Gestures show kindness can have big impact
A couple of years ago, I ordered Christmas gifts from JCPenney. Through some fluke, the items were delivered to the store instead of my home. After I checked on their delivery, I was informed of the problem and a very nice young man named David took it upon himself to deliver items to my home when he finished work. He was my Penney's angel.
On a recent Saturday, I came upon another angel though I never learned his name.
He was dining with his family and after he left, the waitress told us he paid for our meal. What a shock, as I never expected something like this to happen. What a thoughtful and kind gesture for that young man to have made and we were very appreciative.
I wish I could have thanked him, but he had already left. I was left with the memory of one more angel, a Denny's angel.
May God bless this young man and his family.
Evelyn Savold
Bella Vista
District funded by waste won't focus on reduction
The Boston Mountain Solid Waste District gets $1.50 for every ton that goes to the Tontitown landfill, owned by Waste Management Inc. In a given year that can amount to more than $400,000 for the solid waste district that serves Washington and Madison Counties. If we reduce waste, the district will lose money.
Landfills are money makers, but dirty recycling (single stream) is not. Despite neighbors' complaints about odor, flooding and decreasing property values, Waste Management Inc. wants to expand, by another 70 acres, their current 60-acre-wide garbage mound at Tontitown. Public comments are due May 3. Solid waste district board members' contact information is on the district's website.
A videotape of the landfill expansion discussion held April 18 at Har-ber High School in Springdale is less than 30 minutes. I think you'll find it rivals reality TV. See it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REBwtsXMdH0&feature=share
The district's board will vote whether to recommend the landfill expansion at 1:30 May 10 at Prairie Grove City Hall.
If you look at the waste stream chart on the United States Environmental Protection Agency website, you'll see why I bet more than
50 percent of what is currently going into Waste Management Inc.'s Tontitown garage mound could be reused, recycled or composted.
In my public comments to the solid waste district board, I'll recommend it postpone the landfill expansion vote by six months. During that time they should review the recycling programs in Northwest Arkansas that provide end-users (companies making new products from our recyclables) with high-quality feedstock. I recommend garbage and recycling be separate line items on citizens' garbage bills, making it easier to sue for fraudulent recycling. I recommend all recycling be collected in segregated trough trucks, reducing worker back strain and repetitive motion syndrome. I recommend that every community pass a recycling accountability/transparency ordinance. I recommend the waste district board get the business school at the University of Arkansas to figure out a way to replace the district's landfill tonnage revenue.
How can the district promote reduction and reuse if they receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in landfill tonnage-based revenue?
Louise Mann
Fayetteville
Commentary on 04/28/2018