SILER CITY — The Siler City Board of Commissioners decided on Monday to wait for additional information before moving forward with public hearings on the proposed closure of E. Third Street in front of the Mountaire Farms chicken processing plant.
Mountaire, a Delaware-based company, has been seeking the closure of the road for more than a year. In previous meetings, the board requested several pieces of information — a new traffic impact analysis to include not only impacts around the plant, but impacts on Raleigh Street; an economic impact study by the Chatham Economic Development Corporation; and public informational sessions on the plan to be held and for staff to prep the necessary resolution documents to schedule formal hearings.
As of Monday, the only item that was complete was the resolutions. Board members indicated they felt uncomfortable moving forward with the formal process without the other items.
Mark Reif, Mountaire’s community relations manager for North Carolina, raised concerns about having in-person informational sessions due to COVID-19 and noted they were planning instead to host a video conference for the public using the Zoom online platform. The board was not receptive to holding only virtual meetings.
“Not everybody has access to Zoom, but (they want) to voice their opinion,” Commissioner Tony Siler said. “They’re going to be left out.”
“Not everyone has the phones or computers to do that,” Mayor Pro-Tem Cindy Bray added. “We do, but we can’t take it for granted because not everyone does. We’re talking about older people who don’t have access to this stuff.”
“Can you see my mama on a Zoom?” Commissioner Chip Price quipped.
“Me neither, that’s why I’ve been here every meeting,” Bray responded.
“I don’t personally feel like I can consider anything until I have public input,” Price said. “Until I get some input from the citizenry.”
Several commissioners suggested that written questions needed to be collected by the staff prior to any virtual meeting. At the same time the board wanted to ensure that answers and responses were distributed in a variety of ways, perhaps at Town Hall or through media outlets.
Reif remarked that “it sounds like we need to do this a few different ways.”
Another significant concern for the board was the completion of an economic impact study. Reif noted that such a study could take five or six months to complete, which was “a problem” for the company. Sam Rauf, the project manager for the Chatham Economic Development Corporation, acknowledged that a “full economic formal study from a third party” might take at least six months, but that it may be possible for him and town staff to do a door-to-door survey of businesses that may be affected by the road closure rather than contract with a third party to do the study.
“It may not be as formal, but we’re happy to try to find a way to expedite,” Rauf said.
The board seemed satisfied with that option as long as businesses surveyed went beyond just those on E. Third Street.
The timeframe for the completion of the items requested by the board was not certain, but the board agreed that it was not comfortable moving forward to the formal public hearing process without having the information prior.
Casey Mann can be reached at CaseyMann@Chathamnr.com.