Settlement reached in case stemming from trash dispute

BY Leah Thorsen • lthorsen@post-dispatch.com >

The Post Dispatch reports an Oakville couple and a landfill operator have settled a nearly seven-year dispute stemming from a trash transfer station that hasn't been built. The two sides reached an agreement Monday in a lawsuit filed in 2005 by Tom and Barbara Diehl against Fred Weber Inc. The couple's suit was in response to a suit Weber brought against them in 2003.

John Simon, an attorney who represented the Diehls, said Wednesday that the terms of the settlement were confidential. He would not answer further questions.

The Diehls opposed Weber's plan to build a trash transfer station at 5219 Baumgartner Road in south St. Louis County. The St. Louis County Council rejected the project in 2004, but Weber filed suit to overturn that decision. A county circuit judge ruled in the company's favor in 2007 and the state issued a permit for the project in 2008.

Still, Weber has not built the transfer station there.

Court documents show the dispute began in earnest in 2003 when Tom Diehl, now president of the Mehlville School Board, distributed a flier that read, "Stop Fred Weber Inc: Three things you can do to fight the trash terrorists."

More on this story at: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_cfb7e3cd-8189-53e8-8974-6179c0bdaf20.html