Жители Вест-Флэглера мобилизуются против строительства гигантского полигона для мусора в центре аграрного сообщества

I started my career with a newspaper that covered about 10 counties in Southern West Virginia–some of Appalachia’s poorest counties in one of the most exploited regions of the country. Companies have historically pillaged West Virginia’s mountains for its coal and timber, leaving behind a landscape as lobotomized as its economy. One kind of exploitation leads to another. In the few years I was there I reported on a plan to build a nuclear waste dump, first in McDowell County, the poorest of the poor, then in Wyoming County. And I reported on a plan to build a massive garbage dump in McDowell. In both cases the plans were sold as economic development projects. In both cases the local politicos were lobbied, dined and possibly bribed, turning county commissioners into marketing propagandists for the dumpers. Both plans depended on capitalizing on a vulnerable population desperate for jobs. To the surprise of the dump pushers, public outrage stopped both catastrophic proposals, though two years ago the West Virginia Legislature, which shares more than a few political DNA strands with Florida’s, proved as eager to attract nuclear waste as it did data centers by passing bills making it easier to do both. The plan by a mystery company led by a man we know absolutely nothing about to carve out a 610-acre garbage dump in the heart of West Flagler’s agricultural community reminded me of the pillagers of West Virginia, down to the groveling Bunnell city administration of Manager Alvin Jackson and three hapless, unquestioning collaborators on the city’s planning board: Paul Romaniuk, Gary Garner, and Francena Koch. Board member Lyn Lafferty, who is a co-owner of some of the dump land, conveniently absented herself (recusal from a vote does not mean running from public accountability), as did Gary Masten. On Tuesday the planning board green-lighted the project. It did so only 24 hours after revealing the project for the first time. Jackson kept it secret by abusing a state law providing limited confidentiality to certain projects, but not to land use decisions, as was the case Monday. In my view, the planning board, coached by City Attorney Paul Waters (of the Vose Law Firm, the city’s long-time representative) and Jackson’s administration, acted arbitrarily, illegally and unethically. Just before the planning board vote, Waters, Romaniuk, the dump’s attorney, Daniel O’Keefe, and planning board staff all disappeared together for a huddle in a side room, a blatant example of smokeroom sleaze. The only thing missing was the smoke. Somehow I doubt the Vose Law Firm’s Wade Vose, when he used to sit as the attorney, would have allowed that kind of cynical greasing before a vote. Who was the city attorney representing, exactly? Of course we don’t know who or what that garbage company is, from where it intends to import that much garbage to make the dump profitable, and whether it even exists beyond its corporate filing at the state Division of Corporations in July as some entity called Cocomero. What does this company know about garbage dumps? What’s its record in the field? If it has one, why isn’t it producing it? If it has none, what business has it to make west Flagler its 610-acre Fresh Kills? Think about that: the 610 acres would be almost a third the size of New York City’s old landfill on Staten Island. In the heart of West Flagler. Lame-duck Jackson, whose allegiance to Bunnell clearly has jumped the shark, is still keeping answers to all those questions secret as he counts down his days to retirement. There are disturbing parallels with companies’ exploitation of Southern West Virginia but also some key differences. Bunnell is economically the most stressed city in the county. The garbage company clearly thought it could do what it couldn’t possibly do in Palm Coast, Flagler County or numerous other communities in the state–exploit that stress to its advantage as long as it found a willing, feckless land seller and a spineless government. It found both. I have no idea why former Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston’s family and its extensions–the landowners–are doing this, but it’s a shocking disappointment. The company miscalculated in one regard. It confused West Flagler’s vibrant and proud agricultural community with Bunnell City Hall’s trashier materialism. The two are worlds apart, unified only by Bunnell’s land-grabbing annexation two decades ago of so much acreage as to make it geographically the second-largest Florida city after Jacksonville. That community is now mobilizing to challenge the decision, first before the City Commission, which would have never even considered the project if Jackson had managed to keep the secrecy going (and had been inappropriately sworn to secrecy about it by Jackson), and then in court if necessary. (“I do not believe a 610-acre landfill should reach a decision-making board without the community knowing exactly what the project is,” Bunnell Vice Mayor John Rogers told WNZF’s Liz Ryan. “I am deeply concerned any time a matter of this magnitude can move through the land-use process without the public and even elected officials being able to fully discuss what is being proposed.”) Opponents have a strong case. Chelsea Herbert, the only member of the planning board who challenged the company’s representatives, and did so very well, couldn’t get a single substantial answer out of them. Her colleagues on the other hand were happily catatonic. Garner and Koch asked no questions. Romaniuk blabbered incoherently about economic necessity, as if Bunnell’s only chance to survive Amendment 3 is to whore its future. All three then bent over and passed the vaseline. Bunnell must now decide whether it wants to be the garbage dump of Flagler County or fight off this monstrosity. Then it must decide whether Alvin Jackson is still the man for the job as Bunnell’s manager. The stink at City Hall, and the garbage dump isn’t the only one, suggests he is not. Pierre Tristam is the editor of FlaglerLive. A version of this piece airs on WNZF.