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The Daily Tar Heel

County governments to collaborate on developing Rogers Road

The Rogers Road neighborhood might get one step closer to remediation when politicians from across the county gather for their annual Assembly of Governments meeting Thursday.

The assembly includes the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, the Chapel Hill Town Council and the Hillsborough Town Board.

The governments will discuss a proposed extraterritorial jurisdiction in Chapel Hill. The jurisdiction would allow Chapel Hill to apply for federal grants for community development in an area outside the town’s limits — in this case, the Rogers Road neighborhood.

It would give Chapel Hill another way to help fund development of infrastructure in the area, which housed the county’s landfill for 41 years before it closed in June.

Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro have already planned to share the cost of a $5.8 million sewer extension plan for the area, with Carrboro contributing 14 percent and Chapel Hill and Orange County each contributing 43 percent.

“It’s Chapel Hill looking to find another source of revenue to help pay for some of the improvements,” said Craig Benedict, county director of planning and inspections.

Robert Dowling, executive director of Community Home Trust, will also propose a charter between the nonprofit and all four local governments that would outline the responsibilities of the nonprofit and the governments. Community Home Trust provides affordable housing to low-income families in the county.

“The effect would be that all the local governments, who ask us to do this work, have the same set of expectations for what it is we would do, as opposed to having different expectations for what it is we would do,” Dowling said.

The Chapel Hill Town Council approved the idea of creating the charter at its meeting in June.

The governments will also discuss whether the towns will continue letting Orange County provide their recycling services — which the county advocates — or whether they will move to a private contractor for those services.

Allowing the county to continue providing recycling services, as the towns have done since the late 1980s, will allow the county to proceed in making long-term plans to provide the services — as well as to implement roll carts.

Using 95-gallon roll carts instead of the current two 18-to 20-gallon bins will make the recycling process more convenient and efficient, said Gayle Wilson, Orange County Solid Waste Management director.

He said Thursday’s meeting is important because funding for those recycling services expires on June 14 and the county will need four to six months to implement changes, such as the purchase and implementation of the carts.

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