The votes are in – 6 yes and 12 no. Next step by PDC is probably to appeal maybe all the way to the SC. Time will tell. I’ll move on to other subjects and watch developments locally and be available to testify. I’ve said it all on my blogs. Suggest you reread them if you’re still interested because there may be a sequel. If you like what I write pass my site on to others. Thanks in advance. By the way, less than half the elected board uses a computer. Most don’t do email at home and have all their messages sent in care of the county board. One prominent board member said tonight he doesn’t read any emails he receives, he just throws them away. Hmmmm.
It may interest some with a legal mind that a siting committee was selected (7 board members) and we listened, well most of us did thru six days of testimony. The document we were working from said we were to meet with staff at the close of the hearings and then report our findings to the full board. Never happened. Why not; county officials are not sure. Maybe PDC is. Maybe someone of a higher authority than mine, I basically have no authority now, just my blog site, will post a comment and tell the siting committee members who showed some concern, namely Pat Hidden, Bob Baietto, Tim Riggenbach, Bill Prather, Sharon Kennedy (Sorry, Sharon, I left you out on my first post) and myself what happened?
I thought I knew some of the people on the board better but don’t know what drives them to do what they do. I do know this is an election year; I’ll turn my attention and my blog to my reelection if and when the opposition puts some one up to run against me. No way did any worry about getting reelected have anything to do with my action to save this safe and needed disposer of hazardous waste. Whether it affected others who are up for election, we will never know. Both Carol Trumpe and Tom O’neill have opponents and Tom changed his vote from an original yes to a no.
Not to be overlooked is a new County Board Chairman and a new Vice-Chairman to be elected by the Democrat controlled board. (I did not intend to run again and I won’t.)So next year the board will have both a new Chair and Vice-Chair. The Chairman has all the power and since our current one never misses a meeting, the VC is mainly honorary. So let someone else have it.
Next step is up to PDC and for local creators of waste to start planning to haul the waste they used to haul to PDC into SEBY (somebody else’s back yard).This highly Christian community denies they are of the NIMBY crowd. Good Christians are compassionate and willingly accept other people’s problems, they say. We’ll see. The businesses leaders of this community see why the closure of this disposal site could prevent waste creating companies from coming here, like, say medical laboratories, ect. (Think Renaissance Center)
Time to call it a day but my mind is still figuring out the politics of this vote and it was political. Facts and common sense appeared to have got lost in the shuffle.
Thanks to those of you who sent me supportive emails’ like Kenny Carrigan, Karrie Alms, Wil and Lu Barr, John Doering, ,Jim Clemons, ,Dale Bennington, Rose Bantz, Janice Husemann, Robert Hultgren, Eric Smith, Michael Creekmore Paul Dimlar, and some who called or wrote and I have lost in all my paperwork so I hope they will call again, email me or post on my blog site. And I thank my wife Claire because I totally dominated our office the past three weeks.
There were over 1000 letters of support that were in a binder in the County Clerks Office and the Board members I asked tonight if they knew they were there, did not. I know it was the County Clerks job to accumulate them; I’m not sure whose job it was to tell County Board members they were there. I learned they were eventually put on http://www.peoriacounty.org/ but since most board members don’t use computers, these letters were never viewed by the majority of the board. So I’m told.
This is a blog site so any thing I write here is subject to reasonable discourse. Maybe we will hear from some county officials soon.
DeWayne Bartels has said I seldom write about the County. Times and situations change, DeWayne, stay posted.
7 comments:
Well, Merle, yes - the voted ARE in. So, we can relax tomorrow at the Optimist's meeting.
You are absolutely correct when you state Tom Oneill has an opponent in the fall, because I am he.His constituents will know about his flip flop, I vote for the bill before I voted against it. Sounds familiar.
Boyd,
I also belong to the Southwest Kiwanis Club. I have some strong supporters of my research at that club also.
The board vote may not be the final say whether yes or no.
Mr. Candidate Mike,
You might be interested to know that Mr. David Cheek, President and CEO wrote a letter to the County Board praising the performanance of PDC and strongly urging the County Board to vote yes. The letter is dated 12/19/05 and is the Public Comments file on record for the public to view at the County Clerk's Office. Acdcording to the guardian of the file, NO County Board member came in to look at these letters of support and no copies were made of them to distribute to the board. ALL LETTERS WERE POSTED ON THE INTERNET; HOWEVER 8 of the no voters including Mr. O'Neill do not have and USE A COMPUTER at home.
Not one board member I talked with knew of the letter in support from Mr. Cheek. Much like the hazardous waste buried at PDC in a "dry tomb".
Candidate Mike,
I left out President and CEO of what company.
Keystone, Peoria, Illinois
Yep, Merle, there are some folks on each side of the general issue and each of the specific ones. Many more, I dare say, are opposed to the expansion than for it.
If the so-called "political" campaign of the naysayers has convinced more people than the PDC's campaign, who is at fault for that? After all, even the most rabid environmentalist has the right under the Constitution of the United States to say his or her piece and to try to convince the voters' representatives, in this case, the members of the County Board. If the negative point of view prevailed, well, they either had the better of the argument or made it more persuasively.
Regardless of the political points, I believe each member of the board voted to represent the constituency he or she felt personally more important. And, in so doing, interpreted the presentation and the law as either showing expansion should be approved or showing it should not.
It will be a shame if the vote is overturned upon appeal, but - yes - that, also, is a part of the process.
Of course, if it is overturned, you can bet PDC will return in ten or fifteen years for a further expansion.
It's time for a new hole to be filled, spreading whatever risk there may be. Peoria County has more than done its part.
I see no reason why the expansion of the landfill could not have been put into David Williams' hair. It seems like a perfect fit.
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