Residents, realtor raise safety and cost concerns about proposed Stonewall compactor site

A pair of public commenters told the DeSoto Parish Police Jury administrative committee they had serious reservations about siting a new compactor on a 47‑acre parcel near Stonewall.

Mister Wayne Midland told jurors the state restricts government purchases of property at more than appraised value and said unimproved land values in the Stonewall ZIP have risen but remain modest. Midland described physical constraints on the parcel — including power lines, an oil pad road, pipelines and low, wet soils identified decades ago by the Army Corps of Engineers and soil conservation authorities — and warned that locating a dump there would create congestion because several subdivisions and a high school would use the same short stretch of highway to enter and exit.

Pamela Britt, a local realtor, said she was not opposed to the idea in principle but questioned the timing and priorities. Britt told jurors that the roughly $2,000,000 cost cited for a new dump site could be better spent on parish road maintenance, drainage and ditches on local police‑jury roads such as Raymond, Middleton and Genie. “I think it’s absolutely absurd that we have two dump sites and want to buy a new one, but we can’t even dig a ditch,” she said.

The chair limited public comments to three minutes per speaker and thanked the commenters; no formal action on a new compactor site was recorded during the administrative committee portion of the meeting.

Next steps: the compactor‑site discussion was part of public comment at the administrative meeting; the transcript does not record a follow‑up agenda item or vote on site acquisition during this session.