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<br />The Greensboro staff emphasized that at the beginning of their site search process, they <br />determined specific criteria, including that the new facility be located away from the existing <br />landfill, which is near an African-American neighborhood. They did not even consider putting <br />the new facility at the same site for environmental justice reasons. <br />Those of us who walked outside the back doors could both hear the trucks beeping and <br />dropping loads, and smell the garbage from nearby the outside of the building. Many garbage <br />trucks, including our new automatic container pickup trucks, are open on top, and the smell of <br />garbage from these trucks will carry along Eubanks Road. <br />Anyone who has ever walked around their neighborhood on garbage collection day <br />knows this too well. The Greensboro facility is open from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through <br />Friday and on Saturday mornings. Every day will be garbage day an Eubanks Road. Private <br />haulers cannot be prevented from using Rogers Road, and will use the shortest quickest route <br />to the waste station. <br />Road improvements were made at the Greensboro site, including a turn lane to <br />accommodate the semi-tractor-trailers, and the speed limit was lowered. However, the drivers <br />are paid per mile, so according to the staff, they drive over the speed limit to finish their trips as <br />quickly as possible, even with a police station right dawn the road. <br />Keep in mind that these 18-wheelers will be exiting and entering along with local traffic at <br />exit 266 at the Martin Luther King Boulevard entrance to Chapel Hill. The County population is <br />expected to double in the next 25 years according to County projections, most of which will <br />occur in central and northern Orange due to the near build-out of Chapel Hill and Carrbora. The <br />trash produced will also double as will the garbage pickup and transfer trucks. <br />There are no plans to widen or improve Eubanks Road to accommodate the additional <br />trucks other than adding a turn lane at the proposed facility entrance. We all know how long it <br />takes for the state Department of Transportation to make road improvements. Eubanks Road is <br />a narrow two-lane road with no shoulder and at least one low spot that already floods out during <br />heavy rains. <br />There are many reasons for this board to direct the County's Solid Waste staff to <br />conduct a genuine engineered study to determine the best location for the garbage facility. We <br />need to take into consideration not only the environmental injustice of locating a new garbage <br />facility near the African-American neighborhood, which has borne the burden of our trash for <br />over 30 years, but also the adverse impact on all the current homes in and along Eubanks <br />Road, and the newest Habitat for Humanity neighborhood being planned for the Greene Tract. <br />While there are some who will say that the neighbors should have known about this and <br />spoken up sooner, we ask, when and where were signs posted about upcoming meetings? <br />When and to who were announcements mailed and flyers distributed letting us know about the <br />proposed transfer station? Process matters. <br />The minutes of the Solid Waste Advisory Board meeting on March 2"d of last year report <br />approval of a resolution recommending the landfill property located north of Eubanks Road for <br />the future site of the transfer station. Yet, a meeting with the Rogers Road neighborhoods to <br />solicit input and answer questions was not held until January 18, 2007. <br />Did anyone propose locating the waste transfer station on Highway 54 across from <br />Meadowmant? How about on 15-501 across from the entrance to Southern Village? Then do <br />not locate the County's newest garbage facility at the entryway to the Eubanks and Rogers <br />Road neighborhoods. Please take Eubanks Road off the table and find another site to handle <br />Orange County's garbage for the next 30 years." <br />Brian Voyce said that he was at the SWAB meeting and when he asked if there was an <br />engineering report, he was told no. He advised the County Commissioners to take the SWAB <br />recommendation with that in mind. He also introduced the concept of planning that shows the <br />center of trash generation 25 years from now. This was also not taken into consideration. He <br />