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Garbage ordinance under fire
After reading the ordinance, members of the community, led by Tommy Green, confronted the Clay County Commissioners and County Manager Paul Leek at a meeting on the evening of Monday, June 26. Green pointed out that the two primary problems with the ordinance are the insistence on the Clay County Sheriff Office's role in enforcing the ordinance, and the ordinance's failure to explicitely mention "household trash" as the primary focus. The Clay County Health Department, Green feels, should be responsible for the enforcement of the ordinance. "It basically comes down to this," Green stated. "If an ordinance is passed on this, it will shift the burden over to the Clay County Sheriff's Department to enforce the ordiance, rather than the Clay County Health Department. And I really don't believe that the sheriff's department should be handling health issues...I mean, you're crossing out of your field of expertise." According to Green, the health department feels that by allowing the sheriff's department to enforce the ordinance, the process will be faster. However, Green argues that the process is time-consuming for a reason: so it is conducted in a thorough manner. In a letter to the county commissioners, Green cites State Statute 130A-19 in contending that the Clay County Health Director does in fact have the authority to address public health issues. The statute reads, "If the secretary or a local health director determines that a public health nuisance exists, the secretary or a local health director may issue an order of abatement directing the owner, lessee, operator or other person in control of the property to take any action necessary to abate the public health issue." Green argues that this defies the county commissioner's statements regarding the role of the county health director. The second issue that Green has with the ordinance is "the discrepancy between the objective as described by the comm ission and the terminology used in the draft." House- hold trash, which according to Green is the "primary reason for the ordinance," is not included in Article IV, Section F1 of the draft proposal. Instead it reads, "it shall be unlawful for any person to sweep, throw, deposit, dump, permit, allow, maintain or contribute to the sweeping, throwing, depositing, or dumping of any litter, solid waste, recyclables, or banned material into, upon or within or upon any public or private premises in Clay County." Green, in a letter to Leek, suggests that "if [Article IV, Section F1] of the proposed Ordinance were revised in a manner in which specifi- cally state "household trash" and the definition of Solid Waste coincided with North Carolina General Statue 130A-290, it would no doubt help the residents of Clay County better understand the objective that the commissioners are trying to achieve." It seems Green's efforts have payed off. Since the meeting, Green has discovered that the Solid Waste Management Ordinance is being rewritten. Hopefully Clay County and the new ordinance will soon smell a lot better. To comment on this article, email
Marcus at keelma6@wfu.edu.
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