According to an email from Oregon DEQ, Waste Connections which took over from Les’ Sanitation in 2003 has been starving the Beaver Hill Disposal Site by delivering solid waste out of county to sites as far away as Potrero HIlls, California. DEQ compared averages and measured deliveries to other locations and the company may owe the state of Oregon outstanding fees totaling $10,000. More importantly, the commission held an executive session today and advised the audience that counsel are sending a compliance letter to Waste Connections telling them it is time meet the terms of their franchise agreement with the county. It was not made clear whether the county was going to ask for arrears or merely going to enforce the agreement going forward.
As noted here previously, the company contract has been unenforced for sometime and several citizens have pressured the commission to do their job. In this instance, public pressure seems to have had an impact.
The move appears to have been too late, however, to keep the management at BHDS from laying off four workers today, without any prior notice. The county declared a state of emergency in order to make repairs to some ducting on the east wing of the plant and opted to shut down all three burners even though two burners can continue to operate safely by isolating the east ducting. Because the department is self insured and will have to pay unemployment benefits during the repair period the county is not likely to save any money and today voted to hire an “independent engineer” to evaluate what is necessary to keep the plant up and running for “another 15 years”. Between the unemployment costs, the engineers fees and the cost to haul trash out of the county, plus the cost of hiring outside labor to do the repairs this will be one very expensive decision.
A lot more happened today to be covered on a separate post.
Feel free to share your views with our commissioners.
Bob Main
(541) 396-3121 ext 770
Fred Messerle
(541) 396-3121 ext 247
Cam Parry
(541) 396-3121 ext 281
How much more political and offensive can Fred get by laying off Randy? This is a disgustingly piggish way for Fred to show us how he will rule as our Fuhrer.
I don’t know why I was surpprised at the lows the BOC will stoop to.
Disgusting behavior for every one of them, all three have to go. These same people SCDC,Chamber , etc, have controlled this county for decades, now that their sheet has hit the fan, they point fingers at the county workers. THIS is who they are, this is what they do folks.
If you are a county worker, please pay attention and help the rest of us protect what jobs we still have here.
Enough !!!!
It sure does appear to be an obvious attempt to get him out of the way of delivering Beaver Hill to Waste Connections. However, since Randy will continue to be paid for up to six months he can focus on campaigning so I sort of see this as a blessing in disguise. Both Main and Messerle have received $1,000 donations but both of them spent $600 of it on their campaign statement in the voters booklet. Randy saved that expense by getting signatures and will now have more time to hit the trail.
If that’s how they’re going after Randy, that’s ripe. The other employees laid off would be victims (collateral damage)of a personal vendetta by all three sitting commissioners, just because that would seem too bold to be possible, makes it even more probable. That’s how SCDC rolls and these guys are all SCDC agents. Is this the straw that finally breaks the camels back? Connect the dots.
You are right, themguys, the engineer will only find what Messerle wants him to find.
I stopped what I was doing and returned to read again. Potrero Hills dump site?? That’s near Suisun. How profitable is it to send a truck of any type of waste product, solid or liquid, from Coos County so far into California. Seems like paying the county to take your waste would be less costly. Strange.
Randy and three others were laid off today. They now don’t have enough crew to run the metal shaker profitably.
As for derF, I don’t know how gladly he will assume is place amongst the citizenry but he did acknowledge his error regarding federal land ownership in Coos County. That’s a start.
This less involved than you Coos County citizen reads between the lines (on this subject);
Fred Messerle got the message. You is one of them there political appointees. We citizens did not elect you. We didn’t even appoint you. You work for us citizens. A majority of us say shape up or ship out. We are about to fire you and your pals. And, derF gladly assumed his place among the multitude.
Who was laid off?
Just like Stamp did, if the privitazation boys pay for the “independent” engineer, instead of once again, not trusting their own employees to know what to do and how to do it. Every county employee better be paying close attention to this. There is no such thing as “independent” when one party is paying them.