Waste Management of Arizona is squeezing Oracle residents once again. And a day after Pinal County Supervisor Jeff McClure reported that it’s “still in the hands of the corporate powers that be” residents are being slapped with a $15 per load fee. Mary Ellen Kazda (Kaz) suggested in an email to our Supervisor Jeffrey McClure that she thought he was one of “the powers that be”. He responded he would be but BOS does not have any control over the affairs of a publicly operated business. So does no “control” mean no contract with the county and WM can do whatever it wants?
Two Waste Management workers report via a reliable local source that it’s Pinal County’s decision (meaning the Board of Supervisors on which Jeff McClure sits) to impose the new fees. This, of course, directly contradicts McClure’s claim.
Just to review: Move one by Waste Management/Pinal County was to cut the number of cherished dump vouchers from 6 to 3. Move two as of Monday, March 6 is to impose $15 per load assessment fee.
The bottom line here is that taken together Oracle residents are on the receiving end of a big financial hit.
Some old timers will recall that when Pinal County turned the Oracle landfill over to Waste Management to serve as a “transfer station” a contract was signed that included negotiated terms. The Pinal County Board of Supervisors was a party to that and subsequent contracts with Waste Management of Arizona.
We don’t know what the current status of that contract is. We’ve asked both Supervisor McClure and County Manager Lew for specifics but to date none have been forthcoming. Yet the fees are set to go into effect this Monday, March 6.
Supervisor McClure will hold a “Meet and Greet” along with the Pinal County Recorder’s Office on Thursday, March 9, with an “open house” format between 1 and 2 p.m. at the Oracle Community Center, 685 E. American Ave., Oracle AZ 85623.
/s/ Frank Pierson