The incinerator at the old city dump sat idle this week. After waves of protest from the Black community, councilwoman Juanita Woods announced last week that as of 5 p.m. October 30, 2020, the dump is officially closed again.
The last time it was closed was 40 years ago. The city council thought it had made the closure permanent by passing an ordinance making it a crime to be used as a dump again. However, the Ellis Administration, seeking a way to save money, decided to reopen the dump and use it to burn the tree limbs, saving the city lots of money.
Since most of the city leaders are young or unaware of the dark history of the dumpsite in the Black community, they were apparently not aware of the old city law closing the dump. Once made aware of the closure ordinance, the Ellis Administration began to split hairs in a typical political maneuver: Officially, the city had not “opened” the site as a dump but as a staging area to be used as a temporary burn site that would be completely covered over when the city finished.
It was a dump, but not really a dump, that was the official line.
It was not really a dump but there were just two huge 20-foot tall mounds of trees, old tires, plastic bags, and miscellaneous debris brought in by the truckload.
It was not really a dump because there would be no burning or smoke. Apparently, the clouds of smoke that funneled into the air were imaginary.
Thanks to the vigilance of Councilwoman Woods and the power of social media, the public saw that there was a dump and they saw the new homes being constructed nearby. They also saw the plumes of smoke and the six-day a week burning.
Even still, the Ellis Administration ignored newspaper editorials, letters, and complaints and kept dumping anyway.
Councilwoman Woods should not have had to fight that battle alone. There are two other Black members of the council who could have joined with her and flexed their political muscle and immediately stopped the dumping.
Instead, for the most part, they compartmentalized the issue and concluded that it was a District 3 issued and watched Woods fight the battle alone.
Kema Dawson and Carday Marshal are not old enough to remember when the dump was active. They heard the stories, but they didn’t live through the experience. Mayor Oliver Ellis is also too young to remember the dump, not to mention that he is not a Monroe native.
Woods lived the experience as a child and felt the pain and anguish of the community.
A young administration has plenty of new ideas, but it should remember an old country maxim “A new broom sweeps well, but it takes an old broom to get the corners.”
The mayor’s inner circle is composed of mostly millennials or persons who are unaware of Monroe’s history. Without seasoned counsel, they will probably make more bad moves in the future.
With respect to the dump, Woods is the only member of the City Council who was personally familiar with the infamous history of the site.
Week after week the city tried to ignore the dump issue until last week a large crowd of residents came before the council including pastors and civic leaders complaining about the site.
Council President Doug Harvey tried to limit comments by shortening the comment time to 1.5 minutes but the complaints came anyway. Letters that came were read at lightning speed to keep them from being understood.
Yet the complaints still came.
It took all of that to get the Ellis Administration, which constantly talks about building relationships, to feel the fear and anxiety of the community.
Thanks to councilwoman Woods for pushing the issue until the dump was closed.
