ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
Don’t complain about the noise when opportunity comes knock, knock, knockin’ on your front door.
I toyed with the idea of saying that out loud and proud Thursday night when representatives of the “Reimagine Trash” Sustainable Business Park project paid the Dorr Township Board yet another visit to give a progress report. While Darwin Baas and Rick Chapla were explaining things, there were a few nattering nabobs of negativism (with apologies to Spiro Agnew) who continued to try to throw cold water over the enthusiasm.
The naysayers seemed to be suggesting that bringing a newfangled recycling outfit and project to Dorr would overtax the Dorr-Leighton Sewer Authority or would result in requests for tax abatements, sometimes better known as corporate welfare. The embarrassing answers were that sewer and water for the project will be handled entirely by the Byron-Wyoming system and that all business entities these days are seeking tax breaks for their expansions and installations. The onus is on the township boards and planning commissions to decide on their requests.
I agree 100% with the opinion expressed by Dorr Township Supervisor Jeff Miling, who said the project is a no-brainer and likely to be a win-win for Kent County and Dorr.
We must remember that the Kent County Department of Public Works purchased that 250-acre tract along the north region of Dorr Township with the express purpose of using it in the future as a landfill because the facility in Byron Township was nearing capacity. Kent County officials easily could have continued the “business as usual” approach to solid waste and let it grow out of control, just like in too many other areas in a wasteful society.
But kudos to Kent County for having the visioning and foresight to try something new and different by inviting to be anchor tenant a company with a business model of recycling 90 percent of what goes into a landfill and manufacture a usable product to boot.
Continuous Materials Anergia is coming to town with plans to hire 65 people to take in waste and recycling materials and make a roofing material that is supposed to be superior in quality to the gypsum-based material used so much these days.
It sounds like good ole Yankee ingenuity is at work here, with the added benefit of making our environment a better place for us to live, work and play in.
So I heartily support Dorr Township paying its fair share of $200,000 in investment in what appears to be a worthwhile project. And it feels good to pen an editorial is support of something rather than being one of those nattering nabobs of negativism.
3 Comments