Letter to the Editor

For many years, the dumpsters were located at the airport between Heart of Georgia Metal Crafters and Dynamic Paint Solutions. The subject of moving the dumpsters evolved sometime in late 2010 and early 2011 due to cosmetic reasons and safety reasons for the airport. A new site was located down the Airport Road on property belonging to the development authority and the development authority authorized the county, after a commissioner selected the site, to prepare the site by clearing an area, hauling in gravel and dirt, erecting a chain link fence to surround 14 to 16 dumpsters, installing video surveillance and a small storage building to house the electronic equipment.

I, along with my fellow neighbors in our community, was pleased with the new dumpster site and saw firsthand our tax dollars at work for our part of the county. This was not an easy task for our community as we had to monitor the board of commissioner meetings to make sure our area of the county would continue to have dumpsters and the project would be completed.

Unfortunately, once again, the dumpsters are a continued priority for the board of commissioners despite the economic crisis our county faces on a daily basis. It is disappointing that the Airport Road dumpster site continues to be a hot topic from one meeting to the next because of one complaint from a neighboring land owner who continues to misinform the board of commissioners on what is taking place at the dumpster site.

I personally sent emails to all of the board of commissioners informing them of the misinformation that the neighboring landowner was providing them. I personally asked them to visit the site and see how well maintained the site is and to see firsthand how clean it really is. Sure, on occasion, some trash has escaped due to high winds, and I do agree that sometimes there are small amounts of trash outside the fenced area. I received email correspondence from our county chairman, Dan McCranie, on January 5 who informed me “I went to the dumpsters the day after he called me. Although there is some trash along the road that I don’t think came from the dumpsters, some of it across the road from the dumpsters could have come from them.”

The neighboring landowner addressed the Eastman-Dodge Development Authority on Monday, January 22, and asked that the airport dumpster site be moved and he would incur the expense of moving it and incur the expense of building it back somewhere near where it presently sits! And, our county chairman supported it! Unbelievable! Fortunately, I happened to be at that meeting and provided some additional information regarding the site in order for the authority to hopefully make an informed decision. I informed the board that I had been monitoring the site on a daily basis and I even drive onto the site to see firsthand the status of the dumpsters and to monitor any trash that has escaped. It is my opinion that some simple tweaking of the current site would satisfy the neighbor and keep the site untouched.
Afterall, the county has spent money on this project and the site was selected by a county commissioner. Why do we want to have it destroyed and moved when a lot of time and effort has been put into this project?

The Airport Road dumpsters are going to be on the agenda for the February 6 meeting of the Dodge County Board of Commissioners. The meeting time is 6:00 p.m.

Here we go again! When will this matter be settled once and for all? There are plenty of important issues relative to getting our county on stable footing than the dumpster site on the Airport Road. The matter has been settled about three times with unanimous decisions and votes from the board of commissioners in several past board meetings. Yet somehow it keeps being addressed! For it to keep reoccurring on the agenda is an indicator that our board of commissioners has no backbone and do not stand for what they vote for.

I encourage all citizens of the community who utilize these dumpsters and all neighbors who live in the area of the dumpsters to attend this meeting! Your voice is important in this matter! It is apparent that the county commissioners do not stand by their decisions and seem to waiver on this particular issue and many more issues. How much more are we going to allow? This is an election year for some of the county districts. Get involved. Ask questions. Attend meetings. It is imperative that you do!
Otherwise, the ones you have elected will continue to work for their own agendas and not ours.

Please make plans to attend the February 6 meeting.

Roy Grenade