Wake County Commissioners Delay Landfill Decision 05/02/06

The Wake County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a June 5 vote on whether to build a landfill in Holly Springs at N.C. 55 Bypass and the future Interstate 540 interchange.

The board voted 4 to 3 on May 1 to delay a decision. Holly Springs leaders are asking the county to reserve the 471-acre tract for economic development and ship garbage out of the county.

Commissioners Kenn Gardner, Tony Gurley, Herb Council and Harold Webb supported postponement. Commissioners Betty Lou Ward, Joe Bryan and Phil Jeffreys opposed it.

In November, county commissioners postponed action on a 25-year landfill use agreement with participating towns. The board also postponed voting on a contract with the company that would operate the county-owned landfill.

Holly Springs leaders had asked for the postponement. They sought time to explore an economic development opportunity that arose for the landfill property, even without extensive marketing. The site made the final four in a nationwide search before being eliminated.

Wake County is deciding what to do when the North Wake Landfill reaches capacity, which county officials have said could happen as soon as late 2007.

The proposed South Wake Landfill tract is adjacent to the county's Feltonsville Landfill, which closed in the 1990s. The county currently uses part of the Feltonsville site as a transfer station for hauling waste to the North Wake Landfill.

The South Wake site has risen substantially in value since Wake County began acquiring it in the 1980s. The tract was remote then, and Holly Springs had fewer than a thousand residents. Since that time, a development boom has pushed the population to more than 17,000.

Holly Springs contracts for garbage collection with Waste Industries, which hauls the waste to its regional landfill in Sampson County.

For more information on Holly Springs' response to the landfill proposal, visit: http://www.hollyspringsnc.us/links/landfill.htm.

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Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us