
{"id":5651,"date":"2009-04-30T11:00:32","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T19:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5651"},"modified":"2009-04-30T11:00:32","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T19:00:32","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-the-wrong-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/04\/30\/letter-to-the-editor-the-wrong-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor: The wrong approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I applaud and thank the BOCC for their decision to delay the vote on the Howell forest property in rural Orange County in order to gather additional information. It was a nice Earth Day gift. Consider this following quote from the Natural Resources Defense Council: <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The transportation sector is the second-largest and fastest-growing contributor to global warming pollution in the United States, in large part due to steadily rising number of miles that cars and trucks travel each year.\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6While there has been a federal focus on increasing fuel economy of vehicles and decreasing carbon content in fuels, these strategies alone will not be enough to slow and reverse overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. The number of miles that vehicles travel is the critical, but often forgotten, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthird leg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of the transportation stool.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Turns out, this Earth Day gift was just a stocking stuffer, because the Howell property still remains the only site under consideration. It is both far from the source of trash production and far from any major highway. To access I-40 or I-85 from the Howell site, you must  either drive back where you came from in town or drive in the opposite direction from the trash\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimate destination by going up 54 West. Do we really want fingers pointed at Orange County as a prime example of our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from such excessive and unnecessary mileage? We shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to pay the resulting huge gas bill indefinitely, and we may not be able to without cutting other areas of service.<\/p>\n<p>The most direct route from Hillsborough would be up and down Orange Grove Road, and from Chapel Hill North, up and down Dairyland. These roads are heavily trafficked by farm machinery and bicyclists. Add to all the above, the fact that the site hosts wetlands and potential endangered wildlife, has no running water and no sewer, and does not perc.  <\/p>\n<p>Additionally, no studies have been done about how runoff will impact the Haw River. <\/p>\n<p>Yet, what are the pros? As articulated by Commissioner Jacobs, there are only two: the unincorporated area does not have any elected officials to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (except the BOCC themselves), and that Mr. Howell was a willing seller.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Yuhasz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comment that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We will go out of our way to make it work\u00e2\u20ac\u009d should bother anyone who cares about the environment and about minimizing our tax expenses. Good leadership from our BOCC would include nixing this bad idea, and starting an honest search for a fiscally and environmentally responsible solution. <\/p>\n<p>Susan Houck<br \/>\nBingham Township<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I applaud and thank the BOCC for their decision to delay the vote on the Howell forest property in rural Orange County in order to gather additional information. It was a nice Earth Day gift. Consider this following quote from the Natural Resources Defense Council: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The transportation sector is the second-largest and fastest-growing contributor to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5652,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5651\/revisions\/5652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}