Tag Archives: Harry J. Altman

ADS fails to recycle, appeals DSS ruling anyway

Why is Lowndes County leaving the City of Valdosta to subsidize the county’s failed “exclusive franchise”? And is ADS’ failure to recycle recyling a breach of its contract with the county?

Adam Floyd wrote on the front page of the VDT today, Advanced Disposal appeals Deep South decision,

Requests made to Advanced Disposal Service’s corporate office and Robert Norman, the lawyer who filed the appeal, to learn the company’s reasoning behind the appeal were not returned by press time.

Meanwhile, the City of Valdosta’s recycling center has denied Advanced Disposal further access to its facilities, citing concerns about volume.

John Whitehead III, deputy city manager for operations, said that the center could not process the company’s deliveries fast enough, and material was beginning to pile up. The suspension is temporary, Whitehead said, and was done to ensure that the city could process its recycling which increases during the holidays.

“We had been taking our recycling to the City of Valdosta, and Monday they cut us off without any notice,” said Greg Walk, local general manager for Advanced Disposal. “We’ve constructed a bunker at the landfill, and the material that is being collected in that bunker will be taken to a processing plant in Milledgeville.”

The company had to dispose of recycled materials collected Monday and Tuesday but continued recycling service Wednesday.

“It was the last thing we wanted to do to our recyclables, but we responded as quickly as possible,” said Walk.

Does that mean the city of Valdosta sent the recycling to the landfill? And is that a violation of the county’s contract with ADS?

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Lowndes County can’t make a monopoly –Judge Harry J. Altman on DSS in VDT

Maybe filing the lawsuit in the first place was “premature”, to use Chairman Bill Slaughter’s word in the VDT yesterday about a possible appeal. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall had the common courtesy on WCTV to apologize to DSS for the unnecessary lawsuit. How much did the Commission spend on that waste of time and effort?

Editor Kay Harris wrote on the front page of the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday, Company wins fight to stay in business: Deep South wins case brought by County,

Southern Circuit Judge Harry J. Altman issued a ruling Monday in the civil action filed by Lowndes County against Deep South Sanitation, LLC to enjoin Deep South from continuing its garbage business. Advanced Disposal Services was later added as an intervenor plaintiff in the case against Deep South as well.

In the ruling, Altman denied the County’s request for an injunction to put Deep South out of business. The order addresses the County’s ordinance passed in 2012, saying that to “simultaneously invoke an exclusive franchise agreement with one company would, in effect … permit Lowndes County to construct a monopoly while simultaneously putting pre-existing companies out of business.”

Well, it appears the judge thought it was about right or wrong.

The county Chairman’s view now? Continue reading