WV City Scrap Metal Ordinance Revised

An ordinance that sought to require scrap metal recyclers to report all their purchases to a law enforcement web site on a daily basis has been revised.

According to a news report by the Huntington News Network, Councilman Scott Caserta said the initial ordinance was rewritten because business would be unfairly burdened by the additional financial costs. Due to the discussion between the city council and the affected companies a recommendation was made to draft a new ordinance for first reading. (See earlier story here)

A preliminary copy of the ordinance now headed "Record Keeping For Purchases Of Nonferrous Metal by Salvage Yards, Recycling Center and Junk Dealers" still would require commercial dealers to daily report before 12 noon purchases of nonferrous metal and any form of copper, aluminum, brass, lead, or motor vehicle batteries to the Chief of Police of the City or his designees. The reports would be submitted "electronically" and the "upload" would be a "true and correct" report of previous days purchases.

The dealers would be required to obtain a "receipt or other proof of lawful ownership" from the seller would be retained by the dealer. The dealer would maintain a record book with a complete description of the material purchased as well as the name and address of the seller, the time purchased, the license number of the vehicle in which the items were delivered and the operator’s license number of the seller. The records would be maintained and preserved for one year and open for inspection by law enforcement during that period.

Dealers would upload the following information to a designated law enforcement web site: Date and time property received; description of property including type of metal, weight, and detailed description, description of individual from whom item purchased (a verified photo ID will be checked by the dealer prior to purchase), description of the vehicle that brought the items (including make, model, color, year, and license number), and whether the item purchase was received as collateral for a loan or taken on consignment.

In the event a web site is no longer used by the City of Huntington, the dealers would provide a written "sales transaction card" to the Police Department.

The proposed ordinance would not pertain to purchases made at wholesale under contract or as a result of the bidding process, would not pertain to scrap purchases by manufacturing facilities that melt or otherwise transform the metal into a new product, and would not pertain to food and beverage containers having marginal per unit value.

To prevent removal of potentially stolen scrap metal, the dealers would be required to maintain the items within the corporate limits of the City of Huntington for 72 hours. Huntington News Network