I recently read, with much interest, the Times-News article regarding the retirement of Alamance County Solid Waste Director and Landfill Manager Greg Thomas. A part of my duties while in the employ of Alamance County included the landfill where I observed the performance of Greg Thomas firsthand. His career began with the landfill as a landfill attendant entry level position. As a quick learner and being highly motivated, he soon rose through the ranks and became a highly valued employee. The trust and confidence demonstrated by the County Commissioners was well placed in appointing Greg landfill director and entrusting him with the county’s most valuable fiscal asset. His remarkable management and stewardship of the landfill and its “airspace” for future disposal of waste is easily and literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
A few laudable accomplishments under Greg’s extraordinary leadership during the past nine years come to mind as follows:
■ Landfill longevity or life remaining has doubled to its current projected 80 year capacity.
■ Local per-ton tip fees have remained amazingly low and unchanged couple with no tax dollars whatsoever required to operate the landfill — a rare boon to businesses and taxpayers alike.
■ Even more phenomenal is the almost doubling of the current enterprise or reserve account which exceeds $21 million — this represents excellent financial management and overarching efficiency
■ A much-needed recycling processing facility was constructed and became an integral operational component.
■ The acquisition of the 118-acre Ingold property adjacent to the landfill site.
■ A pioneer making Alamance County one of the earliest counties in North Carolina to implement an electronic (e-waste) program diverting these recyclables from the landfill.
All of these feats were accomplished in less than a decade. In today’s tumultuous times, when leadership is absent or often suspect, it is reassuring to know there are still some leaders the caliber of Greg Thomas who are in the trenches every day making decisions in the best interest of the county, without expectation of any credit or recognition, sacrificing, making a difference and setting a positive example of leadership where the mantra has clearly been service over self, not the pervasive self over service.
Alamance County itself has been in the landfill business for approximately 45 years. Thanks to the vision of the county commissioners and performance, initiative and leadership of Greg Thomas, the county is now positioned to be the envy of public and private landfills statewide, with not only a state-of-the-art landfill but one that will meet the solid waste disposal and recycling needs of future generations through the remainder of this century. Along this vein one need look no farther than to our neighboring Guilford, Durham and Orange counties to note their train has already left the station. Having to truck waste out of their counties, they have little control over where, or how or at what price their current and future waste disposal needs will be met.