AMY SZPARA

PHOTO: Kavon Mitchell, 4, and his grandmother, Rosemary Brown, are upset about a fire that took place Thursday at Orion Refining Corp., blocks from their Easy Street home. Brown said she wants the plant to either move out of the area or move her and her family away from there. (Staff photo by Amy Szpara) NEW SARPY – A little boy with a picket sign reading “Shut it down or move us out” stood next to his grandmother. He clutched his sign tightly, his eyes wide as he watched a group of protesters chant and storm after their target. The boy is 4 years old and he lives with his grandmother. She is a member of a group striving to get a nearby refining corporation to move out of their neighborhood or pay the residents to move. He joined his grandmother in protest Friday morning. Kavon Mitchell lives on Easy Street, but his family members said living there is anything but easy. A few blocks from Orion Refining Corp., the family members said they have a lot of problems living so close to a plant. Rosemary Brown, Kavon’s grandmother, is a member of the New Sarpy Concerned Citizens, the neighborhood group that is fighting to separate their lives from the nearby plant. She and her grandson picketed the plant, along with several others, after a fire erupted Thursday at the location. Then on Saturday they joined others at a Norco park to listen to people from Washington, D.C. talk about what they thought should be done to help the people of New Sarpy and Norco. Maxine Waters, a congresswoman whose words left Brown with hope, said she would get the ball rolling. She spoke of hiring Johnnie Cochran, the attorney who defended O.J. Simpson. “She told us those plants don’t have no business being so close to these homes,” said Brown. “They’re not going to relocate that plant. It would be best for them to relocate the neighborhoods.” Kavon, who enjoys riding his bicycle around his neighborhood, understood a little of what was going on around him. “We went over there so they could shut it down,” he said in a low voice. “So they could shut the fire down.” Kavon said he liked following everybody around that morning, protesting the plant. “It was fun,” he said. “But it’s bad because people can get sick.” Kavon said his grandmother took him outside to see the fire when it was blazing in the sky. “It blew up and blew more because the wind was blowing,” he said. “I saw it when my grandma brought me over there.” Though Kavon knows a little bit about what his grandmother and the other concerned citizens are trying to do and what they are worried about, he said he is not scared to live in his neighborhood. Shai-Da Mitchell, his 10-year-old sister, said she was worried a little about the situation. “I want them to move us away from the plant. People are getting sick and stuff,” she said. But the worries did not stop her from being a normal kid. She rides her bike and roller blades through the neighborhood, the smoke from the stacks in the background. It is Brown that worries enough for all of them. “I woke up that morning,” she said about the day of the fire, “and my eyes were burning. My son said, Mama, look, look, look. There’s a fire.'” Brown’s son, Lewis Boyd, said, “As soon as you walked out the door you could see a lot of smoke and the flames through the smoke.” Brown added, “These plants aren’t nothing nice. You’re breathing it in 24-7. It affects your immune system. It just ain’t nothing nice.”