Minutes 01-27-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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17 open opportunities for new ideas that staff are not able to suggest. It also will help us to communicate about these issues to the public. Commissioner Dorosin agreed. In reply to a question from Chair Dorosin, Brenda Bartholomew, Human Resources Director, said information was collected about a year ago and could be reported to the Board in aggregate regarding the counties in which County employees live, how they are getting to work, and over what distances they are commuting. Chair Dorosin said he would like to understand the infrastructure picture from a wider perspective, such as whether water and sewer will be extended up Old 86 and where it is on NC-54 and where it can go to, what is going to happen in the areas around the Economic Development Districts and Perry Hill and Washington Street. Maybe they could have a work session on infrastructure external to the County government. "Meeting in a Minute" The group adjourned for lunch. When the group reconvened, Bonnie Hammersley presented a short video: an example of a new communications tool produced by Todd McGee, the County's Community Relations Director. It was a one-minute video encapsulation of a recent Board meeting narrated by Chair Dorosin. The County webpage will post a similar "meeting in a minute" video after each Board meeting. Infrastructure, continued The group then continued talking about resilience and infrastructure. Commissioner Marcoplos said there is about 15-20 years worth of landfill space left in North Carolina; costs can only go up. They will be on a more sustainable path if they treated their waste like it was a resource. They need to site a transfer station in Orange County in order to save fuel and money, reduce pollution, and make ourselves less beholden to the waste management corporations. Chair Dorosin said the County's waste management issue—the discussion about controlling our destiny -- is much broader than waste transfer; they are still taking their waste to some other community. Commissioner Marcoplos agreed and said he has a proposed plan for a presentation at another time. Commissioner Jacobs recalled a recommendation from the Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling Task Force that the County treat the communities receiving their waste with the same care they would have for their own community. He said he does not think they have followed through on this. If they are going to have a transfer station, then they should visit the communities near the landfills where they would be sending their waste, learn how they are being treated, and speak to their elected officials. Commissioner Jacobs said they have had discussions about taking responsibility for their own waste within Orange County, but two-thirds of the waste generated in Orange County comes from Chapel Hill and Carrboro. They have no intention of having that waste disposed of within their jurisdiction. If their policy were to take responsibility, then their officials would want to dispose the waste somewhere near a community in rural Orange; that would be no more ethical or equitable than the current arrangement. Sometimes he thinks people feel they are not being environmentally just because they are sending their waste out of the county. But there are no environmentally just solutions that are cost effective. They are too small and the environmentally safe technologies are too expensive. This is a tough one to crack, and they should keep working on it. Commissioner Marcoplos described a field trip he took to the Sampson County landfill. It is a much more beat down community than Rogers Road. The landfill is closer to the houses. He said you can see it through the pine trees from very impoverished homes. There is trash on