KINGWOOD — After a former city transfer station employee was charged with stealing money, Kingwood Council is making some changes at the station.
And not just to deter theft. Mayor Jean Guillot said at Tuesday’s meeting the investigation of the theft also brought to light that people routinely dump rubbish at the station and leave without paying.
The installation of security cameras will hopefully deter that, he said. Anyone who can be identified from the video dumping and leaving will be turned over to police. The county prosecutor said the investigation will have to be handled by the sheriff’s department because the station is outside city limits, Guillot said Wednesday.
Next week the transfer station will also start taking debit and credit cards. Council agreed to a 60-day trial with the cards.
“We’re trying to limit the amount of cash flow that’s down there,” Guillot said. “We can’t continue to operate the transfer station the way that it’s being operated now. We can’t operate with these losses that are piling up.”
The former employee is accused of taking more than $30,000 by altering receipts when people paid with cash. Wednesday the mayor said the transfer station is operating at a 15 percent loss.
“Go get gas and drive off and see what happens,” he said. “Do you think Circle K would just let you drive off? But we’re letting people just drive off.”
Councilman Dick Shaffer predicted people will throw trash off at the recycling center after the changes. City Supervisor Bruce Pyles said he would never use his credit card at the transfer station.
Guillot said it’s unfair that Kingwood is imposing a 1 percent sales tax but not collecting for services at the transfer station.
Recorder Bill Robertson said he could see pros and cons to the cards. If employees hold someone’s credit card, then they are less likely to dump their load and drive off, he said.
Part of the problem, Guillot said, is that there isn’t room at the transfer station for two sets of scales, so customers have to get their load weighed, dump it and get weighed again, so the charge can be determined.
“There’s limited capacity to do things,” Councilman Mike Lipscomb said.
Workers also have to clear away the trash. Because of State Public Service Commission regulations, the station closes to the public at 2:30 p.m. so that everything can be cleaned up by the 3 p.m. quitting time.
Interim City Clerk Kayla Huggins asked if a minimum charge should be set, since a single bag of trash is $1.50 at the station. A $12.68 minimum was set to use credit or debit cards.
Also Tuesday, council:
approved an application by the Roberts Family Store on W.Va. 7 above Westpointe to sell packaged beer. Owner Frankie Roberts said he hopes to open May 1. Roberts said he’d like to operate a large outdoor flea market summer weekends at the site.
approved advertising the positions of county clerk, municipal clerk and police officer. Municipal Clerk Huggins is currently acting city clerk, after the resignation of Mary Howell. The officer’s position is vacant.
approved the quarterly donation of $2,500 to Main Street Kingwood.
said it will not clean up an alley between Walsh Drive and View Street because the alley isn’t city property.
