As published in the Courier-Tribune of November 3, 2011
by Hugh Martin
CANDOR — The Town of Candor Planning Board met Tuesday evening to consider a conditional use permit application to construct a controversial biomass burning facility that would produce steam to generate electricity to run Mountaire Farms feed mill. The feed mill is in Candor town limits.
After hearing from the designer and builder of the incinerator and from Mountaire Farms neighbors on Morris Farm Road, the board recommended approval to the Board of Commissioners.
Opponents of the project say their issue is the health and welfare of the community from the byproducts and diminished air quality that would result from the burning process.
Brownie Newman of FLS Energy, the company that would operate the plant, told board members that the plant would be constructed using the latest and most recent technologies available.
“This will be the cleanest system to ever be built in North Carolina,” he said.
Also at the meeting were Will Kisner, facility designer at PortLand Systems, and Joe Sullivan with Trinity Consultants, an air quality emissions permitting company.
Newman produced a map of North Carolina that showed the locations of nearly 200 boiler facilities in the state. Of these, only 5 percent use the wood fuels that would be burned at the Candor facility.
The fuel would be wood chips from leftover timber industry material, a product that is not otherwise being utilized. Newman assured board members that no treated materials or railroad ties would be used as fuel.
Unlike previous meetings of the board, vice chair Jim McLeod allowed public comment during the meeting.
Bill Bruton, who lives next door to the proposed facility, posed questions to Newman, Kisner and Sullivan. Bruton addressed the height of the facility’s smokestacks, which is 36 feet above ground. He asked at what distance fallout from the stacks would occur. Sullivan said that any concentrations of air particulate would be way below permitted standards.
Sullivan said that the projected output is so low that the application for an air quality permit could be handled by the Fayetteville Regional Office of the Division of Air Quality rather than being sent to the central offices.
Bruton, reading from the town ordinance, reminded the planning board members that they do not have to recommend either for or against an application.
“When a recommendation is made, it should be based upon what the town board will have to do when it takes action” he said.
Bruton said that, according to the zoning ordinance, the town board must find that “the requested use will not impair the integrity or character of the surrounding or adjoining districts, nor be detrimental to the health, morals or welfare.”
“My neighbors and I were here first,” he said.
Bruton said that FLS did not have a track record worthy of a conditional use permit to run the facility as this would be the first facility of this kind they would operate.
Newman replied that FLS had other similar projects being developed in North Carolina.
“It’s not that complicated,” he said. “These systems do not require a high degree of training to operate.”
Bruton pointed out his concern that Mountaire has not proven to be a good neighbor, based on feed spillage along the side of Morris Farm Road, where the feed mill is located. The entrance to the site of the proposed facility is located on the same road near its intersection with N.C. 211.
Certified soil tests have shown an increased level of copper and arsenic from two sites on the roadside on Morris Farm Road. These soil tests were done at the request and expense of Bruton and the owners of the Carlan farm.
Board member Lawrence Lamonds asked Bruton why he was bringing Mountaire into the argument when they will not actually be operating the energy facility.
“If they don’t care enough to keep these toxins off of their neighbor’s land, should they be trusted to share any concerns about keeping particulate matter out of our lungs?” Bruton said.
On Monday, planning board member Allene Graves, Mayor Richard Britt and town commissioners toured a similar facility in Clinton, N. C., on the corporate grounds of Prestige Farms, a company that produces pork and poultry products.
“The structure was huge and very clean,” Graves said. “I saw no emissions from the smokestack and there were two houses approximately the same distance from the facility as Mr. Bruton’s house is from this one. There was a field of cows grazing next door.”
Graves said the plant operator told her that they had never had a single complaint from neighbors.
“He said that a home woodstove would produce more arsenic than these systems because of the equipment that is installed to clean the emissions,” Graves said.
Britt pointed out that the corporate offices were located on the same site as the boiler.
“While the sky may have been clear over the plant, and the air may have smelled fresh,” Bruton said, “please remember why Walmart sells carbon monoxide detectors: It is a harmful gas that is colorless, tasteless and odorless.”
Bruton said that the N.C. 211 corridor is being developed as a gateway to the Pinehurst area. “Instead of benefiting from this gateway, do we adopt the position, ‘Welcome to the Sandhills, hold your breath for the next 5 miles?’”
Following all comment, planning board members McLeod, Lamonds, Graves and Ronnie Thomas voted in favor of recommending to the town board that the conditional use permit be approved. The next board of commissioners meeting will be on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m.
Following the meeting Bruton said PortLand, Trinity and Hurst had built plenty of these types of facilities in the past: “Mr. Newman has stated that this is FLS’s first power project fueled by incineration. We should not expect approval for a conditional use by a novice operator.”
Showing posts with label Montgomery County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montgomery County. Show all posts
Friday, November 4, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
MCC trustees consider tobacco-free campus ♥
As published October 22, 2011 in the Courier-Tribune
by Hugh Martin
TROY — At their October meeting, trustees of Montgomery Community College discussed the possibility of implementing a policy making the school’s campus tobacco-free beginning on Aug. 1, 2012.
President Dr. Mary Kirk explained that the time between the approval of such a policy and the actual implementation would serve as an education period, which officials hope would allow staff, students and visitors to the campus an opportunity to cut back or stop smoking.
Tobacco is already restricted in buildings, with designated areas available for tobacco use. If the tobacco-free policy is approved, such use will be prohibited “in all campus buildings, facilities, and outside areas of the campus or in vehicles that are the property of the college, at lectures, conferences, meetings, social and cultural events held on campus.”
Now, 29 of the state’s community colleges are 100 percent tobacco-free while 28 are not. Randolph Community College is 100 percent tobacco-free.
A survey of MCC employees showed that 5 percent are tobacco users. No numbers were available for the student body.
Student Government Association President Sharon Hurley told trustees that, as word of the policy has spread on campus, she had been hearing negative comments from tobacco users.
“I have had some students tell me that they will leave school if the policy goes into effect,” Hurley said.
Kirk asked Hurley, “Do you think they would really leave?”
Hurley responded, “I don’t know, but I would hate to think that someone would end their college career because they weren’t able to smoke a cigarette.”
Trustee Earle Connelly asked if tobacco users could do so in their own vehicle while on campus.
Roger Reynolds, vice president of administrative and student services, told the board that it was his understanding that RCC allows tobacco use in personal vehicles as long as windows are closed and debris is not disposed of outside the vehicle, which would be a violation of the policy.
As for enforcement, Kirk said the Student and Employee Discipline Policies would serve for the new policy as it does for all others.
Trustees approved further study on establishing the policy, which will be brought back to the board at a later date.
In other business, trustees:
• Heard a presentation from Instructor Abraham Encinas-Torres on the English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
• Were introduced to new employees Ernest Everington, system technician, and Tim Kennedy, director of assessment and institutional effectiveness.
• Approved hiring Harriet Johnson as accounts receivable specialist.
• Approved a $5 increase in student fees for the TEAS exam (Test of Essential Academic Skills) for nursing students.
• Approved over $63,000 worth of assorted Marlin and Remington gun stocks from Remington Arms to the MCC gunsmithing program.
by Hugh Martin
TROY — At their October meeting, trustees of Montgomery Community College discussed the possibility of implementing a policy making the school’s campus tobacco-free beginning on Aug. 1, 2012.
President Dr. Mary Kirk explained that the time between the approval of such a policy and the actual implementation would serve as an education period, which officials hope would allow staff, students and visitors to the campus an opportunity to cut back or stop smoking.
Tobacco is already restricted in buildings, with designated areas available for tobacco use. If the tobacco-free policy is approved, such use will be prohibited “in all campus buildings, facilities, and outside areas of the campus or in vehicles that are the property of the college, at lectures, conferences, meetings, social and cultural events held on campus.”
Now, 29 of the state’s community colleges are 100 percent tobacco-free while 28 are not. Randolph Community College is 100 percent tobacco-free.
A survey of MCC employees showed that 5 percent are tobacco users. No numbers were available for the student body.
Student Government Association President Sharon Hurley told trustees that, as word of the policy has spread on campus, she had been hearing negative comments from tobacco users.
“I have had some students tell me that they will leave school if the policy goes into effect,” Hurley said.
Kirk asked Hurley, “Do you think they would really leave?”
Hurley responded, “I don’t know, but I would hate to think that someone would end their college career because they weren’t able to smoke a cigarette.”
Trustee Earle Connelly asked if tobacco users could do so in their own vehicle while on campus.
Roger Reynolds, vice president of administrative and student services, told the board that it was his understanding that RCC allows tobacco use in personal vehicles as long as windows are closed and debris is not disposed of outside the vehicle, which would be a violation of the policy.
As for enforcement, Kirk said the Student and Employee Discipline Policies would serve for the new policy as it does for all others.
Trustees approved further study on establishing the policy, which will be brought back to the board at a later date.
In other business, trustees:
• Heard a presentation from Instructor Abraham Encinas-Torres on the English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
• Were introduced to new employees Ernest Everington, system technician, and Tim Kennedy, director of assessment and institutional effectiveness.
• Approved hiring Harriet Johnson as accounts receivable specialist.
• Approved a $5 increase in student fees for the TEAS exam (Test of Essential Academic Skills) for nursing students.
• Approved over $63,000 worth of assorted Marlin and Remington gun stocks from Remington Arms to the MCC gunsmithing program.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Small Town USA in Troy this Saturday ♥
As published October 20, 2011 in the Courier-Tribune
by Hugh Martin
TROY - It all started three years ago in the parking lot of Benny Hampton’s store, Montgomery Farm & Garden, on North Main Street, but the 2011 version of the Small Town USA Celebration will stretch for several blocks Saturday in Troy.
The event will take place rain or shine.
The celebration of the line of Case brand knives that Hampton sells at Montgomery Farm and Garden has grown to a community event that folks anticipate each October.
The event is still anchored in the W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company’s Historian Event. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Hometown Heroes.”
“We want to honor those who keep our communities safe, those who risk their lives every day for others, and those who send their sons and daughters off to war. Community heroes include veterans, nurses, teachers, police, emergency and fire personnel, and the average citizen who helps a neighbor,” a Case spokesman said.
Tributes are scheduled throughout the day to honor these hometown heroes at the main stage in the Montgomery Farm and Garden parking lot.
Enjoy the cars and custom bikes at the cruise-in along North Main Street.
Montgomery County 4-H will sponsor an area for children that will include a bounce castle and other kid-themed events.
Kids and adults can show off their creativity at the pumpkin carving contest.
The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will hold a persimmon pudding contest with cash prizes for the winner. There is a $10 entry fee for this event. Proceeds will be donated to area food pantries.
Case Historian Katie Shonts-Saar and other Case personnel will be in attendance. Other Case knife events will include special sale prices on Case knives and products, an apple peeling contest, Case knife polishing and sharpening, hourly drawings for Case knives and items and an auction for a one of a kind pearl-handle Case knife.
Other events for the day will include:
• Montgomery Farmers Market Association vendors.
• Music by Pete Yow and by the Real Clays.
• Crochet, pottery, woodworking, basket weaving, craft and quilting displays.
• Local fund-raisers include Trinity Youth Raffle, Troy Chapel AME Zion food, Troy Lions Club food, West Montgomery Boosters Club barbecue, a bake sale, a silent auction and tee-shirts, ice cream and cupcakes for sale.
• Fire trucks and vintage tractors.
• Race car displays.
The Small Town USA Celebration will take place from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on both sides of North Main Street from East Roswell Street to Page Street.
Main Street will be open to traffic throughout the event and volunteers will be present to assist those attending. Parking will be limited to public lots on Bruton and North Main Street and along area side streets.
by Hugh Martin
TROY - It all started three years ago in the parking lot of Benny Hampton’s store, Montgomery Farm & Garden, on North Main Street, but the 2011 version of the Small Town USA Celebration will stretch for several blocks Saturday in Troy.
The event will take place rain or shine.
The celebration of the line of Case brand knives that Hampton sells at Montgomery Farm and Garden has grown to a community event that folks anticipate each October.
The event is still anchored in the W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company’s Historian Event. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Hometown Heroes.”
“We want to honor those who keep our communities safe, those who risk their lives every day for others, and those who send their sons and daughters off to war. Community heroes include veterans, nurses, teachers, police, emergency and fire personnel, and the average citizen who helps a neighbor,” a Case spokesman said.
Tributes are scheduled throughout the day to honor these hometown heroes at the main stage in the Montgomery Farm and Garden parking lot.
Enjoy the cars and custom bikes at the cruise-in along North Main Street.
Montgomery County 4-H will sponsor an area for children that will include a bounce castle and other kid-themed events.
Kids and adults can show off their creativity at the pumpkin carving contest.
The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will hold a persimmon pudding contest with cash prizes for the winner. There is a $10 entry fee for this event. Proceeds will be donated to area food pantries.
Case Historian Katie Shonts-Saar and other Case personnel will be in attendance. Other Case knife events will include special sale prices on Case knives and products, an apple peeling contest, Case knife polishing and sharpening, hourly drawings for Case knives and items and an auction for a one of a kind pearl-handle Case knife.
Other events for the day will include:
• Montgomery Farmers Market Association vendors.
• Music by Pete Yow and by the Real Clays.
• Crochet, pottery, woodworking, basket weaving, craft and quilting displays.
• Local fund-raisers include Trinity Youth Raffle, Troy Chapel AME Zion food, Troy Lions Club food, West Montgomery Boosters Club barbecue, a bake sale, a silent auction and tee-shirts, ice cream and cupcakes for sale.
• Fire trucks and vintage tractors.
• Race car displays.
The Small Town USA Celebration will take place from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on both sides of North Main Street from East Roswell Street to Page Street.
Main Street will be open to traffic throughout the event and volunteers will be present to assist those attending. Parking will be limited to public lots on Bruton and North Main Street and along area side streets.
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