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Community Action: Learning the Ropes

Getting involved in a local issue that affects your community can lead you into a maze of unfamiliar territory. Elected officials, bureaucrats, lawyers, advocates, researchers, reporters, experts, even friends and neighbors can all offer advice, but it's important to know how to weigh that advice, and develop a plan of action based on all the information and advice you receive. What follows is a fictionalized story of one man's experience in learning how to sort out the facts from the rumors and take action with his community on a local landfill proposal.

Rumors

Bob Martin lives 10 miles outside a small town in the rural county where his ancestors settled as farmers seven generations ago. He built a snug six-room house for his family on five acres of land remaining from the original family homestead, and works as a self-employed house painter and carpenter. He and his wife Catherine have two sons in high school; Catherine works part-time in town as a beautician in a beauty parlor owned by her sister, Rita.

Over morning coffee, Bob read the paper Catherine had brought home with the groceries the night before. Buried at the bottom of page five, under the high school basketball scores, was a brief notice of the county board of supervisors meeting agenda for the next week. It included a proposed extension of the county landfill located two miles north of Bob's home. "I guess we're running out of space for all our garbage," he thought. "I wonder how much taxes will go up for this."

Bob headed into town to pick up paint for a new job he was starting, and chatted with Howard Markum, the owner of the hardware store.

"Have you heard about the new landfill going in out near you?" asked Howard.

"Not much. I saw something about it in the paper this morning. I guess there's no end to the trash we throw away. Have you heard anything about what it's going to cost us?"

"It may not cost us anything. Some waste removal company from Ohio wants to build a hundred acre site for trash it hauls from all over New York and New Jersey, " answered Howard.

"A hundred acres! Why don't they just dump it up there? Why drive it all the way to Virginia? How are they going to haul it in? We're more than forty miles from the Interstate."

"I guess they're planning some road improvements, too, to handle the trucks." Howard told Bob he should talk to Bill Meyers, a county supervisor, who had told Howard about the plan a week ago.

Bob paid for his paint and took it out to the truck, then went into the coffee shop for a quick cup before heading off to work. Two old farmers from south of town were at their usual table near the window. They nodded to Bob as he walked in; one asked, as usual, after Catherine and the boys. "Sure looks like it's going to get busy out your way if that landfill goes in," his friend said. "Are you thinking about selling out and moving into town?"

Bob said that he hadn't heard anything about the landfill before this morning, but that it looked like he should go to the supervisors meeting next week to find out more. The farmer said it sounded like the landfill was going to be really big, and that the company had negotiated to buy a large parcel of land at the old military base north of the county landfill. "That's where they'd find a hundred acres," thought Bob, as he went on to work.

That evening, Catherine was waiting for him when he walked into the kitchen. She had worked at the beauty parlor that afternoon and said all her customers were talking about the landfill. There was talk of widening the county road from the Interstate from two to four lanes, and widening the narrow two-lane road in front of their house to accommodate trucks as well.

"Bob, you know I grew up in a mining town," said Catherine. "The trucks ran from the break of dawn until dark when the mine was in full swing. You couldn't hear yourself think most of the time. What are we going to do?"

Bob said he'd call one of the supervisors after supper, and went to get cleaned up. That evening Bob called Bill Meyers at home. He didn't know Bill well; he owned a car dealership in the county seat, and gave Bob a fair deal when he traded in his pickup every six or seven years. Bob knew Bill was very active with the Lions and Jaycees, but Bob didn't go in for civic groups much. Other than functions at their little rural church and family gatherings, Bob and Catherine rarely went out socially; Bob was uncomfortable in crowds.

Bill was home when Bob called, but said he was on his way out to a meeting. He was friendly and more than happy to talk to Bob for a few minutes about the landfill, though. He said it could be a big boon to the county because it would put a lot of the military base land back on the tax rolls. He said the waste company, Evergreen Environmental, seemed to be a real class act, very high-tech, with more than a dozen landfill sites all over the eastern United States. When Bob inquired about trucks, noise and road construction costs, Bill said he didn't have time to go into it right then, but asked Bob to come to the county supervisors meeting next week. He said an Evergreen representative had asked for time on the agenda to do a presentation on their proposal.

The next day was Wednesday, and Bob, Catherine, and the boys went to their evening church service. After the service, Bob usually stood by the pickup in the gravel parking lot, shifting from one foot to another and nodding good-bye to people while Catherine socialized a bit with her friends from the women's group. This time, Bob walked over to talk to Al Baumgartner, his neighbor who had a small tree farm that bordered on the old military base. Al was standing by his pickup waiting for his wife Maggie. He cleared his voice to talk when Bob asked him if he had heard about the proposed landfill.

"I haven't heard much except what's in the paper and what Maggie's heard at the dentist's when she went into town yesterday." Bob asked Al what he thought about it.

"I think it's peculiar that a company from Ohio can't find a place to put their garbage anywhere closer than Virginia. It sounds like they've been talking away to the politicians down at the county seat, but nobody's come to talk to me about what they're planning to do right next to my land."

Bob told Al that he had talked to Bill Meyers on the county board, and that it sounded that way to him, too. Bob said that Catherine was worried about how many trucks there would be, and Bob wondered where the money would come from to improve the roads. Al said that Maggie was worried about their well water, and Bob asked Al what he meant.

"Those landfills all leak eventually. They put liners in them, and it's all right for a while, but eventually they leak. How much is it going to cost down the road if the water goes, and who's going to pay for it? The county landfill with our local garbage is one thing, but how much contamination is there going to be from a hundred acre site?"

Bob hadn't thought about the water. He told Al that he planned to go to the county supervisors meeting, and asked if Al wanted to ride along. Al said that Maggie wanted to go, so why didn't they take his car instead of one of the trucks. Al said he'd pick Bob and Catherine up around six if they wanted to all ride together. Just then, the minister, Tom Kendall, strolled up to them. He was a young, soft-spoken man who had been with the congregation for just three years, replacing the pastor who had been there almost 25 years before he retired.

"Are you talking about the landfill?" asked Rev. Kendall. "That's what most people seem to be talking about tonight."

Bob and Al nodded to the pastor. Al asked, "So what do you think of this, Reverend?"

"I think we need to find out a lot more about what's going on. I don't like to hear people saying that they better think about moving out. I don't have much experience with these things, but something like this happened when I was studying for the ministry. A big feedlot came into the rural community where I served my internship. People panicked and sold out at rock-bottom prices because the smell was so bad.

Bob told the pastor they were planning to go to the county supervisors meeting and asked if he wanted to come. The pastor said he and his wife and a few other people from the church planned to go, too. He suggested they meet at the coffee shop near the courthouse after the meeting to talk about how things went. "You know, the Baptist ministers from around here meet for lunch once a month," said Rev. Kendall. "I'll call one of the ministers down at the county seat and see what he's heard there, and I'll check with the minister in town, too."

Al asked if the pastor knew the Methodist minister in the congregation nearby.

"We've met a few times. Why? Do you want me to call him, too?"

"I think that would be a good idea," said Bob. "Most people who live around here who are not Baptists are Methodists."

The County Board of Supervisors meeting

Al and Maggie arrived at Bob and Catherine's right at six o'clock to pick them up for the 45-minute ride over to the county seat. As Al drove along the quiet, winding road he said to Bob, "You know, in all the years I've lived here, I've never been to a county supervisors meeting. The only times I've been in the courthouse were to register to vote and to pay my taxes."

Bob had never been to a county supervisors meeting either. When he was in high school, his class had taken a trip to the courthouse, and the civics teacher explained how county government worked while the students sat crowded at wooden tables in the large room where the supervisors met. Later, they visited one of the courtrooms where a trial of a drunk driver was going on. Then the county clerk showed them around some of the offices, pointed out where they could register to vote when they were old enough, and treated them to cokes in the basement lunchroom. Other than registering to vote, Bob had never returned to the courthouse; he paid his taxes by mail.

When they got to the courthouse, the small parking lot was filled with cars. As they went into the building a young woman asked if they were there for the supervisors meeting, and told them the meeting had been moved to the lunchroom in the basement to accommodate the large number of people who had already arrived. The lunchroom tables had been moved back against the walls, and rows of metal chairs, filled with familiar folks from home, were lined up facing a big table where the supervisors were milling around. A large television and video player were set up off to the side of the big table, and a display board was set up on the other side.

Bob, Catherine, Al and Maggie noticed that they would have to walk up to the front row in order to find open seats, but just then Bob saw two middle-aged men setting up more chairs at the back of the room, and went over to help them. After arranging two more rows, Bob waved to the others to take seats in the back of the room with him. He figured there were about a 100 people in the room already, with more still coming in, and he began to feel uneasy in the crowded space buzzing with conversation as people greeted one another and traded bits of information about the proposed landfill.

Just then, one of the supervisors, a man in his 60s who had been on the county board for at least 20 years, called the meeting to order. He greeted the crowd and said he was happy to see so many people tonight. He explained that this was a regular meeting of the county board, and not a public hearing, but that the public was most welcome to observe the board in action. Given the large number of people interested in the landfill, he asked for a motion to suspend approval of the minutes of the last meeting and move directly to the next item on the agenda, which was the presentation by Evergreen Environmental. Bill Meyers said, "So moved," and another supervisor seconded. The Chair then asked the representatives from Evergreen to make their presentation.

Two neatly-dressed men approached the supervisors' table. The first apologized for not bringing a larger projection screen for the videotape he planned to show, then stood sideways and smiled at the crowd. He said he was going to show a 20-minute video with general information about Evergreen Environmental, and then his associate would present drawings of the proposed improvements to the military base site and surrounding roads.

Bob watched the video with everyone else. Upbeat music played while an announcer described Evergreen's state-of-the-art technology for handling every conceivable kind of waste. The video flashed from rows of shiny green garbage trucks to the smiling faces of drivers and technicians wearing clean, pressed green uniforms at the largest sanitary landfill in the United States, operated by Evergreen in a rural county in Delaware. Then the picture changed to a shot of a new, nicely landscaped school building. The folks in Delaware were able to build a new school with the tax revenues from Evergreen, and the company donated the books and computers for the library. Evergreen was a high-tech, good corporate citizen.

The video ended and the second man from the company put a big glossy drawing up on the display board. Bob recognized it as a map of the old military base and surrounding area. He could even pick out his own five-acre parcel at the bottom left-hand corner of the map. The man from the company had a pointer the size of a pencil with a light in it that he beamed on to various areas of the map as he talked. Evergreen would create a 100-acre sanitary landfill facility at the south end of the military base, and plant a border of pine trees around the entire installation to screen the landfill from view. At full capacity, the site would be able to handle 250 trucks of waste a day.

Then the man put up another glossy map on the display board, this one showing the state road from the Interstate to town as a four-lane road, and the winding county road that ran from town out past Bob's house to the site as a straight road widened by a total of two feet along each side. The man said the state planned to widen the road from the Interstate into a four-lane within the next year, using state and federal funds, and that all the county had to do was improve about 12 miles of road from town out to the site. The county would gain about 20 jobs and 0,000 a year in tax revenues, which would totally pay for the road construction within five years, not to mention the possibility that state funds could be available to pay for up to 30 percent of the county's road construction costs.

The supervisors asked a few polite questions of the Evergreen men; it seemed to Bob they already knew the answers to their questions and were just asking for the benefit of the crowd. Mabel Johnson, the librarian from town, stood up and asked if she could ask a question. The Chair of the supervisors politely told her that this was a board meeting and not a public hearing, but that the board would consider holding a public hearing at a later date. Mabel said, "I think you better hold a hearing before you vote on widening that road." There was a murmur of agreement from the audience, and the Chair rapped a gavel on the table for the first time. He said the supervisors would discuss holding a public hearing before voting on the matter within 30 days, and notify the public as soon as possible. He then said that the board had two other items of business on the agenda that night and invited the public to stay.

Bob stood up to leave immediately, as did most of the people, and he looked around for Rev. Kendall, but didn't see him. Bob, Catherine, Al and Maggie, along with a few other people, decided to go over to the coffee shop anyway to talk things over.

At the coffee shop

Rev. Kendall, his wife, and a few other members of the church were already at the coffee shop when Bob got there. The small place was filled with people from the commission meeting, all engaged in conversations about the landfill. Some talked of stopping the project; others said there didn't seem to be much use and talked about moving away.

Bob pulled up a chair near the table with people from his church, just as one of the church members said, "The first thing we need to do is hire a lawyer," Catherine said, "I don't think the lawyers around here would know how to handle this." Someone else said, "Maybe we should call the Bar Association."

Just then Mabel came in and said the commission voted to schedule a hearing three weeks from tonight. She said, "I don't believe that Evergreen video. Truck drivers don't drive for hundreds of miles and arrive at a landfill in starched, pressed uniforms. We need to find out more about this company."

One of the teachers from the grade school piped in, "They sure seem to know what the state is planning for road construction; I think we should talk to our state representatives." Another one of the teachers said, "I think we better make a list of everybody we need to talk to and get this done before the public hearing." Rev. Kendall's wife pulled out a piece of paper and said, "You talk, I'll make the list."

About an hour later, the crowd had thinned out, but a dozen people were still around two tables pushed together in the coffee shop making a list. Mabel said she would look up phone numbers for people, and make as many calls as she could, but said she couldn't make calls from work. Bob said that it was going to cost money to make long-distance phone calls, and took five dollars out of his wallet and put it on the table. The others put money on top of Bob's five, and Mabel scooped it up and handed it to Bob, saying, "You're treasurer."

Mrs. Kendall and Mabel agreed to write up the list and make copies of it for everyone the next day. The other people agreed to pick up their lists at the library, make their phone calls, and meet again in a week. Rev. Kendall said they could meet in the church social room.

Let your fingers do the walking

Catherine picked up the list at the library on her way home from work from Tuesday and gave it to Bob when he came in from work. Each of them had two calls to make; Bob had their state senator and representative. He gulped when he saw his name written in next to theirs, and said to Catherine, "I thought I was supposed to be treasurer."

Catherine smiled and sighed at the same time. "Come on Bob, this is a long list, and everybody has to help. Besides, you went to high school with Homer Treat, didn't you?"

Homer Treat was the state senator, and Bob and Homer had been in the same high school class. They had gotten along okay in high school, but they hadn't been friends. Homer was a star on the football team and went to college in Charlottesville after graduation; Bob had been a loner who didn't go out for sports and clubs, and had gone straight into house painting after a stint in the army. Bob hadn't seen or talked to Homer in more than 20 years.

The next morning, Bob sat down and thought about what he wanted to say to Homer. He wanted to ask him what he knew about the state road improvement plan to widen the road from the Interstate to town into a four-lane. Actually, Bob had heard talk of the road improvement for years, but it had never entered his mind that the development the new road might bring would be 250 trucks full of garbage a day. Bob also wanted to know if Homer knew anything about Evergreen's plans for the landfill. He rehearsed in his mind what he was going to say. If Homer remembered him, they'd probably have to catch up a bit on all those years since high school. It would be easier if Homer didn't remember him. Then Bob could just be a voter and a tax-payer calling his senator for information, although he'd never done anything like that before, either.

Finally, Bob felt ready to pick up the phone. He dialed the long-distance number Mabel had given him for Homer's office at the Capitol in Richmond. The legislature was in session, so Bob figured Homer would be there, another good excuse, Bob thought, for not calling Homer at home the night before. A woman answered the phone, "Good morning, Senator Treat's office." Bob was surprised not to hear Homer's voice at first, then realized a state senator might be too busy to answer his phone.

"This is Bob Martin. May I speak to Homer Treat, please?"

"The senator is in a committee meeting this morning, is there any way I can help you?"

"Well, I live down in Homer's district, and I want to talk to him about some highway construction the state is doing down here."

There was a pause, and then the woman on the phone said, "The senator is scheduled for meetings most of the day. Would you like me to tell him you called, or would you like me to transfer you to the Chair of the Transportation Committee? Someone there might be able to help you."

Bob thought for a minute. He needed to talk to Homer before the meeting at church on Monday, and he needed to talk to his state representative, Joe Bagley, whom he didn't know at all, too. "I'd really like to talk to Homer before Monday," said Bob, but I'll talk to the transportation people, too. Do you know if Homer stays in Richmond for the weekend or if he comes home?"

The woman said the senator would be back home this weekend. Bob left his number and asked that Homer try to call him during the evenings or over the weekend. Then the woman transferred his call to the Chair of the Transportation Committee.

Another woman answered, and Homer explained why he was calling again. She switched his call to a man named Josh, an aide who handled road construction. Josh seemed to be a very competent and gracious young man. He chatted with Homer about Senator Treat while he looked up information on a computer. "Yes, the appropriation for that stretch of highway passed in the last session. Senator Treat really went to bat for you folks to move that appropriation, as I remember. It will help open up that whole section of his district for new economic development. Construction should start soon, if it hasn't already. Do you want a copy of the legislation, or do you want more information on the construction? I can give you the number for the Highway Department for that."

Bob paused to think again. He didn't now if he really needed a copy of the legislation, but figured he might as well get one. He didn't know if he really needed to call the Highway Department, either, but he took the number anyway, and asked Josh to send a copy of the legislation to him. Josh asked for Bob's fax number, and said he'd have someone fax it down to him that morning. Bob told Josh he didn't have a fax, and asked him to mail it to his home address.

After Bob hung up the phone, he felt exhausted. He looked out the window and noticed that the light drizzle outside was clearing, and he decided he better take advantage of the weather and get to work. He'd try calling his state representative the next morning. He glanced back at the list and noticed Al was supposed to call the state Highway Department; Mabel had listed the same telephone number for Al that Josh had given to Bob. "I'll let Al figure out the road construction, then," thought Bob, "and concentrate on seeing if the politicians know anything about Evergreen."

Bits and pieces come together

That evening, the phone at Bob's house rang, and Catherine, as usual, answered. It was Al, calling for Bob. As Bob took the receiver, he realized that in all the years they'd been neighbors, Al had never called for Bob before. Catherine and Maggie often talked, but Al and Bob had never had a telephone conversation. Now, Al wanted to talk about his call to the state Highway Department.

"Well, I sure had a time getting through to somebody who could give me some answers about the highway construction," said Al. "I got put on hold about four times while people transferred me around from one office to another."

Bob told Al that he hadn't reached Homer Treat, but did find out that the state road construction was about to start, if it hadn't already. Al said he had found out the construction was slated to start next month. All the surveying was done and rights of way in place. Evidently there had been a public hearing about it months ago. Neither Bob nor Al remembered seeing a notice of a hearing, but both admitted they wouldn't have gone anyway.

"I'm not opposed to making a four-lane out of that road, are you?" asked Bob. "No," said Al. "I think it will be a good thing for the county, and the businesses in town. I just never imagined that it would attract a big garbage company to haul all that out-of-state trash through town right into our backyard."

"Same here," said Bob. "I thought it might help the few farmers still around here to move their crops more easily, maybe attract some small industry, and it would sure make it easier to get to the Interstate. I never realized it might attract something like this."

The two men talked a little longer, compared notes about the calls their wives had made to the editor of the county paper and a reporter in Richmond. "Poor Rev. Kendall," said Al. "He's on the list to call the Department of Defense to see if Evergreen bought or leased the land at the base. Mabel's supposed to check on the deed with the county tax assessor."

"This sure is a lot of work," said Bob. "It will be interesting to see if we can put the whole story together when we meet on Monday. See you then, or I guess I'll see you in church tonight."

"Right," said Al. "See you then."

After the Wednesday Church Service

Instead of standing around in the parking lot waiting for Catherine, Bob stayed on the church steps with most of the congregation talking about the landfill. The people who were making phone calls were buzzing about what they'd found out, and some of them were complaining about how hard it was to reach the people they were supposed to call.

Rev. Kendall came out and said that he still hadn't reached anyone who knew anything at the Defense Department, but that Mabel had told him no land transfer on the military base had been recorded at the courthouse. She also told him she found out there were no county zoning ordinances that would stand in Evergreen's way if they wanted to put in a mega-landfill, and now she was trying to find out if the state would require an environmental impact statement.

Bob wished he had been a little quicker in contacting his state legislators so he'd have more to say himself, and promised himself to get back on the phone first thing in the morning. On the church steps, people who had not made calls asked if it would be all right for them to come to the meeting on Monday night to find out more about what was going on. Al said he thought it would be better for the people who made calls to get together alone first, but Rev. Kendall said he thought the more people who got involved, the better chance they'd have to stop this thing before it went anywhere. Rev. Kendall suggested that they ask the people who made calls to meet Sunday afternoon to plan what to say at the meeting Monday night, and invite everyone in the area and in town who was interested to come. They could ask the ministers to announce the meeting at their Sunday services.

Bob liked this idea and surprised himself by saying so out loud so everyone could hear. "If we can stop the county supervisors from voting to improve the road, I wonder if Evergreen won't just pack up and look for another place for its landfill. We might be able to stop this just by putting pressure on the supervisors, and in that case, I think we need as many local voters calling them as we can get." Lots of people murmured in agreement and Rev. Kendall said he'd call the other ministers to ask them to announce the Monday night meeting at their Sunday services.

Back on the Telephone

The next morning, Bob called the woman who owned the house he was painting and explained that he would be over later in the afternoon because he had to make some calls about the landfill. She wasn't real happy about it, but when she heard it was about the landfill, she said she was willing to wait.

Bob called his state senator first, and told his secretary he really needed to reach him. He persisted until she told him she could arrange to have the senator return his call for a few minutes around three o'clock that afternoon. Bob said he would call the senator at three, hung up, and placed a call to his representative. His secretary said the most likely time to reach him was after four that afternoon, and Bob asked her to take a message that he would be calling around four. Then he decided to go to work after all, and stop at two-thirty and go to the beauty parlor where Catherine worked to use the phone in the back room to call Senator Homer Treat back.

Bob's calls went very well. Homer remembered him and wanted to talk a little about what Bob had been doing since high school. Bob hit the highlights � Catherine, the boys, his painting and carpentry business � but then cut to the point and told Homer how Evergreen Environmental planned to make use of the state road improvements that Homer had been so good about getting for his district.

Homer said he had heard something about county officials trying to attract new industry, but that he didn't know the specifics about Evergreen. He asked Bob why he was opposed to the landfill if it would bring in some new jobs. Bob said he was all in favor of new jobs, but he didn't see how 250 garbage trucks a day and a million dollars in county road improvements was any fair trade off for 20 jobs. Homer said he could see Bob's point, and asked what he planned to do. Bob told him about the meeting at his church on Monday night, and told him he was welcome to come.

The call to his state representative went about the same way. His representative didn't know much about Evergreen at all, and said it was a county matter. He said he'd be willing to help work something out between the county and the local people if they wanted him to, but that he couldn't attend the meeting Monday night because he had a late committee meeting in Richmond.

As long as he was on the phone, anyway, Bob decided to call Bill Meyers, the county supervisor, at his auto dealership. After Bob waited on hold for a few minutes, Bill picked up and asked Bob how he was doing. Bob said he was not happy with Evergreen's plans for the landfill, and asked Bill where the Board of Supervisors was on it.

Bill answered in a careful tone of voice, "We were a little surprised by the big turnout at the supervisors' meeting last week, and of course we've scheduled a public hearing so that people can get their fears out in the open. But I think we should consider the advantages as well as the disadvantages. Evergreen is a good company, and they would bring 20 new jobs into the county. Taxpayers always react when we need to raise taxes, and this would increase the tax base by putting a new corporate taxpayer on the county rolls. It would keep taxes down, and what are we going to do with all that land sitting idle at the military base, anyway? It might as well be put to some use."

Bob thanked Bill for his time, and said that people in the community were planning to get together before the public hearing to sort out the advantages and disadvantages, as Bill called them. He told Bill he'd see him at the public hearing.

Sunday Afternoon

About 20 people met in the social room at Bob's church, a few more than had made phone calls. The extra people were mostly relatives or neighbors of people who had made calls. The Methodist minister and the head of the Methodist Church council, as well as the Baptist minister from town, had come as well.

Mrs. Kendall was passing a pitcher of iced tea when Bob got there with Catherine, Al and Maggie. Rev. Kendall asked them to take a seat and said he wanted to wait a few minutes for Mabel, who arrived just then carrying a videotape machine. She asked Bob and Al to go get a television set she had on the back seat of her car, since she had a video tape she wanted everyone to see.

Rev. Kendall thanked everyone for coming and said he thought it would be a good idea to compare notes on what people had found out, and then talk about how to run the meeting on Monday night.

One by one, people told the stories of the calls they had made. One person had called the State Bar Association and was referred to the state Trial Lawyers Association, which referred her to an environmental organization in Richmond. They referred her to another lawyer, whom she talked to for quite awhile. The lawyer told her she might be able to file an temporary injunction to prevent Evergreen from beginning work at the site, but she needed a lot more information before she could tell if there was any way to fight the landfill in court. The lawyer said she would be willing to attend the Monday night meeting at no charge, but would need to have a definite client and a financial arrangement in place before doing any work. People thought it would be good to have a lawyer who knew something about these things come to the meeting, but hoped there would be some way to stop Evergreen without going to court.

The people who called county supervisors all told pretty much the same story. The landfill would put land at the base back on the tax rolls and bring new jobs into the county. The supervisors encouraged everyone to come to the public hearing to air their feelings, and the supervisors would try to do what was in the best interest of the whole county while not ignoring the concerns of the communities close to the landfill site. "What does that mean?" asked Maggie.

The Methodist minister spoke up next. He said he had called one of the Methodist Church offices in Nashville that prepares educational materials on social action for the church. They sent him some materials and suggested he call a community group in rural west Tennessee that had been fighting a landfill for more than two years.

The minister said that the group was made up of Black people who were fighting another company. He talked to the president of the group, who said it was important to keep people in the community together as much as possible. He said the company they were fighting tried to split the community on the jobs issue and the issue of needing some kind of economic development in the community.

The president also gave him the number of another group in Washington, D.C. that serves as a clearinghouse for local groups fighting landfills all over the country. The minister talked to the director there, who said it sounded like they were off to a good start, and they needed to keep the community together as much as possible. She knew quite a bit about Evergreen, and said they were very slick, but that they also had many environmental violations filed against them in other states.

Rev. Kendall said he had quite a time trying to find out what was going on between Evergreen and the Department of Defense, and even finding the right office in the Defense Department that handled the military base land. From what he could find out, Evergreen had signed a 10-year lease option on a 100 acres of land at the base, but did not intend to buy the land outright.

"What is a lease option?" asked Bob.

"I suppose we could ask that lawyer in Richmond to find out for sure, but what the Defense Department told me was that Evergreen has an option to lease the land pending obtaining all the required permits and road improvements. It seems to mean no one else can lease the land unless Evergreen drops their option, and Evergreen will lease it if they can get all the other pieces to fall into place."

Mabel spoke up. "That sounds about right. The county tax assessor said that Evergreen doesn't plan to buy the land, but to lease it from the Army."

"So if they lease the land, they'll pay the Army for the lease. And the Army doesn't pay taxes to the county on the land, so what are the supervisors talking about when they say it will put land back on the tax rolls?" asked Rev. Kendall.

Mabel said the county assessor told her that Evergreen proposes to make payments to the county "in lieu of" taxes. That means they will sign an agreement to make payments to the county even though they don't have to. "

"Why would they do that?"

"I guess to get the county to pay for the road improvements, and to cover costs for fire and police protection, and things like that," said Mabel.

Bob said that it didn't sound like such a good financial deal for the county. Basically, the county would widen the road for Evergreen, and Evergreen would pay the county back over 10 years. He also said he wondered what would happen if Evergreen didn't renew its lease on the land after. "If they shut down the landfill after 10 years and it leaks, who will have to clean it up � the Army?"

Mabel said she didn't know the answer to that question. She also said she called the Virginia Organizing Project, and they gave her the name of another group in southern Virginia that had been fighting a landfill for out-of-state garbage for more than a year. That site was in a rural Black community, just like the one in Tennessee.

Mabel talked to a young woman who was a leader of that group, who sounded surprised that Evergreen had picked a site in an all-white area like theirs. The woman told her that the company they were fighting had a habit of picking isolated rural areas, mostly Black, as far as she knew, because they assumed the people there wouldn't have much political clout.

"You mean there's a pattern of putting these things in Black people's neighborhoods?" said Al.

"Seems so," said Mabel. "It made me sick when I heard it. I guess Evergreen doesn't care what color we are, as long as they can talk the county into putting it here. Maybe the lease deal with the military just seems so good it's worth a try. But another thing I got from Virginia Organizing Project is a videotape from another community in Kentucky that fought a toxic chemical plant for years. I brought it with me and want to show it to you."

Mabel played the tape, this one about an isolated rural community that was mostly white. A factory had polluted the water for years, local people got sick, and yet the community was divided about the loss of jobs if the plant closed. Just as other people had said earlier, the people on the videotape kept saying how important it was to talk to everyone in the community and keep people together as much as possible.

When the tape ended, Bob spoke again. "Mabel, I want to say how much I respect all the work you've done, and how much everyone else has done, to figure out what's been going on here. I've had my head in the sand, I think, not paying much attention to what's going on around me outside my own family and job. I think we better use the meeting Monday night to figure out how to stop the county board of supervisors from going any farther with this."

Rev. Kendall spoke up. "We might have a good chance of stopping them if we can get people from all over the county, not just local people, to the public hearing saying they don't want county money going into widening the road. But Evergreen might go ahead anyway, even if the county doesn't improve the road. The deal they get on the lease, and the state road being widened anyway might make it worth it to them to use the county road in the narrow, winding condition it's in."

Catherine spoke next. "I think we have to try to stop the supervisors anyway. We'll cross the next bridge when we have to if Evergreen doesn't give up."

"I agree we have to stop Evergreen," said the Baptist minister from town. "But I don't think it will end there. The new state road is coming through, and we're sitting on the largest tract of undeveloped land in the county. It's one thing to be against a giant landfill and hundreds of trucks coming through a day from who knows where. But I think we need to know what we want, as well as what we don't want. What would be a good use of the land at the military base, if not for tons of out-of-state garbage?"

One of the school teachers agreed. "We need to figure out how we want to develop this part of the county, or somebody else like Evergreen might come along and do it for us."

After more discussion, the group agreed to form an organization called the Morgan Creek Improvement Association. The area had long been called Morgan Creek because a family named Morgan settled there early in the nineteenth century and set up a saw mill to cut the old hardwoods into boards for local construction and shipment to the county seat.

Since no one felt comfortable being the chairperson of the group, they agreed to have a five-person steering committee: Mabel, Maggie, Rev. Kendall, Al and Bob. They decided to ask everyone at the meeting Monday night to not only call everyone on the board of supervisors before the hearing, but to call everyone they knew in all parts of the county and ask them to come to the public hearing.

Monday Night's Meeting

About 80 people packed into the Baptist church social room for Monday night's meeting. Mabel said to put the chairs in curved rows like a horseshoe shape so that people could see each other.

Rev. Kendall welcomed everyone, and introduced Mabel, who gave a brief report on the facts the group had put together Sunday afternoon. Then they watched the videotape Mabel had shown on Sunday, and Al stood up to address the meeting.

"We know that some of you may have questions, and that some of you may even think that letting Evergreen develop their landfill could be a good idea. We want you to have a chance to speak first if you see some good points to this plan that we might be overlooking. We want to stick together as a community and work things through ourselves, consider all our options, before going to the public hearing in two weeks."

Howard from the hardware store stood up. He said that some of the business people in town thought the landfill might be good for business. The gas stations and cafe in particular might benefit from the increased traffic in town.

One of the gas station owners stood up. He said that while he thought the landfill traffic might be good for his business, that he had no idea until tonight what a landfill on that scale would do to a little community like Morgan Creek, and the people who lived there were his customers, too. He also said there must be some better use of county tax dollars than widening a curvy rural road that wouldn't need improvement if it weren't for Evergreen sending its trucks over it.

People talked for almost an hour about the pros and cons of the landfill, then decided they'd rather not have it if there was anything they could do about it. The lawyer from Richmond spoke briefly, said that Evergreen had not so far done anything that would be a cause of action for a lawsuit, but that she would be happy to advise the group for a reduced fee if they needed her.

Then Maggie asked everyone to pull their chairs around in little circles of eight to 10 people. She asked them to come up with the names of as many people they could who lived in other areas of the county, including the county seat. She asked people to list the names of people they would be willing to call and ask to come to the public hearing, as well as call their county supervisors to tell them not to use their tax dollars to build a road for Evergreen.

After about 20 minutes, Maggie asked each group to call out how many names they had, and Bob tallied them up as they called out. "That's 832 names," said Maggie. "It doesn't matter if some names are on the list more than once. It's good if some people get more than one call. Just be sure you do three things before the public hearing:

1. Call everyone on your list and explain what Evergreen plans to do. Ask them to call their supervisors and to come to the public hearing.
2. Call the supervisors yourself.
3. Be at the hearing two weeks from tonight at the county courthouse, and if you have something green, wear it."

The crowd laughed, then got quiet again when Bob stood up to talk. He said that there were lists on a table at the back of the room with people willing to drive others to the public hearing. He said that if anyone wanted to carpool to the hearing, to put their name on a list before leaving. He also said that there was a coffee can for donations on the table in the back of the room, and that any contribution, no matter how small, would be appreciated. Finally, he said, there were cookies and coffee and punch brought by the Methodist women's group, and he invited everyone to have some refreshments before heading home.

The Public Hearing

Bill Meyers had attended the Monday night meeting at the Baptist church, and alerted the supervisors that they might want to move the public hearing from the courthouse to the school gym across the street, where there would be more room.

About 300 people from all parts of the county, mostly wearing green, showed up for the hearing. Catherine and the school teachers talked to people as they walked in, and signed up 50 people who said they wanted to speak. Many people from other parts of the county said they wanted to speak on ideas for what the county could do with its money besides spend a million dollars trying to straighten out a 12-mile stretch of county road.

After hearing about 20 people in the first hour speak against the county building a road for Evergreen, the Chair asked if there was anyone in the hall who wanted to speak in favor of the proposal. No one spoke up. The Chair said that in the interest of everyone's time, he would like to go into executive session for about a half hour and deliberate with the supervisors on the matter.

Most people stayed in the auditorium while the supervisors talked. When they returned, the Chair called the supervisors to order for a special session on the Evergreen request for improvements to the county road. He asked for a motion, which Bill Meyers made. Bill moved to deny the allocation of county funds for improvement of the road leading to the military base. Another supervisor seconded, and after a brief discussion, the supervisors voted to deny the request.

Afterward

The next Sunday afternoon, the Morgan Creek Improvement Association held a celebration on the grounds of the Methodist Church. Afterwards, the steering committee and about a dozen other people met briefly to go over what they should do next.

They said they needed to find out more about the military base land and what it might be used for.

They said they needed to get in touch with someone in authority at Evergreen to make sure they were not going to pursue their plans for a landfill.

They said they needed to hold a meeting in a month or so to ask people what kind of development they wanted to see happen in the area.

They said they needed to call back all the people who had helped them and say thank you.

They said they needed to account for the donations they had received, pay any bills they had and set up a bank account for any money that was left.

Mrs. Kendall took out a piece of paper and said, "You talk, and I'll make a list."