Orange County
I went to the Orange County Democratic Party legislative breakfast this morning. I did a play-by-play with Twitter and recorded a fair amount of audio with my phone.
As part of our move to sustainable energy practices, the University is partnering with Orange County on a project to turn the landfill gas from the Orange County Landfill on Eubanks Road into energy. On Monday, October 13, from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Orange County will host an information meeting on the project at the Seymour Center at 2551 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill.
Landfills like the one on Eubanks Road produce landfill gas, created as the waste stored there decomposes. The landfill gas then escapes into the atmosphere and is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This project would collect the gas and transport it to University property where it would be converted to electricity. This electricity would be used for power at the Giles Horney complex on Martin Luther King Boulevard and later for buildings at Carolina North.
This is an exciting project for the community. It is a great example of recycling a by-product of the landfill. Turning the landfill gas into electricity would move the University forward in its effort to become carbon neutral.
I'm doing a happy dance here in Egypt because I just received my Orange County absentee ballot, with plenty of time to send it back to Hillsborough before Election Day. I'll be mailing it off in the next day or so.
If you're ready with your endorsements, I'd love to hear them. I'm especially interested in opinions on non-partisan races and anything else where a straight-party Democratic vote might not be the way to go.
Yesterday the Chapel Hill News reported without questioning a study* saying that the economic benefit of a new airport in Orange County could be four times the impact of the current Horace Williams Airport. Would a new airport be four times as big and have four times the
traffic? Who would want that? And for that matter, who the hell would
use it?
I understand the benefit of the current airport to the University, the hospital, and the state. But I just don't see how having an alternative to Raleigh-Durham benefits the average Orange County resident. Most of us don't have private planes, and when we need to fly, we use the commercial airport. The tax benefit to local government is negligible compared to other possible uses of the land.
I'm just not buying this.
* This figure ($53,000,000) was based on a consultant's study. But they don't say whose consultant. UNC? Orange County? I
have been disappointed to see that County staffers have been speaking
out in support of a new airport. I doubt they are on the same page as
the County Commissioners.
On Thursday evening September 25th, at 7 PM, the Chapel Hill Town Council held a special meeting at the Friday Center. In addition to all of the Council members (except Councilman Bill Thorpe who is absent due to medical issues) the Council Members were joined by UNC representatives Roger Perry (Chair, Board of Trustees), Bob Winston (trustee, Chair of the Building Committee) and Jack Evans, who is is chair of the Carolina North project for the University.
One of the important points that was made early by Roger Perry was that he and Bob Winston speak for the trustees and he gave assurances that anything that they agreed to in principle would be supported by the Trustees. Another important issue was that of timing. Roger pointed out that in July there will be 6 new trustees (out of 13) and that these new trustees would come in with little or no background. Thus he urged the Council to consider a timetable that would complete by the Council's summer recess the necessary steps (e.g., rezoning, development agreement?) to allow Carolina North to go forward.
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