Letters – Landfill options and Chamber questions

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Resident encourages facts, not rumors

To the Editor:

As a lifelong resident of Lockhart and Caldwell County I have always been an advocate for any programs that benefit the city or the county.

The citizens of this community have an opportunity to receive much needed resources and benefits through a “Host Agreement” with the 130 En

vironmental Park, which includes scholarships for each of the High Schools within the county, funding to support a county library, a community pavilion for public events, a free household waste disposal program, and a county clean up program. These provisions being offered in the proposed Host Agreement will be provided at no expense to the citizens of this county.

I am well aware of the small pocket of dissidents who are spreading rumors and fear among some of the members of our community without taking the time to study both sides of the issues.

It is also my understanding that there has been no response from the Commissioners Court to seek information or hold an open discussion with representatives of the 130 Environmental Park to address their concerns.

It is our elected officials’ responsibility to consider all sides of the issues in order to make an informed decision, and I would urge them to step up and take the initiative to bring this matter to an open discussion.

Once the state gives its final approval to develop the 130 Environmental Park, the proposed Host Agreement could be taken off the table! At that point, any lingering concerns with the project or suggestions to improve the Host Agreement will be moot points. Therefore, it is imperative that action be taken now so that the county will reap the benefits being offered.

As our representatives in the Commissioners Court, we trust each of you will put the needs of the county before a personal agenda and do what is best for your constituents.

Respectfully,

Marcos Villalobos

Lockhart

 

Are councilmembers like monkeys throwing nuts?

To the Editor:

While channel surfing tonight, I watched the city council meeting on Cable Access Channel 10. As a fairly new resident of Lockhart, I have watched the council meetings a few times now, and after listening to all that went on, I am very displeased with how the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce and Caldwell “County” Hispanic Chamber cannot seem to work together in such a small community.

Would it not be more effective to unite these two entities and become one chamber?

I relocated here from another very small community where they have one chamber, regardless of ethnicity, race, or creed, and that community manages to work together for the better of all its citizens.

If we could do the same in Lockhart (e.g., all have the same goals or can agree on these goals), it makes no sense to expend all of this energy on two different chambers. This wastes the people’s, the Chamber members’, and the Councilmembers’ time that could be more efficiently utilized in bringing more opportunities for growth to Lockhart.

Tonight they argued endlessly over the “Heads in Beds” tax, which is such a small amount of money when looking at the bigger picture. A lot of time was spent discussing this in the meeting, and it was not resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, where if it were ONE chamber everyone would benefit.

I know these are two separate groups of individuals who believe their interests are the best for Lockhart. Would it not make more sense to have one group decide and take to the Council the common interests of all?

As a new, but much invested, member of this community, it would be really nice to see Lockhart achieve its true potential as one invested, committed and not divided group of citizens dedicated to our betterment.

In the words of T. H. White, “The Destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees.”

Janice E. Bruch

Lockhart

 

Resident worries over ‘truth’ about dumps

To the Editor:

I write to my fellow Caldwell County citizens about the proposed “Texas 130” dump, which will occupy at least 250 acres – maybe up to 1,200 acres in years to come – at the arguable gateway to the Lockhart community, the intersection of Hwy 183 and FM 1185.

Frankly, there is an attempt to complicate the discussion so that citizens lose sight of those self-evident truths around which broad and effective opposition can be mobilized.

Among the self-evident truths are the following:

• The proposed mound of garbage would rise to least 175 feet, a height that would cover our Caldwell County Courthouse, making the dump the largest man-made edifice in the region. Eyesore -yes. Negative image of Caldwell/Lockhart’s social and natural environment -yes. Traffic congested by a parade of dump trucks -yes. Attractiveness of the region to business investment and community-supporting home ownership – fatally undermined. The Self-Evident Truth: Dumps do not increase employment and community enriching economic activity; dumps “dump” on these desirable goals.

• The proposed dump sits on an aquifer that has historically served Lockhart and partially sits on another huge aquifer that provides water for 60 Texas counties. Almost half of dumps monitored by the State leak garbage byproducts into ground water, not surprisingly so given the use of corruptible plastic linings of trivial thickness. Worse yet, the leakage is inevitable when a dump sits on a high clay content site with underground faults, like the proposed dump at Texas 130. Is there a state, a region, a county in America more in need of protecting its water than we are? The Self-Evident Truth: Dumps placed over or implicated in crucial water resources eventually “dump” into the water supply.

• Not all counties, cities, and neighborhoods are targeted for dumps. Counties, cities, and neighborhoods aspiring to growth, but which appear to outsiders to lack the confidence to choose their preferred ways of growing, are the targets of out-of-state waste management corporations. The Self-Evident Truth: We have been targeted for this dump because it appears to others that we will simply “settle” for 20 jobs and a bad business proposition: income to the County is cancelled out by the maintenance expenses required of the County.

• The proposed dump can be rejected by the citizens of Caldwell County if we have the wisdom and community self-confidence to purchase the dump-threatened land through the issuance of a bond. This investment in our future, when developed for productive economic and family use, will help us acquire those good things a mammoth mound of garbage will forever keep beyond our reach.

Wayne Lesser

Lytton Springs

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