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What is it with John Robinson of the N&R and John Hammer of The Rhino? Can they not agree on anything? Or is it mandatory that if one offers one opinion the other must take the exact opposite view? At times having two different points of view is good, but when one comes off simply looking stupid I sincerely pity the foolish rivalry. Mr. Robinson announced on his blog that the N&R would offer their opinion in the Sunday Editorial the reasons the White Street Landfill should NOT be re-opened. And today John Hammer took Mitch Johnson on and explained in detail how far off his off hand answer to the City Council was as to the difference in cost of using our own landfill or hauling our garbage out of county. Mitchy in either his ever evident stupidity, or scheming lies, shrugged and offered that the difference was no more than $3 million a year. His attitude indicated that $3 million a year was a truly paltry sum.

John Hammer gave us the figures that are far more realistic as he included all the cost of hauling our garbage away and came up with a low ball figure of $13 million a year. This plus the loss of about $4.5 million a year in income the city derived from allowing others to use the White Street Landfill. Of course The Rhino was always against the stupidity of closing our city owned landfill. He recounted how ALL the homes in the area of the landfill were built after the landfill was established. He also recounted how the city offered to purchase any home if the owners wanted to move away from the area in trying to come to some compromise with the disgruntled residents. A few took this offer and moved and the city then quickly sold these home, but with a disclaimer that a landfill was a neighbor. But one group of home owners refused to accept the city’s compromise and claiming “environmental racism” ( the BIG BAD race card) and the City Council deflated like a burst balloon. They closed landfill thus making the rest of the city residents pay for the folly of these few people who purchased homes in a poor area fully knowing the landfill was there. The city’s sanitation station is also in the area and is no doubt smelly too. Surely when these people went out to look at and purchase their homes they couldn’t miss these “neighbors”!

At any rate the N&R is taking it’s usual stance and backing the race carders and the Rhino is using some common sense. We of course can now read both sides and make up our own minds.

I of course made up my mind and blogged about it. See: ” The White Street Landfill and “responsible government” mutually exclusive?” You know it is gratifying to find your opinion agrees with someone who is far more knowledgeable. I didn’t go into the exact figures as The Rhino because I simply didn’t know them except the common sense fact that “$3 million a year” was just plain silly. So I am feeling gratified today. BB