
{"id":6176,"date":"2009-06-11T07:14:12","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=6176"},"modified":"2009-06-11T07:15:19","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T15:15:19","slug":"council-urges-date-certain-on-owasa-odor-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/06\/11\/council-urges-date-certain-on-owasa-odor-elimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Council urges date certain on OWASA odor elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Chapel Hill  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Chapel Hill Town Council asked officials from the Orange Water and Sewer Authority for a solid commitment on when the final phase of a project to eliminate odors from the utility\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wastewater-treatment plant will be completed.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion came Monday night at Town Hall as the council reviewed OWASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans and heard from neighbors of the plant who are demanding to know when the work will be done.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nOdors from the plant on Mason Farm Road near Finley Golf Course have been a long-running issue for residents. At their urging, the council sought a firm commitment for the project when it approved an expansion of the plant in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>OWASA has already spent roughly $4 million on the problem, but wants to delay the third phase of the plan for another year because of slowing revenues.<\/p>\n<p>At Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting, several residents told the council that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re concerned the work might not be accomplished soon and that if left undone a future council or OWASA board may decide not to finish the project.<\/p>\n<p>Highland Woods resident Frank Rexford said neighbors of the plant have tried to get the problem fixed since the 1950s. Rexford, who moved to the neighborhood in 2004, said he understood that the project would be completed fairly soon. He said at the time, he did not expect to be urging its completion at a meeting in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>Rex Butler, also a Highland Woods resident, said coming to the council about the plant has become an annual exercise for him and his neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just looking for a commitment and a date to fix this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.  <\/p>\n<p>Council member Jim Ward said he was particularly concerned about comments from the OWASA finance board that he said indicate a less than solid commitment to the project.<\/p>\n<p>Ward said the utility firmly committed to the project when the council agreed on the plant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expansion.<\/p>\n<p>OWASA board members told the council that OWASA remains committed to the project, but that in light of the current economic situation the board did not think it was prudent to commit to a specific date.<\/p>\n<p>Braxton Foushee, who represents Carrboro on the OWASA board, said he was responsible for the comments Ward cited and reiterated his personal view that he could not vote for a project while the utility was raising rates. Many OWASA customers cannot afford their water bills now, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Laurin Easthom said her reading of the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permit for the construction of the plant would require that work be completed on the project, including the final phase of the odor elimination, by 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Kevin Foy suggested that OWASA consider dedicating a portion of the rate increases to the project and include at least some money for it in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget to help assure residents that they remain committed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The best guarantee,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is cash.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The council, OWASA officials and representatives of the plant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s neighbors agreed to try to hammer out an agreement on the schedule. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Chapel Hill \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Chapel Hill Town Council asked officials from the Orange Water and Sewer Authority for a solid commitment on when the final phase of a project to eliminate odors from the utility\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wastewater-treatment plant will be completed. The discussion came Monday night at Town Hall as the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176","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=6176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6178,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176\/revisions\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}