Newtown holds prayer vigil

GAINESVILLE - The Newtown Florist Club hosted a prayer vigil Saturday, calling for the re-location of the Blaze Recycling plant because of the noise and air pollution the environmental justice group says is caused by the plant in a mostly black part of Gainesville.

The brief service was held at the corner of McDonald and Dunbar streets in the Newtown section of Gainesville.

"The vigil is a community effort to pray for the relocation of the junkyard," Newtown Executive Director Faye Bush said. "The junkyard is located in the Newtown residential community causing noise and air pollution at unacceptable levels."

Bush added "We have met with officials from the City of Gainesville who have agreed to a land swap that will allow Blaze to relocate, but they (Blaze) have refused the offer. The Blaze Recycling plant moved into our neighborhood as a result of a governmental policy known as 'spot zoning' (and) this policy has resulted in our community being surrounded by a disproportional amount of industry."

Bush said that in a noise sampling taken on October 28, 2008, the noise level at 157 Norwood Street, adjacent to Blaze Recycling was 32 times louder than a typical residential area.

"The Newtown Community was here first," Bush continued. "Unlike many cases where residents come to the nuisance, this nuisance came to our community, and it is time for it to leave."