NAHUNTA — Five Brantley County residents asked to help or for help during the public participation portion of Tuesday’s county commission work session.
James Duncan, Hannah Boggs and Stephen Smith represented a small faction of a group coming together to fight the proposed landfill. Richard Rowell was seeking to have his campground receive addresses and Robert Wilson talked of the proposed solar farm.
Each were given five minutes during the November 5 meeting.
“We have a small group of people here that have been getting together,” said Duncan. “We just want y’all (commissioners) to know we back you 100 percent. We are here to help you in the community to fight this thing.”
Duncan wondered if the group could get an update about what’s going on with the lawsuit.
Boggs told commissioners she was there to speak on behalf of many concerned citizens about the ongoing landfill issues that typically affects our community.
“This is about protecting the well-being and future of our community,” said Boggs of the fight. “As citizens, we deserve to feel secure in the safety of our water, soil, in the air. It’s about the responsibility we have to our future generations, for our children, to nearby schools, our family relying on well water, local businesses, farmers, people, detrimental laws be judgmental.
“This fight is about each one of us in each future life in our community. We all need to stay engaged. United we are all stronger together.”
Smith has been one of the main cogs in fighting the landfill. The recent meetings of concerned citizens at Waynesville Primary School has grown from a dozen or so to upwards of a couple of hundred.
“We are mobilizing into teams who are addressing media in most of the southeastern United States where these issues would be affected,” said Smith. “For instance, the issue of the imminent threat to the Florida aquifer doesn’t just affect us. If this thing were to go through the Florida aquifer extends from near Myrtle Beach (S.C.) all the way out to near Mississippi.
