MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Frayser elementary school could soon be sitting next to a dump site if one company gets it’s way.
Whitney Elementary School and community leaders are begging the city to turn down the proposal.
“It’s kind of a slap in the face,” Debra Broughton said.
Broughton is the principal at WES.
She told WREG she’s upset about the proposal to expand the landfill several feet away from her school.
“All of it is imaging that I believe does not support the work that we’re doing in the community, the work that is taking place for the children and the staff members here in our school,” Broughton said.
The site, owned by Memphis Wrecking Company, is used to recycle building and construction materials.
“It’s not a sanitary or garbage landfill. Your household garbage goes to another landfill,” the company stated in a video posted to Facebook.
However, community leaders said it sends the wrong message to students at one of the state’s fastest improving schools.
“Their education is so invaluable that it can be placed next to a dump,” Pastor Deandre Brown said.
Brown has worked with a number of agencies to beautify Frayser.
He plans to put up a fight until the permit is off of the table.
“There are so many different choices they could have made,” Brown told WREG. “So to make that choice, it seems as though they thought we would just lay down and allow it to take place but this not going to happen in our neighborhood.”
Other neighbors said the expansion is no big deal.
“As long as they keep it clean and it don’t interfere with my yard, I don’t care,” Lisa Ross said.
The company said it is taking community concerns seriously as they wait for the land use board to discuss the case.
“I would ask them to put our kids over profits at this time,” Broughton concluded.
The Memphis Wrecking Company created a fact sheet for those concerned about the proposal.
