Greene County Democrat

Month: February 2018

  • Alabama Poor People’s Campaign holds rally at State Capitol steps in Montgomery in preparation for National Call for Moral Revival

    Special to the Democrat by: Miriam Wright

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    Demonstrators from the Poor People’s on steps of the Alabama State Capitol at
    Monday’s rally. Photo courtesy of Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser.

    A cold morning brought rays of sunshine this past Monday, February 6, 2018, to Alabama – along with more than 30 states plus Washington D.C. – helping roll out the National Poor People’s Campaign. Initiated by Rev. William Barber of North Carolina, leader of the ‘Moral Monday Movement’, this grassroots movement already has feet beginning to march across the nation in an effort to uplift human dignity.
    On the steps in front of the state capitol in Montgomery, a non-denominational, non-partisan group of some 50 people gathered.

    A podium was erected and a PA system sprung to life with the introduction of speakers including: Rev.Tonny Algood, United Methodist Inner City Mission, Mobile, Rev.Carolyn Foster, Greater Birmingham Ministries, Birmingham., Rev.James Rutledge, AME Zion Church, Birmingham., Imam Abdur Rahim Sabree, Muslim Center of Montgomery, Natividad Gonzalez, Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ) Organizer, Birmingham – War Economy, Wanda, Bryant, Community Activist, Birmingham.- Poverty, Jelanie Coleman, Night of 1, Selma. Common threads were the reality of the level of poverty existing in our country today and the ills that have been perpetuated and increased as the result of being ignored for decades. The talks were to the point, addressing the issues of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy and ecological devastation, all hot topics for the Campaign.
    Like all other Poor Peoples Campaigns around the nation in their own capitols, Alabama’s delegation delivered letters to both branches of the Legislature, House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston.
    Campaign organizers Tonny Algood and Cara McClure delivered the letters to the legislators.
    The letter read in part, “We demand a change in course… Our faith traditions and federal constitution all testify to the immorality of an economy that leaves out the poor, yet our political discourses consistently ignore the 140 million poor and low-income people in America.”
    The letters also made clear that unless direct actions are taken immediately to address these chronic problems, there would be visible consequences in the way of a massive wave of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience, that the Poor People’s Campaign will initiate on Mother’s Day, May 12, 2018 and continuing for forty days.
    This Poor People’s Campaign and National Call for Moral Revival will sweep the nation this spring, including Alabama if the conditions of poor people are not radically changed. In the words of Carolyn Foster, chair of the state PPC committee, “We have come to say clearly that a politics that ignores the poor has gone on far too long, and we will not be silent anymore.”
    For more information and how to get involved go to:
    Locally: http://www.facebook.com/AlabamaPPC/Nationally: http://www.poorpeoplescampaign;
    and of course you will find each chapter on Facebook as well as Twitter.

  • Eutaw hires Katherine Bir as City Clerk

     

    Mayor and Secretary

     

    Eutaw City Mayor Raymond Steele and City Clerk Katherine Bir.

    In a called meeting held Friday, February 2, 2018 at 2:00 p.m., the Eutaw City Council hired Katherine Bir as City Clerk and transferred Grace Sanford to the City Magistrate’s position. The Magistrate’s position was held by Daedra Thomas, who resigned November 22, 2017. Bir and Sanford will assume their respective positions Monday, Feb. 5.
    Eutaw Mayor Raymond Steele stated that Ms. Bir stood out among approximately 20 individuals in the applicant pool. She holds a M.A. Degree in accounting and has held previous jobs in that area of expertise.
    “She will be able to assist us with our budgeting process as well as with our bookkeeping,” Steele said.
    Bir is a former resident of Eutaw and currently lives in Northport. She indicated that she is planning to relocate to Eutaw.
    When an inquiry was made as to the public announcement of the City Council’s call meeting, City Attorney Ken Aycock stated that a 24 hour posting is all that was necessary. The council members, mayor and attorney recessed to executive session prior to formerly voting to hire the new personnel.
    Council members present included LaTasha Johnson, Bennie Abrams, Joe L. Powell, Sheila Smith and LaJeffery Carpenter.

  • Newswire : Coalition of Black Organizations to hold United Nations protest against Trump insults February 15

    proudafricansempowerment
    Organizing Committee for the “Repudiating and Educating Trump” Protest Rally Feb. 15

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – #ProudAfricans, a coalition of African, Caribbean, and African-American human rights and professional organizations, will lead a protest rally outside the United Nations Headquarters at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Park in New York City on Feb. 15 to denounce the recent racist and bigoted anti-Africa comments by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), a member of the coalition.
    The “Repudiating and Educating Trump” Protest Rally will take place at 11 a.m. on 47 Street between First and Second Avenues.
    Recent insults from Trump, reportedly referring to Haiti and African nations as S***hole countries during and Oval Office meeting, have apparently sparked an uprising in which numerous other issues are being brought to the surface. Those issues include the relationship between Africa and the U. S. and the widespread mistreatment of nations of color.
    “The rally will also highlight the past and continuing contributions by people of African descent to the creation of wealth and prosperity in the United States and other Western countries. In addition, the coalition will denounce the brutal exploitation of African migrants whose plight was highlighted in a recent CNN expose showing auctions of African migrants who have been enslaved in Libya,” states a release from IBW.
    It continues, “At the UN rally, the coalition will raise public awareness of the thousands of young Africans who continue to drown during desperate voyages across the Mediterranean to seek employment in Europe because the economies of their own countries have been ravaged by policies imposed by the World Bank and the IMF in collusion with corrupt regimes generally maintained in power by US and European governments.”
    IBW says the coalition aims to issue “a set of demands to the White House, the United Nations, and other International organizations to address the socio-economic and political marginalization of Africans and African descendants all over the world.”
    #ProudAfricans Coalition has been organized by the United African Congress (UAC), a New York-based organization representing African immigrants in the U.S. The UAC is led by Dr. Mohammed Nurhussein, chairman, and Sidique Wai, president and national spokesperson.
    “We are Africans of diverse backgrounds from across the continent and the diaspora who are proud of our heritage, who have come together to denounce strongly, without stooping to his level of depravity, the vile and racist characterization of people of African descent by the current occupant of the House that enslaved Africans built,” states Dr. Nurhussein. a retired physician, in the release, which also quotes other leaders.
    “As an Immigrant from Morocco and as a human rights activist and community organizer I also denounce the hateful words used to describe my beautiful motherland Africa,” said Ms. Souad Kirama founder and director of New Horizon Center for Advocacy and Development. “We are here in this wonderful newly founded coalition to say it loud and clear #ProudAfrican!”
    IBW President/CEO Ron Daniels, a distinguished CUNY professor, is one of the chief organizers of the protest rally at the UN. “As president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and convener of the Pan African Unity Dialogue, I am proud to stand with our sisters and brothers in the diaspora in repudiating the foul-mouthed insults that spewed recently from the current occupant of the White House. We will not be disrespected,” Daniels stated.
    Bourema Niambele, a leader of New York City-based African Diaspora Coalition for Justice, one of the protest organizers, says, “Donald Trump represents the kind of racism towards Africans and African immigrants that we see around the world today. As the world now knows from the recent CNN expose, Africans are even being auctioned into slavery in Libya. This is the 21st century and we will not stand for it.”
    The rally is expected to draw large numbers of people from the continental African immigrant, African-American, Caribbean-American and Latino communities from the Tri-State area and across the nation.
    The coalition’s priorities are anchored by the framework of “Protest, Policy, Power” and speakers will challenge the current socio-economic policies that negatively impact African communities at the local, national and international levels and will offer a number of solutions. In so doing, participating organizations will broaden and deepen their alliances for unified actions moving forward.
    In addition to United African Congress (UAC) and IBW, the protest rally is endorsed by Give Them A Hand Foundation, African Diaspora Coalition for Justice, Nextmedia.tv, The Black Star News, African Women Solidarity Action for Development, African Hope Committee, African Commission of Newark, New Jersey, and the African Human Rights Commission.
    For more information on the protest: 212-340-1975; info@nextmedia.tv; or Facebook: proudafricansempowerment.

  • Newswire : Super Bowl Viewers Infuriated by truck ad featuring voice of Dr. King

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    Image of church and truck in commercial that uses the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the St. Louis American and Victoria Burke of NNPA

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – A Ram Truck Super Bowl LI commercial sparked outrage by using a recording of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech to push car sales, In the 30-second ad, a recording of Dr. King’s 1968 a speech serves as the soundtrack for snapshots of everyday Americans engaged in community service.,“In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ram truck owners also believe in a life of serving others,” the ad’s description said.

    The reaction was swift and harsh. An overwhelming consensus concluded that the ad was a tactless attempt to capitalize on Dr. King’s legacy. Among those offering backlash was the King Center .A tweet from the King Center read: “Neither @TheKingCenter nor @BerniceKing is the entity that approves the use of #MLK’s words or imagery for use in merchandise, entertainment (movies, music, artwork, etc) or advertisement, including tonight’s @Dodge #SuperBowl commercial.”

    Although the center carries on King’s teachings, a separate entity controls King’s speeches and image — Intellectual Properties Management Inc. Eric D. Tidwell, managing director of the organization, which is run by King’s son Dexter, said in a statement early Monday: “We found that the overall message of the ad embodied Dr. King’s philosophy that true greatness is achieved by serving others. Thus we decided to be a part of Ram’s ‘Built To Serve’ Super Bowl program.”Tidwell’s response came after an endless evening of criticism. When writer Michael Arceneaux wrote on Twitter, “So that means the King children allowed Dr. King’s voice to be used to sell me a Dodge truck,” Bernice King replied with a single word: “No.”
    April 4, 2018 will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, at the hands of James Earl Ray.
    “The worst commercials are those that use icons like Martin Luther King Jr to sell things like a Dodge Ram truck,” tweeted Boston Globe Deputy Bureau Chief Matt Viser. He wasn’t the only one who noticed.
    “So, Ram Truck appropriated Martin Luther King Jr. and used an all white cast + one token black to sell trucks to Trump supporters as if we’re back in the 1950s. #SuperBowl,” stated Lucy Amato on Twitter.
    “Using a “Martin Luther King” speech and completely taking it OUT OF CONTEXT for a truck commercial is a disgrace,” another Twitter user reacted in a typical statement.
    Super Bowl advertisements have become an annual obsession as the expensive and targeted marketing to a huge audience has become a place where products are debuted for the first time. Super Bowl ads have also become an annual time to analyze and study the many marketing strategy, as well as the “hits and misses” of the ads seen during the game.

    It’s likely that the ad featuring King’s voice and words will likely be the source of analysis over the coming days. The ad might also reignite discussion on some of the decisions being made by Dexter King and Martin Luther King III regarding the use of their father’s image and words.

  • Newswire : At ‘Real State of Our Union’ Trump derided for ‘White Nationalist’ conduct

    By Barrington M. Salmon
    barberwithactivists.jpg
    Rev. Dr. William J. Barber lock arms with activists and audience members at the “Real State of Our Union”. PHOTO: Paulette Singleton/Trice Edney News Wire

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – In stirring comments that were more sermon than speech, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II derided the Trump administration Tuesday night during an “Alternate State of the Union’ gathering.
    As Trump delivered his first State of the Union Address at the U. S. Capital, Barber described him as the end-product of more than 100 years of attempts by White extremists to blunt any progress made by African-Americans and progressives in the U. S.
    “We’re witnessing a fundamental changing of our demographics around the world,” said Barber, a national activist, former president of the North Carolina NAACP and president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach. “We see extremist policies in America today and it’s driven by the growing blackening and browning of America and a fusion of every creed, color and class.”
    He continued, “Those who embrace the Make America Great Again slogan are willing to work hard and cheat to undermine what is evolving in America. This is White hegemony and White nationalism strengthened by enormous wealth.”
    Rev. Barber’s analysis of Trump’s cynical attacks on non-whites, Barber’s deconstruction of America’s racial malady and his exhortation for African-Americans, progressives and other allies to join the movement against extremism, wrapped up a more than two-hour panel discussion involving leading political and Civil Rights activists, organizers educators, and thinkers in the black and Latino communities.
    The event, arranged and moderated by former News One anchor and news personality Roland Martin, was co-sponsored by the NAACP and titled, ‘The Real State of Our Union,’. It was one of dozens of progressive alternatives arranged around the country to counter Trump’s first State of the Union before a joint session of Congress.
    Rev. Barber, well known as an unapologetic voice of resistance to this administration’s hard move to the right, told an audience of several hundred people at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, DC that America is in the midst of a Third Reconstruction.
    “Our discussion aims to put a spotlight on a variety of issues that are vital to our community, and that we are sure will be overlooked in his State of the Union address on Tuesday,” said Martin in a statement released to the press.
    Hot topics ranged from attaining economic self-sufficiency, voter mobilization, the rightward tilt of judicial appointments, political and election strategy, organizing and the administration’s attacks against immigrants, the LGBTQ community and anyone not White, heterosexual and male.
    “His words, actions and appointments and all we’ve seen is a policy of division,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “He has taken us back decades. We’ve seen a spike in hate crimes, Charlottesville, and his inability to condemn Neo-Nazis … it’s hard not to trace ugly hate and animus to this White House.”
    Clarke, Melanie Campbell of the Black Women’s Roundtable, NAACP President Derrick Johnson and other panelists warned about the danger posed to African-Americans, other people of color, the poor and the most vulnerable by Trump’s judicial appointments. In his first year, Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership have rammed through nominations to federal, district and circuit courts after eight years of holding up or blocking former President Barack Obama’s nominees.
    “This is a huge issue,” Clarke explained. There are 140 vacancies in federal courts. The judiciary has always mattered to Black people because it is a place of last resort. Ninety-nine percent of cases are heard in federal and district courts. Ninety-one percent of those Trump is putting forward are White and male and they are the fringe. He’s turning back the clock to the Jim Crow era.”
    A panel of millennials spoke with great passion about the failings of the two-party system, their general disdain for both parties and their desire to build infrastructures and institutions for, with and about Black people.
    NAACP President Derrick Johnson set the table with his insistence that Black people use their vote wisely. If 28,000 Black voters had not skipped choosing one of the candidates at the top of the ballot, Trump would not have won the election, he said.
    “We need to stop being emotional and focus on outcomes,” Johnson said. “We need to understand the political landscape because we seem to have forgotten. In a democracy, the vote is our currency. It’s nation-building time. We have to build it within the rules of building power.”
    Dayvon Love, director of Research and Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, focused on the importance of developing opportunities and a pipeline into politics for African-Americans and holding Democrats’ feet to the fire to force them to do right by Black people.
    “We’ve had an exploitative relationship with Democrats,” he said. “We need political infrastructures. If the political infrastructure is outside of your community, you’re beholden to people outside.”
    Dr. Greg Carr, chair of Howard University’s History Department, offered caustic comments about Trump and the environment that he and his administration have fostered.
    “They’re extremists, there’s no such thing as the United States of America and Mike Pence is a Christian fundamentalist … Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are wholly-owned subsidiaries of corporations and the Koch Brothers. Steven Miller has proposed cutting immigration. These people don’t give a damn. We’re appealing to a morality these people have never had.”
    Johnson and Campbell stressed the importance of Black people flexing their electoral muscles in the upcoming midterms and the 2020 general elections.
    “We have to increase our collective consciousness and lean in at least for the next five years,” said Johnson. “There are 88 legislative bodies up for election and we have to vote in all these races. Redistricting and the midterms are on the horizon. Folks, we have to lean into our collective consciousness and turn out to vote. Nothing else matters.”
    Campbell agreed. “We’re mad as heck, but we’re being more strategic with our politics,” she said. “We will not have anyone take our vote for granted. We’re seeing a power shift. Black women all over the country are starting political organizations, running and challenging the Democratic Party. More and more Black people don’t think the Democratic Party represents their interests.”

  • Newswire : CBC members back CFPB payday lending accountability actions

    By Charlene Crowell

     

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     U. S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – In the wake of a recent series of anti-consumer actions taken by Mick Mulvaney, the Trump-appointed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Acting Director, a bicameral call for accountability was released on January 31. Led by Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, two other Congressional Black Caucus Members, Congressmen Keith Ellison (MN) and Al Green (TX) joined Senators Richard Blumenthal (CT) and Jeff Merkley (OR) as signatories.
    Together, the group of lawmakers seek to know what prompted Mr. Mulvaney’s actions as well as his ties to the payday lending industry.
    A January 31 letter calls into question the following specific actions that have occurred over the past month:

    Halting implementation of the agency’s final rule preventing abusive payday lending (the ‘Payday Rule);
    Announcement of the Bureau’s intention to initiate a rulemaking process that appears designed to weaken the Payday Rule;
    Withdrawing a Bureau lawsuit against four online payday lenders who allegedly misled customers on interest rates that spanned a low of 440 percent to as high as 950 percent; and
    Ending an investigation of World Acceptance Corporation, a high-cost installment lender that began in 2014 after consumers complained of unaffordable loans and aggressive collection practices.

    “For too long, some payday, auto title, and installment lenders have taken advantage of American workers who need a little extra money to pay an unexpected medical bill or fix their car,” wrote the lawmakers. “For too many families, one unexpected expense or tight week traps them in a cycle of debt that lasts months or years…The rule finalized by the CFPB last October was carefully balanced to end that cycle of debt while ensuring that borrowers retain access to needed credit.”
    The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act that created the CFPB intended for it to be an independent agency, charged with serving as the consumer’s financial cop-on-the-beat. Its director was to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term of service. Additionally, CFPB was to secure its funding directly from the Federal Reserve Bank, rather than through Congress’ annual appropriations process that could enable powerful special interests to restrict necessary funding.
    Even though he Dodd-Frank Act also a defined succession plan for an Acting Director in the event of personnel changes, two people were appointed to this same role. One, Leandra English was lawfully appointed by the now-departed Director Richard Cordray, while another, Mr. Mulvaney, was appointed by President Trump. The lawmakers’ letter is addressed to both appointees.
    An appellate federal court will eventually decide who should be the legal Acting Director; but in the interim, Mulvaney leads CFPB while retaining his position as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In his prior role as a South Carolina Congressman, he co-sponsored a bill to eliminate the CFPB and accepted nearly $63,000 in campaign donations from payday lenders. These donations included $4,500 from World Acceptance Corporation’s political action committee.
    “The CFPB spent five years honing the Payday Rule, conducting research and reviewing over one million comments from all types of stakeholders: from payday lender, to state regulators, to faith leaders,” wrote Ranking Members Warren and Waters.
    Now Mr. Mulvaney oversees the daily operations of the same Bureau that returned $12 billion to nearly 30 million consumers in about six years. Instead of regulating financial services, this Acting Director prefers allowing private enterprise to determine consumers’ choices – including those that are harmful and predatory. He also wants financial businesses to have more input on determining what regulations CFPB should use in their supervision and monitoring.
    As CFPB’s Acting Director, Mulvaney also wrote a letter to Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen advising that “for Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2018, the Bureau is requesting $0.”
    Mulvaney added, “While this approximately $145 million may not make much of a dent in the deficit, the men and women at the Bureau are proud to do their part to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
    When the federal deficit is hundreds of trillions of dollars, it strains credulity to believe that $145 million will lighten the nation’s debt. But an emerging pattern of the current Administration is to allow lengthy delays that could eventually become denials. As this column has previously reported, key consumer protections in student loans have been delayed as well, and through the Congressional Review Act, a rule that would have allowed consumers to have their own day in court to resolve financial and credit issues has also been rejected. Moreover, Mulvaney directed the CFPB to delay implementation of its prepaid card rule that was designed to help stop abusive fees for users.
    If sparing taxpayers unnecessary costs is the guiding force, then why has both the CFPB and Department of Education rejected earlier negotiated rulemaking and begun the process anew – at taxpayers’ expense?
    “I certainly understand the desire to protect taxpayer dollars,” said Debbie Goldstein, Executive Vice President with the Center for Responsible Lending, “but I think the mission of the CFPB is to protect the taxpayers, the American people, from lenders who target them for high-cost and unaffordable loans. And the best way to save Americans millions of dollars is by preventing predatory lending, not by draining the CFPB’s resources.”
    Charlene Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lending’s communications deputy director. She can be reached at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

  • Industrial development delegation visits Crossroads of America Industrial Park at Boligee to review feasibility for Waste to Energy Plant

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    Visiting delegation review feasibility of Crossroads of America Industrial Park for waste-to-energy project: (L to R) a member of the Greene Co. Water Authority staff, Ralph Banks III, Treasurer of GCIDA, Rev. James Carter, GCIDA, Vincent Atkins, Greene County Water Authority, Mayor Louis Harper of Boligee, Dr. Ellsworth James, consultant to project, Dr. John Wu, Chairman, JMC Renewable Energy Systems, Dao Xian Feng, JMC Senior Boiler Engineer, Danny Cooper, Chair of GCIDA, Jian Tu, JMC Project Manager, Ying Hua Deng, Senior Electrical Engineer and Christopher Wu, Board Secretary for JMC.

    A delegation of representatives from JMC Renewable Energy Solutions visited the Crossroads of America Industrial Park at Boligee in late December 2017, to review the feasibility of the Greene County Industrial Development Authority’s site for a potential industry. The delegation also met with GCIDA Board members, Mayor Harper of Boligee, the Greene County Water Authority and others to discuss the potential of this renewal energy project.
    JMC Renewable Energy Solutions, Inc. specializes in designing, developing and operating custom renewable energy and infrastructure solutions. JMC’s goal is to reduce the carbon footprint resulting from MSW and GHG through energy recovery and sustainable infrastructure development.

    JMC is partnering with the Chinese Machinery and Equipment Corporation, an eight billion dollar publicly-traded infrastructural conglomerate, which designed, financed and constructed super projects in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The first project in the United States is a partnership with JMC Renewable Energy Solutions Inc., a Mississippi Corporation. CMEC will provide the engineering, design, and financing for the Mississippi project. JMC has put together competent local management teams in each region where renewable energy projects are planned. Current projects are planned for Bolivar County, Mississippi and Greene County, Alabama.
    The proposed Greene county project is a state of the art Waste-to-Energy plant that converts all municipal solid waste – household garbage – into electricity, with no harmful emissions released in the air or toxins into the land and groundwater.
    The Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant currently under evaluation utilizes an advanced technology that converts trash to electricity and will sell the energy to the regional power grid. The plant will provide a constant supply of energy to the grid, 24-7.
    The new WTE plant will reduce input to landfills and eliminate nearly 100% of toxic methane gas, the most harmful of all greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere. The residual 3% is an abrasive material that can be sold to landfills to absorb landfill emissions and odor, or used to make asphalt.
    The WTE plant will also reduce the demand for local landfills that contaminate the land and groundwater, reduce the harmful greenhouse gases being released in the atmosphere, and convert the steam produced to generate low-cost, clean electricity.
    The particular system under review is a proven technology currently used the SWA’s Renewable Energy Faciity 2 in West Palm Beach Florida. At capacity, REF 2 will process more than 1 million tons (907,200,000 kg) of post-recycled municipal solid waste annually and 3,000 tons a daily – more than 660 curbside trucks worth of trash every day!
    Once fully operational, the communities in the Alabama Black Belt, that participate in the project will receive direct financial benefits by:
    •reducing costly municipal expenses for garbage transport to the landfill and energy expenses for residential and business customer; and
    •generating revenue sharing opportunities to communities sending their municipal solid waste to the WTE plant.
    By reducing expenses and adding revenue to local municipal budgets, the communities have the potential to strengthen their financial positions. With the planned revenue, Black Belt communities can develop new long-term project plans and budgets, for desperately-needed infrastructure repairs, housing and commercial developments, all of which will provide employment opportunities for area residents.
    If you would like more information about this project, please contact David Hannans at geg@gatewayenergy.co.