The Creative Patrick Slevin

When I first started this blog, I received an email from a friend who pointed out that the Conecuh Commission had voted down the proposal to build the Conecuh Woods Landfill. He erroneously thought that the battle was over. WRONG!

There is too much money behind this proposed landfill to make it stop that easily. The battle goes on. This is truly a battle of rural "Davids" against a big, smelly, toxic, urban-based "Goliath." Anything the Conecuh Woods proponents say should be looked at dubiously.

Their spokesman, Patrick Slevin, is a case in point.

Today, in any public forum it seems...lying is now termed as "spin." According to a recent news report by Connie Baggett of the Mobile Register - back in January, Patrick Slevin made the statement that there was a landfill within a mile of his upscale home in Tallahassee, Florida. This was the spin. Here is the truth quoting from Baggett's article in the Register:

"[Johnny]Andrews said last week that members of Citizens for a Clean Southwest Alabama traveled to Florida and found Slevin's house, and discovered the "landfill" was actually two miles from Slevin's home, and is a waste collection site of a few acres where residents bring trash to be hauled away daily.

Slevin told a Press-Register reporter Wednesday that his January statement about the location of a landfill near his home was based on his misunderstanding of what a neighbor told him.

"It takes me off guard that people have hunted down my private residence," Slevin said. "I made a statement in January in front of the commission that I asked a neighbor when trash was picked up, and he said I had to take it to the dump a mile down the road.

"What was told to you was absolutely correct. I just moved into my new house and drove to the site, and it is two miles down the road," Slevin said. "You can blame semantics of my neighbor but I really don't think that makes this a story."

Now the hypocrisy in all of this is that Patrick Slevin arrogantly expresses indignation that a group of citizens would track him down to where he lives. This hired gun for the landfill developers does not care how many rural citizens of southwest Alabama are affected by the possible health and safety issues of Conecuh Woods, but he is miffed because anyone would check to see if he was telling the truth.

Patrick Slevin's lies found him out... Go get 'em Johnny Andrews!