HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 01-23-2007-9aORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: January 23,, 2007
. Action Agenda
Item No. 9-0
SUBJECT: Orange County Transfer Station
DEPARTMENT: Solid Waste Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gayle Wilson - 968-2885
1. Neighborhood Meeting Brochure
2. 1/22/07 Solid Waste Director Memo
3. Neighborhood Meeting Issues
Summary (To be provided under'
separate cover at the meeting)
PURPOSE: To reporton the January 18 landfill neighborhood. community meeting and to
discuss and provide direction to staff regarding a location for an Orange County.Transfer
Station.
BACKGROUND: The existing landfill on Eubanks Road will reach capacity in 2010, at which
time the County will be required to transport its municipal solid waste out-of-county for disposal
through the use of a Transfer Station. At the February 8, 2005 joint work session between the
County Commissioners and the Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB), the SWAB was asked to
look at where a transfer station could be located. At the March 15, 2006 BOCC work session,
the SWAB presented a recommendation that'a transfer station be sited on existing landfill
property on Eubanks Road. In 2001, the BOCC did not approve the North Eubanks Road site
for a future transfer station as a part of the Master Plan in order to examine other options.
Exploration of alternative waste transfer station options involving discussion with Alamance
County and the City of Durham have proven unsuccessful.
At the October 24; 2006 BOCC work session; the Board eliminated further discussion of a City
of Durham option and agreed to revisit the issue of a local transfer station location at a future
meeting. It was determined that the BOCC would decide from among three options:
• to locate the site at Eubanks Road;
• to direct the staff to look for another site;
• to direct staff to have a public meeting in the neighborhood with direction from the Board
as to the parameters of the presentation.
At the December 12, 2006 BOCC meeting, staff was directed to conduct a landfill neighborhood
meeting (meeting brochure attached) to present issues related to the possible development of a
transfer station on existing landfill property and to solicit input and answer questions from
residents of the surrounding community. This meeting was held on January 18 at the Faith
Tabernacle Oasis of Love International Church on Rogers Road (meeting issues summary to be
provided under separate cover as Attachment 3 at the meeting).
FINANCIAL IMPACT: Subsequent to the October 24 meeting, the County was contacted by a
property owner indicating the availability of his parcel, located on Highway 70 East in Orange
County. Staff was asked-to conduct an analysis of the site option and to present a financial
analysis of utilizing this site versus the Eubanks Road location at a future BOCC meeting.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board consider the comments
from the neighborhood meeting and provide direction to staff on the next steps to determine the
future site of the proposed transfer station.
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Memorandum
To: Laura Blackmon, County Manager
From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Management Director
Subject: Eubanks Road Neighborhood Meeting - Transfer Station Issue
Date: January 22, 2007
At the direction of the Board of County Commissioners, staff conducted a Eubanks Road
Landfill neighborhood community meeting on January 18, 2006 at the Faith Tabernacle
Oasis of Love International Church on Rogers Road. The meeting was intended as an
opportunity to discuss the potential location of a transfer station on existing landfill
property north of Eubanks Road, to present issues and answer questions related to
development of a transfer station, and to solicit input from the neighborhood that can be
taken into consideration as the BOCC considers where to locate the facility.
The meeting was announced within the community by notices being mailed to the
Landfill.Neighborhood Group contacts, articles in the newspapers and hand delivered
notices to each household within the neighborhood. Staff also contacted 3 residents who
had previously indicated they wished to be notified of any neighborhood meeting.
There were about 20 residents in attendance, one elected official from Carrboro, and
Chair Moses Carey and Commissioner Foushee of the BOCC. Commissioner Carey
presided over the meeting and began the discussion by providing a historical overview of
county operations on Eubanks Road. Then Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson provided
a conceptual overview of a possible transfer station on Eubanks Road, describing what a
potential transfer station would look like and how it would function, including the
anticipated impacts on surrounding neighborhoods and contrasting these with current
landfill operations.
The comments and questions were numerous, and staff is developing !'summary of the
issues discussed. Acoustics in the large room provided less than preferred results from
the tape recording of the meeting, but the tape is available to the County Clerk should
anyone wish to review the meeting in its entirety. In addition, attached to this
memorandum is one resident handout from the meeting and one email from a resident .
attendee.
Attachments: Citizen E-mail
Citizen Handout
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Attachment 1
Commissioner Carey and Director Wilson,
I attended last night's meeting about the waste trasafer station and
the Eubanks Road site. My name is Stephen Clossick, and I live on
Meadow Run Court.
Thank you for coming in to talk to a hostile-crowd. My history in
Orange County only goes back to 1989 so I can only partially sympathize
with what some of my neighbors who have lived in the area have gone
through, with having had the landfill placed in their backyard.
However, I was disappointed that no one had a county-wide persepective
in approaching the issue.
I'd bet good money that the transfer station is going to go on Eubanks,
and I'm fine with that because I can't think of anywhere else in orange
County that would make much sense geographically and financially. This
other site that you mentioned is going to have its own set of
neighbors, and at any public meeting they will stand up and ask, "Why
can't you use the Eubanks site? You own it, there is space for it, it
is optimal geographically; why are you looking at other sites?" The
answer is that you have to appease the neighbors along Eubanks, and at
the least, make it seem as though there are other places being
considered. I wish you had been able to tell folks that last night, but
I know you wanted to get home safely.
Let me reinforce a couple of things that were said:
1. widen .Eubanks - especially over by the park and ride lot - and
especially with the new school coming in down there at old 86 2. litter
control - I see the guy out there very often policing along Eubanks,
they keep it spotless. Maybe you could put an information sign at the
start of Eubanks at Airport Rd that says "See an uncovered garbage
truck? Call *911 to hotify.the Sheriff." The sheriff may never make it
out thereto catch the truck, but if I frequently haul garbage to the
transfer station and I know that the cars I pass are looking out for
stuff spilling out of my load, I may take a couple of extra minutes to
secure it.
3. free mulch - send out some certificates that lets the neighbors get
2 truckloads of mulch a year, 4. access control -with so much
development coming to this part of Chapel Hill/Carrboro, having trucks
lumbering in and out of the site is going to back things-up, please
make sure you make ingress and egress from 'both side safe and quick 5.
cleanliness - not litter per se, but with all those trucks splashing
through all that mud, Eubanks is dusty when it is dry and muddy when it
is wet. I asked about what kind of surface the roads will be, because I
am hoping to see a general reduction of the mud on the road and dust in
the air. Concrete pads to the transfer station and the convenience
center should help, but see if you can put in some large shrubs that
will screen the facility from the road for both noise and dust. My car
seems to be dirty all the time from driving through there and I hope
that in the future the dirt level will decrease.
6. Combine the HHW and the recycling center - makes it convenient. And
design the recycling center so all the traffic flows one way, no one
has to back up, and maybe you could work it so the trucks can pull
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full containers from the perimeter of the site, while residents discard
trash and such inside the perimeter (details details.)
I'll think of more later -
If folks complain about cars speeding, recommend that they get contact
the sheriff or town police. When I lived in Carrboro proper, I could e-
mail-the police about cars going too fast and the next morning there
would be a cruiser stationed on the road in front of my house, and it
worked. (After I moved, the neighbors petitioned to get speed bumps and
stop signs put in - and they did. Please - no more speed bumps.)
Anyway, I thought it was funny how one resident asked about trucks
leaking dirty water, and Gayle's comment about requiring trucks to be
sealed was taken to mean that if the water that leaks from them smells
bad, the county hill then require all the trucks to be sealed. (Shaking
my head here.)
Thanks again - sorry that you have to go through this exercise of hot
air and outrage, but I guess it'comes with the job.
Best regards,
Stephen'Clossick
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Attachment 2
18 January 2007
To: Orange County Board of Commissioners
Orange County Solid Waste Management
From: Kathleen Schenley, homeowner
6714 millhouse Road 918-4159 katsch22(abellsouth.net
As a Millhouse Road homeowner since 1981, I am concerned that, yet again, our
neighborhood is faced with waste disposal decisions that affect our lives and property.
We rejoiced when -the decision was made to close the Eubanks Road landfill. Eventually.
We had a light at the end of the tunnel. Now you wish to turn out the light and close off
the tunnel. Here we go again.
Her are my specific concerns and questions:
Can you guarantee that there will be no problem with odor or vermin at the transfer
station?
Can you guarantee that there will be no noise pollution from machinery, truck back-up
homs, and the like? Can you guarantee that there will be no noisy night time activity?
(Would you like being awakened in the middle of the night to the sound of banging
trucks and beeping back-up alerts?)
Can you guarantee that trucks using the roads will obey the speed limits?
(I have clocked OCWM trucks at 38mph on Millhouse Road in a 20 mph zone.)
Can you explain to us the decision malting structure? Do the Chapel Hill and Carrboro
City Councils have any voice in this decision? It seems unconstitutional that those of us
in the Rural Buffer should have our fate decided by officials for whom we cannot vote.
We were promised freedom from the burden of the county's trash. Is that promise ever
going to be fulfilled?
Thank you for listening to our concerns.
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