This is not just about Lincoln Heights, says Florine Bell, director of the Lincoln Heights Community Development Coalition.

The solid waste transfer station Roanoke Rapids is proposing to build on Hinson Street will affect people in South Rosemary, Creekside, the Franklin and Tenth Street extensions as well as people living in the Presto community and Lincoln Heights.

The coalition is inviting the public, including city officials, to attend an information session on transfer stations Monday at 7 p.m. at the Lighthouse of Deliverance Church of Christ No. 1 at 220 Branch Avenue.

There people will hear from Gary Grant, director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network along with the network’s organizer, Naeema Muhammad.

Researchers from the UNC department of epidemiology will be there as well as Chandra Taylor, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

“Every community within a radius of a mile depending on which way the wind shifts will be affected by odor,” Bell said today.

Opposition to the proposal is increasing, Bell said. “People down to Bobby’s Supermarket are saying no.”

Bell says there are negative aspects to the transfer station that haven’t been discussed: Visual, odor, noise, traffic, groundwater issues, property values, disease spread and vermin.

“There are numerous people who have no idea what the city is attempting to construct,” Bell said.

Bell wants the same in depth investigation on the transfer station as the one done before the city decided to scrap a backyard chicken ordinance.

She says there are also concerns about groundwater contamination to Chockoyotte Creek. “We’re holding this to try to help the quality of life in Lincoln Heights and the underprivileged people in South Rosemary who have been excluded in the privileges of Roanoke Rapids by involuntary annexation.”

Quoting one of her favorite Bible verses, Bell says, “Where there is no vision the people perish. While it may become reality, it’s not because we did not pursue opposition to this.”

Bell said while these facilities are supposed to be washed down daily, there is still the possibility of leakage into the creek.

She says people on oxygen in the communities and senior citizens will suffer from fallout created by the station. “These people are saying they don’t want it in their community. We would love to have the city to sit in on this and hear the consequences of what can take place with this plant.”

Bell believes there should be another site option and that the city should join Halifax County as it explores building a similar facility. “It’s a potential health hazard that’s coming, not only for the folks in Lincoln Heights but all the way up to Bobby’s Supermarket.”

Roanoke Rapids Public Works Director Richard Parnell, who did not know about the meeting, said, “They have a right to question what’s going on. They have a right to be concerned. No one is trying to pull anything on anyone.”

The city will have open sessions on the matter, Parnell said, and he believes there is some misunderstanding trash will be stored at the transfer station. Instead it will be carried there for transportation to landfills.

The transfer station is regulated by the state and any kind of liquid from the trash must be treated. “We can’t just wash it into an open drain to a creek,” Parnell said.

Parnell stresses the city is still studying the proposal and while other sites have been explored the Hinson Street is a good fit because public works is located there. “It’s a good location for a transfer station in my opinion. We have looked at other sites.”

He said he has seen no studies which say there are odor problems with transfer stations. “It’s a point of collection and you can’t leave trash on the floor.”

Overall, Parnell has not heard many complaints from the Lincoln Heights community, which is not in the city limits, but located in the county. “I don’t think you’ll see any more vermin, no more than normal with the function of a public works department.”

Parnell anticipates some 100 tons of trash will be brought to the transfer station and six trash trucks coming to the facility daily. “There will be a couple of tractor trailers making trips.”