The Chapel Hill Town Council tabled a public hearing that would have examined funding options for providing water and sewer hook ups to the Rogers Road neighborhood during its meeting Monday night.
The council has been looking at ways to raise money for the extension of water and sewer services to the historically black and low-income community that housed the county landfill for 41 years.
The council was schedule to discuss a proposed extraterritorial jurisdiction, which would annex more land and allow the town to legally contribute more money to the community.
Council member Matt Czajkowski said talking about the issue is no longer enough.
“There is no doubt that after (41 years) we owe it to Rogers Road to finally do something now,” Czajkowski said. “So what is keeping us from doing something now? Money.”
Czajkowski said there is a piece of land located next to a local cemetery, estimated to be worth about $4 million dollars.
Czajkowski said one idea the town could pursue is selling this land and using the money to fund the community.
“If we aren’t talking about how we are going to fund this, what are we going to talk about?” Czajkowski said. “We need to find tangible ways to finance this and not just say, ‘In three years we might be able to borrow some money.’”
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said the town cannot randomly pick a program and compare it to something else that needs funding.
