photo by Heather Renee_____ 

The Landfill Saga

I discovered that it is common for defeated county politicians to get together and "fix a few things" just before they leave office.  The hiring of Stan Kiser and the firing of Rick French in 1998 was one of those midnight efforts by one of the players (he had been defeated in the Primaries).  Another was the attempt to get a landfill approved in November 2006.  This landfill had been twice rejected by county commissioners, but this time it appeared to have the votes -- two of them from county commissioners, defeated in the primaries, but in their last weeks of office.

Fortunately, I got copies of all of the paperwork (thanks to public records laws) and was able to determine that the application was improperly filled out.  I filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to stop the process until the paperwork was corrected.  With the help of the lawyer for the local citizens' group (who live adjacent to the planned landfill) and a number of anonymous others, we were successful in court. 

This caused the vote on the matter to be delayed until the newly-elected commissioners could take office.  The applicant subsequently withdrew his application!  I was pleasantly shocked that we were able to stop the landfill!

For More Information Contact:

Elect Martin Oakes
Lincoln County
Tel: (704) 483-0419
Internet: martinoakes@charter.net

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Last modified: 01/23/12