Residents angry over an energy company’s plan to set up shop in the Old Wilmington Road area heard the words they wanted to hear an hour into a community meeting Thursday night.
The plan was a “no-go,” said Scott Gallagher, CEO of Waste Energy Corp. He clarified, after a few questions from neighbors, that this meant the company would not be using the building at 555 Cool Spring St. at all — neither to convert super-heated plastic to diesel fuel, or as a collection site for plastic materials. The company would look elsewhere.
I could hear a lot of tension leave the room in what had been a pretty heated meeting. However, the fight for environmental justice — which ran through many of the speakers’ remarks — remained. Many among the three dozen or so people in the room indicated they planned to hold regular meetings to keep neighbors informed about any development plans for their neighborhood, located off U.S. 301 near downtown Fayetteville.
Charles Evans: Neighbors want to prevent harm from ‘infiltrating our space’
Charles Evans, former county commissioner and former city council member, organized the meeting at Second Missionary Baptist Church at 522 Old Wilmington Road. Evans said the residents had invested in keeping the neighborhood friendly to families, which had been boosted by the federal Hope VI project years ago that pumped money into community revitalization…