By Mark ChiltonÂ
In 1997, the Landfill Compensation Working Group, a group of elected officials of the Rogers Road residents, proposed 14 compensation items that we believed our local governments owed to the neighbors of the landfill. The Assembly of Governments met on October 30, 1997 to discuss the Working Group’s recommendations. The governments assembled agreed to implement the easier items on the list. Among others, Joal Broun, Jacquie Gist and I worked hard to pass the recommendations, but many elected officials opposed three key compensation items.  Â
Establishing a Park – Item 12 was a proposal for a park on the landfill (to be built after the landfill closed) or on other nearby government-owned land. Despite my efforts, the elected officials refused to commit to creating a park.
Self-determination of the Rogers Road Neighborhood – Item 11 was a proposal to allow the neighborhood to decide for itself where the eventual town line ought to be (the Joint Planning Agreement calls for splitting the neighborhood between Chapel Hill and Carrboro). Despite impassioned pleas from me and others on the working group, the self-determination model was rejected by the assembly.
Water and Sewer Service – Item 1 was a proposal to extend water and sewer service to families who had been affected by the landfill. The proposal for water and sewer service was quickly rejected by the majority, despite my advocacy. Several of the elected officials present, including me, pushed hard to at least make a commitment to provide water service, but the assembly as a whole refused and adjourned for the night, reconvening at a later date to approve water service only.
Since 1997
I have to tell you frankly that October 30, 1997 was a very disappointing night for me. I and others on the working group had struggled with these issues for months. As the meeting adjourned, one resident of Rogers Road ran over to me and hugged me and Jacquie Gist, telling us how proud she was of how hard we had fought for her community, but I couldn’t share in her happiness. This was to be one of my last meetings as a Chapel Hill Town Council member. I left office in December of 1997 and moved to Canada to get married and start a family.
Sewers for Rogers Road
Since I returned to Orange County in 2000, I have advocated for sewer lines in the Rogers Road area several times: I advocated for Habitat for Humanity before the Chapel Hill Town Council for funding of a Habitat development on Rogers Road extending sewers in the neighborhood. On the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, we increased subsidies to $2,000 for replacing existing septic systems with sewer lines. I advocated for running sewers along Rogers Road to serve a county office building on Eubanks Road. Finally, even as I write, Carrboro is extending sewer lines farther north from Homestead Road. I won’t stop pushing this issue until the residents of Rogers Road have affordable sewers.
Self-determination for Rogers Road revisited
When the board of aldermen began looking at annexing areas along Rogers Road in 2004, I brought up the seven-year-old issue of the Rogers Road neighbors request for self-determination. I objected to including the Rogers Road homeowners in Annexation Area B because the issue was still unresolved. I voted against including Rogers Road in Annexation Area B that night and Joal Broun and I continued to work on the issue in 2005.
The transfer station
On March 13, 2007, I gave the Orange County Board of Commissioners my reaction to the proposed solid-waste transfer site and I also posted it online on Orange Politics. The BOCC seemed to take my comments to heart, declining to make a decision that week, but the very next week they ignored my points and the many objections of the neighbors and selected their site on Eubanks Road.
The Orange County commission is the applicant and the Chapel Hill Town Council is the reviewer.
The commissioners have the power to decide to proceed with their application or not. The town council has the power to review the permit application. This matter is far from done and the county has yet to demonstrate that Eubanks Road is the best — or even the only — site available.
Mark Chilton is the mayor of Carrboro.Â