Carrboro Board of Aldermen talks Rogers Road

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story misquoted Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle. She said there's a question of whether Chapel Hill has the legal authority to do construction in the community. The story has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

The Board of Aldermen gave the go-ahead for the town manager to sign interlocal agreements relating to engineering and community outreach programs for the Rogers Road community.

At its Tuesday night meeting, the Aldermen said they’re ready to move the process along.

The Rogers Road Neighborhood is a historically black, low-income and minority community in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that housed the Orange County landfill for over 40 years.

In exchange for housing the landfill, the community was promised water and sewage hookups and a community center. In June 2013, the county closed the landfill. The neighborhood’s community center closed in 2012 because of fire code violations, and construction on a new community center has only just begun.

The board addressed the money that has been allocated for improvements to the Rogers Road Community Tuesday. The town implemented another $450,000 toward improvements.

“We have in fact allotted the entire $900,000 of our general fund to improvements for the Rogers Road Community,” Alderman Damon Seils said.

Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County agreed to a shared cost plan, where Carrboro would supply 14 percent of the money needed for the Rogers Road sewer improvements and community center. Chapel Hill and the county would each supply 43 percent.

Mayor Lydia Lavelle said the town is ready to move forward but is waiting on the county and Chapel Hill.

“They’re (Chapel Hill) able to spend money on engineering and preliminary work, yet there’s the question of construction support for the community,” Lavelle said, referring to the question of whether Chapel Hill has the legal authority to provide construction in the community.

Alderman Sammy Slade said there has been a lack of communication between the towns and county.

The town of Carrboro would like to receive more frequent updates about where the county and Chapel Hill are in the appropriations process, Slade said.

Orange County received the go-ahead from the county attorney on Sept. 4 to use $650,000 for improvements to the Rogers Road community.

The money was set aside in the county’s 2012-13 budget but was not used because of an investigation into Rogers Road by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Slade said Chapel Hill is still waiting for results from the preliminary work before providing the rest of the money allocated in their budget.

Carrboro officials just want consistent updates on the status of Chapel Hill and Orange County’s funding.

“We’re ready to spend our money,” Seils said.

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