To the editor:

Once again the citizens of Oakville find themselves battling Tom Dunne and his company, Fred Weber Inc.

On Monday, March 1, the county Planning Commission will hold yet another hearing to determine whether or not to make zoning changes to accommodate a trash-transfer station at the Fred Weber Quarry and Asphalt Plant at Baumgartner and Heintz. This is just a few hundred feet from where Dunne tried to locate his trash-transfer station at the beginning of 2003 and only a short distance from where he tried to locate a trash-transfer station in June of last year.

Incredibly, that proposed site was within 1,000 feet of a church with a day-care center. Public officials said they were surprised by the overwhelming adverse reaction to this plan. There should have been no surprise. We believe that it is irresponsible and inappropriate to locate a 24-hour-a-day garbage transport system in an area filled with thousands of homes, numerous churches, schools, restaurants and cleanly operated light industrial businesses.

A relentless parade of garbage trucks and semi-trailers filled to the brim with tons of filth would make the area roads increasingly dangerous and pose numerous health and environmental hazards.

One would have thought that when the county Department of Health denied Mr. Dunne his permit, he would have gotten the message. Unfortunately, that is not the case. It appears that he now plans to sue the county over the health department’s ruling and cost the taxpayers even more money.

We can only hope he isn’t planning to sue individual homeowners who speak out against his garbage machine. It should be pointed out that Fred Weber Inc. continues to derive millions of dollars from construction projects paid for with tax dollars.

It appears, however, that Dunne has absolutely no regard for the taxpayers.

It is increasingly clear that until we, the residents of Oakville and the unincorporated south county area, gain the right to control our own future, we will continue to be subjected to decisions made in Clayton by people who neither live nor work here.

We will continue to see inappropriate zoning, poor planning and reckless proposals by businessmen who have no regard for the people who have chosen this area as a place to call home.

Mark Mosher

Oakville