By Taylor Sisk and Susan Dickson
Staff Writers
The Orange County Board of Commissioners has decided to reopen the search for a solid-waste transfer station after having voted unanimously last March to build the station on the site of a county landfill on Eubanks Road. Residents of the community – led by the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism – have alleged environmental racism, saying 35 years of a landfill is enough of a burden for one community to bear, and had demanded the search be reopened.
Though it wasn’t on the board’s Monday night agenda, Chair Moses Carey opened the meeting by saying that he’d had “a change of heart,†and that while he felt the decision had been made to site the transfer station on Eubanks Road for “some very good reason, and I still believe those were good reasons at the time,†he now felt otherwise.
“I’ve had a change of mind about the location of the transfer station on the Eubanks Road site,†Carey said.
“I’m going to support restarting the search process,†he continued, “recognizing that it will be well into next year before we resolve this matter again and select another site, if we select another one.â€
Carey added that he wasn’t suggesting that the Eubanks Road site should be eliminated from consideration, “but we do need to decide whether we want to eliminate it for social justice or other reasons.â€
Commissioner Valerie Foushee said she too was in favor of reopening the search. “I do think that the public is owed a response to the request that was made to us earlier,†she said. Commissioners Mike Nelson and Alice Gordon also agreed. Board member Barry Jacobs was not in attendance.
“I would support putting this on our next agenda so we can start to dig in and work on this and move ahead as quickly as possible,†said Nelson.
It was agreed to put the issue on the next meeting’s agenda.