Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

We now have a time and place for the public hearing on the proposed Green Ridge landfill in Cumberland County. By a 4-1 vote, with supervisor Bryan Hamlet in opposition, the group scheduled the event for Tuesday, June 10. That’ll take place at 7 p.m. in the cafetorium of the Cumberland High/Middle School complex. 

It wasn’t that Hamlet was opposed to the idea of the hearing. But it was how the board ended up making the decision that frustrated him. The decision of setting the hearing date was packaged as part of the consent agenda, which is typically approved without discussion and then supervisors go on with the rest of the meeting. There were three pieces in Tuesday’s consent agenda to be voted on.

The first was to set a public hearing to discuss the Secondary Road Six-Year Plan, which highlights and ranks potential paving projects based on priorities given by supervisors. That too will take place on June 10. Second was a recommendation by staff to set the Green Ridge hearing for June 10. Third was to re-appoint a member to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Hamlet had asked for each to be voted on individually, as he didn’t want to vote against setting a date for the Six-Year Plan hearing or Charles Baber’s reappointment. He just wanted to propose an alternative for Green Ridge. The rest of the board went silent, not willing to break up the three requests. That’s how it ended up with a 4-1 vote to set the date. 

Picking a location for Green Ridge hearing

There was some discussion, or at least an alternative proposed, during the new business section of Tuesday’s meeting. The board had decided the courtroom was too small for a public hearing on the proposed landfill, given how many people have come to speak at past events involving the project. And so, they voted to move the June 10 hearing to the cafetorium of the Cumberland High/Middle School complex, the same place that held some of the workshops on the subject earlier this year. 

Before that vote took place, Hamlet made an appeal to postpone the vote, saying it would be premature to hold it in June. He pointed out that the host agreement between the county and Green Ridge has not been renegotiated and approved. Shouldn’t people know what the final version of that would look like before a vote is taken on the project? He also asked why they were doing it in summer, at a time when some people might not be able to attend. Instead, Hamlet proposed they schedule the hearing for Tuesday, Aug. 12. 

“School would be back in session and anybody who potentially would be on vacation in the month of June would be here to come to speak at said meeting,” Hamlet said. 

His proposal failed, as the other supervisors went silent and it died for lack of a second vote. Instead, the group voted on the proposal to move the meeting to the school complex on June 10. That motion passed, with Hamlet in opposition. 

‘Why don’t you listen?’ 

Residents said they’re just tired of the silence, with the majority of supervisors refusing to even discuss the project in open session. 

“Why don’t you listen to the people? Why don’t you listen to the complaints about Green Ridge?” asked Jerry Dunford Sr. He asked why the other supervisors wouldn’t even discuss Hamlet’s request to separate the consent agenda items or his suggestion to push back the hearing until August. 

This is all about Green Ridge’s “initial phase” proposal. That’s what all of this is for, to either approve or reject it. That initial phase would only have 104 acres out of the 1,177 acre site available for active dumping. That’s down from 650 acres in the original plan. 

Right now, Green Ridge doesn’t have the permits needed to build on or disturb wetlands, creeks and streams. Will Shewmake, an attorney with the firm Woods Rogers and representing Green Ridge, said in the Feb. 10 workshop if the company does get those permits, things would expand. 

That expansion would mean a jump from 104 acres to 350 total acres available for garbage disposal. It would also mean a significant increase in the size of the garbage mounds. The current application being considered by Cumberland allows trash to pile up to 140 feet above ground level. If Green Ridge gets to expand, they could go up to 225 feet above ground level. The biggest increase would be in the amount of trash brought in. The current application limits that to 1,500 tons of garbage a day. The expansion would allow them to haul in 3,500 tons per day. It would also increase the number of nearby homes impacted. With this “initial phase”, there are 37 houses within a half mile of the disposal area. With expansion, that would climb to 58 homes.

On Tuesday, CCLA (Cumberland County Landfill Alert) member Betty Myers also criticized the county’s decisions during public comment, saying she was very disappointed.  

“It’s quite obvious that Green Ridge has control of this board of supervisors,” Myers claimed, arguing that Green Ridge just wants to get its feet in the door, so they’ll agree to anything. 

What happens next with Green Ridge? 

Up next is the public hearing for the conditional use permit. As mentioned above, that’ll be on Tuesday, June 10, starting at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria at the Cumberland High/Middle School complex.