http://yourerie.com/content/fulltext/?cid=57712
Tires-to-Energy Plant Protesters Take to the Streets
Reported by: Jeremy Beecher
Friday, May 1, 2009 @10:48pm EST
They packed both sides of East Lake Road – young, old and everyone in between – all saying the tires-to-energy plant would be a big step backward for Erie.
“It’s going to affect everyone,” said Donna Burkhart of Millcreek, “children, pregnant women, the elderly.”
"Erie is a beautiful place, and this tire plant is just going to ruin it,” said Sarah Hulsko, a student at Mercyhurst College. “It's going to be what Pittsburgh was 20 years ago."
The prospect of the plant is weighing especially hard on Robert Kennerney, who is deciding whether to stay in Erie or move back to Ireland after he graduates from Mercyhurst College later this month.
"It just makes you think, it makes you wonder,” Kennerney said. “If I were to settle in Erie, would I like to have a family here? Is this the kind of place I want to be? "
But not everyone is convinced the plant is such a bad thing.
For months, several local unions have been supporting it, saying its construction and long-term operation will create hundreds of badly needed jobs.
"It’s a great opportunity for the city of Erie,” said Jack Lee, a union member who attended the zoning board hearing that cleared the way for the plant. “We've lost a lot of industry [and] a lot of jobs. And with this tires-to-energy plant, [there will be] another tax base for the city, [to] help them balance the budget [and] give people jobs."
For now the plant has a green light.
But the zoning board has to give a written explanation for that decision within a week.
Once they do, opponents, including KEEP, vow to appeal the ruling to the Erie County Court of Common Pleas.