By WILLIAM KUTSCHERA

Ralph Reed, secretary-treasurer of J.M. Corporation, who has attempted for 29 years to obtain a permit to operate a landfill in Madison County, submitted a letter to the editor recently published in The Herald Bulletin. In it, Mr. Reed attempted to convince the citizens of Madison County that we have lost $20 million over the last 20 years by having our household waste hauled out of the county instead of having his firm accept it at his proposed Mallard Lake dump. He also stated that Sen. Lanane and state Reps. Lutz, Austin and Reske were responsible for adding an amendment (referring to Engrossed Senate Bill 043) which would preclude J.M. Corp. from successfully obtaining that the required permitting. He said he wanted us to know the facts. Here are a few facts he failed to mention.

Reed neglected to state that he has repeatedly acknowledged that if he receives a final permit for a landfill, he will sell it immediately to one of several eager but yet-to-be-revealed prospective buyers so his assurances of being a responsible neighbor are hollow. Confirming Reed’s intention to sell the permit, his son, Mark Reed, president of J.M., has been quoted in The Herald Bulletin as stating that five East Coast waste firms have expressed great interest in buying the Mallard Lake site and that none will accept local waste, which negates Reed’s claim of millions of dollars of collection cost savings for Madison County residents.

The desire expressed by these unknown firms to purchase and operate the dump is evidenced by the fact that J.M. Corp. received a $220,000 loan from an Ohio firm with ties to an East Coast solid waste hauling firm and another loan for $220,000 from a different company that, according to a Herald Bulletin article, “has been linked to out-of-state trash being hauled to three operating Indiana landfills.”

Reed failed to explain how he managed to obtain the deed to the 250-plus acres at County Roads 300 North and 300 East on which he plans to build a landfill even though, according to his CPA and the chief financial officer of the bank which holds the second mortgage on the property, no payments have been made on either the first or second mortgages, both totaling over $2.2 million. Amazingly, neither bank has initiated foreclosure. Also, both Reeds claimed in their 2004 personal bankruptcies that J.M. Corp. was of “zero value,” but is somehow still able to afford several expensive law firms which vigorously fight opposition to the proposed dump.

Not widely known is the fact that a majority of the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals members that granted a special use allowance to J.M. Corp. in 1981, required for the issuance of the now-expired operating permit, have submitted sworn, notarized statements that they would have voted to deny the special-use allowance had they known the proposed landfill would be, in fact, an above-ground type and not a trench-type as submitted for approval by J.M. Nonetheless, the former county plan director repeatedly refused to allow the matter to be reheard by the BZA despite his responsibility to ensure that “the matter shall be placed on the Board of Zoning Appeals agenda for a public hearing if the approved was the result of fraud or the misrepresentation of facts.” (Madison County BZA, zoning ordinance 11)

J.M. Corp.’s battle to obtain approval of the Mallard Lake landfill continues to be shrouded in secrecy. It is irrefutable, however, that if the dump were to be approved and become operational, it would be a repository for uninspected out-of-state waste towering 50-plus feet above crucial aquifers that provide much of Madison County’s water, located across a narrow road from one of the Anderson’s highest-rated schools and adjacent to many homes that residents have worked hard to buy and maintain in which to raise their families and ensure peaceful security for their ‘golden years’.

Reed ended his letter by offering to supply more facts, if asked. Perhaps he’ll care to respond to the above, but, in the meantime, I believe we should all extend our gratitude to the elected officials who took action to protect us from the dangers that the proposed dump would pose to all of Madison County’s citizens.

William Kutschera, an Anderson resident, is president of the Killbuck Concerned Citizens Association, a group formed many years ago to stop the landfill at Mallard Lake.