Haulers, Town of Minong In Garbage War Over Fees

MINONG, Wis. - Private trash collectors and the Town of Minong are in a bit of a garbage war over new fees at the town's transfer site. Private haulers have historically never paid to dump Minong residents' trash because those residents get the service for free through property taxes. But Minong's chairman tells FOX 21's Dan Hanger, it's time to get real with the rising cost of waste.But getting to the facility is not easy for the elderly and people with disabilities.  That's where Keith Booth Enterprises fills the void with his family-owned trash collecting business of 30 years."You know, they can't get the trash out there. We go knocking on the door and then we pick it up for them because of people can't come outside when it's freezing cold out there," said Keith Booth, owner of the business.Booth gets $35 a month from his Minong customers to dump their tax-paid garbage. And he was never charged -- until now. And he's got more than $600 to prove it.Booth tells FOX 21 that he's complained about what he feels is double dipping by the Town of Minong. But he says, it's only ended in more garbage bills."Actually, I think they are being discriminating against the handicap and the elderly because they can't make it to the transfer station. They don't have relatives who can take it to the dump for them," explained Booth."We took Mr. Booth's complaints to the Town of Minong who says they are doing nothing illegal. They're just trying to balance out the overwhelming amount of outside trash coming here -- that doesn't belong here -- while also dealing with the rising costs of waste," reported Hanger."We're trying to do everything at zero cost, but it's just not in the cards," explained Doug Denniger, the town's chairman.Denniger says too many private truckers and even nearby locals are abusing the system and dumping trash at Minong's transfer station from all over the place."There's no way of policing it -- as far as following them around. And they are all telling me, no, no, no, we are not doing this, but in the end ... we find out, yeah, yeah, yeah, they were doing it," Denniger said.So instead of raising taxes – at least for now -- Denniger says it's fees to all private and commercial haulers whether they like it or not."The gentleman -- I'm sure he's doing everything right, but I'm sorry, it's just coming back to us. And we got a breaking point," Denniger replied in regard to Booth's complaints.Meanwhile, Booth has hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office."Because I do believe they are doing some shady stuff down there," Booth explained.