Evanston Officials Say Home Depot Owes City $15,000
(CBS) -- Evanston says Home Depot has stiffed taxpayers of thousands of dollars in yard-waste sticker sales. Now, the city is fighting back.
Home Depot is blaming internal confusion. But Evanston says the city's been trying to collect for more than a year.
On Monday, local officials told residents to get their stickers somewhere else, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.
As the autumn leaves start to fall, yard waste bags begin to appear. The city of Evanston pays for yard-waste collection with stickers sold at several local retailers. The retailers then turn the money over to the city.
"In Home Depot's case they made us aware there was a corporate change and the local store manager wasn't able to pay for them," Public Works Director Dave Stoneback says.
The city kept giving them stickers, anyway, because the retailer sells the most waste stickers in Evanston. Home Depot failed to hand over about $15,000, Stoneback says.
"It's frustrating because they are the largest store that people seem to go to," he says.
The Evanston Public Works Department says they'll provide more stickers to Home Depot once the city is paid. The retailer expresses regret for what it calls an error in processing the reimbursement.
WBBM's Lisa Fielding
