When a Person County PRIDE representative presented a two-page resolution of opposition to the NBAF for their consideration at their regular meeting on Aug. 4, commissioners engaged in no discussion but said they would take PRIDE’s request “under advisement.”

On Monday, at the outset of their mid-August meeting, Vice Chairman Jimmy B. Clayton, presiding in the absence of Chairman Johnny Myrl Lunsford, who was ill, offered a different, three-paragraph resolution of opposition to the biolab and moved for its adoption by his colleagues.

The language of Clayton’s proposed resolution said commissioners were “concerned about the safety of its citizens and protecting the public health and environment.”

And it went on to express the county board’s “deep concern at the siting of the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility at the Butner site and the possibility of dangerous or hazardous material from the lab being shipped to the regional landfill located in Person County, that could cause disease, death and the quarantine of the surrounding area.”

The closing paragraph would have put the Person Board of County Commissioners on record in opposition to the siting of the facility at Butner.

In introducing the resolution, Clayton commented that the controversial NBAF proposal had been “beat up by everybody it could be beat up by, I think.” But, he added, the biolab as proposed would be “in our neighboring county.”

Saying he wasn’t going to discuss the resolution, Clayton simply moved its adoption by the board and called for a second to his motion.

Commissioner Larry Yarborough spoke up, “I believe that the only purpose this resolution would serve would be to make it more difficult for us to get jobs here in Person County, and therefore, I will not second it.”

Then Clayton quickly declared his own motion dead for lack of a seconding motion and moved on with other business.

During the public comment period, before Clayton offered his resolution, commissioners heard from two speakers with opinions about the NBAF.

James E. (Jim) Stovall, chair of the Roxboro Person County Economic Development Group, encouraged commissioners not to take a position on the facility either way because to do so would be premature.

“As you know,” Stovall said to commissioners, the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the state itself, the Biotech Center have put a tremendous amount of effort and time in this project. There are many studies that have not been finished, have not come out.

“Also as you know, Mike Wilkins, former [Person County] commissioner, who is the executive vice president of the Biotech Center, has made the offer to come and brief the board on this project. And it is my opinion that I think right now it would be very premature to make a judgment either way, to vote for it or against it. I think right now under advisement is absolutely the proper approach to this and I think you have made the right decision and I would encourage the board to stick with that at this time.”

Kay Reynolds encouraged commissioners to adopt the resolution of opposition. The biolab proposal, she said, “was sort of pushed in on people. And the time is short because they are going to be make a decision very soon on that as to where it will go.”

Reynolds added, “I hope you will favorably consider the resolution, with all due respect to Mr. Stovall. I understand his feelings on it. I am for economic development, but this is disastrous development.”

The Umstead Research Farm near Butner, not quite 30 miles from Roxboro, is one of five potential sites for the NBAF under consideration by the federal Department of Homeland Security. Others are in Athens, Ga., Texas, Mississippi and Kansas. The facility would study large animal diseases, some of which can be passed to humans and for which there are no known cures. It could replace a similar facility now in operation at Plum Island, N.Y. off the New York coast, although the DHS has indicated Plum Island also is under consideration for the new biolab.

The project is supported by the N. C. Department of Commerce and the N.C. Biotechnology Center among others who point to it as a boost for the state’s economy that would also bring hundreds of jobs to the area.

The biolab, however, has sparked fierce opposition with Granville County and the surrounding area, led by the Granville Nonviolent Action Team, which has voiced concern about the prospect of the accidental release of pathogens from the facility that could prove dangerous to livestock, humans and the environment.