http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-896241.mp3
Kansas City, Mo. – The Kansas City Council will decide next week whether to set an August ballot on the persistent blight of waste tires. A council committee has been told thousands are ditched along streets, parkways and vacant lots every year.
If approved by voters, the ordinance would charge tire dealers an annual fee of $250. There are some 600 dealers in the city. Fees would finance enforcement.
Before the Public Safety and Neighborhoods Committee of the Council, Eugene Beck praised the measure. Beck says he is a second generation tire dealer and committed environmentalist. Not so, he says, the shady tire dealer, adding, "many of these operations in the city do not have city licenses. Many do not even have a sales tax number."
The council has been told of weekend cleanups of as many as 800 dumped tires in a single neighborhood.