Letters – The good, the bad and the landfill

Announcer praises LSGP, community

To the Editor:

My name is Ken Walker and I am an international Kart Race Announcer and Journalist based in England.

I recently attended the Lone Star GP at Lockhart and I was one of the three race announcers – the one with the English accent you will not be surprised to know!

I had been told before

hand by LSGP promoter Rob Miller how warm the Texas welcome would be, but I want to write and tell you that the good people of Lockhart were overwhelmingly warmer and kinder in their welcome than I ever imagined could be the case.

I have told as many folks as I spoke to in Lockhart but I only touched the tip of the iceberg.

Can I ask that you spread my message much more widely and have the lovely people of Lockhart know and understand just what a wonderful experience it was for two English people (my wife and myself) making our first ever visit to Texas (passing through Houston airport hub excepted).

Very sincerely

Ken Walker

International Kart Race Announcer and Journalist

Reader worries county will sell heart, soul

To the Editor:

It’s a sad commentary that anyone in our county would support a Georgia based giant dump company, in their efforts of bringing trash from other areas to dump on Caldwell County’s gateway for $1 per ton. Do we go that cheap?

What is really being lost in the argument about the dump is that real people will be impacted by this dump. Your friends and neighbors – fellow citizens of Caldwell County who have the misfortune of living in the area they’ve selected for the “honor” of getting other people’s trash dumped into their yards. Caldwell County residents live here for a desired life style – young professionals who see this as a great place to raise their families, retired people who sank their life savings into their land to be near family; hard working people who struggle daily to meet their obligations and raise their families, and families with roots in Caldwell County that go back for generations. It doesn’t take much digging to see how bad dump monstrosities can be; from environmental air, water, and noise pollution, fires, and the danger to our children’s lives from the added traffic on Highway 183. The list of negatives that are coming our way with this dump is long, yet the vision of some is clouded only by the “green” of the “greenbacks” they see coming their way.

If you saw your neighbor’s house on fire, or, someone breaking into your neighbor’s house, you would call 911. Yet Caldwell County is facing a 175-foot pile of other people’s trash that will be here forever, and, there are those who can see it only for the dollars they can get. Anyone who would dump on their neighbors (and unwittingly on themselves) should examine who they truly are.

The dump representatives frequently say there is nothing citizens, or our public officials, can do to stop this dump. The dump is basically a done deal, and, “no landfills who have filled out their paperwork, that have been denied a landfill permit by the TCEQ” (Texas Commission for Environmental Quality). Not true. The TCEQ public records show 28 landfill permits denied, and 35 permits withdrawn (before the TCEQ could deny their permit) since 1975. Additionally, Texas landfills have been stopped by other means as well.

Anyone driving through Seguin or Hempstead can’t escape the evident ground swell of public opinion against the dump companies trying to build dumps and blight their communities. There are anti-dump signs and bumper stickers everywhere. This should be the case in Caldwell County as well. Don’t be bought by slick advertising, or thousands of dollars given to various groups in attempts to buy their loyalty.

Stand with your neighbors and shout a resounding NO to Garbage Giant Holdings. Send them and their garbage back to Georgia where they belong. Caldwell County, you’re too good to be bought for $1 a ton.

Jodie Friedrich

Lockhart