| Today's Feature Committee to Consider Recycling.
The Public Works Committee
plans to invite prospective bidders for the
City’s solid waste removal contract to
present information on recycling programs to
Committee and Council members in May.
The City currently has a 5-year
contract with American Disposal which expires on
September 30 of this year. The contract provides
for residential and commercial trash pickup in
the City, limited special services and no
recycling. The City has the option of changing
haulers or renewing with American.
Assistant to the City Engineer
Joe Butler came to the Committee last Tuesday
afternoon requesting direction from the members
concerning recycling. Butler would like to have
bid specifications for the City’s solid
waste needs out by June 1.
Committee Chair Bill Fortune
explained to new Committee members Larry Ross and
Trisha Burgi-Brewer that there had been interest
in recycling during previous Committee
discussions, but no action had been taken because
of the existing contract.
According to Butler, the City
has several recycling options: voluntary
curbside, mandatory curbside or a recycling
center.
Fortune questioned Butler about
the possibility of a recycling area at the
landfill.
"We can do that without
too many problems," said Butler. "The
only problem we would have would be finding the
market for the recyclables."
If the Committee is interested
in that option, Butler recommended including the
dumpsters in the contract with the hauler so that
the hauler is then responsible for selling the
materials.
"We just have to decide if
we want to be proactive or reactive," said
Burgi-Brewer. "There are other city and
municipal entities that are light-years ahead of
where we’re at today.... I can assure you
that we’re going to be pressured,
eventually, into some sort of recycling situation
that this city will probably find difficult to
swallow."
The cost of providing recycling
to the citizens was also raised as a
consideration.
"It’s not necessarily
the City that’s going to pay more, the
customer’s going to pay more too," said
Fortune.
Butler plans to speak to
officials at the Region M Solid Waste District
about what future requirements the City may have
to meet in regard to recycling and then contact
the qualified haulers. A date for the meeting
will be set next week.
Public Works Committee Votes.
The Committee voted unanimously
to recommend to the full Council that the City
enter into two contracts with the Missouri
Department of Transportation for planned
improvements at the intersections of N. River and
Hwy. 96 and Vine and Hwy 96. The plans for the
projects have been approved by MDOT.
The projects will be funded on
an 80/20 matching basis, with 80% coming from the
state and 20% from the City. Currently, the state
funds are frozen with no estimate on when they
will be released.
The contracts recommended by
the Committee do not commit any money at this
time. The Engineering Department’s proposed
1999 budget includes $46,000 to cover the
City’s financial obligation for the
projects.
The Committee also voted to
accept Street Commissioner Tom Shelley’s
recommendation concerning the purchase of 3
radios for mowing tractors at the Street
Department. The three Motorola HT 1000 radios,
external antennas and hardware will cost
$2353.62. They will allow mowers to contact the
Street Department and also, in case of an
emergency, the Police Department.
Commentary
Martin "Bubs"
Hohulin
State Representative 126th
District
Well, it looks like the annual
budget battle over funding abortion providers is
shaping up again this year in the General
Assembly. This is a battle dating back about five
years now. Coincidentally, that just happens to
be the same time Gov. Mel Carnahan took office.
In the years before that it wasn’t an issue,
abortion providers weren’t given
taxpayer’s dollars, period. Then, after
Planned Parenthood, the state’s largest
abortion provider, played a key role in getting
Carnahan elected governor, suddenly your tax
dollars were flowing into their pocket.
The first couple of years, we
were helpless to stop it. With Bob Griffin in the
Speaker’s chair, he simply shoved the
budgets through the House by threatening democrat
members with everything from offices to
chairmanships to parking spaces if they
didn’t vote his way. But the number of
pro-life legislators kept growing until we were
able to finally put some restrictions on where
family planning money was directed. Then the
lawsuits started. Language in the State’s
budget started specifically excluding abortion
providers from receiving your tax money. Planned
Parenthood sued, saying they were being
discriminated against. When you think about it
that seems pretty weird and a perfect example of
how twisted our society has become.
At what point did we evolve to
the thinking that anyone has a legal right to dip
into the public treasury?
The State Attorney General, in
this case Jay Nixon, has a legal obligation to
uphold the laws of the State. The first year he
went in front of a very liberal judge who ruled
Planned Parenthood was entitled to the money. Did
I mention something about how twisted our society
has become? Surely it has no relationship to
twisted judicial rulings! Under normal
circumstances the Attorney General would have
appealed the ruling, but since Nixon is
pro-choice, as is Carnahan, no appeal was made.
So much for aggressively defending the laws of
the State. The next year it got worse.
The next year’s budget had
similar wording restricting where tax dollars
could go and again Planned Parenthood sued. This
time Nixon put together a conference call with
his office, the judge and the Dept. of Health.
You might notice there was no one there to
represent the General Assembly and thus the
citizens of Missouri. That is normally the job of
the Attorney General, but as you have probably
noticed by now representing the people
hasn’t exactly been a high priority of
Attorney General Nixon. The phone call amounted
to nothing more than Nixon asking the judge if he
didn’t think the restrictions should be
thrown out. The judge again threw it out and tax
dollars again flowed to Planned Parenthood.
Now in a burst of generosity
Nixon has offered to pay for an outside attorney
to defend the restrictions while his office will
argue against the restrictions. Keep several
things in mind. First, his generosity will be
paid for by you with your money. Second, he is
sworn to uphold the laws of the state, not the
wishes of the bureaucracy. Third, doesn’t
something seem wrong about the same person
controlling both sides of a legal case?
Have I mentioned anything about
twisted society yet? Stay tuned, this is going to
get interesting. Unfortunately, you are going to
be paying for it, and all because Nixon
couldn’t put the will of the General
Assembly and the citizens of Missouri ahead of
his own agenda.
As usual I can be reached at
The House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson
City, MO 65101 or 1-800-878-7126, or
mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions,
comments, and advice.
|
