Tuesday, June 14, 2011

sign the petition

Okay, the petition is up at Lainie's now. Everybody please go sign it!

There are 926 registered voters in Honeyville. The last time a petition was circulated (about the water rate hike) they had 200 signatures. I think we're going to need a lot more than 200 signatures.

The county attorney says we can't overturn the city council's decision, but if we are able to show that the biodiesel plant will be a detriment to the community we can hopefully keep it from getting approved and built.

The next city council meeting with a public comment period is July 13th. Let's aim to have 400 signatures by then, and bring your concerns. Make sure you address this specific processing method, or they'll say, "Well, this process is different," and blow us off. Some concerns we definitely need to bring up are:
1. noise pollution
2. light pollution
3. odor pollution
4. lower property values
5. long-term financial viability of his project
6. safety concerns

Anybody who is willing to go around and knock on doors to get signatures, let me know in the comments. We'll start next week.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

we can still do something

Honeyville residents: are you still mad about the rezoning? Do you want to sign a petition to keep the biodiesel plant from coming here, or possibly overturn the rezoning decision? I sure do. Starting next week we'll have a petition up at Lainie's, and we'll canvass the town as well.

Let's stop this ridiculous sellout of Honeyville's character. Let's celebrate our centennial by saving our town from being turned into an industrial park.

The deadline to be on the agenda to speak at the city council meeting is this Tuesday. Go sign up if you want to have a say. The meeting is June 22nd, I believe, but I'll make sure and post it.

STILL FURIOUS

I'm still pretty angry about the fact that the center of town is now zoned as light industrial. Still angry that somebody wants to put a biodiesel plant there. Still angry that our city council is welcoming him in with open arms. Still angry that it's going to ruin our property values and turn our town into a reeking eyesore.

This guy, the potential owner/operator of the biodiesel plant, has never even been to the plant in Michigan. Did you know that? He has never performed the process or seen it done. He says he has "no idea" where the smell is coming from at the Michigan plant. I find that pretty alarming. If he knows that little about the process, not even enough to know where smell might be coming from, how in the world is he going to do something about it when our town starts stinking?

And did you know that the used grease he's processing into fuel--the stuff that's going to make us smell like stale fast food if we're lucky--is coming here from China? What kind of a business plan is that? A stupid one, frankly, and one that is not economically viable in the long term. How long does he think that he's going to be able to afford the gas (petroleum gas, mind you, which last time I checked is not getting cheaper) that is required to transport used fast food oil from China to Utah?

He says if he goes bankrupt he'll pay to have the building torn down. Really? With what money, I wonder, since he'll have gone bankrupt? BANKRUPT MEANS NO MONEY. So when (and I do mean when) he can't afford to stay in business, he'll skip town and leave us with a giant building that will do what all abandoned buildings do and become a vermin-infested pile of garbage. Right in the center of town! That is just great. I can't wait.

Let's remember that he is only going to bring us $15,000 a year, which is not even enough to pay a dog catcher. For crying out loud, how stupid is that?

So let's stop it. Let's sign a petition and make noise at the meeting and do whatever we need to to get it taken care of.

Let's take back our town.