Front page story in the Scranton Times this morning: Mid Valley wants no piece of landfill pie

Excerpts:
But district directors agree that money from the Keystone Sanitary Landfill is no cure for their financial ills.

“At the bottom line, I personally don’t want to be looking out my window and seeing something of that nature,” school director Mary Ruth Tanner said. “All the money in the world can’t buy health.”

Last month, the Mid Valley board unanimously agreed to oppose a proposed expansion plan at Keystone, which sits less than a mile away from the district.

Part of their unity stems from the fact that Eddy Creek originates near the landfill and passes through district property. An accident upstream could potentially deliver toxins to the district’s doorstep via the stream they hope to use one day for science classes, Mr. Macknosky said.

School director Donna Dixon said considering Mid Valley’s annual operating budget climbs to around $22 million, “$100,000 to me is a drop in the bucket. That’s my opinion,” she said.

“This is not about us trying to get money,” he said. “No amount of money would offset the risks to the kids.”

School director Joanne Pesota likened running the district to running a business.

“We were all in agreement that this would be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the students, the faculty and staff of Mid Valley, and we just feel it would not be a cost that we’re not willing (to pay),” Ms. Pesota said. “We’re just making good business decisions that are ethical.”

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/mid-valley-wants-no-piece-of-landfill-pie-1.1798093