To the editor:
This letter is in support of the recent action taken by Chad Voigt, our stormwater engineer, regarding shutting down the car wash fundraiser sponsored by the Lawrence Community Shelter.
Often we citizens are unaware of ordinances that prohibit some kind of action, and it appears that this was the case in this situation.
Lawrence is lucky to have Voigt as our stormwater engineer. He has been in charge of bringing Lawrence into compliance with the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System regulations over the past few years and enforcing this ordinance is one of his jobs.
We are equally lucky to have Loring Henderson as director of the Lawrence Community Shelter and applaud the creativity demonstrated to support the shelter and its clients. The offer from Rick Nunez, general manager at Auto Exchange, to let the shelter use his facilities on one or more Saturdays is also appreciated.
Our rivers would be healthier if we all used commercial car washes so that the discharge would be treated by our sanitary sewer system. Currently, the EPA still allows individuals to wash their cars at home because the pollutant runoff is significantly less than the runoff would be from a car wash continuing over several hours on concrete. We have enough problems with river pollution as it is. Let's try to be mindful of what we all can do to try to make it healthier.
Melinda Henderson,
Lawrence
Comments
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BrianR (anonymous) says…
Our rivers would be healthier if farm runoff stopped. A thousand car washes can't do the damage that one farm can do.
Shardwurm (anonymous) says…
Now if he would only work on getting people to use turn signals we'd be in Utopia.
smitty (anonymous) says…
We are lucky to have Loring Henderson and the staff he directs fail to follow a simple request not to have this car wash. The ignoring of the city officials simple explantion is unexcuseable. With a little effort on Kelly's part and some supervison on Henderson's part, this story would have been a non-issue and the same business that voluteered it's location still would have helped out.
Executive director Henderson is incompetent, uninformed, unqualified for the wet shelter program no matter how well intentioned he and the board of diretors are. Henderson and the staff fail to respect the neighborhood physical and social enviorment by trashing the entire block on both sides of the street then tell concerned citizens that it is of no concern of theirs what happens once the drunken druggies leave their premise.
You support the city's decision but compliment Henderson? Sure puts a big question mark on your own(Melinda Henderson) political and social program endorsements. You are the prime organizer of the plc movement. This editorial does much to mar your efforts in the political arena. As far as I'm concerned I will look much closer to any other endorsements of yours.