Jackson’s emergency garbage vendor continues to operate from Hawkins Field despite the objection from Federal Aviation Authority.
In an April 26 letter, the FAA objected to Richard’s Disposal Inc. leasing land at the airfield to park its garbage trucks. The FAA has asked the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, which approved the lease and oversees the airfield, to get the company to leave.
Alvin Richard Jr., founder and CEO of the Richard’s Disposal Inc., was not immediately available for comment, but a spokesperson said Richard’s Disposal continues to pick up garbage in Jackson.
In the April 26 letter, the FAA’s Airports Division for the Southern region said garbage residue can attract wildlife and make the airfield unsafe.
The letter was in response to guidance sought by Jackson Municipal Airport Authority CEO Paul Brown about leasing standards and whether the lease with New Orleans-based Richard’s Disposal was an appropriate use of airport land. A month-to-month lease, which began in late March, provides Richard’s Disposal with hangar, office and other space to store and stage staff and equipment.
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“Therefore the proposed lease to store garbage trucks that contain residue and are partially uncontained is an incompatible land use and wildlife attractant on airport property,” the FAA letter states. “Please notify the tenant that they must vacate the premises as expeditiously as possible.”
Richard’s Disposal has been picking up residents’ garbage since April 1 through an emergency contract that has led to conflict between Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the City Council.
A JMAA spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment about whether the company has been told to leave Hawkins Field.
A spokesperson from the mayor’s office said Lumumba will appeal the FAA’s decision and seek clarity about the Richard’s Disposal lease at the airfield.
City Council members speak out about trucks being at airfield
Members of the Jackson City Council have questioned the lease between the airport authority and Richard’s Disposal.
“As people are preparing for summer and barbecuing and those kind things, with garbage trucks in your neighborhood, you’re going to have rats as big as cats, horseflies and all of those kind of insects on poor people who can’t afford lawyers,” Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes at an April 13 meeting. “It’s just the wrong thing to do.”
Hawkins airfield and parts of the surrounding neighborhood are part of Stokes’ district.
He proposed a council resolution to object to using the area for garbage trucks, which received a majority vote from the council.
At the meeting, Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley said the administration may have moved hastily to set things up for Richard’s to collect garbage.
“In this haste to make something happen, a lot of the questions haven’t been answered,” he said.
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In several other council meetings in the past few months, Stokes has related the garbage issue back to environmental racism, which is the idea that government rules, regulations and policy have exposed predominately poor people of color to hazardous waste including garbage, sewage and other forms of pollution.
Legal action related to garbage situation continues
Last week, Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson said she will not hear the case about the mayor’s use of a veto on the Richard’s emergency contract.
On April 1, a majority of the council voted not to ratify the contract. Lumumba, taking guidance from a decision by Special Judge Jess Dickinson, vetoed the council’s vote, saying that made the Richard’s Disposal contract valid.
Peterson transferred the case back to Hinds County Chancery Court, where Dickinson originally heard the mayor’s lawsuit against the council and declinedlast month to hear the issue about his veto.
“The court finds no mistake or error in ordering the transfer,” Peterson wrote in her Thursday order.
Reporter Mina Corpuz can be reached by email at [email protected]. You can follow her on Twitter @mlcorpuz.
