I only watched portions of last night’s Greensboro City Council meeting on TV last night, so I don’t know exactly what went down with the White Street landfill. All I have to go on is the N&R’s account, which reports that the council voted to “issue a new request for proposals looking for a company that would like to operate the current dump site there.”
The vote was 4-3, with landfill opponents Robbie Perkins, Dianne Bellamy-Small and Jim Kee voting ‘no.’ Yet I see this as a victory for landfill opponents. Another delay in hiring a contractor further clouds the legal atmosphere and buys landfill opponents more time.
Given this development, I don’t think the landfill will ever reopen. I could be wrong. I’ll monitor opinion elsewhere and report back.
Bonus observation: I realize the city is prevented by injunction from entering into a contract, but is anyone going to want to run the landfill for the duration of the permitted site without an option? Given the gov’t bidding process and an election coming up in November, I just believe the clock is going to run out.
Update II: Yes!Weekly’s Jordan Green says:
Finalizing a contract before the next council is seated in early December, when a new majority might elect to keep the landfill closed, would be ambitious.
The RFP that was set aside today provided for a period of four months and three weeks between the date of it was issued and when council was supposed to approve the contract. By that measure, the council might approve a contract by late November — just under the wire.
