BELHAVEN — What’s all the fuss about?

Anyone who hasn’t spent time in Belhaven in the last six months may be asking this very question. Since March, trash service is the talk of the town, especially at monthly Board of Aldermen meetings.

What started off as a dispute over reimbursing a resident for overcharges has since grown into another battle over trash service for Spoon River Artworks and Market.

Through an agreement with the Town of Belhaven, David’s Trash Service holds a monopoly over trash pickup in the town.

Earlier this year, Spoon River’s owners contacted Belhaven Manager Woody Jarvis, asking him to allow the restaurant to use another trash service because its solid waste wasn’t picked up one week.

David’s Trash reported that the amount of waste at Spoon River was too much for the containers there and became too much for its employees and equipment to handle. Larger containers (i.e., dumpsters) are needed.

Once Spoon River secures $500,000 from an incoming Community Development Block Grant, it has agreed to then lay a concrete pad for a dumpster in the midst of other planned construction projects and return to David’s Trash for service. Alderman Yvonne DeRuiz said laying the concrete now could jeopardize the grant money and plans for expansion.

Spoon River is now individually contracted with Pak-R Disposal and is not being charged by the town for trash service.

Mayor Adam O’Neal said repeatedly the situation is a violation of the town’s sanitation ordinance, which he says requires all residents and businesses in Belhaven to contract with only David’s Trash. He also blamed Jarvis for what he describes as favoritism toward one business.

 

IN WRITING

In the town’s written “Health, Safety and Sanitation” ordinances, it does not mention David’s Trash, or any other specific company providing trash service. It states the Town (specifically, public works director) is responsible for determining the size, number and type of solid waste receptacles, and “the owner of every premises shall be responsible for providing adequate solid waste receptacles.”

The sanitation ordinance outlines the Town’s responsibility in collecting solid waste, although it does not detail how the process should go.

The ordinance also reads, “Solid wastes that are too bulky or too heavy or too cumbersome to be collected by the town as part of its regular collection service may be collected by the town pursuant to a request made to the Public Works Director and payment of a fee for this service.” This section does not outline a requirement for a business or resident to pay a fee to the Town if it individually contracts with another company.

David’s Trash comes into the picture through a separate, direct agreement with the Town, giving the company a mutually beneficial, monopoly market to serve Belhaven residents and businesses.

However, even the wording in the Solid Waste Services Agreement, dated July 1, 2014, could be seen as ambiguous, according to Jarvis.

“It says that the town desires that the company be the exclusive provider of solid-waste collection service for commercial customers of the town, and the company desires the contract with the town to provide these services,” Jarvis said. “That’s the most binding thing, but ‘desires’ is not ‘shall.’ I have not hired another company to empty Spoon River’s trash. They have.”

O’Neal and Alderman Steve Carawan disagree, as expressed in the Sept. 11 board meeting. Both believe the Services Agreement is binding in its wording, and allowing Spoon River to switch trash services is a violation.

 

ATTORNEY OPINION

To help shed light on the matter, the Town of Belhaven enlisted the opinion of town attorney Wendel Hutchins.

In a previous board meeting, O’Neal said Hutchins’ opinion stated Spoon River was in violation of the town ordinance. However, in an email, Hutchins wrote it “wasn’t so definitive as that.”

Hutchins did write in a June 19 letter that Spoon River’s temporary arrangement is violating the ordinance itself, but there is another aspect that could clear the restaurant of any wrongdoing.

“Those issues of containment and frequency may involve public health, safety and sanitation standards governed by laws other than the Town’s solid waste regulations and which, if State laws, may pre-empt the Town’s ordinance where compliance is a public health issue,” Hutchins wrote.

Spoon River representatives have previously stated they were concerned about potential health hazards if the waste wasn’t removed from the property.

The restaurant previously attempted to correct the circumstances first by trying other receptacles and adjusting pickup frequency before switching services to Pak-R.

Hutchins wrote that he believes Spoon River’s attempt at compliance “makes it difficult to interpret the conduct of the restaurant in securing other waste disposal services as a ‘willful’ failure to comply.”

According to Hutchins, state law permits a property owner to participate in a town’s contract for solid waste collection, unless the owner has contracted with another company for service. He deferred to the courts the question of whether Belhaven’s contract with David’s or Spoon River’s individual contract with Pak-R takes precedence.

“A negotiated resolution … appears practically and legally better for all,” Hutchins wrote.