Joe’s Garbage Removal terminated
“I’ve got pictures of garbage that is going on 4-feet tall.” –Magistrate Junior Hunt
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Martin County Fiscal Court ended the trash-hauling controversy in District 4 by terminating Joe’s Garbage Removal in a heavily policed special meeting Tuesday evening.
With several residents and officers from the Kentucky State Police and Martin County Sheriff’s office in attendance, Martin County Judge/Executive Colby Kirk opened the meeting by explaining the court would be limited to the agenda since it was a special meeting.
“Since our last meeting, we’ve had numerous calls from citizens not receiving garbage service,” Kirk told court members. “We’ve been trying to work on this for the citizens of District 4 for some time, but things have continued to decline.”
One man in the audience spoke up, saying his trash had not been picked up “in the last three weeks.”
Kirk provided magistrates with a timeline of steps the judge’s office had taken over the past seven months to correct the District 4 trash problem.
The judge’s office sent letters requesting all garbage haulers provide documentation showing their compliance with contracts and the county’s solid waste ordinance in September 2021
“All haulers provided that information with the exception of Joe’s Garbage Removal,” said Kirk.
The judge said Joe’s Garbage Removal wrote a check to the county for franchise fees in October 2021, but that check bounced. When the county tried again in November 2021 to deposit the check, it was returned a second time for insufficient funds.
Kirk, deputy judge at the time, sent a letter to Joe’s Garbage in December 2021 requesting payment and mentioning the possibility of a corrective action plan. In January, the Fiscal Court voted to develop a corrective action plan with owner Joe’s Garbage Removal owner Joey Robinson.