Elliott Davis - KTVI

Elliott Davis has distinguished himself as the investigative reporter for FOX 2's "You Paid For It", KTVI's popular ongoing investigations into government waste in our area.

[Michael Moore]

Hi Mr. Davis i sent you an email on last night regarding a warrent matter in Richmond Heights Mo. I was arrested in U. City and someone posted bail in Richmond Heights then released from U.City only to find that there's yet a warrent for me because Richmond Heights entered the wrong SSN & DOB. The email that i first sent was from ([e-mail]) that address no longer works, so i can be contacted at ([e-mail]) thank you for your time Michael a. Moore

[Stephen S]

Hello Mr. Davis,

This is in regards to tonight's "You Paid for It".

There is a very vocal minority to are against the trash districts in St. Louis County. They site reasons to be against such as seeing their cost go up and lack of choice. The Cost, I don't think they are correctly evaluating the cost. We have seen our cost of trash collection go down considerably.
There are two separate issues involved in the cost. First is cost that the County obtained for its residents in each trash district. This cost is 30% less than what we were paying Waste Management for the same services. The other issue is what is considered basic service. Before the Trash districts went into effect, the county changed what is considered basic service. The Basic service now includes recycling and two bulk trash pickups a year. The change in basic service was separate from the trash districts. It went into effect and our old waste haulers had to provide the service to everyone.
The problem for most is that these events were too close together, so most people see the increase in cost due to the increase in basic service and attribute this cost to the establishment of the Trash districts. I imagine that is you do an accurate survey to compare what residents were paying post basic service increase / pre trash district and post trash district, you will see the average cost going down for residents.
The benefits of the trash districts don't end with this cost either. Other benefits that need to be considered are: 1. decrease noise on our residential streets, only one to two trash trucks driving down each street instead of 4 to 6 (separate truck for recycling); 2. decrease in heavy truck traffic on neighborhood roads that are not designed for that weight.(have the county highway department do an estimate on how much this will save the tax payer); and 3. less slow moving traffic on older narrow feeder streets. On busy two lane streets, the trash trucks stop to pick up the trash and so people drive around the, not all ways using cautions, this causing a safety issue.

I am conservative my nature and was originally against the trash districts but after seeing my cost go down and considering all the other benefits I am for the trash districts.

Thank you,
Stephen S.