Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Letter To The Editor #1

John's Columns

Dear Editor,

Weekly I read Into The Void,' written by John Miller with great interest. Although I feel at times he tends to use the column as his own personal sounding board.

This week's (Aug. 9) column, entitled A Newspaper's Job,' has finally prompted me to respond. I would like to specifically address two of the three tenets which John stated in his column, i.e. (2) present the truth; (3) raise hell.

In the August 2 edition of the Picayune the column entitled City of Progress?' John brought up some very good points. However, he made one particular statement that was untrue. The Nevada County-Prescott Landfill does not bury any type of household waste. The landfill does not possess the proper state permit to do so. Additionally, it should be pointed out that state regulations do not regulate the generation of medical waste by residential households. Only commercial type facilities (such as convalescent homes) generating medical waste are regulated by the state.

With regard to incinerated medical waste the incinerated ash is required, by state regulation, to pass a Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) prior to transportation and disposal and certifying paperwork must accompany the waste material and be presented to the regional landfill. John failed to point out this fact. The cases in point here are, that a little research of Arkansas Pollution Control Regulation and Ecology Commission Regulation #22 and Arkansas Health Department Regulation #41 would have provided factual information as opposed to speculation or what somebody told me.'

In considering tenet number three raise hell,' why isn't someone raising hell' about the counties debunked' county hospital and how the assessed 1% sales tax is being used? It just seems to me that there could be so many potential uses for the hospital building. For example how about a city hall, which could house the city water department, city police and perhaps even the County Sheriff's Department and there are other municipal offices which could also be housed. While it may seem a bit far fetched and would require some expenditures, what about a city/county detention facility. Why did a complete new senior citizen center have to be built? Could not some sort of lease agreement be worked out to use the old hospital building for this purpose? Surely, with the money that some of the city and county elected and appointed officials are being paid, surely, someone could come up with some ideas. Isn't that what they're paid to do?

As to the 1% sales tax, which all continue to pay, why do we as residents not know how the money is being spent? I have been told that the money is used for countywide trash collection and landfill operations. If this is so why do we not see any reference to the landfill in the annual budget as published in the Picayune? Exactly where is the money going?

In summation, I do not disagree with some of the issues addressed by John in his column. We need a job base in our town, no matter how small. All public officials MUST remain accountable to the people, and it shouldn't take the media to remind them of that. Both city and county need to focus more on issues, however tough, of substance for progress, no eyewash or lip service.

Jenimy L. Williams

Prescott