PRESS RELEASES

These are some of the articles that included recycling in our local papers. 

Daily Journal Staff Writer Oct 15, 2007 - 14:39:55 CDT, Chris Cline

DESLOGE — It doesn’t cost anything and it helps the environment. So why aren’t Desloge residents taking advantage of the city’s free recycling program?
“It’s a rough estimate, but I would say less than 25 percent of our residents take advantage of the recycling program,” said City Administrator Greg Camp. “The number of people that use it has significantly dropped off since the program’s inception in 1997. I think that is largely because a lot of people aren’t aware that we have a recycling program.”
Along with free trash pickup, Desloge also offers free recycling. Residents can pick up recycling bins at City Hall. Items accepted in the bins include corrugated cardboard, junk mail, phonebooks, office paper, newsprint, magazines, PET #1 bottles, other PET #1 plastic, HDPE #2 bottles, other HDPE #2 plastic, #4 plastic, aluminum cans, steel cans, scrap metal, mixed glass bottles and textiles.
“Residents can have up to three bins,” Camp said. “One for paper, one for plastic and one for aluminum. From an environmental standpoint, people need to do their part. From the city’s standpoint it saves the city money for people to participate in the recycling program.”
Camp said the more trash that is recycled, the less the city pays in transfer fees.
“If we had an overwhelming number of people participate in the recycling program, it would put a good dent in the amount of money the city has to pay to dump its trash,” Camp said. “People don’t have to sign up to recycle. All they have to do is come by City Hall and pick up the bins. Then all they have to do is separate their trash and set the bins out with their garbage cans.”
Desloge has a specialized truck that empties the recycle bins on trash days. Trash pickup costs the city $250,000 each year.
“Free trash pickup is a substantial benefit that our residents receive,” Camp said. “It leads to a lot of compliments as to how clean our city is. It’s a service that our board of aldermen is committed to continuing. The recycling program is something we wish we would get more participation in. Our residents can help the environment and at the same time cut down on the money spent on trash pickup by the city.”

Newspaper Article published on: Thursday, November 22, 2007

STUDENTS BEGINNING NEW CYBERFAIR PROJECT--Farmington Press Leader

By Shawna Robinson

The eighth grade students at St. Paul Lutheran School have started the ground work on their CyberFair project and they are looking for assistance from the community to “join the movement” in recycling. Since the beginning of school, the students have placed containers in each classroom at the school for recycling classroom papers. They work each lunch shift gathering and emptying the milk containers. Instructor Leanna Johnson said in just one week of school “we collected 18 small/medium boxes and five large trash bags of juice and milk cartons.”

“Wow, that’s almost 650 boxes and 180 trash bags for one school year,” she wrote in an e-mail message.

Johnson added that doesn’t count for the custodial paper waste or shipping boxes and packages. Those items the students collected are taken to the transfer station on Landfill Road in Desloge.

The group traveled to a Recycling Expo in St. Louis this month as a continuing part of their project. Johnson wrote the group learned a lot during their trip and met with “very helpful organizations.” They also found two businesses that could help the group with their project.

“We could be recycling paper with one company that makes spray-in housing insulation and we could earn $50 a month for two trailers filled with paper. They are very interested in coming to our area but they have to purchase another truck yet. They said if we could get community support, they would come here,” she wrote.

To help gather that support, the group sent surveys to 22 Missouri cities with populations between 15,000-21,000 in order to find out what they are doing to recycle.

The students have placed a resource page at www.stpaulgiants.com/recycling. Be sure to read the Farmington Press for more updates on the project in the coming months.

Eighth grade students at St. Paul Lutheran School recently met with Farmington City Administrator Greg Beavers to discuss the possibility of developing a recycling drop-off facility within the city. The students have been researching recycling since September and have participated in a school-wide poster contest sponsored by MO Recycling Association, visited the Recycling Expo in St. Louis, toured the SFCEC recycling transfer station and landfill in Desloge, surveyed twenty-two cities in MO about their recycling practices, and conducted a week-long paper collection to see how much paper waste the school generated. All of these activities are in correlation with their CyberFair project “Join the Movement — Recycle Today to Save Tomorrow!” Students in the photo discussing the city survey results with Mr. Beavers are: Taylor Phegley, Chandler Allen, Danielle Hankins, Emily Pritchett, Abbi Tyree, Stevi Short, Brittany Fink, Holly Hall, and Justine Leach.

ANOTHER ROUND ON REZONING ISSUE ON KARSCH--Daily Journal Online

By Doug Smith. March 14, 2008

FARMINGTON — There was discussion on both sides of the issue when a rezoning request for property along Karsch Boulevard came up again during the Farmington City Council work session Thursday night.

A public hearing was held for a rezoning request for a portion of three lots near the corner of Karsch Boulevard and “A” Street. The owners are requesting that a portion of the rear of each lot be zoned commercial or added to a neighboring lot they already own.

Twice in the past several months the rezoning matter has run the gamut of hurdles through Planning and Zoning and the full council only to be rejected at the end. This time there was less opposition voiced during the public hearing.

The property owners, Dennis Pogue and Mary Dunn, also had the proposed developers for the new commercial area, Prarieland Development, LLC, in attendance at the meeting to make their intentions known. Larry Quinn, of Prarieland, talked of how the company is “looking forward to becoming partners” in the business community of Farmington.

Prarieland Development, LLC., intends to build an Advance Auto Parts store on the newly-expanded lot facing Karsch Boulevard. The company has already met with the Missouri Department of Transportation and apparently received approval for two entrances, actually an “ingress” and an “egress,” from and to Karsch Boulevard.

Those speaking against the proposed rezoning and auto parts store during Monday evening’s meeting were Charles Limbaugh and Jack Richardson. Both spoke primarily about a set of “covenant restrictions” placed on the neighborhood decades ago — which both explained were still in place and enforceable.

Farmington’s legal counsel Mike Reid explained to the audience that such covenants are restrictions brought and defended in the private sector, not the public one. He said zoning is a public matter to be decided by the council, but any fight to enforce restrictive covenants would have to be waged by other nearby residents living under the covenants and wishing to pursue the matter in civil court ... and would have to be done at their cost.

Farmington Chamber of Commerce President David Buerck made a statement on behalf of chamber members and board members present at the meeting. In his talk he explained how the chamber had embraced and supported a Tax Increment Financing district — including the property in question — when the city asked them to do so a few years ago to assist in building the St. Francois County Courthouse Annex building.

Buerck said the chamber was told the goal of a TIF district was to garner new tax revenue from retail growth within the district to fund specific improvements. He said the chamber “believes wholeheartedly in small business,” which he explained was the bulk of businesses in Farmington.

He added that he believed it was important to “build our business base.”

With no further comments during the public hearing, Mayor Jeannie Roberts moved on to the second hearing of the evening. A bill has been proposed to limit the location of non-chartered payday and title loan businesses.

No one spoke out during the public hearing. It was explained the new restrictions would include limiting how close such businesses could be located to each other, and that they would have to be at least 200 feet from a residential area.

That done, committee reports were given. Among them, the annual spring cleanup will be April 14-17, beginning with Ward 1 the first day, Ward 2 the second, and on and on.

A presentation was given by members of Le Ann Johnson’s eighth grade class at St. Paul Lutheran School encouraging the city to adopt a recycling program and establish a center for that effort.

To close the meeting the council heard a first reading on the rezoning and payday and title loan bills. They also heard a brief explanation on Mineral Area College’s work to get an $8 million tax issue passed April 8. If approved, the college would receive matching funds from the state to build a $16 million vocational technical school on the college campus.

Gill Kennon, of MAC, explained that the new building would be “green” friendly.

The council gave unanimous approval to a resolution showing the city’s support for the bond issue.

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