We must remember this is also a recycling center

Dear Editor:

Determination is a powerful "quality" but at what cost?

I see the determination of the people of the McKowns Mountain area. Yet I am for the Waste Management Recycling/Landfill.

There is a greater good in this project. Not wanting it "in my backyard," is not good enough for the citizens of Cherokee County. Several of the issues the group CLOUT have against this project are based on one word, landfill. We must remember this is also a recycling center. Recycling is the way of the future, recycling is cost-effective financially and for the environment.

I have family members in other counties in South Carolina and they are amazed at why a few people in our town would want to prohibit progress and economic opportunity. My sister lives in a town that has Waste Management. When I told her about the controversy here, her immediate response was, "Why are people upset, you can't see it, you do not even know it is there."

In Cherokee County, we have free garbage pick up, this is a luxury, my family members (Chesterfield County) have to pay $68 quarterly for trash pickup. Family members in Darlington County pay $15 a month plus a $1.30 per trash bag fee to use the county's trash bags (trash will not be picked up in any other type bag).

As for the traffic issue, that comes with progress, of course no one wants a lot of trucks up and down their roads, but with growth and progress, it happens in all communities.

I grew up near the "dump," we never smelled the landfill, never saw the landfill and the Concord/Grassy Pond Community has continued to flourish despite having the "dump" in our community. Many of us will not be living in the same areas we are now, 20, 30 or 40 years. But the jobs, and the income that Waste Management will bring to our county will continue on for generations.

I have issue when people complain about the economy and lack of jobs. But, when the opportunity presents itself to have a top-notch recycling center, and job opportunities, we have a group of people that want to stop progress before it has had a chance to present itself. We need to give Waste Management its fair chance.

The belief that our manufacturing plants will be thriving in five, 10 or less years is not realistic. How can we deny an out-of-work person an opportunity for employment, when the job loss rate exceeds the job growth. That is very senseless. Someone not wanting something in their backyard, does NOT justify families losing their homes, small town businesses losing their livelihood and young couples not able to have steady work to buy their first home. This whole county deserves a chance for opportunity, growth and progress. Thank you, Kathy Towery Gaffney, S.C.