Deluxe facility raises concerns

We are very disturbed about the possibility of a recycling facility near the Sedro-Woolley High School and close proximity to a historical neighborhood and historical downtown. We have gone before the City Council and voiced our concerns and objections, which are:

Location — The facility is to be located directly across from the high school tennis courts. Tennis matches are held just following school and from what I can remember about this sport, it’s a fairly quiet game. From the information that has been published regarding this recycling center, the hours of operation are from 7 or 8 a.m. to roughly 9 p.m. at night. They will be operating front loaders and trucks and cars will be visiting the area continually during these hours. When parents go to watch their kids compete on the football field or at a track event, will we be able to hear the announcer?

Traffic — Eventually, all or most of the Skagit County recycling will be brought to our town. Endless lines of garbage trucks rumbling down our city streets — isn’t this a nice thought?
Air quality — Diesel truck exhaust and increased car traffic will affect the town’s air quality.
Reputation — The Sedro-Woolley High School classes of the 1940s and ’50s still refer to Riverfront Park as the “city dump.” Do we really want our children to be known as the high school by the dump? Gateway to Garbage City will be our new city slogan. Do we really want 28 tons of solid waste in the downtown area?

Last, but certainly not least, is the fact that our property values in the surrounding neighborhood will decrease, as who in their right mind wants to live on top of a recycling center?

Bob and Sally Carlson
Sedro-Woolley

Citizens should speak up

As a concerned citizen of Sedro-Woolley I’m writing this letter to express my thoughts about a garbage recycling plant being planned to start up on property within our city limits. Especially since this property is next to our high school. Just imagine the noise and confusion this will create to our students coming and going during the day and for extra activities after school. So many trucks coming and going all the time.

Also, the noise and traffic for the residents living near this proposed facility.

Who would ever want their town to become known as the garbage dump for the Northwest? Let’s encourage business to fill our empty buildings downtown instead of the above mentioned garbage recycle project. Surely there is a more suitable acreage for this to happen than in city limits and next to our school and family homes? Many other people that I have talked to agree with me on this position. In fact, I haven’t spoken to even one resident around here that doesn’t feel the same way about this situation.

Please people of Sedro-Woolley, if you are against the idea of a garbage recycling plant in our city let your voices be heard. Do we as tax payers have no say in these matters?

Ruth Grose
Sedro-Woolley

Deluxe trucks too much

Picture this Sedro-Woolley.

Long lines of garbage trucks and pickups with garbage on State Route 20 between Sedro-Woolley and Burlington. And the same long lines along State Route 9 from Sedro-Woolley to Clear Lake. Traffic congestion at the State Route 9 turnoff into Jameson Street as we wait for masses of garbage trucks to turn.

The noise of trucks backing up until 9 p.m. each night — and we aren’t talking one or two trucks — we’re talking hundreds of loads a day as Deluxe gets garbage from all of Skagit County, as well as Whatcom County. This needs to be a huge operation for it to make money.
Sound carries throughout this town. The Sedro-Woolley High School band practices and the Fourth of July festivities can be heard all the way out and beyond the eastern city limits. But at least these are happy sounds.

This isn’t just about the neighborhoods adjacent to the garbage site. This is about everyone in this community. It affects the high school, the downtown corridor, the highways, the streets. It affects the perception of our town from the point of view of tourists, and also the desirability of this community as a place to live.

Perception is everything. I still hear comments like “Oh, Sedro-Woolley? Isn’t that where that mental institution is?” But of course “nuthouse” is the favorite word.

There was a huge window of opportunity for the city to step in before the building permit application came in and stop this process. Eron Berg has stated that once the application came in there wasn’t anything anybody could do. The city had a chance to nix this deal months ahead of the application — but what did they do instead? They wrote a city resolution to accept Deluxe’s business idea “in concept” months before the application arrived. Mike and Eron had their arms wide open encouraging this disaster.

This isn’t a case of NIMBY — not in my back yard. It’s a case of NIMFY — not in my front yard.

It’s time for all Sedro-Woolley citizens to speak up. Get your protests in to the city. The time is now.

Shelley Carroll
Sedro-Woolley

No dump in Woolley

I also live in the neighborhood on Nelson Street. Approximately two years ago I inquired about buying that property so I could relocate my aerospace fabrication business here from Arlington airport. I called the real estate agent and was told a sale was pending, that it “was a done deal.” I figured Janicki Industries was involved, I never ever thought a dump — I mean a ‘deluxe’ dump was in the works.

This is what happens when people vote boneheads into office. It seems to me that the land in question would make a better industrial park than a foul smelly and nasty dump?

It’s really a sad day for Sedro-Woolley.

I guess the jobs the city attorney and mayor are pushing are better for the town, such as dump pickers and garbage sorters than aerospace workers.

Roger Kindler
Sedro-Woolley

Garbage plan is questionable

I recently learned of the plan to develop a large garbage dump approximately two blocks from Sedro-Woolley High School. This has caused me to question this decision for several reasons.

One is the audacity of the entire plan. I looked up the word audacity in Webster’s Dictionary and it states: audacity…1., boldness or daring, esp., with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions; nerve. If this garbage dump would be developed within the city limits of Sedro-Woolley, this would be a sad commentary on the quality of life in this lovely town.

The next reason is the unfairness of the plan. This relates to the children, teachers and staff that work and attend Sedro-Woolley High School and the property owners in the vicinity.
I looked up the word garbage in the dictionary. It states: 1. Discarded animal and vegetable matter, as from a kitchen, refuse. 2. Any matter that is no longer wanted or needed: trash. 3. Anything that is contemptibly worthless, inferior, or vile.

Our children, property owners and this city deserve better.

Bonnie Lang
La Conner
(SWHS Class of 1957)