By Chris Brook
The vendor selected to run the White Street Landfill by a four-person majority of the Greensboro City Council has announced it is terminating contract negotiations.
Noting the divisive nature of the push to re-open the White Street Landfill, Gate City Waste Services informed the City Council on Tuesday that continued negotiations were no longer a “palatable option.” This letter comes a week after Gate City and the four-person majority unsuccessfully sought to have Councilwoman Vaughan conflicted out of voting on a contract with Gate City. Councilwoman Vaughan was widely expected to vote against Gate City’s proposal, thus deadlocking the City Council at four votes to re-open the landfill, four votes to close the landfill. The City Council accepted Gate City’s request to terminate contract negotiations Tuesday evening, handing landfill opponents a decisive victory in their effort to keep the landfill closed. Working with Greensboro community groups including the Citizens for Economic and Environmental Justice as well as the League of Women Voters Piedmont Triad, SCSJ blocked previous City Council plans to expand the landfill via legal action this summer. With Gate City’s abandonment of contract negotiations, the victory for landfill opponents is complete and decisive.
