By Joshua Lucas
Staff Writer
Carrboro and Chapel Hill leaders say they’re frustrated and disappointed by Orange County’s surprise decision last week to increase the fees it charges those who dump waste at the county’s landfill on Eubanks Road.
“I was disappointed,†said Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. “This is new to us.â€
County commissioners unanimously agreed May 17 to close the landfill within three and a half years, and to levy a $5 surcharge on each ton of waste dumped at the landfill. According to county solid waste management director Gayle Wilson, about 46 percent of all waste dumped at the landfill comes from the two towns.
For years, residents of the area around the landfill have complained of unlawful dumping, odors, suppressed property values and slow development, all of which they have said is connected to the presence of the landfill in their community. When Chapel Hill opened the landfill in 1972, Mayor Howard Lee told community residents the facility would close within a decade and become a park. Leaders of both Chapel Hill and the county – which now owns the landfill – have extended the life of the facility several times since.
The county intends for the new fee to pay for improvements to the neighborhoods around the landfill and allocated $750,000 to start a fund for that purpose.
Municipal leaders say that while they support the goal of improving the neighborhoods around the landfill, the fee is being sprung on them at the last minute of a very tight and difficult budget season. Town Manager Steve Stewart estimated the fee would cost Carrboro an additional $20,000 in the coming year.
“It is an unfair burden on (town staff) to ask them to scramble to find additional savings either at the 11th hour or after we are in the new fiscal year,†Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Dan Coleman wrote in an email to his colleagues.
Carrboro’s board voted Tuesday to tell the county it doesn’t have enough information to agree to participate in the program and asked the county to propose such fee increases by February in future budget years.
In adopting the fee, some commissioners expressed frustration at what they saw as reluctance by the towns to participate in a plan to address the landfill’s problems. Commissioner Earl McKee said that if towns weren’t making a direct contribution to a fund, they shouldn’t be part of any board that allocated the money.
“Whether or not the towns are on board is their choice to live with,†he said.