Orange County NC Website
center needed to be in place by December 1st, but the local agreement will not be in place unless a <br />schedule has been created about benefits to the community surrounding the current landfill. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis stated for the record that he wanted to be very careful what was <br />promised to the residents of the Eubanks Road area. He is sworn to uphold the constitution of the <br />United States and North Carolina. The offers and suggested benefits for the residents of this area <br />must be legal and in keeping with what is actually possible for local governments to accomplish. <br />John Link stated that a conclusion must be reached regarding how to address the disposal <br />of solid waste within a matter of months and not years. There needs to be a management structure <br />put into place that can be supported by all local officials. <br />Commissioner Carey mentioned that local officials need to be very careful about the <br />promises made and solutions recommended. There may very well be other nearby, but not abutting, <br />landowners who will come forward with requests for compensation. The responsible unit of <br />government needs to be careful that they not make promises that would be impossible to keep. <br />Chair Crowther mentioned some of the possible benefits to adjacent landowners. He also <br />mentioned that there is a group of local residents who have stated that they would give up all <br />compensation if they were assured that no future landfill would be sited in their area. <br />Geoffrey Gledhill pointed out that there is no compensation issue on the table with regard to <br />the residents living near the existing landfill. These are not actually compensation issues, but <br />rather they are matters of public policy. For example, building a park or determining an area for <br />water and sewer or changing a speed limit. The only entitlement is the one that would be created by <br />the Interlocal Agreement. He mentioned that it would be legal to agree to a process but particular <br />reparations may not be legal compensations. Another issue to consider is that the process of <br />deciding on benefits will take much longer than the several months allowed for the adoption of this <br />Agreement. <br />Gayle Wilson reported that the monitoring of local well water shows absolutely no <br />contamination of those wells. <br />Commissioner Carey noted that the Greene Tract is not a part of the assets as set out in this <br />agreement. He felt that this would mean that the County would have all the responsibility but not all <br />of the assets. <br />John Link mentioned that the Town Managers have indicated that their elected officials <br />would be reluctant to transfer their portion of the Greene Tract with the Landfill. <br />Chair Crowther asserted that the County needs to state its position on the document first so <br />that the other jurisdictions will be able to respond to that position. <br />Commissioner Carey felt that the overall approach is good. The parts that concern him, and <br />several of the other Commissioners, are the disposition of the Greene Tract and how we go about <br />determining the community benefits and what they are going to include. He asked for clarification <br />regard 2.04 of the Agreement. Mr. Jessup said that there is a general requirement to bring all solid <br />waste to the County facility. "Other recyclables" refers to things that the County is not recycling but <br />which one of the towns is recycling. <br />Commissioner Gordon stated that having the County take over total responsibility in the <br />current scenario is problematic because of some of the details. She felt that there would need to be