Millhouse Road site up for September discussion

The Chapel Hill Town Council might not have enough support to move forward with a waste transfer station possibility at Millhouse Road when it discusses the proposal next month.

The Millhouse Road site is close to the historically black and low-income community that has been hosting a landfill for 37 years.

In addition to the issue being politically unpopular, Mayor Kevin Foy, who proposed the site as an option, will be out of the state Sept. 14 when the council plans to discuss offering the land to the county, town council members said.

And the recent resignation of council member Bill Strom could make it difficult for council members to reach a majority vote.

Though the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted to consider the site, and consulting group Olver Inc. reported that it is qualified, some officials and residents question it as a strong political choice.

County Commissioner Barry Jacobs said he doesn’t think that the land will be offered to the county and knew that when he voted to consider the site.

“I would be surprised if it happened, especially in the middle of an election campaign,” he said.

Town Council member Laurin Easthom said the meeting will be held even if Foy is absent but that the item might not be discussed at that time.

“The Town Council is going to be forced to consider the option,” Easthom said. “We’re going to have to deal with the issues at our meeting.”

Jacobs said that while he has heard much opposition to the Millhouse Road site, there are obvious advantages in the fields of transportation, the environment and cost.

“It may be that it isn’t a good place, but rather than make a decision out of hand, I at least wanted to hear what the pros and cons are,” he said.

Mark Kleinschmidt, a Chapel Hill Town Council member, said that while he looks forward to discussing the matter more in-depth, he’s not inclined to move forward with making the offer.

“I think it’s incompatible with that area of town,” Kleinschmidt said. “That’s where I am.”

Residents of the Millhouse Road community and the Rogers Road community said they are hopeful that the town council will eventually decline to offer the land.

Millhouse Road residents have said they consider themselves neighbors of the landfill.

“We are arguing, and I think we have the support of the town council,” said Miriam Thompson, secretary of the NAACP of Chapel Hill-Carrboro.

“I think they are going to get such powerful opposition I’m hoping they will reject what was originally the mayor’s proposal.”

Robert Campbell, the co-chairman of the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism, said three of six council members were invited to the Millhouse site to see where the waste transfer station would be located.

Campbell said that he thinks the council will not offer the land because they will not have a majority vote to do so.

“I believe that the councilmen that took the tour will not vote to use it as a waste transfer site,” he said.

“Because of those three councilmen, in the absence of Bill Strom, it won’t pass.”


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