PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — Neighbors at the border of Paulding and Cobb counties aren’t happy after they say commissioners approved a waste transfer station without many people knowing.
They say they expressed concerns about public health and safety, but construction is already underway.
Those in the area told Channel 2’s Cory James that until a few weeks ago, they had no idea the facility was being built, and they don’t think Paulding County leaders were as transparent as they should have been.
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“Who wants trash to be in their backyard?" neighbor Drew Darby questioned.
He lives about 200 yards from the piece of land on Reynolds Road in Hiram where the waste transfer station is being built.
Darby said he found out about the project last month when neighbors told him they saw someone cutting down trees.
“They should have gave us notice. They should have provided notice to our neighborhoods because we are direct, and there should have been ample time for us to respond,” Darby said.
Other neighbors who feel the same way attended the Paulding County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, telling them they felt blindsided.
“Find another piece of land to put this on and move it there not in our backyard,” Tammy Day said.
“What bothers me the most is that there was no communication, meaningful communication, to the public from Paulding County,” Ronda Ayala said.
Neighbors say that last June, there was an agenda line item to approve a contract to “construct, operate, and maintain a transfer station,” but they feel the word waste should have been included.
“I sympathize with their feelings,” Commissioner Virginia Galloway said.
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Galloway says that while the line item did not include the word waste, it specified that Capital Waste Services LLC would be running the project, so they felt it was clear what was happening.
“It’s about a 26-acre property. We have a 14-acre buffer between the neighborhood and transfer station,” she said. “The trash sits there for less than 24 hours...It goes into a concrete building it goes into a truck and it gets carried away.”
She says it will be mostly household trash being placed at the transfer station. She’s working with the Department of Transportation to mitigate any traffic issues involving the garbage trucks.