Says CLOUT is running a negative campaign

Dear Editor:

A group calling themselves CLOUT has been running a negative campaign for weeks against a company (Waste Management) that is trying to get the required county council approval to proceed with a modern state-of-the-art facility that would focus on recycling and jobs.

Our unemployment rate is almost 10 percent. Our county has the highest unemployment rate and lowest median income of any county on the I-85 corridor.

Waste Management is offering a chance to bring good-paying jobs with great benefits and an increase in revenue to Cherokee County. We are talking about a $150 million investment!

CLOUT doesn't care about facts: their focus is to use fear tactics to stunt the growth of Cherokee County — and this isn't the first time. Joan Wheeler has already cost our county tremendously by opposing school programs and other projects that would have benefitted the people of Cherokee County.

The project is safe and Waste Management is a good company. Joan Wheeler doesn't care about that. She doesn't even live in the community where the project is being proposed. She was asked to take on this project by some "anonymous source" (according to her) and the only arguments she can come up with are either blatantly false or significantly outdated.

We are in different economic times than we were the last time Joan Wheeler appointed herself as the "spokesperson" to stop progress in our county. This time we really can't afford it. Richard Moorhead Blacksburg, S.C.