CARRBORO – Al Vickers says the biggest challenge Carrboro faces is a lack of development to diversify the tax base.
“One of the issues is that the town has a tax base that is based on mostly residential,” Vickers says.
Vickers filed for the 2013 municipal election and is running against one other newcomer and three incumbents for three available seats.
Vickers says the lack of development to the tax base leads to jobs and residents going to other parts of the state and he says his own friends have left for these reasons.
“Once their kids get out off the Chapel Hill school system, they just leave. They go to Chatham and other places,” Vickers says.
Vickers is a former member of the solid waste advisory board and has a Ph. D. in environmental science.
“I felt I could add something to the board, respective of my background in industry and the university in the past,” Vickers says.
As the Orange County landfill is closing down, Vickers says the best way forward with solid waste is to have Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough work together on a solution.
However, while saying that, Orange County has some of the best solid waste management in the state, Vickers says that it does not seem likely that the county will ever have a landfill again.
“It’s clear from the solid waste advisory committee: the politics of the area will not allow a waste management unit to be located in the county of Orange,” Vickers says.
For a complete list of candidates in the Carrboro and other Orange County elections, click here.
Election Day is November 5.
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