The city will compromise on proposed changes to its tire disposal ordinance before it goes to the city council for approval in September, said Lawrence Mikolajczyk, director of solid waste operations.
The changes came after tire shop owners who attended public hearings this summer told city staff the new proposals could put them out of business.
“Most of them said no to the changes, that it punished them too much,” Mikolajczyk told Corpus Christi Business News. “They asked to help redraft it.”
City staff sat down with the tire shop owners and worked out several compromises. Changes could include leaving storage racks at 12 feet high rather than 10 feet and allowing outside storage that is screened from public view and properly maintained for vector (critter) control. Tire shops would have to spray bleach once a week to kill off mosquitos and keep trash collected and weeds cut back. Originally, ordinance requirements would have meant storing tires inside.
The disposal fee is another point of contention as well as additional paperwork required to keep track of used tires and where they go.
“We have issues with tires being illegally dumped,” Mikolajczyk said. “It has a lot to do with the disposal fee. Sometimes, people can’t afford to pay it, so they dump their tires illegally.”
Illegally dumped tires cost taxpayers money. In 2013, the city spent $78,000 collecting 52,000 illegally dumped tires.
Properly disposing of tires costs consumers and shop owners, who pay $5 a tire for a service to pick up and take the tires to a transfer station. The tires are eventually recycled into fodder for playgrounds, roadways or other construction purposes.
Used tires also can be taken to the city’s landfill or a collection station, which costs $1.75 or $3.75 a tire, depending on its size. Customers who don’t want to pay the fee to a tire shop owner when they get new tires, take their old rubber wheels with them. Good intentions often end up on the side of the road, Mikolajczyk said.
Dennis Dolce, owner of Delta Tire and Wheels at 15106 Northwest Blvd. in Corpus Christi, said he has been properly disposing of tires for the almost three decades he has been in business.
“Our tires have been picked up by one guy for 29 years now, one guy for 12 years,” he said. “One picks up twice a week; one picks up every single day. They give me documentation. They are approved by the state. It’s the real deal.”
Many tire shop owners are more concerned about the increased need for documentation and permitting. The new ordinance requires owners obtain a city permit and mark each tire with that number. They will have to keep an inventory of all tires going in and out of the shop so the city can check records and investigate any discrepancies.
“They want to make us put a code on our tires to specify it is a tire from our tire shop,” said Rafael Velaquez, owner of Big Boy’s Tires at 4802 Ayers St. in Corpus Christi. “For us, it’s not a good idea.”
What happens, Velaquez wants to know, when a customer who bought a tire from him goes to another shop or another town for replacements and then illegally disposes of the used tires with his shop number?
“It falls back on us, and it’s not even our fault,” he said.
Mikolajczyk’s goal is a simple, workable ordinance that everyone can live with while still working to keep used tires off the streets and out of sight.
“We are certainly not interested in forcing anyone out of business,” he said. “We want to help our local businesses, all that we can.”
A third and final public hearing is expected to be held the second week of August, the solid waste director said. Any further changes agreed on will be included in the ordinance prior to going before the council for approval sometime in September.