Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Trash Hauler Blasts St. Louis County Council on Trash Program

Charles Barcom, President of Meridian Waste Haulers, addressed the St. Louis County Council on March 25. He blasted the Council for not taking action to correct major deficiencies in the County's trash program that was approved by the Council in December 2006. He said his company has been unduly criticized by area residents for enforcing the county's directives to initiate billing charges for recycling services. He pointed out his company had to hire three additional employees to do nothing but field telephone calls on the county's trash program. He pointed out the program is not his responsibility but that of the County Council.

The company has canceled their billing to residents until such a time as the county makes up its mind on operations. He pointed out the trash program has been, and continues to be, a moving target. He criticized the county for not properly informing residents as to the delivery of the bins, effective dates of changes and who to contact for more information.

He stated he was directed to request important information from the county in writing but has been waiting for over 7 days for a reply.

Barcom read a letter to Council members from Robert Lowery, Mayor of Florissant. Lowery said the city will not follow the directives of St. Louis County pending further legal advice. Lowery said attorneys for the city are determining whether the single-stream recycling requirement applies to Florissant. He previously stated that Florissant residents were blaming Florissant officials for the increase in trash and recycling services that were authorized by the county.

The basic question is can a county pass a regulation affecting citizens of another city?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:18 AM

    I agree that this trash issue has been nothing but a big mess and a huge headache for trash haulers, subdivision trustees, and residents. I am the Chairperson for a subdivision and have no idea when to tell residents that the "new level of service" will begin. It was stated that we would get the cart March 28-
    April 1. Now the county website says April 2-April 8. I have been calling our trash hauler to try and get this figured out so everyone knows what is going on. The county put a lot of responsibility on everyone else to conform to this plan. It stinks in my opinion.

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  2. Anonymous8:01 PM

    Mr. Barcom has a right to complain and speak out to the county. The county promised that it would try and help the small and independent haulers so they wouldn't get hurt. But the first county bid out in District 3, was awarded to a National Public Company owned by the French, and they low balled the price to get it. Now Mr. Barcom will be loosing over 1700 hundred customers in that area and have to park trucks and lay off employees. Way to go County Government. After the big national companies take all the business by bid, the small haulers will be gone, and the price will go up. Have you ever seen a public service price go down????

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