The Historic Rogers Road Task Force should work with the town’s recommended potential strategic partners when it resumes its meetings this spring.
Carrboro Town Manager David Andrews said two organizations — Chapel Hill’s The Jackson Center and the Durham branch of Self-Help — have been asked to help the task force promote affordable housing in the historically low-income neighborhood.
Both organizations have already worked with the Northside community, another low-income, historically black area in Chapel Hill. It’s good that these organizations have been asked to do the same for the Rogers Road community.
The Rogers Road community has been home to the Orange County landfill since 1972. The closure of the landfill has been delayed for years, but county commissioners have now set the date for closing it this June.
The Historic Rogers Road Task Force was created in February 2012 after commissioners voted to close the landfill. The task force’s responsibilities consist of making recommendations to government officials on improvements in the community, such as the construction of a new community center.
In addition to the planned rebuilding of the community center, County Manager Frank Clifton says that there is a long-term plan for a neighborhood school to be built, although no definite plans have been made. A new school would be helpful in the invigoration and binding-together of the community.
Recent actions have been in the right direction of restoring the community and fulfilling decades of broken promises. Building these partnerships will continue to improve the community and give Rogers Road residents the local support they’ve so long been denied.
