The garage sale war against the landfill
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Hempstead, Texas is making history. For the first time in 41 years, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has returned an application for a landfill, the proposed 15 story garbage dump being peddled by Green Group Holdings along Highway 6 North of Hempstead.
The Citizens Against the Landfill in Hempstead have been fighting the proposed dump for more than 4 years, and their current legal fees are $1.67 million dollars. While donations from around the world have come in to help this little Texas town, a large chunk of the money to fight the garbage industry comes from money raised at garage sales next to a local hardware store.
In November, the garage sale raised 17,000, the most ever. Residents have cleaned out their homes to help. Since the garage sales started, a whopping $350,000 has been raised to help pay the lawyers and experts needed to fight a landfill.
The battle may be won, but no one thinks the war is over. Green Group has already spent millions, and while they convinced some former Waller County Officials to sell their neighbors out at the beginning, they still have the property on Highway 6 tied up until next April.
“This landfill fight was born out of government malfeasance”, says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “It is time for Waller County officials to get the people their money back from the politicians who sold them out. And it is time for the Waller County District Attorney to launch a real criminal investigation.”
Fort Bend District Attorney John Healey is clearly a stumbling block to the real truth. Special prosecutors from his office claimed they couldn’t find any violations of transparency laws, yet months later a jury found it easy to find the wrongdoing. Since then, Healey’s office has refused to turn over the records of their investigation to the Waller County DA, who claims he wants to launch a new probe. Healey’s office has ignored his request for the records, and now ignores the orders of the State District Judge overseeing the landfill case to turn the files over.
Of course, the pretty please stuff should have ended months ago. District Judge Buddy Mccaig should call the special prosecutors to his court tomorrow and put them in jail if they ignore a court order. It is called contempt of court your honor. District Attorney Mathis could go to court tomorrow as well. What are they waiting for?
Juries in Waller County are smarter than the politicians think they are. So are the voters.
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