Westminster Common Council Members Frazier and
Whitson weigh-in on incinerator and airport expansion
As a citizens of Westminster, we have wondered why some elected
officials of Westminster haven’t publicly weighed in on issues that would have
a large impact on Westminster. Now that
we are elected Councilmen. we would like to let our views be known on two
issues that we believe will impact Westminster.
Here are our observations and concerns.
The first is the “waste to energy” incinerator that the county is
currently thinking about building with Fredrick County. We are against it for
several reasons:
The first of which is the cost to run it. There is a waste to energy
incinerator in Montgomery County and every family in the county is charged a
fee of several hundred dollars a year to keep it running. Do we need another
fee in Carroll?
The incinerator also needs tremendous amounts of trash to keep it
running, and needs the paper, cardboard and plastic that is and can be recycled
to keep the operating temperatures high enough to run efficiently. That means that the paper cardboard and
plastic that is currently being recycled in Carroll will be burned and not
reused.
This is a linear system and we live in nature, which is a cyclical
system. A linear system takes, makes, and wastes. It takes things from the
resource base and makes whatever we want to buy and creates wastes along the
way. Ultimately what is made is also thrown away and in this case it will be
burned. We should try to treat our resources like nature in a close looped
system. We need to reuse the paper, cardboard, plastic and other “trash” instead
of burning it.
There are technologies in place that make this a more cost effective
solution as well which have been recently shared with us at Council
meetings.
One final note that should put an exclamation point on our reasoning is
that the incinerator in Harrisburg is the main reason for the city going
bankrupt recently!!
The other issue that we are against that is also being looked at is the
airport expansion. I have not seen, read or heard of any way that the airport
expansion will benefit the people of Westminster or Carroll County. If it will not somehow positively impact the
welfare of the people than why spend the taxpayers money on it.
The present airport is continuously operating at a loss with no reason to think it will start to make
a profit. The present debt is 5 million
dollars and counting!
The Federal government wants to invest 73 million in it and make it
bigger, but after that we will be in charge of the upkeep, which will cost us
more money as well.
Marada, which was one of the
main reasons for the expansion, is out of business!
Businesses are less likely to come to Maryland in general due to the
heavy tax burden and our lower taxed neighbors.
If we accept Federal money, they will give us more mandates in what is
required for the airport and have control, as opposed to local control, and we
know how much money the Federal gov’t has right now. – 14 trillion and counting. Don’t think Carroll County is high on their
priority list.
There are also environmental
concerns relating to fuel being dropped on local fields/noise/ as well
as homes/land that people have lived on their whole lives that would have to be
condemned and forced to move elsewhere in these difficult times.
There is no reason that a county government should be running an
airport in the first place. Governments
are not good at being businesses and shouldn’t try to be businesses.
4 of the 5 Commmisioners ran on a platform that they were opposed to
the airport expansion and they should keep their word!
If a business were running an airport it would be more efficient. In fact, we would be making money as a county
if they turned a profit because the private company would be paying taxes. Since the county runs the airport there is no
tax revenue coming in from the airport! When the county loses money, due to the
airport losing money, We the People of Carroll County lose!
Dennis Frazier and Paul Whitson ( 410 916 3645 )
Admin Letters to KevinDayhoffNet, Letters to the Editor qv Admin
Letters, People Frazier Dennis, People Whitson-Todd, Enviro Solid Waste Man,
Enviro Solid Waste to Energy, Carroll Co Regional Airport, Incinerator qv
Enviro
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