"They're cleaning it up because we had this meeting" said Kim Barton a member of Compassionate Outreach Ministries. Kim said that late Wednesday night after her church organized a community meeting of several hundred people to address the neglect of the Copeland Community on the eastern edge of Gainesville.

Copeland is a primarily African-American community and residents there are concerned about hazardous waste and hazardous vehicles that are scattered throughout the community and the potential health crises that they present to the community's drinking water. Since 1999 the county has known of people using their property as a junk yard. Everyone in the Copeland is on well water and there is a wetland and a lake in the nearby area.

Attending the meeting were county and state officials, including Rick Wolf Director of Code Enforcement, Gus Olmos from the Department of Environmental Protection, Anthony Dennis from the Florida Department of Health, and Jay Welch from the States Attorney's office. Commissioner Mike Byerly was invited but he called before the meeting to say he was unable to attend.

Leaders from Compassionate Outreach Ministries showed pictures of junk cars and debris and shared research information that they had learned from meetings with state and county officials and ordinances and state statutes that they had looked up. They pointed out that the county had been aware of one property owner who had been junking old cars since early 1999. The property owner had been fined over $300,000 and never paid the county anything while continuing to violate the county's many ordinances regarding hazardous cars and materials. Leaders are also concerned that he possibly buried this material on his property, creating a community health crises.

Rick Wolf came to the meeting prepared to give the community a positive response and said that he and the state had been working together to address the situation. He said "this will not be a start and stop project if he doesn't clean it up in 60 days the man is going to jail." He further said that he had identified other violators in the community and had developed a comprehensive strategy to clean up the Copeland community. If the property was not cleaned up, Mr. Wolf said that he would initiate a process for the county to clean up the property and that he would give the commission a full report on the meeting and his department's findings. Mr. Dennis said that the Department of Health would go door to door and test the community's drinking water.

County and state officials committed to returning within 60 days to give a report on their accomplishments. Leaders felt a great sense of empowerment by their ability to organize their community and get results. Before the meeting the choir sang "Oh Happy Day" by the end of the meeting it certainly was a happy day for the family's of Copeland.