At a recent county commission meeting, in another travesty of mismanagement, Deb Barton was dismissed as the manager of the Montezuma County Landfill. Though the commissioners attempted to do this a closed executive session, Barton requested it open to the public. Barton had worked for the county landfill for the past 15 years during which time she exhibited extensive knowledge of solid waste management, environmental stewardship, community awareness, education outreach, and balancing the budget, pulling the landfill into the black for the first time in years.
In her position as one of the Four Corners Recycling Initiative board members, we have sought out Deb’s expertise to help us make informed choices related to recycling and reusing. FCRI also has an ongoing agreement with Deb, representing the landfill, to handle, bale, and move all of the commodities that we recycle for the community. She has been a proponent of recycling. We have also had discussions of adding more commodities for recycling, and Deb has initiated a pilot program to help with area high schools to begin recycling plastics.
I am concerned that the future of recycling in Montezuma County is very much at risk now. This board of commissioners is elected officials who are paid through our taxes. We really need to be asking ourselves if they are performing their duties in the way that we want. We as the constituents must remember it is our civic duty to make sure the commissioners are responsible for their actions. To continue to allow them to make decisions that a majority of the community doesn’t agree with gives them consent to go on with their own agenda. I have heard talk in the community that the commissioners have lost respect for the office itself, thereby adopting personal agendas and as a result, the constituency has lost respect for the office. Speak up! I know this isn’t what I feel is right for Montezuma County. Help! Write letters to the editors, go to the commissioners’ meetings. To allow them to continue such actions is, to quote the Dali Lama, “misplaced tolerance.”
Lisa Roche
Dolores