Issue ---> Red Light Cameras

In a County with a horrible reputation for tiny municiplities whose main source of income is traffic tickets, now we have Red Light Cameras. These cameras are automated systems for finding people who run red lights and sending them tickets. Sitting on the side of the road with radar was not efficient enough, these new systems can send out hundreds of tickets a month with no effort by the municipality.

There are always compelling reasons that our municipalities do things. In this case, they proport to stop accidents. How else could they justify automated law and order? However, studies show this may not be the case. In fact, these systems may increase accidents. The truth is, if there are problems in a specific intersection, there are ways to fix it. These include better warning signs, retiming traffic lights, better attention to traffic flow. With Red Light Cameras, there are incentives to keep the intersection difficult to negotiate.

Regarding Municipalities and their police, the is little or no trust between these entities and the citizens. We have the Municipalites and their officials watching the citizens with video cameras and the citizens watching the police with video cameras. Lets face it, when the cameras were turned onto the community of Georgetown, the place went into virtual collapse.

This is a miserable way for our communites to serve the citizens. The County should put a stop these cameras right away.

Republican Central Committee Trashes Trash Code

On Wednesday evening, during their regularly scheduled monthly meeting, the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee voiced its opposition to St. Louis County’s recently enacted Waste Management Code. This code, approved last year, provides for the recently written “Trash Districts Plan.”

This plan establishes a minimum level of service that must include once-a-week trash pick up, a once-a–week recycling pick up and twice-a-year bulk waste pick up. This plan will apply to unincorporated areas and municipalities, with some exceptions. The county will contract for and manage these services.

The opposition was through a resolution passed by a large majority of the Central Committee members and it stated in part, “we disagree with the legislation passed by the St. Louis County Council late in 2006 that would restrict county residents from selecting their own trash haulers and deny individuals and subdivisions the ability to negotiate and contract with whatever trash haulers they want. Citizens of St. Louis County have had this right of ‘trash hauler choice’ for over 60 years and we do not believe it is in the best interest of taxpaying citizens for the county to create another level of bureaucracy by becoming ‘the trash hauler of St. Louis County’.”

Opposition to this ordinance came from John Campisi for the County Council’s 6th District who has amassed meetings of up to 400 people against the code. Campisi stated that the meetings were a response to an overwhelming number of phone calls and e-mails protesting the county’s intention to create trash districts. Kurt Witzel, Committeeman for Oakville Township, introduced the resolution objecting to the Trash Code. While the stated purpose of the code is to provide uniform service at a reduced price, Kurt stated that he did not believe that the “big government” approach would work. He stated further “as Republicans, we believe that the least government is the best government” and that “the role of government should be to only do for the citizens collectively what they can not easily do for themselves individually.” The citizens of St. Louis County have been providing this service for themselves for over 60 years.

When asked to comment, John Winston, Committeeman for the Gravois Township and Chairman of the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee stated, “this sounds like a good idea on paper but when a large governmental body tries a ‘one size fits all’ approach more harm than good is usually done.” For example, some people may take their recyclable materials in person and do not want to pay for something they did themselves. Or, some people may only want once a week pick up service, no recycling or bulk pick-up and do not want to pay for extra services they do not need. Either way, citizens are paying for services not needed.

The Central Committee hopes that the County Council will revisit this issue and asks concerned citizens to contact their respective Councilman and the County Executive. For more information visit the county’s web site: www.stlouisco.com.

The St. Louis County Central Republican Committee is comprised of elected Committeewomen and Committeemen elected in their respective Townships. For more information visit: www.stlcountygop.org , e-mail: terjonlaur@aol.com