In most communities in North Carolina, elected officials stay on top of critical municipal needs, such as having enough space to dispose of solid waste. However, as Pulpsters know, Orange County isn’t like most of North Carolina.

At way past midnight on the trash transfer station timeline, Chapel Hill mayor Kevin Foy suddenly has a thought about a site for the trash transfer station. How about putting it next to the Chapel Town Operations Center?

The reaction of the local media and other local politicians is as informative as it is entertaining. (See Chapel Hill Herald Epiphany Site Story.)

Rip Van Winkle's Hollow

On Friday, 8 May 2009, Mayor Foy led a select entourage around the 32 acre site off Millhouse Road. In his decisive and immortal words, “The question isn't whether we should put a transfer station there. The question is, is this something worth talking about?” Talk, it's the fragrant and somnambulant lingua orange of Pulpville.

None other than Commish Mike Nelson opines that “It can't be a shock to anyone that a waste transfer station in that location would be very strongly opposed by residents of northern Chapel Hill. It will take an inordinate amount of political will — in a town election year no less — to site the waste transfer station there.”

Dr. Rick Kennedy, a Nelson supporter, a family practice physician, a rural buffer resident, and a critic of those criticizing local government finally found something that he didn’t like about local government. Seems the issue only has to be at his doorstep (he lives within less than ¼ mile from the site) in order for him to “see the light”. In his words, ““People ought to share the things in the community that nobody really wants. Why doesn't that resonate here like it does on Rogers Road?”

“Physician heal thyself” has taken on new meaning. Perhaps Dr. Kennedy hasn’t yet attained the enlightment that comes from a constant flow of smelly trash trucks, the piquant essence of rotten garbage, and the sights of soaring flocks of buzzards.

What’s missing from the local media story of Mayor Foy's epiphany about locating the trash transfer station?

Even Commish Valerie Foushee, the Sphinx of the Orange County board recognizes something is amiss. In her words, the county asked the towns “months ago… and probably more than once” about a transfer station site. “Nothing was forthcoming.”

So what happened? Never fear. The Pulp will reveal a most southern of pastimes is to blame for the sudden awakening of Mayor Foy. He read the local obituary section. Lo and behold, the answer was revealed to him from an end of April 2009 item.

“Mrs. Julia Blackwood, 88, died Easter weekend at her home in Chapel Hill. Julia was born in Clinton, NC to Herman Stewart and Jenny B. Merritt. She came to Chapel Hill as the young bride of Eugene M. Blackwood. Soon after, she went to work as a secretary at the American Tobacco Company in Durham. (See Carrboro Citizen Blackwood Obit.

What does Ms. Blackwood have to do with a trash transfer station? Well kick back and follow how “bidness get dun” in Orange County.

The Blackwood family has owned property around Millhouse Road since 1752, before Chapel Hill was founded. They came under assault from the town in 1996.

After the firestorm surrounding then Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee forcing a landfill on to the Rogers Road community in 1972, Chapel Hill went looking for an alternative site for solid waste. It, the county, and Carrboro all thought they had the new site, Ms. Blackwood’s property on Millhouse Road.

The past is prologue in Orange County. As in the present trash crisis, the answer is revealed not at the beginning of the process, but in a surprise move at the end. In 1996, the politicians had a citizen group working diligently on site selection for over a year. Sixteen sites were considered. Then, magically, at the end, a 17th site (OC-17) was added, the Blackwood – Duke Forest site.

None other than Mr. Gayle Wilson denied hanky-panky in the latecomer OC-17 becoming the odds-on favorite back in 1996. Yes, it's the same Gayle Wilson who is surprised in 2009 by Mayor Foy’s magical announcement about the town operations center space, which just happens to be next to – you guessed it – the property of the now deceased Ms. Blackwood. Back in 1996, Mr. Wilson was the town of Chapel Hill’s solid waste administrator. In 2009, he's Orange County's solid waste administrator. (Any wonder the new county solid waste facility has just been built on Eubanks Road?)

Recycling is not left simply to bureaucrats in Orange County. Politicians and pundits are recycled too.

Guess who voted for the OC-17 landfill site? None other than then Chapel Hill Councilman, now Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton. As reported in the N&O in 1996, although Mr. Chilton was a “favorite of the local Sierra Club”, he voted for the OC-17 without any debate by the local enviromentalists. So did Carrboro Alderman Jacquie Gist, So did then Carrboro mayor, now county commish Mike Nelson.

Guess who was in opposition to the county picking any landfill site? None other than then Green Party member, now Democratic Party member and Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman. In his words, ”the people in the Blackwood Mountain area come across as NIMBYs. I’m particularly troubled by sone of their suggestions that we should ship our waste somewhere else. Why should we take advantage of another community’s poverty?” Strong words for someone with no visible means of occupation, then or now.

Then as now, technical arguments didn’t matter. Who cares if the site was too rocky and had a slave graveyard? What really mattered was raw political power. The county’s mistake was in going after some Duke Forest land. The Commishes can steamroll working African-Americans and land grant farmers. But, they are revealed as eunuchs where it comes to facing up to the Duke power block.

So let’s go back to the present.

Ms. Blackwood dies. Mr. Foy reads the obits. Shazam! We have a new spot for the trash transfer station.

The local media doesn’t ask the searchlight questions.

“So Mr. Foy, where have you been for the past three years in the trash transfer station debate?”

“When did you first think about the town operations spot next to Ms. Blackwood’s property?”

“Did you really wait until she died to screw up the courage to announce the site, while her grave is still fresh?”

Yes, local progressive profiles in courage abound.