November 21, 2009
What's Inside:
Neighbor points finger at retread shop
Video by August Kryger
The deck behind Kim Fansher’s house on Messanie Street could give a teacher the perfect place to sit and smell the flowers during a summer away from the classroom.
It would be a lot better if the flowers hadn’t died and the summer breeze didn’t burn her throat.
Such has been the case since a tire retread facility opened about a month ago across an alley from Ms. Fansher’s backyard.
The St. Joseph City Council approved an ordinance in January that allowed Heartland Tire & Retread to open a facility to recycle tire retreads at 2401 Locust St., behind Ms. Fansher’s home.
Ms. Fansher invited City Council members and city staff to her home Wednesday to see her problem. She said a semi-trailer that catches tire particles pumped from inside the building puffs black smoke from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the work week. Ms. Fansher suspects this smoke is the cause of her problems.
The flowers in front of Ms. Fansher’s house bloom vibrantly. The ones along the side of her home grow progressively shorter from the front yard to the back. The irises and peonies in the backyard lay dead in a brownish heap.
Her health has not fared much better than the flowers. In the past month, breathing problems have forced her to get prescriptions for a variety of medicines, including two types of inhalers.
If something harmful is in the air, Ms. Fansher hates to think about what it could do to her, her son or her neighbors.
“I planted a garden, too. I don’t even know if I want to eat what comes out of it,” Ms. Fansher said.
Mayor Ken Shearin suggested the company move the trailer to the other side of the building where it borders an abandoned railroad right-of-way instead of a residential area.
“I know that doesn’t completely fix it, but it’s a whole heck of a lot better than what we’ve got now,” Mr. Shearin said, “If it was on the other side, maybe some of that soot gets stuck on the side of the building or gets caught in the trees instead of blowing over to her house.”
City Planner Mike Kellam said it may not be possible to move the trailer due to the way that facilities inside the building were set up. However, he agreed that changes must be made.
“We noticed that there are some violations that need to be addressed, some things that were there that shouldn’t have been there,” Mr. Kellam said. “We need to get with the property owner and the company to work something out.”
Brett Halsey owns the building and operates Servpro in the other side of the facility. He initially wanted the council to change zoning in the area from commercial to light manufacturing. City staff and the planning commission recommended that the council deny the change, at which point Mr. Halsey withdrew the request.
Later, the council passed an ordinance that reclassified tire retreading facilities as commercial instead of manufacturing, which allowed Heartland Tire to move in.
Ms. Fansher said she never had any problem with Servpro. Everything was fine until Mark Horstman, owner of Heartland Tire, leased a portion of the building this spring and began operations.
Neither Mr. Halsey nor Mr. Horstman could be reached for comment.
Clinton Thomas can be reached at clintonthomas@npgco.com.
This story has 14 comments. Click here to join in on the discussion.
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It's good to see the city council taking action to rectify this situation. Getting out of their chambers and seeing it first hand is a commendable act on their part. Other communities could take a lesson.
I'm no expert, but tire retreading sounds a lot more like light manufacturing than a commercial enterprise.
Maybe the air should be tested for toxics BEFORE we have to invite Erin B to town and/or turn into another Cameron issue.
Seems like people take breathing issues lightly around here. Wait until YOU have the issue. It's not fun to live with at all. Chimnea's are legal. But I have to close my windows because the smoke enters my house and instantly stops me up.
Try to live with COPD; it's not fun.
p.s. Let it blow into the trees and kill them instead. UHHHH....GREEN plants/trees are necessary too Mr Mayor.
i was at the meeting where this company got their approval. the representative who was asking for the permission to operate this business stated repeatedly that there would be NO smell and that this was a state of the art business which would not affect the neighborhood.
i wondered then how on earth this place wasn't going to stink like hell. even walking by a car with new tires makes me feel sick.
good for the council for going out there. now they need to get an epa rep out there immediately.
heritage - too funny. Did the company rep really say this was a "state of the art" business??? Judging from the video, I would say that a bit of an exagerration.
It is such a no brainer. If the company is causing these kinds of health and environment problems, the company MUST rectify it or move or modify it's processes. That is exactly why the City of St Joseph, which never seems to bother to take these things into account before allowing these variances to occur, should do so. That is a Neighborhood, full of children and that kind of company should never have been allowed to operate in that area. It should be out in an industrial type area. It just figures, this City recently allowed a neighbor of ours to put a fence less than 6 inches from my house. I read the codes myself. It is too close. It is wood and if it caught fire it would burn my house down. If I had not argued and fought he would have been allowed to actually fence my front door closed with this privacy fence. The city could have cared less. They gave him the permit with not one care about how that affected my property. I hired a lawyer and was told I had a very good case and would win in court but it would cost about 10,000 to get there. I could not believe it. I could never even get the City to call me back and they said he has the right to put up a fence. Yes, even though he is blocking the complete air flow, Gas, Light, phone and Cable utility access, because that is where all those items are located, and it has created a nuisance in the process. Thank you St Joe! It reminds me of the woman with the sewer issue. No one would listen to her about the sewer. Then when sewage flooded her home, they did't care. They wouldn't fix it until she threatened to sue. Then they finally did what they should have done first! Ken Shearin's answer to this tire factory dilemma was a disappointment to me as well. That was not a solution.
I would like to thank all of you for your comments and encouragement! I contacted the Missouri EPA this morning. The health department here in St. Joseph does not have the correct equipment to test the air quality, which is the only way that I could get the factory shut down immediately. I just want to say that Mike Kellam, Clint Thompson and Joyce Starr were absolutely stellar yesterday in regards to this issue. The mayor, however, merely wanted to move the problem to the other side so maybe thinking that the residents on that side of the street wouldn't notice!?! After he said that, Ms. Starr, commented that "absoulutely not, it needs to be closed down", at which point Mr. Mayor threw up his hands and said "I'm leaving". Unfortunately, this will be a type of legal matter, which may take months, even years, but I refuse to be "run-over" for the sake of lining someone's pocket. Thanks again, Kim
here is one link in the process http://74.125.95.132/custom?q=cache:HFWV96sNiWMJ:www.stjoemo.info/agenda/1067-06.pdf+2401+locust&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=google-csbe
the planning commission, as you can see, recommended against this resolution.
http://www.stjoemo.info/agenda/1067-06.pdf
i dont think it is right to force someone to hire a lawyer to correct a wrong that was started by an industry for profit. i hope you receive resolve in this matter. i hope they find the air too polluted to be safe and they shut them down. after all, they have more property in the southend arround the chemical plant that already have the bad air and still get away with it, it shouldnt be allowed in residental areas.
I know some 10-year-olds who could teach the mayor some etiquette lessons.
Just like our city goverment to throw their hands up in the air and say to each other I am leaving and not address the issue. After watching the video I would be mad as hell if I lived here. This sure looks like manufacturing to me not something that belongs in a residential area. I hope the teacher and everybody else that lives in this area gets the state to do something for them because the city will not. Way to go St Joe.
this must have been one of those bad to worse days for ken shearin. he made a complete fool of himself at the meeting this afternoon. orliander is being kind, what i saw tonight was on a par with a five year old in a spitting rage because someone broke his favorite toy.
what is the procedure for impeachment ? i am done making excuses for this guy.