Re: Help preserve our peace; Rural Orange is threatened 

Help preserve our peace

I loved the article "Dating on $30 a day" (by Jane Hobson Snyder, Nov. 19). Particularly enjoyable were Sarah Dessen's favorites, as I share her fondness for Fiesta Grill and Maple View Farm. They are, indeed, wonderful landmarks in beautiful rural Orange County worth a pilgrimage. Unfortunately, both are threatened right now by unwanted developments in Orange County.

Fiesta Grill recently cut its table service in half due to septic problems. It's hard for small businesses to make it out here due to septic restrictions. [The owner] Chuy is upset, but hopes everyone continues to come get takeout, and that there is a resolution to the septic situation.

And unless reason can prevail over the current plans of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, visiting Fiesta Grill could soon include watching caravans of hundreds of large garbage trucks fuming by six days a week to a proposed site for a waste transfer station a mile away on Highway 54 near Orange Grove Road.

And either southwest Orange, the open fields near Maple View Farm or another location could become a site for UNC's ill-conceived airport. Snyder writes, "A body can gaze for what feels like miles without interruption. A peace descends." Peace would be lost to low-flying jets and aircraft, 24/7, unless citizens oppose the blighting of the rural landscape for an unnecessary airport apparently intended to serve special interests. UNC's AHEC operations can easily be housed at RDU, as suggested by their consultants.

I wholeheartedly concur, "... sitting there, perhaps watching a sunset, perhaps naming clouds, you'll understand that land is worth more than the value of an acre, and that such a view can't be bought, for $30 or a thousand times that."

Join Orange County Voice, a growing citizen group supporting sensible options to preserve our own special piece of heaven, at www.orangecountyvoice.org.

Virginia Leslie
Orange County

Rural Orange is threatened

Great tips on economical date destinations, especially the trip to our local jewels Fiesta Grill and Maple View Farm in southwest Orange County (Nov. 19). It's beautiful out here—rolling hills with expansive views of farms, fields, creeks and sky.

Get out here soon, though. UNC-Chapel Hill, in collusion with private business interests, snuck a bill through the state legislature awarding themselves majority control of an airport authority with eminent domain powers. Our corner of the county ranked second (relocating air traffic to RDU was the first choice) in a recent UNC study. The movers and shakers clearly want their own airport, so our community is in the crosshairs. Our ecological, agricultural and social treasure of a community is nothing to them but a place on the map to be carved out and added to their domain.

By all means, come visit and enjoy the beauty and unique food offerings—especially before the noise, lights and industrial activity of an airport with a 6,300-foot runway irrevocably destroy the true value of our community.

Mark Marcoplos
Bingham Township