How would it work? Build a business plan. White is in a great position to do this. His wife is a master gardener, she could design and direct how to compost. His many contacts could invest, put their money where their mouths are. Buy some land, collect waste from local restaurants, city and private landscapers, wood chips, fall leaves and manure from farmers. The list goes on and on.

Call it Durango Gold, sell it to local landscapers, nurseries, the public, go wild and sell it online. Make Liquid Durango Gold (compost tea, easy to make and sells at a premium). Add a little molasses, and voilà – “prime fertilizer.” You could add all kinds of natural additives for different needs and keep it organic and green. Sell to everyone, even renters for their household plants.

Wow! What a moneymaker for an entrepreneur. Not for government, it would botch it up as it does most things. How can you botch up turning wastes into compost? Easy – staff who don’t know how, too much water, not enough water, to turn or not to turn, proper aeration, too much of this and not enough of that, and pretty soon, you have a big pile of mold and mildew worth nothing and hard to get rid of. OK, just take it to the dump, that’s where it was going before. Now, you’ve wasted tons of taxpayers money on a project that could have been successful in the hands of private industry.

Private industry could make a profit, hire employees, pay taxes on sales, expand (not more than 50 full-time employees or else). So Mayor White, great idea that’s full of potential. The rewards of being a business owner far outweigh living your life as an educational bureaucrat.

Deborah Marquart

Durango