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

Trustees & Residents Continue to Talk Trash

Letters and comments continue about County's trash program. Here's some more received today.

Writer #1 -

"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."

Writer #2 -

"Mr. Barcom hit the nail on the head. I wonder what the other trash haulers are experiencing. I suggest we get all (trash haulers, County Council members, county management officials and a dozen trustees) in a room to discuss this situation and to come up with an agreeable, workable plan. And no one is to leave the room until the problems are resolved even if it takes days. Anybody listening?

I watched the TV broadcast of the Council's meeting from March 25 (Barcom's presentation). It's almost like a reality show, but I can't determine if it's a comedy, a drama or a mystery."

Writer #3 -

"We have never recycled before and I am all for it. Let's face it, we'll run out of space for trash somewhere down the road. But the mechanics present a problem and I need some advice. I can't throw everything in our waste basket since I then need to take it outside when full and separate it in to "trash" versus "recycables." That's a messy job and I really don't have time for that.

I think one solution may be to have two waste baskets, one for trash and one for recycables - but that's a problem as we live in a small home and barely have space for just one wastebasket under the sink. What are other people doing? Are most using two wastebaskets in their kitchen?

I can't run outside a dozen times a day to throw recycable in the proper bin. That's like having two "waste baskets," one inside and one outside. This is ridiculous. Any suggestions?"

Writer #4

"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????"

Writer #5

"A fine mess you have gotten us into now Charlie Dooley! Maybe if you would have paid more attention to Metro Link, you could have saved us $20 million. Maybe if you would have paid more attention to Property Taxes, more could afford their tax bills. What's next?"

County Residents to Pay for Replacement of Recycling Carts

While St. Louis County is supplying the recycling carts to County residents, replacement of carts due to theft, damage, etc. will be the responsibility of the resident. The cost of the initial cart was around $40, but this was in a purchase quantity of over 100,000.

The County said the purpose of the cart distribution program is to provide an initial incentive for households to recycle. The cart will make it more convenient and cost effective for all County residents to recycle. This is questionable since many residents now have zero cost as they either recycle through their church or other organization . . . or do not recycle at all. While most everyone agrees that recycling is important, the County's program is an added expense.

The cart distribution program is a onetime stimulus for recycling and was not intended to continue after the initial distribution. There is no provision to replace lost or stolen carts or damaged carts that are not due to manufacturer’s defects. After that it would be up to the resident to maintain and/or replace the cart.

Council Hears Objections to Trash Plan But Refuses to Make a Sound Business Decision

St. Louis County should not force residents to receive recycling services they don't want, opponents of trash collection districts told the County Council this past Tuesday.

Minimum trash collection standards that took effect on Jan. 15 require haulers to provide trash and recycling pickups once a week and bulky waste pickups twice a year. Some haulers do not offer all these services. The county is enforcing the standards by making haulers show that they will provide this service when they apply for renewal of their yearly permits on April 15.

"People should not have to pay for a service they are not going to use," said Celeste Witzel, one of the opponents.

County Council Chairman Kathleen Kelly Burkett, D-Overland, said she must pay for the recycling her city requires. "If people are going to nit-pick at trash collection service, it is not going to work," she said.

HELLO! Ms. Kelly, "nit-pick?" You got to be kidding. Is the following "nit-picking?"

• The County Council has not discussed the annual replacement costs of trash bins now being distributed to residents in unincorporated areas. Who is going to pay for stolen and broken trash bins?
• The selection of non-union trash haulers serving union employee residents of St. Louis County has not been discussed by the County Council. Many union residents of St. Louis County want to do business with a union trash hauler.
• Subdivisions who opt-out can select any number of trash haulers which results in no changes what-so-ever . . . other than higher trash costs.
• A resident who has a trash pick up on day one and a yard waste pick-up on day two, will now have a recycle pick-up on day three. For those using the county's program, this increases the truck traffic in the subdivision by 50%.
• For those subdivisions using three haulers in a subdivision, they will have 9 trucks per week cruising the subdivision.
• The County has no realistic budget to properly manage this program - prosecute residents who don't comply, prosecute haulers who don't comply, replace carts, require subdivision trustees to police their residents for compliance, provide manpower to manage problems, etc.

When government officials - county management, county council - fail to act on obvious problems, it's time for new officials. Nit-pick? No way. Let's run the county's business as a business. We hope you don't run your household business like this.

County Residents Continue to Speak Out on Management of County Trash Fiasco

Another county resident speaks out on the fiasco called Waste Management -

~~~~~

First of all let's set the record straight -

St. Louis County has already placed it's regulations on the trash haulers and not the residents. Between the County & the Dept. of Health, this is how they want it to go:

They have put into place a mandate for a "minimum level" of service that the haulers MUST adhere too! They have also put into their mandate that the hauler MUST charge ALL their customers for this new level of service. What this means is if you do not recycle with your hauler, to bad - you will still have to pay for it!

Now here is fair warning to those who believe they will not have to pay if they are not using these services:

1. Hauler to suspend service for non-payment.
2. Hauler to turn over customers information to Dept. of Health.
3. Dept. of Health will try to collect payment.

Here's the real kicker:
4. If they do not receive the payment, they will issue a BENCH WARRANT.

I for one believe that the best approach to get people to recycle is to build recycling centers throughout St. Louis County. Their idea is if we force them to pay - they will recycle! Any one remember Bill Bidwell & the Cardinals football team? He had the same idea & it didn't work!!!!

County had planned to receive bids for their new districts in February and March with the hopes of being implemented by August. At this point subdivisions had until Feb. 1st to opt-out. Now that the bid date has been moved to around July 1st - subdivisions should be shown the same consideration by moving the opt-out date till later - hey what's good for the goose is good for the gander!

Actually, subdivisions should be able to opt-out at anytime they wish. However, I don't see this happening as County doesn't want any of the subdivisions in their pilot project to opt-out & screw up their plans for success!!!!!!!

No one knows how all of this is going to play out but people need to make note of which council members are pushing this & if they run again, show them how you feel at the polls. They may not listen now but they will when you vote them out!

Do people realize that the County & Dept. of Health have spent over three million of tax payers dollars on 65 gallon & 35 gallon carts for recycling items only? These carts go only to people in the new districts that haven't opted-out, yet everyone has paid for them!

Everyone should email or call Elliott Davis of Fox 2 KTVI & get him in on this. His email address is: youpaidforit@fox2ktvi.com or call the station at 314-544-5884.

If you would like to voice your opinion on these subjects to the County, call County Executive Charlie Dooley 314-615-7016 or County Dept. of Health, Solid Waste Manager John Haasis 314-615-8249.

If you can't get any satisfaction from any of these people, I encourage you to get in touch with Make Your Opinion Count, Tony Niskanen at opinionsllc@sbcglobal.net or call him at 314-352-6300 and sign his petition or request one and get out there and help collect signatures.

Hey everyone, call these guys, (to coin a phrase) tell 'em what you think, after all YOU PAID FOR IT!!!!!!!

. . . . . SW, St. Louis County Resident

Houston (TX) Trash Bins Targeted by Thieves

As many as 4,400 black 96-gallon garbage cans are stolen from Houston-area homes every year, police say.

"You know it is not a trash can collector," said Richard Alderman, an associate dean at the University of Houston Law Center. "Trash cans are worth something. Somebody is trying to make or save money."

The city buys about 20,000 of them annually for $44 apiece, which is $880,000 a year, and provides one for each residence along a public roadway, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Replacing a stolen garbage can is free for residents, but it requires a police report to be filed for what is considered a misdemeanor theft of city property and is in the same grouping as first-offense prostitution and indecent exposure.

Recycling Starts in Parts of St. Louis County

Thousands of St. Louis County residents who have never had access to curbside recycling are now getting the chance to send less of their trash to landfills. A new ordinance went into effect January 1st which requires recycling as part of residents' basic trash service.

Craig LeFebvre with the Department of Health says they have started delivering recycling carts to all one and two family residences throughout unincorporated St. Louis county, "There's 104,000 residences that are being provided these carts. Everyone is being provided with a 64-gallon cart to start with. Included in that will be a booklet and a postcard. The postcard has information on it about if you want a smaller cart or you don't want a cart at all. Then we can return and replace it with either a 35-gallon cart or we can take the cart away completely."

LeFebvre says the county has a waste diversion rate goal of 50-percent by the year 2010. Currently, residents divert 30-percent of their waste from landfills.