Worth Morgan’s YES VOTE for the garbage expansion Council appointees Cheyenne Johnson and Gerre Currie The community showed up and showed out! Waste Connections can return in 18 months, but were not able to expand as proposed. Story and picture by Dr. Yvonne D. Nelson All 13 members of the Memphis Municipal City Council were available for the regular meeting at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, July 2, the day the two-week hold on the Waste Connections of TN, LLC proposal allowing the business to expand from its current 9+ to proposed 40+ acres of garbage operations was finally scheduled to be reached. It was a much awaited day for the many of those who had began to fight the expansion nearly a year earlier, on or around August 11, 2018, when a handful of notices were mailed out announcing the company’s plans to expand—oh, did I say expand? Well, I must have forgotten the company and their newly hired representatives at Caissa Public Strategy changed that word to “relocation” to supposedly better describe what they were planning to do. Meanwhile and unbeknownst to those gathering in council chambers, Council chair Kemp Conrad had previously pulled the item from the agenda for the day. Pastor Elliott Shelton of the Promise Land Church opened the meeting with prayer and was presented with a certificate naming him Chaplain of the Day by council co-chair Patrice Robinson. The minutes of the last meeting were approved, a few resolutions were approved, and a presentation was given by the Memphis Youth City Council before Conrad announced “Item #3 was being held until November 5, 2019.” As the lead person of the petition to allow the firm to expand, I was asked to and agreed to the two week extension, but had informed the council during the last meeting held, no longer would we wait for a decision. Realizing something inappropriate was transpiring, appointed District 6 Councilwoman Geraldine “Gerry” Curry spoke up by making “a motion for the item to be placed back on the day’s agenda, without objection.” The motion carried and most in the audience, including yours truly, had missed a grand opportunity to act up and out by not paying close attention to what was going on in chambers. I began to pass out flyers that were left over from a previous meeting to those who came in support of the neighborhood, most of whom were wearing red. Eventually, after hearing what was going on, many of those who came in support of or denial of other Whitehaven community issues (e.g., Graceland, Memphis 3.0 Plan, etc.) began to ask for flyers too. I gladly provided all who wanted a flyer with one. At one point there must have been at least 50 flyers being held in the air protesting the passing of the issue to allow the nasty garbage and rude corporate neighboring company to expand. We only planned for two speakers, Emily Lamar and myself, to discuss the negative impacts the agency had on the entire community. However, there were three others who insisted on continuing to repeat themselves speaking about their personal issues that only they could speak on with no pictures or proof to back their stories of rats as big as cats, allergies, and cancer up with. Well, rather than confuse matters, they actually helped the cause and the nearly unanimous decision to prevent the expansion was reached by 12 of the 13 councilmembers. The one lone councilmember who wanted the expansion, Worth Morgan, is being given the opportunity to put the garbage facility in his District 5. Won’t you join the effort to make this happen with us by signing our petition? Thanks in advance for your agreeing to help us “relocate” it! 5
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