Let’s talk trash
LISA HOBBS - News Editor
The recent controversy involving sanitation services at Three Star Mall has generated questions from Warren County Way readers. Hopefully, this article will answer all those.
During the meeting, it was stated that three businesses are billed; one pays and the other two do not: Bath and Body Works and J’s Restaurant. Which business has been paying?
“The VA pays every month like clockwork,” said Sanitation Department Director Josh Roberts.
Why don’t all the businesses at the mall pay?
“It is my understanding that they all do,” said Roberts. “As businesses move in or their leases are renewed, it is built into their contracts. When the leases of the three are renewed, those three will also be built into their contracts and they won’t receive monthly invoices.”
Who handles Rose’s disposal services?
“They have a contract with Republic Services,” said Roberts. “They do not use our compactor.”
Does the McMinnville-Warren County Senior Center pay for trash disposal?
“The senior citizens center is a nonprofit and they go to the county’s nonprofit committee every year and request a donation and garbage disposal is part of the county’s donation; that’s my understanding,” said Roberts. “For 20 plus years, we have handled their trash. We handled it at the previous location and we handle it now. We don’t charge them.”
Roberts says the compactor was placed at the mall at the direction of the county’s Building and Grounds Committee.
“I did not push to buy the compactor and put it at the mall,” said Roberts. “I didn’t want to get into garbage at the mall. Building and Grounds voted, after the county purchased the mall, to buy the compactor and told me to service it. They are my bosses, so I did it. We’ll do whatever we are told to do. We installed it.”
Why did he wait seven months to report that those businesses weren’t paying?
“I didn’t,” said Roberts, who stated that he reported to the Finance Department every month when the invoices went unpaid.
Roberts says he was asked to send out those three invoices monthly and he did. Period.
“I never wanted to be in the middle of something like this,” he stated. “I was asked to send out three invoices, and I agreed to do that. I came to that meeting because we needed to discuss this situation. I didn’t want to wait and have this fall back onto Tonya [Herman] when I’m gone.”
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