CERES
Coalition for Environmental Responsibility & Education through Synergy
Center for Environmental Research & Education in Saxapahaw
Established to provide a unified voice and rallying point for the many groups concerned with the quality-of-life issues in the Haw River watershed, CERES' goals are three-fold:
1) Provide a community space for local quality-of-life groups to work synergistically, addressing regional issues that have a direct impact on quality of life in the Haw River watershed
2) Serve our community by educating students, hands-on, to gain an intimate knowledge of quality-of-life issues affecting the Haw River watershed
3) Serve as a conduit, for information on quality-of-life issues, to local agencies, municipalities, and media outlets
CERES has 20 years of experience in quality of life advocacy, developing and implementing 6 winning government policy and environmental justice campaigns and 5 public education and health programs.
As such, CERES has brought the media to Saxapahaw dozens of times (newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and online), including; News & Observer, Our State magazine, Times-News, Alamance News, Mebane Enterprise, Channel 8, and Channel 2.
Major Environmental Advocacy Campaigns
Each project required coordinating needs and building partnerships between a diverse list of organizations
Haw River Trail
Advocated County Commissioners, developed and implemented strategy, and successfully handed off campaign to local governance, generating over $200,000 in NC State and federal funding and a program that now hosts 300,000 visitors a year in Alamance County - using strategies to physically connect multiple cities while growing partnerships to leverage the power of their budgets
Landfill Privatization
Advocated for Alamance County to 'rescind’ prior Commissioner votes, stopping attempt by Waste Industries to purchase Alamance Landfill (2005 value of $120M) for $40M by building multi-agency coalition and campaign convincing Alamance County Board of Commissioners to rescind two prior public votes;
1) to privatize
2) expand operation of their county landfill in the low resource community of (pre-gentrified) Saxapahaw, following 1990s textile mill job collapse
1000 Acre Public Park in Southern Alamance County
Advocated for environmental health and quality of life preservation before County government, preparing briefs and public presentations as policy expert to advocate for public and environmental health, and working with NC state trails development and park and rec officials, leading to development of 1000 acre park in southern Alamance County
Alamance County Sheriff's Training Facility
Developed strategy and led local family-dairy farmers to ‘move' the site of a $14M planned Alamance County Sheriff’s department training facility away from a rural community unable to host the projected facilities impact by advocating with city councils, county commissions and staff to successfully move the project to a "better location" in Alamance County
Municipal Sewage Waste Spraying Near Elementary Schools in Southern Alamance
Developed and implemented strategy to change public policy through Burlington City Council moratorium vote, leading a successful campaign (Advocating through Burlington City Council using local board of education as strategic leverage to shape public policy where politicians were fearful of potential liability) addressing toxic inequality chemical exposure risk to children in rural communities, resulting in novel city moratorium curtailing spraying industrial and city sewage-sludge waste near elementary schools, standard practice across the US
Worked with local community leaders and city, county, and state officials, to successfully develop and implement strategies to defund “Disney” theme park developer in Southern Alamance County
'Whirligig Woods' Theme Park a No-Go in Saxapahaw
A plan for a theme park in the Triad has fallen through.
ALAMANCE COUNTY, NC - A plan for a theme park in the Triad has fallen through. Developer Bob Baranick said financial partners couldn't come up with enough money for the 'Whirligig Woods' project slated to be on Highway 87 near Saxapahaw. Not enough investors were willing to commit according to Baranick.
Baranick helped design parks for Disney, Universal Studios and Six Flags. In March 2017, Baranick said he'd bought 21 acres on Highway 87 for the park and spoke of a 10-year master plan to make the park a destination spot with 25 rides and tree house hotels.
For now, he says they'll keep the land bought for the park as is. "We will hold on to the land and protect the wonderful old growth trees and natural beauty," Baranick said. "We have no plans for a public use facility."
"Our financial partners were not able to come up with enough funds to do the project to the level of quality that I wanted, or that North Carolina and the community deserve," Baranick said in an email to WFMY News 2 this weekend.
Author: WFMY News 2 Digital
Updated: 1:16 PM EDT March 25, 2018