So, as David Rodock reported this morning in the VDT
solid waste management
was a discussion topic for Lowndes County Commissioners,
even though it wasn’t on yesterday’s
work session agenda.
Interesting that a meeting was held after the work session.
I was at the work session, camera in hand, and you can see what
transpired there with talk of the
jail ,
the possibility of
Sunday alcohol package sales,
oh and the
animal shelter
all during the County Manager’s Reports.
Nothing has been said (in public) about solid waste disposal since the
public meetings where the pubic was told by Chairman Rod Casey and
County Manager Pritchard
that the county staff had “examined every option” and there was nothing
that the public could possibly suggest that hadn’t already been considered.
The proposed plan
(VDT Article August 29, 2008 Lowndes County’s proposed solid waste plan in effect Jan 1)
was basically curbside
collection (where no vendor could meet the proposed price cap suggested by the county)
and what we ended up with was
pay for drop off permits
(VDT Article May 13, 2009 Solid waste disposal permits now available).
Joe Pritchard remembers those meetings like this
(Update 25 Sept 2013 to add reference, “Commissioners want Lowndes out of the trash business” by David Rodock in the VDT 24 May 2011):
“I went through eight public meetings, better described as floggings, where the public just vented every ounce of frustration they ever had relating to solid waste over that time period,” said Joe Pritchard, county manager. “That was not a pleasant process. Yes, we need to come up with a way of notifying the public, but I’m here to tell you, that public meetings is not it.”
So, the problem (disposing of garbage costs money) still exists and the county
has known that for years. Yet, here we are on the cusp of a crisis again and
Commissioner Raines says
“My mind’s made up and I’m willing to call an emergency meeting tonight if we need to”
Why hasn’t the county been soliciting input during these two years that they
knew the system was out of balance? Why must everything be a crisis?
-Gretchen
Maybe we should stop inviting toxic industries to Lowndes County.
We’ve been doing that with coal ash, PCBs, superfund wastewater,
used diapers in recycling, and suing local businesses while not terminating
an exclusive franchise with a company that is involved in all of that.
Not to mention Sterling Chemical.
Here in Lowndes County we have
TVA coal ash and Florida coal ash
in our landfill,
and the landfill operator spreads the coal ash on roads on the site,
which is just uphill from the Withlacoochee River.
GA EPD
fined that landfill operator $27,500 in January 2013
for accepting PCBs into that same Pecan Row Landfill.
The same landfill that accepted
196,500 gallons of wastewater from the
Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross, GA.
