Not quite all on the same page ...

Well, nobody on the Board of County Commissioners is advocating pulling the Howell site out of consideration. That much, we know.

Commissioners Tuesday learned plenty of new developments, voted one out contingency plan almost immediately, and determined that all of their sources of information may not be on the same page.

Pam Hemminger and Bernadette Pelissier both asked that a work session be set so that commissioners could settle some lingering questions about cost projections, plans in case they can't build a transfer station by the landfill's capacity date and what exactly they're going to be building out on N.C. 54 if they approve the station site.

As other commissioners pointed out, three new commissioners — the aforementioned Hemminger and Pelissier, as well as Steve Yuhasz, faced a vote on the transfer station site in December as one of their first acts on the job. Pelissier said that she has been seeing so many numbers and spreadsheets that she's not sure what to make of sometimes conflicting claims.

There is a large cost difference in the conclusions made by consultant Olver and by Orange County Voice, a resident advocacy group. Also, commissioners learned Tuesday the landfill has at least an extra year of capacity then originally thought (part of that attributed to the "no cardboard" rule instituted this year, Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson said).

What that means, commissioners said, is they have more time to vet the Howell site, but nobody is walking away from it yet. Read next week's edition for more on these issues, including the short-lived Eubanks Road temporary transfer station option.