Roanoke Rapids needs to take responsibility for its garbage and help clean-up Lincoln Heights, not put another solid waste facility in our neighborhood.
Roanoke Rapids doesn’t even need a waste transfer station. They can handle all their trash through the city’s current waste disposal contract. There is already a waste transfer station off Hwy 301.
The City Council wants to borrow $700,000.00 to build a waste transfer station that they don’t need—because they think it will make a profit. Just like they borrowed money to build a theater—promising us it would bring in jobs and money. For the waste transfer station to make a profit, three-fourths of the waste will have to come from private contractors. That means every private contractor in Roanoke Rapids will have to stop using the waste facilities where they have been doing business and use the new one; that’s a long shot. We don’t need another theater, and we don’t need another waste transfer station.
The City is trying to push this through without any public discussion. They have already paid thousands of dollars for engineering and consulting studies for a waste transfer station in Lincoln Heights—but haven’t had a single public meeting about it. This is not an open government. The E.P.A. suggests a community advisory panel should be created to oversee a waste disposal site selection process, not contractors and the city council behind closed doors. We demand a community advisory panel to conduct and review site selection.
North Carolina law does not allow new waste facilities to be built where they will have a disproportionate impact on minority and low-wealth communities. Roanoke Rapids has been dumping on Lincoln Heights for too long – we say “Enough is Enough!”
Florine Bell
Roanoke Rapids
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