Officials missed at field day event
To the Editor:
Amateur Radio Emergency Services of Jackson County, an affiliate of
the Amateur Radio Relay League, would especially like to thank the Sylva
Herald and WRGC Radio for running our public service announcements.
Also, the Jackson County Recreation Department for providing us the
use of one of their facilities to erect our communication station the
weekend of June 28 and 29. The event was a huge success with contacts
made all over the United States and Canada.
Amateur radio may be considered by some as just a hobby, but licensed
operators consider emergency communications in a disaster an obligation,
according to the Federal Communication Commission rules and regulations.
These folks volunteer their time and equipment to their county at no
cost for their services.
It was especially sad for me to listen to the reports given on the national
traffic system for this event, to note that Jackson County was the only
county across North Carolina that did not have an elected official or
a representative from any of the served agencies take five or 10 minutes
to drop by the event and find out what ARES and amateur radio is all
about. Each and every one of these people had prior notification and
some even personal invitations.
If called upon in an emergency to set up communications, amateur radio
operators of Jackson county would never say "We don't have time."
It is our obligation to serve our county when needed.
We sincerely hope that next year some of these people will attend our
field day event and learn what amateur radio can do in an emergency.
Thanks so much to the operators who attended and to all who supported
this event this event.
Ron Rearick
Whittier
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County did not clearly think through recycling changes
To the Editor:
My name is Bobby Gunter. My wife, Sandy, and I own and operate Gunter
Enterprises, along with our three children, Brittany, Coy and Holly.
Our family handles trash and recycling from all over Jackson County.
I have been in the waste removal business for over five years now. I
have learned the importance of recycling over this time.
There is not a fortune to be made in recycling. Sometimes you are lucky
to break even. That is why you must look at the real reasons to recycle.
Recycling will, over the long haul, make life better for everyone. It
will help the survival of our planet.
This is why it bothers me when local governments cut out recycling or
cause the recycling process to become more difficult. They always say
the same thing, "We need to save money." There are plenty
of things that could be cut other than something this important to our
future.
Jackson County's manager, solid waste technician and the county commissioners,
trying to save the county money, have jumped into a deal with a company
to handle recycling that I feel will cost us more in the long run in
not only money, but in loss of people trying to recycle.
At first glance this new system looks good, unless you have handled
the amount of recycling our county produces. I have. This plan will
not save money over time. The county will receive $15 per ton for cardboard
and mixed paper. The county will pay $12.50 per ton to get rid of glass,
metal cans, aluminum cans and plastic.
In the county's theory we will either come out ahead or break even.
With the amount of glass alone I don't think this will happen. This
county goes through a great deal of glass. We are also paying to get
rid of the one recycling item that makes money without a lot of work,
aluminum.
Another expense that isn't talked about too much is the freight on the
loads of recycling leaving our county. Until other counties join this
program, we will be charged freight. This almost guarantees the county
will be going in the hole on expense.
I would also like to visit this recycling facility, wherever it is or
will be located. I have read about this type of place and would very
much like to see how it works. The reason I want to see it is, according
to who you ask at the county, the recycling is going to a different
place. I have been told it was going to Asheville, Charlotte, South
Carolina and even Georgia.
Here are some of the problems with haulers or anyone with large amounts
of recycling. First, we have always had a place to take bulk recycling
and been able to unload it quickly and easily. With the new plan the
county wants us to either put truckloads of cardboard through the little
slots at the SRCs or take it to the transfer station site and carry
it by hand up some steps and into a 50-foot closed top trailer and stack
it neatly.
This way the county can sell it to Asheville Waste Paper for $15 per
ton. Either of these will cause price increases due to time spent for
residential and commercial customers. This could be avoided by giving
us a place to dump it. Up until today (Monday) we could still dump cardboard
at the Webster Enterprise site. The haulers and people with a lot of
cardboard were giving it to Webster, which was in turn bailing it and
selling it to Jackson Paper for much more than $15 per ton.
Everyone was happy until today. I had a meeting with (county manager
Ken) Westmoreland to talk about some of these problems. I was told he
would look into things and to be patient. After this meeting I had mixed
feelings. He did take the time to hear my problems and thoughts on this
matter, but there was no true feeling that anything would be done.
I was wrong about this, because in the time it took me to load my truck
with cardboard and drive to Dillsboro, phones rang at Webster Enterprises,
and then at the Dillsboro facility, and we were no longer allowed to
dump cardboard. While it is true that Webster Enterprises wants out
of the recycling business, they have to stay open so that the county
has a place to put white goods for at least 30 days. We were just helping
make it worth their time and effort to be there.
I was also told that the person who is now handling the white goods
would be taking care of the freon removal as well. I have been there
while the new guy was loading his truck, the freon is removed when the
pipes are broken while it is loaded into the truck. This is not the
proper way to do so, there is a machine that is used to safely do this.
But remember the county will get a percentage of whatever he makes hauling
the white goods so I guess that makes it OK.
Placing large amounts of all other recyclable materials into the containers
will also take lots of time, so please remember folks that when a hauler
is in the way at a SRC doing their recycling, it is not our choice to
do it this way.
Then when these containers are full they will be hauled to the transfer
station and unloaded onto concrete pads and left until there are enough
of them to fill an 18-wheeler. I have been told that there would need
to be anywhere from three to 10 containers to fill the 18-wheeler.
Then I asked our solid waste technician what would happen at the SRCs
while these boxes were gone? Her reply was, "We have not figured
that out yet." I then asked should this not have been figured out
before this was started? She said, "Yes."
Now don't blame GDS or the site attendants for the problems that have
already and will arise from this. Call your commissioners. Let them
know what you think. GDS personnel are only doing their job.
Also I found out today what happens when there are no boxes at the SRC
to put your recycling in. Another recycler called me and told me that
the attendant at the Dillsboro SRC was told that while the boxes were
gone, to put recycling in the trash compactor. Now that is just the
greatest idea yet. NOT!! Let's not figure out how to keep the recycling
going; let's dispose of it. NOT!! That is our tax dollars at work.
The new trash alternative to use Macon County seemed to me a great savings
for our county. It is for the government part. Anyone from a resident
to a hauler will be paying $45 per ton to use the dump site. The county
will then only pay $21.95 per ton to dispose of it. This rate is not
much of a savings to anyone.
I hope our landfill tax will drop greatly since the county is charging
double what it costs to get rid of the trash. If it doesn't save the
common man money, why did we even do it? Mark my words: All these quiet
and quick changes our county government has done will cost us a lot
more in the years to come.
All private haulers bought permits to dispose of residential trash and
limited commercial trash and all recyclables at the SRCs. Limited commercial
is two 33-gallon trash bags per business per week. That is fair. There
are three or four residential haulers around the Sylva area and about
the same up towards Cashiers.
But some 100 permits were sold the first year and again now in the second
year of the ordinance. The reason is that some commercial businesses
have been sold the same permit I have. If one of these businesses hired
me, I could only take two bags per week into the SRCs. But since they
have a permit, they can haul as much of their own commercial trash as
they want to into the SRCs. Now does that make sense?
When you figure at $150 for each permit the county has made over $15,000
per year by doing this. These people don't haul from residential homes,
they haul their business trash. What does the money from these permits
go towards to help with the county budget?
My final comments about money being spent by our county have nothing
to do with the solid waste area. I read an article recently where REACH
asked the county for $50,000 to help fund their services for our community.
The county commissioners turned them down. They said it wasn't in the
budget. I can understand that. Money runs out, you can't help everyone.
Then I read that the commissioners will spend $50,000 for a feasibility
study on putting our library near Southwestern Community College. Now
this makes no sense to me at all. Don't give the money to REACH, which
provide a much-needed service. Give it to someone to do a study that
is unnecessary. There is all of this controversy about moving the library.
Just let the voters decide if they want it in Sylva city limits or in
Webster. With a vote no one can complain. The people would have spoken
and the commissioners could say that they done exactly what the people
asked them to do.
Bobby Gunter
Cullowhee
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