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TIMELINE FOR LANDFILL
| APRIL 2011 UPDATE |
VOTE!! April 24th RUN-OFF - WE NEED NEW Conecuh County Commissioners!! |
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We Celebrate: District 1 - Rodney Hilderth / District 3 - Johnny Andrews Conecuh County Probate Judge - Rogene Booker / Circuit Clerk - David Jackson |
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State Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, has filed a bill that would extend the statewide moratorium on large landfills, such as the proposed Conecuh Woods property, by another year. The original 2 year moratorium does not allow sufficient time for the completion and digestion of the ADEM solid waste management study. |
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The Struggle Continues! An Outline of Events Thusfar: |
| DATE |
EVENTS |
| 05/30/06 |
Conecuh Woods LLC was created with Donald W. 'Jimmy' Stone Jr. as member. Agent is Nicholas S. Hare Jr., 122 Pineville Rd., Monroeville, AL 36460 |
| 1st week of December, 2006 |
Terri Carter, Mayor of Repton, AL, since 2004, received an interesting call from an acquaintance. "There is an industry that is about to locate in Repton that y'all will not want and you need to start asking questions"' Mayor Carter pressed and was finally told it was to be a landfill. "I immediately had one of my Council Members, Mr. James Bailey, call our County Commissioner DK Bodiford and ask about this issue. Mr. Bodiford denied knowing anything and couldn't understand how we would know before him. He continued to talk about how he didn't know anything about the project and then proceeded to say exactly how much we were losing by sending our garbage to Escambia County. His statements left us believing that he actually knew all about this project." |
| 12/09/06 |
Les Prouty of Prouty Real Estate phoned Mayor Carter and set up a meeting for December 20th. |
| 12/20/06 |
Conecuh Woods was represented by Mr. Prouty, their realtor, and their attorney 'Chipper' Hare, whose wife is the 35th Judicial Circuit Judge. Mayor Carter and the Town of Repton's legal counsel, Jack Weaver, represented Repton. Mr. Prouty repeatedly stated that he involved Mr. Hare because he had 'political connections'. He said the project was a 'done deal' and, since it was a step outside the Repton city limit, there was nothing Repton could do about it. He said, "The Conecuh County Commission is already on board." |
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Mr. Prouty and Mr. Hare proceeded to tout the benefit of having a 5000 acre dump just outside the town limits that would be receiving garbage from as far away as New York! Mr. Prouty said that it wasn't about business for him, but it was personal, that he cared about Mayor Carter as an individual and about 'our community', and this would bring in new industry for them. Mr. Hare asked repeatedly what his client could do for Repton because, 'They want to be a good neighbor!'. After Mr. Prouty's third or fourth comment about 'Chipper's Political Connections' Mayor Carter responded, "I don't care that his wife is a judge. Repton is not for sale so you can go somewhere else!" |
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Mayor Carter, shaken by their blatant attempt to buy her support, or her silence, proceeded to call everyone she knew. She told them about the proposed landfill and provided the phone numbers of the Conecuh County Commissioners. And so the word spread. People told friends, relatives, neighbors, strangers. They called, wrote, knocked on doors, sent Emails. |
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The sleepy rural community came to life. No one will ever forget the first meeting. In December 2006 the word went out that a landfill had been proposed for the Repton-Range-Lenox area. One week later over 300 people gathered in protest. Lenox Community Center could not hold everyone. People spilled out onto the porch and into the yard, but no one left. What a mix of race, color, age, religion. . .wheelchairs & baby strollers, trucks & hybrids. There was passion, there was anger, and there was fear. "Our rural community is just the kind of place for which 'they' search, the kind of place with a scattering of homes and no united voice. 'They' claim to be pure of intention, that property values will go up, that life will improve. We beg to differ. We want our homes and environment to remain unpolluted, we want our children's children to want to return to this area. Our extensive probing tell us that our initial misgivings have foundation, that our 'gut feelings' are accurate. Hazardous materials are not filtered out, smells cannot be contained, landfill liners are not guaranteed. And that is worrisome as there are five aquifers beneath the proposed landfill. We must fight 'them', and fight we will!" |
| 01/04/07 |
Citizens for a Clean Southwest Alabama (CCSA) was formed to fight the landfill. Petitions were signed, research organized, alliances formed. From amongst the vast diversity. . . farmers, students, doctors, teachers, mechanics, government employees, PhDs, religious leaders, cooks, business executives, housewives, etc. . . .an Executive Committee was formed. Emotional, passionate opposition to the landfill had to be backed up with factual, scientific data. Primary research showed that all landfills eventually leak. There would need to be a huge, undeniable need to justify taking the risk of a leak. With Timberlands landfill just 12 miles from Repton there was no need. Since Conecuh Woods were planning to bring waste from '48 states!' the project appeared to built on greed, not need. |
| 01/08/07 |
The first Conecuh County Commission meeting of the year was held in the old Evergreen High School at 9AM. The Conecuh Woods contingent consisted of 'Jimmy' Stone Jr, David Kirby (regional salesman for Tenax Corporation which produces landfill liners), Les Prouty and Chipper Hare. There were over 200 Conecuh County citizens there to protest this project. The room was small so people were crowded into the halls and standing outside, pressed close to windows. Conecuh Woods made a presentation. Mayor Carter and legal council Jack Weaver presented for Repton. Local citizen Johnny Andrews pleaded with the Commission to take a vote right then, to vote No to the project. The Commissioners appeared uncomfortable, but all voted No. Perhaps they bowed to the pressure of all those people, or perhaps at that first meeting they had not yet been enticed away from their community. |
| March, 2007 |
Don Smith, PhD, wrote to the Conecuh County Commission requesting that they form a Citizens Advisory Committee to review the proposed landfill. The Commission appointed: Dr. Smith, Odessa Wallace, Larry Ryland, Marc McIntyre (local businessman), Darryl Harper (Economic Development Director), Winston Foshee (County Engineer). The Commission informed the committee that their job was to research, not to recommend approval or disapproval of the project. After several months the only research brought forth was that of Dr. Smith. The committee refused to hear his research. In November 2007, in a regular Conecuh County Commission meeting, Marc McIntyre told the Commissioners that the committee recommended approval of the Conecuh Woods dump project. Dr. Smith abstained. |
| March, 2007 |
Les Prouty of Prouty Real Estate phoned Johnny Andrews, president of CCSA, and left a message for Johnny to return the call. Mr. Prouty obviously thought he had hung up, however the link remained open and he was heard saying, 'Mr. Andrews should be able to be bought by offering a fishing trip.' |
| April, 2007 |
Conecuh Woods presented the landfill project to the Conecuh County Commission and compared landfills built in Florida with the proposed project. (They would, in future interviews, admit that few of the facilities and features found in the Florida sites would be incorporated in the Repton site.) |
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Slevin & Slevin, a Tallahassee PR Firm, made a presentation as well. Patrick Slevin assured the crowd that he was living in an affluent neighborhood and during the first year he was there he had not known there was a dump just one mile away. A local citizen searched for Mr. Slevin's house. It was in an affluent neighborhood, but the dump was a small enclosed transfer station, not a dump. The pictures were at a CCSA meeting at Alabama Southern a few weeks later. Mr. Sleven quit working for Conecuh Woods shortly afterwards. |
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There was a large opposition at this Commission meeting so no landfill application was submitted by Conecuh Woods. 80 year-old Realtor Les Prouty died of a heart attack a week later. Mike Fordham, local manager of Tenax Corporation and owner of the Black Angus Restaurant, took over managing the project. Mayor Carter phoned the Tenax president in Massachusetts. He denied in writing that Tenax and any involvement with Conecuh Woods. |
| May, 2007 |
Conecuh Woods LLC rented a private jet from St. Petersburg, Florida, to fly Commissioners Byrd, Millender, Barrow and Dean; County Attorney Richard Nix; businessman Mike Fordham; Dr. Don Smith (who requested to attend); and 'Jimmy' Stone Jr. from Evergreen airport to St. Petersburg, Florida, to tour a waste-to-energy landfill. The Bridgeway Acres Landfill is impressive because less than 15% of waste is buried due to recycling and waste-to-energy projects. The Conecuh Woods landfill plan included neither project and the daily accepted 10,000 tons of garbage is to be buried. |
| 09/25/08 |
Jimmy' Stone Jr. created 2 more LLC's: JS Investments I and JS Investments II. He is listed as the only member. The agent is James M. Smith, 10A Commerce Row, 529 South Perry St. Montgomery 36104. |
| May '07 - Dec '10 |
Conecuh Woods has not entered a landfill application since the opposition is loud and visible from Conecuh County citizens and surrounding counties. Orange Beach, Alabama, became Sister City to Repton to show support. Awareness grew about the danger posed by 'the largest landfill in the US', with only the one liner required by Alabama, located above the Floridan Aquifer system. The system spreads beneath south Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as well as the whole of Florida. There is no possible way to clean pollution from an aquifer. ADEM credibility has been questioned and there is a lack of real landfill regulation in Alabama. The more landfills and Conecuh Woods LLC are researched, the more entrenched and wide-spread are the CCSA members. 'Jimmy' Stone shows up from time to time. There is dump promotion in the form of free steak dinners at Black Angus. Word has spread that 2 of the Commissioners are against the dump. |
| December, 2010 |
Jimmy' Stone returned to Evergreen. Citizens filled the room, hall and up the stairs for the next scheduled Commissioner meeting to see if his return prompted any activity. Commissioner Dean was visibly nervous about the turn-out. He asked Mayor Carter several times why so many people had come. |
| 01/21/11 |
Conecuh Woods LLC entered their dump application. |
| 01/23/11 |
Application presented at the regularly scheduled meeting. Richard Nix had already decided when the public hearing would be held (9:00 Thursday, March 10) and had a resolution for acceptance of the application ready for the Commission to sign. A citizen requested that the Public Hearing be held at a more convenient time for the public. That was refused by the Commission. During the time leading up to the public hearing numerous citizens would ask to address the Conecuh County Commission about the pending dump. All would be denied. |
| February, 2011 |
The Town of Repton filed suit to stop the application process. Judge Dawn Hare recluses herself because her husband was the Conecuh Woods LLC agent. Chief Justice Cobb appointed Judge Smithart. |
| 03/08/11 |
In court Judge Smithart denied Repton's request that the dump application be stopped. |
| 03/10/11 |
Public Hearing on the landfill is held at Reid State Technical College at 9AM, Thursday. Approximately 800 people attended even though the time and day made it difficult. No one was allowed to park on campus so volunteers acted as parking attendants and ferried people from parking areas that private businesses provided to accommodate all the traffic. Many stood around outside since the auditorium held only 425 people, however some could not stand out in the weather so had to give up and go home. The Hearing lasted from 9AM to 5:30pm. Conecuh Woods opened. Dump supporters were 'Jimmy' Stone, Al Agricola (their attorney), Odessa Wallace, Larry Ryland, Leon Windham, Mike Fordham & Shannon Pugh. Only 7 people spoke for the dump but scores of opposition voices filled the day, each allowed only a few minutes. Some offered facts and figures, others impassioned pleas. The diversity of speakers was impressive, opposition to the dump the uniting factor. From old and frail with solid standards to impassioned teens demanding 'Why?!'. There were cheers and standing ovations and an occassional 'Amen!' but it was an orderly, respectful assemblage. |
| 04/04/11 |
Jim Noles, attorney for the Town of Repton, attended the Conecuh County Commission meeting. He then asked the Commission to hold future meetings pertaining to the dump in a larger room since their chamber only holds 32 people. The Commission refused. |
| 04/11/11 |
Conecuh County Commission held a workshop after the regularly scheduled meeting. They listened to CCSA's retained environmental engineer, T. Hal Wood of Southern Earth Science, Inc. and Conecuh Woods' SCS engineers. The only questions asked were from the Conecuh County attorney, Richard Nix. |
| 04/18/11 |
Conecuh County Commission, at a special called meeting, voted 3-2 to approve the Conecuh Woods' application to build the largest landfill in the US just 6 miles from the functioning Timberlands landfill. Despite overwhelming opposition by their own constituents. Despite resolutions in opposition passed by: 14 Municipalities in Alabama & Florida; 5 County Commissions in Alabama & Florida; Creek Indians 'One Nation'; Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority; Escambia County Soil & Water Conservation; Monroe County Board of Realtors. |
| 04/20/11 |
The Town of Repton and Mayor Terri Carter filed suit against the Conecuh County Commission and Conecuh Woods. Since then Orange Beach, Brewton, Flomaton, and Atmore , as well as Escambia County in both Alabama & Florida, have all filed Motions to Intervene and join Repton's suit. CCSA has filed a separate suit and is now in Federal Court. |
| 04/21/11 |
Conecuh Woods agent, 'Chipper' Hare, was replaced by Algert Agricola. |
| 04/25/11 |
At a regular Conecuh County Commission meeting, all 5 Commissioners voted 'Yes' to send a letter to Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission asking them to write a 'favorable Letter of Consistency' so that the dump application could move on to ADEM. (Gave a very strong impression that the 2 'no' votes were actually for the dump.) |
| May, 2011 |
Alabama State Legislation passed a 2 year moratorium on landfill permits of a certain size, tonnage, location, etc. Conecuh County Commissioners Dean, Millender, and Byrd along with 'Jimmy' Stone went to Montgomery on the day of the vote and lobbied against the bill. The Commissioners then returned to Evergreen and turned in mileage for government to pay. ADEM has said they will not recognize Governor Riley's moratorium because they deem it illegal. |
| 07/13/11 |
Mayor Carter was invited by the Director of Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commissioners, John Clyde Riggs, to attend an Executive Committee meeting concerning the Letter of Consistency. She was told to bring no one, however did take an attorney from the Balch & Bingham group. They walked into a room filled with dump supporters. Present were: Conecuh County Commissioners Millender, Byrd and Dean and their attorneys; NAACP head Jerome Boykin; landfill investors and their attorneys; and PR people from the group that was doing Conecuh Woods PR (company headed by Paul Hamrick, previous Chief of Staff to Governor Siegleman). Conecuh Commissioner Jerald Dean was on the ATRC Executive Committee and seemed to push the dump issue on the table. The ATRC's attorney recommended that the ATRC do nothing until litigation was over. However, 3 members did not attend, Mayor Carter abstained, 6 voted to move forward for review of the application, and 2 voted 'No'. Thankfully, Judge Norris from Monroe County and Commissioner Aubrey Ellis from Sumter County assessed the situation and voted 'No' in the interest of what was best for the entire region. |
| 07/15/11 |
At the 7/13/11 meeting Conecuh Woods attorney Agricola stated that the entire 5,400 page Administrative Record concerning the landfill application had been given to the ATRC in May '11. Balch & Bingham had been asking for that 'public record' since June but had been denied. On 7/15 their 3rd letter requesting the record was sent out. They also requested that ATRC allow 2 weeks for Balch & Bingham and their clients to review the report before ATRC write their Letter of Consistency. |
| July 22,2011 |
One week after the ATRC meeting, their Director wrote a letter to Balch & Bingham and enclosed a copy of the Landfill Administrative Record. He did not mention that he wrote the Letter of Consistency on the same day. He sent copies of the Letter of Consistency to the attorney for Conecuh Woods and the attorney for Conecuh County Commissioners. The Letter of Consistency basically states that while there was no need for another dump according to their own 2003 Solid Waste Needs Assessment, because this dump would exceed a life of 60 years, eventually there 'might be a need' so they deemed it consistent and wrote a favorable letter. . . .on July 13th the Director said he had not reviewed the record. In one week he went through the 5,400 pages, made his decision and drafted the letter. Impressive. |
| 09/02/11 |
Balch & Bingham filed a second amended complaint including ATRC in the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the Conecuh County Commission & Conecuh Woods both filed Motions to Dismiss and Motions to Stay Discovery stating that since the ATRC, who represent 10 counties and the Conecuh County Commission are on board with the dump, there really is 'no opposition' like Repton is claiming. A court date is set for Sept. 25th at the Conecuh County Courthouse and Judge Smithart from Bullock County will hear the case. Circuit Judge Dawn Hare recluses herself since her husband was Conecuh Woods attorney/agent in the beginning. |
| 09/21/11 |
The hearing was held in the Conecuh County Courthouse at 1pm. Town of Repton's attorneys were Greg Albritton and Joe McCorkle as well as Charlie Paterson from Balch & Bingham. They were great, as were the attorneys from Escambia County (Alabama & Florida), Brewton, Flomaton, Atmore and Century, Florida. Wanda Cochran, the attorney from Orange Beach, Repton's Sister City, said that counties and municipalities have a responsibility to protect the corporation but also the well-being and public safety of its citizens. She said that if this case were not allowed to move forward it would be an insult to democracy! |
| 10/25/11 |
Judge Smithart Filed his ruling denying Conecuh Woods, County Commission and ATRC's Motion to Dismiss and compelled them to move forward with discovery and depositions. |
| 11/22/11 |
Defendants file an appeal of Writ a Mandamus to the Alabama Supreme Court. |
| 12/15/11 |
Alabama Supreme Court filed their ruling denying the Writ a Mandamus and vacating defendants Stay of Discovery. The case reverts back to Judge Smithart. |
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ARCHIVE 2011
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