In yesterday’s Ideas section, the N&R published point-counterpoint op-eds from Greensboro City Council members Nancy Vaughan and Danny Thompson on the reopening of the White Street landfill. Neither piece is posted online, but Dr. Guarino weighs in.
Here’s what jumped out at me when reading Thompson’s case for reopening the landfill. I think it’s the answer to N&R ed page editor Allen Johnson’s question regarding Thompson’s supposed reluctance to embrace the Randolph County regional landfill:
To sign on as “anchor tenant” in a regional landfill in order to lock a favorable rate is flawed and shortsighted. First, there is no Randolph County landfill. According to consultant Joe Readling of HDR Engineering, it will take three to four years to develop, assuming the Randolph commissioners approve it and the state issues permits.
It seems to me that those advocating for the Randolph regional landfill as solution for Greensboro’s garbage problems —as Nancy Vaughan did in her op-ed —- are rushing into this just as they say their opponents are rushing to reopen White Street. The fact remains that there is no Randolph County landfill. Which is not to say there won’t be one, and the N&R’s logic that the city reopen White Street for three to five years as while the permits were being issued in Randolph. But for some reason, they later suggested the issue be put off until after the election.
