Buzzards feed on material piles at Greenco last month.
Greenco extension nixed; shutdown imminent
The Greenco composting facility here will apparently be shut down Friday, Nov. 11.
Tim Lesko created his predicament and he has no one to blame but himself.
Not to mention the compost facility broke their agreement to control smells. Really sorry he was "new" to the business so did not know how to operate the facility properly--maybe he should have known what he was doing before starting a business that so clearly negatively affects others.
So not only has Greenco shown they are incompetent, with the lab animals they have shown they are deliberately putting people at risk (maybe for a few extra bucks or maybe in retailiation for being kicked out of the county for failure to live up to an agreement they entered into). So is Greenco incompetent or just vindictive?
If the employees lose their jobs, they only have Greenco to blame. The County was willing to give the Leskos an extension to get all of their permitting done in DeKalb County, provided that they abided by the stipulations placed on that extension. Apparently, Tim Lesko refuses to abide by any of them. Why should the County work with him, knowing how much he has lied in the past, when he refuses to work with the County. Why should the County work with someone who does not even abide by the regulations in his EPD permit, regulations that did not allow lab bedding and dead lab animals to be dumped at the site. The Leskos are the ones at fault here... not the County, not the people who live in the community and certainly not the landfill... because as has been stated here by many people before and I will add here now - THERE ARE NO ODORS EMANATING INTO THE INDUSTRIAL PARK OR THE SURROUNDING AREA FROM THE LANDFILL.
The people in this community deserve to breath fresh air. We have put up with the disgusting odors coming from Greenco for almost 3 years. However, we were willing to put up with it a little longer so that Greenco could go through the process of getting approved by DeKalb County and then getting their EPD permits, but not without some stipulations put into place to guarantee that Tim was actually going through the process. By refusing to abide by those stipulations, Tim had made his bed, now he has to sleep in it ... it's just too bad that his bed is not in the middle of his fly infested business site.
This is done successfully elsewhere... but it takes a lot of manpower and effort, as well as experience, which neither he, nor his "experts" had.
Also, Greenco is not a large company. What were the stipulations placed on the conditions for the extension? Why was the appeal never brought to the judge? And will the county buy the land back from the Leskos? It seems reasonable, considering they are being forced out, but then the county loses that tax income.
With the recent closing of Jordan lumber, the job situation in Barnesville, among the worst in the state, has gone from severe to critical. I fear people will have to relocate to find jobs. Does the county have a plan in place to bring in jobs?
I don't wish to offend anyone, I'm just playing Devil's advocate here.
# 4.1.2..I am sorry, but we do know what we are talking about. You just have to Google Greenco + Emory + Lab Animnals and you will find the info about Emory's agreement with Greenco. It is true that Emory does have a major sustainability program and they should have done further research before they entered into the agreement with Greenco to take the lab animals and bedding and they would have known that it is not allowed by the EPD. While they stated in the information online about their agreement that they would not be sending contaminated animals or bedding, we all know that mistakes do happen. Then it is too late. Would you like to get compost that might be contaminated with biohazards? Not to mention that if contaminated material is dumped onto the site, it can leach into the water table as the site is not lined and can get into the uncontrolled runoff during rainstorms since the windrows are not covered.
What you all seem to be forgetting here, is this is not some backyard composting bin, but a large commercial sitwe that also has a terrific problem with flies. The County was promised that there would be no odor problems. They were told in the beginning that the material being brought in was the vegetable waste from the lettuce packing plant in Butts county. However, Greenco then entered into contracts to haul waste including meat, dairy and seafood from Emory's food service and other restaurants in the Atlanta area. If you do any research, you will find that you cannot compost meat and dairy, much less seafood, without a horrendous odor problems. And you certainly cannot throw dead animals into the mix without odor, even if they are not contaminated. Tim has a three year history of lying and not following through with promises. Is the County supposed to just take him at his word that he will do what he says he is going to do now.
But once again, Tim Lesko has no one to blame but himself for the situation he is in now. It is very unfortunate that his employees will have to suffer because of his arrogance.
Over the last 2 years Lamar county has asked for Greenco to do so much for them to make the area nicer and greenco obliged then every time. If you actually understand what the county did then you would know that Lamar county broke promise after promise and continually lied to the Leskos and its own residents. Educate yourselves before you speak people, maybe then we won't have employers running for the hills! TRUTH!!
The people of this community have had to put up with disgusting odors and fly infestations coming from the site for almost 3 years because either Greenco does not want to do what it takes to control the odors or as has been stated before, there is no way to control the odors due to what is being composted. In fact the odor was so bad this morning that I had to hold a cloth over my nose just to get to my car or I would have thrown up. We are tired of mornings, days ,evenings and weekends like this, but we still agreed to the extension to the court order so that Greenco could move to Dekalb County instead of shutting them down on November 11. That is provided that Greenco abided by the stipulations that the judge authorized the County to draw up. Without those stipulations in place, there would be no guarantee that Greenco would abide by the timeline put in place. Tim has shown a contempt for the Commissioners and the Citizens of this County in all dealings in the past, so why should we believe that he would be different now. Tim entered an agreement with the County in the fall of 2010, that Greenco would relocate. Tim told the judge that he would be able to complete the relocation in 6 months. However, the judge realized that there was no way that Tim would be able to accomplish that and the order was drawn up allowing him 1 year. Well, lo and behold, one month out from the deadline of 11/11/11, Tim had not found a definite site to relocate to. We find out that he is in negotiations with LaFarge to move to a site in DeKalb County, but there are no signed agreements with LaFarge and they have not been approved by DeKalb County. And yet, even after putting up with all the cr*p ( no pun intended) that we have had to put up with, the citizens agreed to give Greenco the extension so that they would have time to follow through with everything that needed to be done in order to relocate. But, because of past dealings with Tim, and suggested by the judge, Greenco must abide by the stipulations drawn up by the County. Stipulations that are not unreasonable. Tim, however, in his arrogant defiance, refused to agree to the stipulations. Even with all of this, the County still left it open that they would extend the ruling provided that Tim abides by the stipulations .... so the ball is in Tim's court now. He has been given every chance. If Greenco is indeed shut down on 11/11/11, there is no one to blame but Greenco. I hope for the employees' sakes that Tim does what it takes to facilitate the move to DeKalb County.
As far as your other comment, first off, you are not dealing with the EPA but the EPD...
2nd.. I have spoken with the EPD and Greenco was NOT allowed to take any dead animals of any kind and no bedding other than straw from farming operations and they were reminded of that when the EPD came to inspect the site after they were informed of the agreement with Emory. Emory's own website states that they were sending dead lab animals with the exception of canines and primates. That means that they could be sending hoofed animals as well as all others. They may or may not have taken "only" pigs, but regardless of what type of animals were taken to the site, it remains that Greenco was not permitted to take any dead animal or lab bedding.
Once again Taylor, we have educated ourselves. We do not have a problem with any other industry that is located in the park and we welcome new businesses that want to be good neighbors and not create a nuisance.
Right. So all the crying about the debarker noise from Rayonier wasn't you? All the harassment Billy Kitchens constantly gives the railroad about their noise around the industril park at night-you weren't in on that either?
Sorry, but I still fail to see how the Jordan operation was allowed to expel a burning bark smell from their operation and Greenco wasn't. What part of equal protection under the law do you people fail to understand?
Meanwhile construction of another large industrial operation continues in the real industrial park in Griffin.
The contrast in policies of the respective counties is striking. One is doing well replacing it's textile based economy, the other continues to circle the toilet bowl. Care to guess which is which?
But that's OK, just vote yet on the next SPLOST.
Using the term "lab waste" without any sort of details is nothing but hyperbole and is misleading, whether intended to be such or not.