To the editor:
I was invited to the Jan. 9, Osnaburg Township Trustees meeting because they are renewing the practice of opening the meetings with prayer - a practice I heartily approve - but that's beside the point. The issue of the meeting was the C&D landfill expansion and the various stances of the trustees toward it. I completely understand the strong feelings associated with the issue. I have some myself. I am a little concerned, though, with the tendency to sort the trustees into the good and bad guy columns here.
First, I am fairly certain that the trustees are united in not wishing C&D to expand. I am even more certain that this cannot (as trustees) be their mandate. Having some experience with the long struggle over landfills in our county, I wish the trustees had not become plaintiffs in the law suit with C&D in the first place. (Think citizen's group!) But we can't go back and undo that now. The trustees themselves wish the health department had taken a different tack earlier in the long chain of lost battles in this lawsuit. No going back on that either. And I get it that if the trustees don't pursue this latest appeal - and the one after that - that it's getting pretty close to midnight for anyone else to step into the gap.
But - trustee Donna Middaugh made it pretty plain that she plans no federal suit beyond the 10th Circuit and the prospects of winning the suit there seem pretty dim. If the C&D expansion really means the death of the community then the battle can't be walked away from short of the Supreme Court of the United States. Clearly, the township trustees are not in for that sort of long haul. I don't think they can be. For that matter, I don't think they should be. Again - wrong horse.
Whatever course the trustees do take must be balanced against making the best use of the tax payer's limited resources. To pay the full projected cost of the present appeal - never mind the next one - would essentially empty the township coffers. The trustees would then have to face all the voters: including those who don't care so much about the landfill expansion or are even in favor of it; or the ones who just plain want to know what happened to the money needed to fix the roads! This is an era in which we are calling on government to quit spending money it doesn't have. Most of us believe that practice will also destroy our community, any community, even the nation. Still, no individual or splinter constituency likes it when their cause is on the wrong side of the budget axe.
Note: I am not casting trustee Middaugh as the bad guy either. I admire her dedication to this cause and her willingness to personally invest and lead. But trustees Dick Pero and Kris Vincent are correct about the money and I think all three wish someone else had or would yet step forward to lead this charge. And, as much as circumstances allow, they gave us that opportunity. For the current appeal, it is the trustees or no one. The township doesn't have the money. The trustees nevertheless left $15,000.00 on the line for this appeal. Trustee Middaugh took this as reasonable and good spirited and pledged to raise the second half of the estimated need from the citizens of the community. I suggest we follow her example in commending trustees Pero and Vincent and, if the issue is really all that important to us, cough up the money. We needn't even wait for trustee Middaugh to get around to us. Seek her out - check in hand. If we find ourselves unwilling to do that - then we don't really believe the landfill expansion will hurt the community or that the appeal will do any good. Either way, we'll have nothing left to complain to the trustees about.
Terry Bailey
East Canton
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