Minutes - 20080415 - Transfer Station

Browse Search

11 Since the last Task Force meeting on November 12, 2007, there has been no action by the BOCC. As a matter of fact, Chair Moses Carey indicated that the Board's decision to reopen the site search for the transfer station might negatively impact the County's willingness to provide basic public services. (See attached meeting notes.) Has Orange County not worked in good faith on behalf of the community by now tying long-promised basic public services to the siting of a new transfer station? Is the Task Force to be yet another failed effort in the long history of promises made, expectations raised, and resolution denied? The BOCC has now also made it clear that the Title VI civil rights administrative complaint filed by the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association with the Coordination and Review Section in the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice precludes any further work toward reaching a settlement. The community challenges such reasoning. The administrative complaint asserts that discrimination occurred and that necessary procedures were not followed in the past to the detriment of the Rogers-Eubanks Road community. To follow proper procedures now and to continue the work of the Task Force going forward does not reflect on the past or the disposition of that administrative complaint. To use the Title VI administrative complaint as an excuse not to address the concerns of the community appears to be just another evasive tactic. The Rogers-Eubanks Road community stands ready to continue working with the BOCC and specifically wants to focus at this time on the most pressing and most easily remedied issue before the BOCC, the issue of the siting of the Waste Transfer Station. Specifically, we seek the immediate removal of the Rogers-Eubanks Road vicinity from consideration as a site for the Waste Transfer Station. This matter can be resolved quickly with the prompt passage of a BOCC resolution that takes a determined stand for environmental justice. We have attached a recommended resolution for your consideration. The Task Force and the good faith efforts of the Rogers-Eubanks community should not become another sad milestone in the long history of expectations raised and hopes denied. We stand ready to continue the work and look forward to your prompt and unanimous passage of the proposed resolution. Thank You. Robert Campbell and Neloa Jones Co-Chairs of the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism" 7) Further Comment and Feedback as desired by the Board to Olver, Inc. and/or County Management Chair Jacobs clarified that the Board has asked for further information including a written summary of the public session comments, a hypothetical site with criteria applied, and further testing based on comments from Public Works staffs of Chapel Hill and Carrboro of the 12-mile limit. He also suggested that there be a modified environmental justice goal without the points. Commissioner Gordon said Olver also agreed to divide one of the exclusionary criteria into two parts, thereby making two exclusionary criteria: (1) the area twelve miles from the centroid along major truck routes and (2) the area three miles from the major transportation corridors. There were also other points concerning the community specific criteria that are to be addressed by the consultants. The Board also asked for a definitions for all technical criteria, community specific criteria, and exclusionary criteria, with some indication for how these would be measured.