by Theodore Wiesehan and Nancy McGill

    Area citizens will have to express their objections to a proposed landfill expansion another day, as representatives of G&P, the landfill just south of Milford, were a no-show to the May 16 special public hearing.
     More than 70 people packed the Seward Civic Center Auditorium for the hearing before the Seward County Board of Commissioners to consider a conditional use permit and rezoning request. G&P had submitted the requests regarding an adjacent tract of land the company planned to purchase from Milford resident Larry Springer in order to expand its operation.
     At the opening of the meeting, the board read a letter it had received from the waste management company less than four hours earlier. The letter withdrew the conditional use permit and rezoning requests.
     Though the letter provided no reason for the withdrawal, Kelly Danielson, assistant manager of the Butler County Landfill and representative of Waste Connections, G&P's parent organization, said in a May 19 telephone interview with the Seward County Independent that the company will resubmit its request and has no intentions of discarding its plans for expansion.
     "Well, we had some kind of last minute changes we wanted to make to our application," Danielson said. "So we thought it would be cleaner and more understandable if we just redid that."
     No timeline for resubmission has been set at this time.
     If the company attempts to apply for a second conditional use permit and rezoning request they will need to repeat the entire application process, beginning with the Seward Planning and Zoning Commission.
     After reading the letter, Commissioner Bill White moved that the county send a letter to G&P expressing displeasure with the company's last-minute cancellation and resolve that the next public hearing on the matter be held in Milford.
     Commissioner Ray Naber seconded the motion. It carried 3-2 on the votes of White, Naber and Commissioner Bob Elwell. Commissioners Ron Minchow and Joe Ruzicka voted against the motion.
     Because the zoning request, the only item on the agenda for the meeting, was withdrawn, the board closed the meeting, much to the chagrin of citizens who had traveled to Seward to protest the landfill.
     "There will be no public hearing," Ruzicka, the board's chairman, said. "We've been advised by the county attorney."
     Nevertheless, most in attendance remained unsatisfied and stayed in the auditorium over a half-hour after the board left.
     Several citizens addressed fellow landfill opponents, encouraging them to bring their complaints to the gubernatorial and senatorial candidates and to continue to show opposition at any future public hearings regarding the landfill.