB and insist Hillsboro pay to send their trash from Hillsboro out I-85 to highway 54e than come in from the west, probably 40+ miles out of their way and Chapel Hill Carrboro trash down Martin Luther King (historic Airport) drive and then down Main street in Carrboro.

 

Community Guidelines

By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.

 

Content license

By contributing to OrangePolitics, you agree to license your contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons License

 
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.