You can't turn your back on the BOCC for a second. The Rogers/Eubanks community is back in the mix for the Transfer Station. As I have said previously the fight for environmental justice is far from over and vigilance is required. What is Foy thinking? And Jacobs was the original Sassaman buddy so Jacob's position is no surprise.
My heart goes out Reverend Campbell and Neloa Jones. Just as it appears that they are approaching the top of the mountain, voila, there is another vertical cliff to scale.
Issues:
Comments
An OC-17 repeat?
It looks like history repeating itself.1996 is to OC-17 as 2009 is to Millhouse road. Except it's not on Duke land and therefore there can not be any last minute heroics by Duke.
Except
It's not a 600 acre landfill & the location is different.
It's how you define location.
You could see both sites from the top of the UPS building (not exactly a skyscraper". They are both in the neighborhood. And the sudden appearance of both at a similar point in the process is "deja vu all over again".
Location
I bet you can see UNC hospital from there also.
Not unless I was at least 100' tall.
However, I don't think the UPS building roof is engineered to take the weight. But then again even at 5' 8" I need to go on diet.
Shame, Shame, Shame, Shame and more Shame
Barry Jacobs, Pam Hemminger, Steve Yuhasz and Bernadette Pelissier all deserve to have their portraits hung in the Orange County Hall of Shame by voting to go forward with Millhouse Road. However the head of that gallery belongs to Kevin Foy for even bringing up that option. He and the others are proving that the word of many of OC's elected leaders are worth less than nothing. The Rogers/Eubanks Road neighborhood means nothing to these folks. They see it just as a great neighborhood for dumping garbage and nothing else. This group has no sense of environmental justice what-so-ever.
Three commissioners, Valerie Foushee, Mike Nelson, and Alice Gordan, voted to stop this despicable proposal displaying a level of integrity, courage and understanding completely lacking in the other four. Unfortunately it was not enough.
Geographical question
Is the Millhouse Rd. location really in the Rogers Rd. neighborhood? I recall one residence on that road - the small horse farm on the east side of the road about halfway to the town maintenance buildings and the bus depot buildings. To get from Rogers Rd. to Millhouse, the route takes you past the solid waste building, past the landfill entrances, past the new animal shelter, across the railroad tracks, then a left at the corner where there is a storage company, an electrical supply company, and the UPS center (right next to the Park and Ride lot). There are no residences anywhere along that mile or so.
Rogers rd not the only to be dumped on
There are many mor neighborhoods (Heartwood, Emerson Waldorf, Millhouse Rd norht of landfill) around the Millhouse Rd area than just Rogers Rd. Why do all these neighborhoods have to suffer all the bad stuff. They have the old landfill, the current landfill, the demolition site, if not for Duke they would have had a new landfill (site 17), the new operations center. Similar to site 17 this waste transfer site was railroaded in at the last minute. We all know you were opposed to the landfill in your area a few years back and we all know you are opposed to the waste transfer site near your house. But I don't think it's cool to advocate putting all this stuff on the neighborhoods surrounding Millhouse Rd. Let's share the environmental responsibility and not dump everything on one area.
I hear you.
It seems for some that dumping over the fence in the immediate neighbors backyard solves the problem. That is just plain ridiculous. And the Millhouse Road folks have suffered as much as Rogers Road.
The good residents around the dump have been protesting and organizing for decades. Just when they seem to be climbing to the top of the mountain, their fingers clinging to the top of the last cliff with success in sight, they find Foy, Jacobs, Hemminger, Yuhasz and Pelissier, looking down at them holding sledge hammers going Bam Bam Bam on their finger tips hoping they will all fall into a crevice never to be heard of again.
Geographical answers
Underneath the white clap board on that small horse farm is one of the few remaining 2 story log houses left in the state (from 1800's I believe) and recently owned by a member of one of the Rogers RD families that have lived in the area for centuries (descendants of slaves). The property right (brick house just west of tracks) where Millhouse crosses the tracks directly across from the Operations Facility was also owned by descendants of the same family as mentioned above. Don't know if they still own (they may have been driven out by the placement of the operations center). If these are not members of the Rogers Rd community I don't know who is.
Were - not are
You stated pretty clearly that these properties used to be owned by people related to people on Rogers Rd. Let's just be accurate here. Clearly, historic owners and uses of property does not equate with present reality. I'm not trying to snow anybody on pros & cons of Millhouse. I just wish the debate centered more on geographical accuracies. I recognize that the "hidden wound" of racism is strongly in the mix here. It's a tough situation. But it's a huge stretch to say that the town buildings are in the "Rogers Rd. neighborhood " because 1) a relative used to own property near there or 2) since the SW border of the landfill is near the Rogers Rd. neighborhood then all borders of the landfill are in the Rogers Rd. neighborhood.
were
From what I've read in the newspapers the question is what is the definition of the historical Rogers Rd neighborhood?? Millhouse is historically in the Rogers Rd neighborhood. As I also mentioned there are plenty of neighborhoods along with the Rogers Rd. neighborhood in the area that have had to put up with all this bad stuff to our benefit and it might be best to share the wealth.l I'll defend your right to fight putting bad stuff in your neighborhood to the bitter end but how about just sticking with why it shouldn't go near my house rather than why it should go near someone else's house.
Frankly, the real issue is environmental justice . . . .
The real issue is environmental justice, not whether Millhouse Road is or is not considered part of the Historic Rogers-Eubanks Community.
The facts are what they are.
Millhouse Road residents suffered extreme negative impacts from the first unlined landfill, which, yes, county records really do document as having contaminated residents' groundwater.
Millhouse Road residents still suffer the negative environmental impacts from the stench exuding from outdated garbage dumpsters. (Orange County has had opportunity to update these dumpsters to reduce the stench, but has neglected to do so time and time again--no SWAB recommendations on this matter--I wonder why. . . .)
Buzzards occupy Millhouse Road just as they occupy the various streets in the Rogers Road neighborhood; Millhouse Road residents suffer having vermin delivered into their neighborhood from others' garbage just as do Rogers Road residents.
Let's not forget demolition and construction, white goods, yard and stinking mulch . . . .
I say to those of you who insist (or suggest) that dumping garbage on Millhouse Road is justifiable because it is not a part of a historic African-American community or who believe dumping garbage there is acceptable for any other reason, I say to you: you miss an extremely important fact--Millhouse Road residents have endured and endured and endured one injustice after another . . . . four decades of injustice are undeniable and anyone who states otherwise, in my opinion, well . . . . Orange Politics will not print what I think about you . . . .
We (white and people of color, north and south of Eubanks) will join together and fight: this war is not over.
Neloa Jones
Geographical answers (more)
f you cross the tracks at TOC then you will be on millhouse
essentially parallel to the proposed site. In that half mile stretch
are 50 families and the Emerson Waldorf School with 265 kids. The
footprint of the proposed site is less than 200 yards from the EWS
organic garden - 400 yards from the playing field that's used by EWS
and also the local youth rugby club. I have walked that route myself in
the last two weeks.
Millhouse goes through to new 86 at Allen and Son.
Before
the first landfill, this was definitely one neighborhood. The
Blackwood (on Millhouse) and Nunn (on Millhouse, Eubanks, Rogers)
families have a long and friendly relationship with each other as I
understand it.
I was at the meeting and
I was at the meeting and when the vote was taken the first time it was 5-2.When Commissioner Gordon noticed she could switch and her vote would not affect the outcome she did and the vote was announced 4-3 in favor of the manager's recommendation which asked that the CH Town Council take a stand on the Millhouse site.One speaker did suggest that the WTS be placed on Carolina North land which makes the most sense. I wonder what important person lives near Carolina North that would be opposed to that site?
Nasty nonsense
One speaker did suggest that the WTS be placed on Carolina North land which makes the most sense. I wonder what important person lives near Carolina North that would be opposed to that site?
At least a thousand of us, and a couple more thousands depending on radius, live next to Carolina North. We've had to put up with that airport so passionately opposed by everybody else in OC, for a long time. Not to mention the hazardous waste landfill. That vengeful, faceitious suggestion doesn't help the discussion and certainly doesn't help find a solution with the support and cooperation of all OC communities.
The airport was in the
The airport was in the sticks long before schools and homes were built around it. Did you purchase before or after the airport was present?
WTS at Carolina North
Chapel Hill's sustainability committee put that in their recommendations to the town re: the Carolina North development agreement (top of page 30) but it never came up for discussion w/ the trustees. efriend
Chapel Hill should take care
Chapel Hill should take care of their own waste and handle it in town. Situating it outside of town is certainly not "sustainable" or responsible.
excellent
Anon has an excellent suggestion. Some potential sites:1) vacant Franklin St storefronts. Not even a need for trash trucks, people could throw full trash bags in the open doors2) Kenan Stadium. I would think it could hold four or five years of waste, then we could put down a neat soccer field on top and mine the methane gas to replace the power plant on West Cameron. In the winter when the leaves are off the trees and it is too cold for soccer, the site could be used as a tent city homeless shelter, there would be a great view of town and most of campus. In addition, on top of the stadium, the homeless would be invisible to those downtown,3) Piney Prospect (behind Forest Theatre and near Gimghoul Castle) has a great escarpment. Trucks could go to the top and dump the waste over the edge. All in town sites! 4) Throw it out in your back yard
$$$$$$$$$
We should be concerned about the long term expense (aka TAXES) of putting the waste transfer station out in the boonies. I'd rather pay for teachers, libraries, name your favorite service, than TRUCK DRIVERS. Wouldn't you?!?
location location location
One of the driving factors in location should be where you will ship it. For example if the trash will go say to a Virginia site having the waste transfer station in northern part of county might be appropriate. I am not saying put it in northern orange county only using that as an example. It seems trying to locate ths WTS without knowing where we will be shipping is cart before the horse in terms of fair cost analysis.