ONLY ON 3: Barfield storms out of meeting, slings accusations

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Emotions ran high at Thursday afternoon’s agenda briefing for the New Hanover County Commission. It happened during the discussion of a new contractor to handle recycling in the county.

It’s been an ongoing conversation for years how to preserve the life of the landfill in New Hanover County. County Manager Chris Coudriet announced at the meeting Thursday that the county is a little more than a week away from a final agreement with a new recycling provider.

That said, a company has been contracted to demolish the old WASTEC facility in the county. The issue was brought up about the turbines on the site and whether or not they were too valuable to be demolished. A company met with all commissioners about using the turbines to do gasification. That is a process that aims to reduce waste without burning it. During this conversation, though, things inside the meeting proceeded to get out of hand.

Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, a Democrat, implied Commissioner Woody White, a Republican, was friends with the person trying to push gasification on the County Commission. White adamantly denied the implication, and then Barfield said the meeting was over.

“I didn’t hear a motion to adjourn the meeting,” said White.

“Chairman moves that we close the meeting,” Barfield responded.

“Is there a second to that? I don’t think that we’re done with this discussion,” White said.

With that, Chairman Barfield grabbed his belongings and walked out the door. The meeting was still in session.

After the meeting, Barfield laid out his issue with White.

“I don’t know what his ties are to those folks, but what I’m sharing with you is this: The folks that came and talked with us (about gasification) are also friends (of White),” Barfield said.

White said a friend came to him with the gasification idea, but that was where his ties ended. It’s a claim backed up by almost all fellow commissioners.

“He resorts to personal attacks without any basis in fact,” White said when asked about Barfield’s accusations.

During the agenda briefing, Barfield claimed to have stormed out of his own meeting with the gasification company. Commissioner Rob Zapple, a Democrat, said that wasn’t exactly true. He says Barfield came to the meeting, listened and left.

We asked Barfield if he was saying White had done something wrong.

“Nope,” Barfield said.

Even though Barfield accused someone during the meeting of acting improperly, he wouldn’t name names.

“It’s difficult when someone that calls themselves a leader acts like a child, and that’s what he’s doing, and it’s regrettable. But nonetheless, we’re gonna make the right choice for the citizens,” White said.

The issue of gasification will likely come before the commission at their next meeting Monday. The only decision being made, though, would be whether to have county staff give gasification a second look.