Mayor says, 'Don't burn our bridges'
When Marion City Commissioner Jim Crofoot made a motion to stop further negotiations toward a regional landfill site, Monday, it failed for the lack of a second.
Crofoot said the "non binding" election found that "voters said 'no' by a substantial margin."
He moved that the city should dissent and discontinue negotiations with Waste Connections and "not proceed further" toward establishing a landfill site at Marion.
After the motion failed to receive a second, Mayor Eloise Mueller said she was disappointed by the number of people who did not vote in the March 5 advisory election. "Evidently they don't seem to care."
Of the registered voters, 58 percent (a majority) didn't vote. (See graphic chart on this page).
Mueller said her personal opinion is to not pursue a landfill at this time. She noted that she had been misquoted by the Wichita Eagle. She said the newspaper quoted her before election results were known.
Crofoot noted that the city had spent money for the election.
"I don't think we should burn our bridges behind us," Mueller told Crofoot.
Commissioner Bud Pierce suggested that both Marion and Marion County should withdraw from the four-county trash plan which is being advocated. "I don't like that plan," Pierce said emphatically. He urged the public to study it, as he has.
Mueller advised, "Let's wait and see. We should not actively pursue a plan now, but we should take a closer look at all of them. Let's drop the matter now and see what happens."
