In 2002, UNC commissioned a consulting firm, Talbert and Bright, to conduct a study for options to relocate the NC Area Health Education Centers’ (AHEC) MedAir flights in preparation for closing Horace Williams airport. In 2005, the consultants recommended RDU as the most economical and least disruptive site.
In August of this year, and without consulting local government, the NC Senate drafted, and Governor Easley signed, SB1925 creating a UNC Airport Authority with the right of eminent domain, the power to condemn and remove landowners from their property. I am a fifth-generation resident of the beautiful and peaceful community of White Cross, NC in southwestern Orange County, which now appears to be the top site for the proposed airport, even though RDU was the recommended site. I live less than a mile away from where UNC is proposing an airport that will benefit a few and literally destroy a way of life for many families in this wonderful community.
The 2005 Talbert and Bright study estimated $2.2 million to move AHEC operations to RDU, $5.1 million to upgrade Horace Williams airport and $30 to $35.9 million for rural southwest Orange County. Infrastructure costs such as increased fire and police protection are not included. Please bear in mind that these figures are from 2005. We are almost into 2009; you can only imagine how much these costs have increased now!
Airport land will be removed from the tax roles and the citizens of Orange County will have to pick up the infrastructure costs, such as water, trash, fire, police, etc. for the new airport. Not to mention the environmental disasters with fuel storage, impervious surface runoff into wells and the Haw River watershed, which would also affect surrounding communities for miles. The noise is a given; but, as is the whole community, I am upset about our rural way of life here that will be definitely destroyed. We are talking about that seventh-generation little girl looking to grow up and enjoy the deep-rooted family values that began with her sixth great grandfather and were proudly passed down through the years. We are talking about a way of life being destroyed, and for what? Not to benefit the people of Orange County, but to benefit a few special-interest groups tied to the UNC system.
Please help us, our family and neighbors keep UNC from building an unnecessary and horrendously expensive airport in Southwest Orange County.
Jerry & Joan Smith
Chapel Hill