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-Consider a final decision on the location of the transfer station at the August 18th <br /> BOCC meeting. <br /> PUBLIC COMMENT: <br /> Charles Viles, Vice President of the Board of Directors of Emerson Waldorf School, <br /> read a letter. <br /> "Dear Board of County Commissioners, <br /> As Vice President of the Emerson Waldorf School, I am writing to you today to <br /> express our deep concern regarding recent developments in the site selection process for the <br /> proposed Waste Transfer Station. Through media reports and communications with our <br /> neighbors, we have learned that a 32-acre site immediately adjacent to our school is under <br /> some level of discussion. <br /> Now in our 25th year, Emerson is the academic home for 265 students from pre-k <br /> through High School, ages 3 to 18. The vast majority of these children reside in Orange <br /> County, Carrboro, or Chapel Hill. Our core and overriding mission is the education of children <br /> using a curriculum and educational philosophy that is grounded equally in academics, art, <br /> music, drama, and physical activity. The campus we live on is vitally connected to this <br /> curriculum and thus our ability to deliver this education effectively. <br /> Physically, our campus comprises 55 acres that straddle Millhouse Road. A good <br /> portion of this land, 20 acres, is located southeast of Millhouse Road, west of the railroad <br /> tracks and directly adjacent to the 32-acre site under discussion as a Waste Transfer Station. <br /> We use the 20-acre tract daily to deliver both curricular and extracurricular programs. Third <br /> and fourth graders learn about farming by planting, maintaining, harvesting, and eating food <br /> from a school-maintained garden on the property. Middle school students use it as a <br /> laboratory to learn about botany, hydrology, and local geography. High school students play <br /> soccer and ultimate Frisbee on the sports field. Several all-school programs and celebrations <br /> are held on this land each year. <br /> Given the activities cited above, it is clear to us that a proximate Waste Transfer <br /> Station is essentially incompatible with a school. Indeed the County has noted this <br /> incompatibility in its community-based criteria for site selection, citing it as an `extremely <br /> important' factor. Accordingly, we hereby state our strong opposition to siting a Waste <br /> Transfer Station off Millhouse Road. Our concerns include the following: <br /> -Traffic. Large waste containing trucks on Millhouse Road pose considerable physical <br /> safety hazards for both vehicular and pedestrian users of Millhouse Road, a road <br /> which bisects our property. EWS students must cross this road every day as part of <br /> daily school activities. <br /> -Environmental Impact. This includes smell, above ground and below ground water <br /> runoff, airborne contaminants, and an increase in scavenging animals like rats. <br /> -Fairness. As is well-known, our area of the County has borne and continues to bear a <br /> disproportionate share of the infrastructure cost associated with Town and County <br /> operations. This includes the landfill itself as well as the Town Operations Center. <br /> It is unfair to ask us and our neighbors to bear yet another large project. <br /> To date, we have learned about the WTF siting possibility through emails, media <br /> reports, and back-channel communications. As a school we have had just a few days to <br /> evaluate the potential impact to our educational mission and to formulate an initial response. <br /> This whole activity around the Millhouse Road site is ad hoc and out-of-process when <br /> compared to the evaluation and consideration of other sites in Orange County. As stated, we <br />