What a coincidence—-just one day after CJ’s Don Carrington raises questions about the Greensboro-Randolph megasite’s readiness for prime time—-or rather lack thereof—- the News & Record scores an “exclusive interview” with former megasite foundation president and former Gboro Mayor Jim Melvin answering many of the questions raised by CJ. (Again—what a coincidence—considering Melvin did not respond to “repeated emails and phone messages requesting information about the management structure of the megasite project.”)
Melvin tells the N&R the megasite foundation—an “arm” of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, over which Melvin also presides— will use its private funds to pay for a Duke Energy study to formulate a transmission line siting plan, while the Charlotte-based preconstruction firm Zapata-LJB will conduct the environmental impact study for an interchange design off U.S. 421.
Meanwhile the North Carolina Railroad Co.—which has agreed to buy 875 acres of land within the megasite at a cost of $13 million —although it only had $5 million cash on hand at the end of 2014—-“has set aside all of the $13 million and will buy the land through a limited liability partnership owned by the corporation,” according to the N&R.
Front-page headline in the N&R’s print edition reads Megasite takes big steps to fruition. But whether or not this means the megasite is “ready for prime time” remains to be seen, especially since the political climate in Randolph County has changed with the election of two more megasite skeptics to the county’s Board of Commissioners in the March 15 primary.
