AURORA, Mo. — Many Aurora residents are upset with a new trash service site that is being built in town. 

“Doty wants to build a trash place one block away from me across the field,” said neighbor Donald Francisco. “I don’t understand why this city is putting it right next to a residential area.”

Neighbors filled the seats in city hall at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Most were there to speak up on a new trash site that will be built by Doty Trash Service near their homes on the north side of town.

“Where they’re going to put this is like within a quarter mile of my house. You can see how the wind is. That’s going to be blowing right in my direction,” said Patti Kittrell. “ It’s bad enough we have to put up with the stench from the dog food company.”

Planning and Zoning addressed neighbors’ concerns, explaining landfills are used for long-term waste disposal and storage, while transfer stations are used for sorting and transferring waste to other facilities.

They also addressed that the building of this trash site follows city codes and will cause minimal pollution problems. 

Residents fear the smell will be a problem, but also that the site will negatively impact their health. 

“It will hurt anybody, especially our seniors,” said Francisco. “I have breathing problems as it is now. I wear a CPAP machine every night to breathe and all that’s doing is polluting the air more.”

Many residents are urging the transfer station to be relocated to a more appropriate location that won’t impact the homes nearby. 

“I’m hoping that they can put it somewhere else. There’s plenty of land. We’re in a rural area, plenty of land to put this,” says Francisco. 

The council did vote to move forward with the build at tonight’s meeting.