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CHICKEN from. A
“Maybe I had baby chickens in
January and it was real cold,” said
Rickie Grogan, who raises about
60,000 chickens every two
months.
“I think a lot of us growers in
the area face it. It is hard on us to
pay for something we don’t have.
It’s really a raw deal,” Grogan
said.
_ Grogan pays a base fee of
$483 per month.
The charge led him to shut off
the valve on his natural gas line
and make plans to switch over to
liquid petroleum in the near
. fpture. Liquid petroleum, com
i monly called LP, also has its
drawbacks, requiring customers to
keep track of how much they have
on hand.
Cumming city administrator
Gerald Blackburn, who operates
four chicken houses in Silver City,
said his total gas bill will likely
increase $4,000 this year because
of the fee.
Blackburn and other poultry
farmers met with Public Service
Commissioner Bubba McDonald
,last month to clear the air and dis
cuss some possible solutions.
■ One possible solution would
•,]be to use liquid petroleum during
,the coldest months and natural gas
jhe rest of the year, thereby
decreasing the base fee.
McDonald said the technology is
available to run liquid petroleum
and natural gas on the same sys
tem, but how to apply it to the
poultry industry and whether it
would be cost effective remains to
be seen. Being designated as an
• “interruptible” instead of regular
customer also could help,
McDonald said.
Blackbum gave McDonald the
blueprints to his chicken farm in
hopes the commissioner could get
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Many of these deaths occurred in
house fires where smoke detectors
were either not present or not
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something done.
McDonald said he has been
working with the Georgia Poultry
Association and various gas mar
keters to address the problem.
“That particular customer,
along with warehouse owners,
were the hardest hit by deregula
tion,” McDonald acknowledged
Friday. “Unfortunately, I have no
wand-waving solutions.”
<6
That particular
customer, along
with warehouse
owners, were the
hardest hit by
deregulation.
As Stanford and his dad
cleaned out their chicken houses
on Friday, he explained how the
poultry growers are being unfairly
punished for consuming a lot of
gas.
“That is like me driving a hot
rod and you driving a
Volkswagen, then we both go the
gas station and they charge me
more for gas,” Stanford said. “I
don’t think it’s hardly fair to base
it that way.”
However, between driving a
school bus in the morning and
working on the chicken farm the
rest of the day, Stanford does not
have time to dwell over his gas
bill.
“I don’t know if you have ever
seen one, but you about have to be
an accountant to figure it out, and
I don’t have time to sit on the
phone all day waiting to talk to
someone about it,” Stanford said.
“I have chores to do.”
I Nationally, approximately 4,000
: people die in residential fires each
i year. Nearly 80 percent of all
i houses involved are equipped
with smoke detectors, but more
: than 1/3 of them does not func
i tion properly.
> “What we recommend is people
■ change their batteries in the
smoke detectors twice a year
; when the time changes,” said
Forsyth County Fire Safety
i Educator Sam Henderson. “The
; batteries should always be
t replaced with the batteries recom
mended by the manufacturer.”
FSL from 1A
to test privately owned wells within a half-mile
of the landfill footprint, and to assist Forsyth
County with enforcing a requirement that tarps
be utilized to prevent litter from blowing out of
trucks carrying garbage.
In a prepared statement, CFIC leader Roger
Markle said that the series of negotiations lead
ing up to the public hearing was “doomed for
failure from the start.
“EPD only required FSL to meet with the
Committee. Whatever was agreed to during the
negotiation process was non-binding and
would not have an impact on FSL’s operating
permit request. Although FSL was attentive
and listened to our concerns, when it came
down to agreeing to conditions expressed by
the Citizens’ Committee, FSL was not willing
to alter the operating permit submitted to
EPD.”
While FSL has not agreed to place any of
the items discussed at earlier meetings in the
permit application to EPD, the company has
agreed to meet with the citizens’ group within
45 days to continue negotiations.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the issues dis
cussed at the three previous meetings that were
not included in the permit application were list
ed and discussed with the audience.
The first issue discussed was how trash
could be reduced on Old Federal Road and
Hwy. 369. In addition to the strengthening of
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the litter ordinance by the Forsyth County
Commission, off-site receptacles in which
Forsyth County residents could deposit refuse
for the landfill were discussed.
Esthetics were one of the main concerns
relayed by the CFIC. “The landfill will be neat
ly landscaped,” said FSL Consulting Engineer
Bill Hodges.
Markle had requested that four-board fenc
ing be constructed along the frontage of Old
Federal Road. However, Hodges said the fenc
ing would cut into the undisturbed buffered
area required by EPD regulations.
Declining property values were brought up
by an audience member as being of primary
concern.
While saying that there are no guarantees,
consultant Jarvis Middleton said that landfills
“are not a detriment to land value increases.
Right next to the Morgan Falls landfill is some
of the most expensive land in Fulton County.”
However, audience members disagreed. “I
have spoken with legal counsel who told me to
expect a 25- to 33-percent decrease in property
value,” she said. “It’s a numbers game.”
Hodges said that landfills in the past were
not subject to the same standards as modern
landfills.
“A well-run landfill does not have to be a
detriment,” he said. Hodges described the
incredible financial risk taken on by the princi-
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, March 28,1999 I
pals of FSL “The day before it opens there will
be between $lO and 20 million in hard cash in
this landfill.”
The reclamation of methane gases from
within the landfill was another topic that
inspired debate. The practice of setting fire to
methane worried landowners concerned with
air quality, especially since Forsyth County is
not in compliance with the clean air act.
Hodges responded that the methane gas has
to be reclaimed or incinerated to ensure that it
will not contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Truck weight was another issue discussed at
the meeting. The condition of Old Federal
Road from trucks entering and leaving (he
now-closed Hightower Landfill inspired com
ment. “My daughter’s husband hit a hole in the
road and blew out his tires,” said nearby
landowner Linda Solomon.
County Administrator Stevie Mills said that
the road would have to be resurfaced yearly
due to the amount of truck traffic that will be
encountered after the FSL landfill opens. 4, 1 f
the county doesn’t maintain the road, the trucks
will go somewhere else,” said Jim Henderson.
Hodges said that it was not to the landfill’s
best interest to have overloaded trucks coming
in.
These and other concerns will be brought
back up at the hearing held by EPD during the
permitting process. ; <
PAGE 3A