Transfer station should not be on Millhouse Road

TO THE EDITOR:

Some Orange County commissioners are currently considering a vote to locate the waste transfer station on Millhouse Road.

Millhouse Road is half a mile from the Orange County landfill and is in the Rogers-Eubanks neighborhood. This historic working class African-American community has endured the Orange County garbage for almost four decades. This community has received nothing but broken promises and disrespect for three decades. No other community can make that claim. There is no rationale that justifies Millhouse Road as the site of the transfer station.

Let me paint a verbal picture. The Rogers-Eubanks neighborhood has with great dignity and perseverance fought to reclaim their neighborhood. They have been steadily climbing the mountain of justice avoiding the boulders tossed down local politicians. Yet the neighborhood keeps climbing toward the summit of this mountain. Recently they climbed the last vertical face, fingertips on the edge of the summit. As they peer over this ledge, they see several commissioners holding sledge hammers in front of a big red neon sign flashing Millhouse Road.

A choice to make: Vote for Millhouse swinging those sledge hammers on the fingertips, bam, bam, of that community kicking them into the abyss. Or throw those hammers behind you smashing the Millhouse neon sign into smithereens, reaching out to the neighborhood, helping them onto the summit to take back their neighborhood for themselves and future generations.

David Richter
Pittsboro