And by the way, arsenic? In the creek behind the transfer station area? The houses around it were built directly on a landfill. It is not the transfer of trash and transfer of debris that caused hypothetical arsenic in the creek. It would be the landfill. What is now golf course and some houses. It is still there, buried. You people are soylent green.
I suppose now the city wil agree to buy their houses in addition to raising our trash rates three times. That will raise it more than three times. (The mayor seems to want them to go away, that's one way. Bought the houses across from city hall, why not there too? It would make as much sense). This is apart from water rates that will increase.
Both the council and the activists need to rethink a part of their agreements some of which is good, some of which is short sighted and bad. They have gone through a big rigmaroll to get little, some of which was already going to happen yet they are claiming victory for in their carpet email bombs (without permission to use the email addresses from all the email address owners, there was no right to give them to the activist group, much like the Richardson Coalition and City disregards email privacy, yet goes to the Attorney General to redact the Eisemann Petition email addresses, successfully, funny how that works -- no equal protection under the law or rather under city action by the way. The Council is still playing games with the activists and not speaking frankly. "Sign the damn" thing is finally not exactly agreeing but more caving in fully betting that cover can be gotten via the NTMWD but still being annoyed.
Great acting by the way on the part of the rest of the City Council.
And, it was funny, in the not ha ha way, when one activist yelled to move the transfer station out of his back yard (he does not live next to it) and put it in someone else's backyard in Garland. Now that is truly playing NIMBY. That's not being true environmentalists. The activists began by wanting it moved completely but without any care for where the transfer of their trash would be done, just NIMBY. ("What can we fight next?" was voiced by one of the head NIMBYs). They knowingly circulated misinformation. Some of them are still saying NIMBY, all the while some of their homes are built on a bed of trash.
Great ideas were there that they didn't mess with but some have conceded things that are wrong to concede that they don't want to know about, don't care, and are agreeing to things they nor the Council should (or can) agree to. Oh, and forget the rest of us. How grand of them all. One NIMBY complained that regular City Council meetings couldn't be moved to fit NIMBY's schedule, but NIMBY always scheduled to fit NIMBY without much regard to others.
I look forward to the real scheduled public hearing on this matter held by NTMWD when they have the answers ready that the rest of us asked, not the NIMBYs and I hope without the mayor telling all the others on the council and city staff what to say or do and getting back at the ones who try to get the answers. Not that the head NIMBYs ever help matters by slinging mud all over the place including the email just sent which all winds up working in the Mayor and his hand picked court's favor who are playing political games. The head NIMBY is trying to play political games but isn't as good as the Mayor just yet. Thanks, you head NIMBYs. Thanks to you and the Council and "Richardson Coalition" and NTMWD and Sierra Club (the one guy) and TCEQ with an overall unwillingness to listen and to ignore or drum out average residents. You have lost credibility as heads.
Our community needs to learn to deal with its trash, in place, locally transferred, contained, clean up where needed, managed, and deal with reducing trash, reducing costs, increasing composting, getting compost from there for flower beds and gardens, recycling, education for rainwater catchment and solar energy collection with the city being and leading the example in an economically feasible, responsible way over our resources. A user lane at the transfer station and one for the trash trucks when the road is rebuilt along with the containment will make it a true user friendly deal. And continue to work for efficiencies with others (Plano, commercial debris haulers, etc.).
And, city, why are you discouraging babic drop off by limiting it so much? I guess you like the stuff loaded onto the parkway even when the resident doesn't.
Richardson needs to go to once a week city trash pick up because twice is crazy costly and truck trafficky (controversial ideal to go to once a week, yeah, I know).
None of this is probably going to happen that soon with mostly seat fillers who oscillate between being led by the nose or thumbing their nose at tax payers and doing their "special" deals and "strategies" and hiding or blocking information and counting on a regional board or staff to cover for them.
This versus some of the NIMBYs and activists seemingly initially ready to sign off on something they don't entirely understand the ramifications of, and don't want to listen, and don't represent all the rest of us and our trash and best interests, even though the NIMBY ones, with their out-of-towner, and sierra club (well actually the one guy who is the Richardson sierra guy, is that the one who loves development moratoriums) and with their despise of the TCEQ and NTMWD, have convinced some that they represent all of us on the matter of how our trash in Richardson should be handled and how our bills will be increased. They don't. The NIMBYs and radical ones that is. The Councilmen should know that. Not that they have been representing all of us on this either.
For all the right things the NIMBYs and the more balanced activists have echoed and have adopted and claimed, the NIMBYs went overboard, especially with their last email bomb, just as the Mayor and his hand picked ones have.
The "right thing" is not to make the transfer of trash occur miles and miles outside of our city, costing us three times as much. The NIMBY element has always been wrong about wanting to move the transfer of our trash out of our city especially by not caring where it was moved to, just NIMBY. It is also not the right thing to refuse to work with Plano or other city members who share the costs of our trash transfer stations and the expensive cost of the dump up north. Like most things, it needs to be improved, but they were and some still are going overboard with it.
I am not kidding when one of the head NIMBYs who claims to be an environmentalists admitted to not even knowing there was a transfer site there before (not living near it, being a distance from it, not knowing and not caring where NIMBYs trash went).
The NIMBYs just don't want to listen to anything other than them. They have refused to listen to anyone who doesn't agree with them. One of the head NIMBYs who does not live by the transfer location as admitted, smirked and rolled eyes at me when NIMBY asked for my opinon and advice and didn't like what I said. That's real listening. Thanks, you NIMBY! Just like the Councilmen you elected.
The Councilmen and The NIMBYs and the Go Alongs and the Truly Well Meaning at their heels should listen and not join the NIMBYs in their breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. An odd email was sent from the NIMBY in Chief patting profusely among other things. And don't forget the city blast saying an agreement was made when no one knew what it was then, NIMBYs included.
Council should stop being foot draggers, ignorers, blockers, and guards, shirkers and placate'rs on such items. They have collectively quorem'd and grabbed and demanded power but can't see past their own smoke and mirrors some times to use it wisely, except for "special" friends.
As non progressive as NTMWD (staff and member cities) is in many ways (not in all ways, just some), I hope they do not agree to everything the NIMBYs are demanding (by NTMWD, I mean the five city councils and "their representatives" who are part of the trash/dump group, so to speak, of the board of the directors).
The staff of the district is deferred to heavily in regard to operation specifics, because they know, or are supposed to know, things that most of the councils do not.
The city staffs are deferred to heavily because they work with the staff of the NTMWD and know city operations and NTMWD interface operations.
The representatives know more than the Councils typically (not in all cases) about the NTMWD.
The Mayor described Richardson's representates as essentially his representatives, not the citizens' representatives.
The Council somehow seems to be barely in agreement with the demands that they offer to sign off on.
The Mayor indicates that the NTMWD is the last word however it has been said by top staffer that the NTMWD would not do anything with the transfer station that Richardson City Council opposes, but that isn't the same thing as the mayor said in public. But what is.
There has been too much deferring, too little true interest, too much blocking, too much preening, too little leadership on long term city issues with the mayor and deans of the Council.
