Reg Ion dumps trash from vehicle accident before VBT board

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees township resident Reg Ion dumped a big bucket of auto parts onto the floor before the seated board members.
He said this is what was left from an accident at the corner of Beck Road and the South Ecorse Service Drive where he lives. He said all this was left in the roadway when the Great Lakes Towing trucks left the scene after towing two cars.
Actually, he said, this was half of the trash left. He threw the other half away.
Ion said his son’s car was impounded within an hour after being disabled at the bank next to Meijer’s gas station and it was towed at a cost of $550.
He said after this particular accident at the corner of Beck and Ecorse Service Drive his wife got a flat tire after driving there.
He told the board he talked to one of the officers on the scene and he assured him someone would come to pick it up. No one did, Ion said.
“They got $12,000 or more and they’re not cleaning up their mess,” Ion said.
He said a tire was left after an accident near CVS and it was by the side of the road for three months.
Ion said Great Lakes Towing does the towing for the township north of the freeway and the township should go out for bids since Great Lakes charges whatever they want.
He said this is the second time he has come to the township board on this issue.
“They are charging people an arm and a leg for towing and not cleaning up the mess,” Ion said. “People shouldn’t have to drive through this… I’ve had this [trash] for three months.”
He said he wasn’t going to clean it up from the boardroom floor since he already cleaned it up once, but then he offered to clean it up.
Fire Chief Dan Besson said emergency crews try to clean up the roadway as quickly as possible. He said he would talk to police officials on the issue.
Trustee Jeff Jahr said he was concerned about the exorbitant fees and he would like to see a report on that.
“I think fees should be in the contract,” Jahr said. “VBT calls the towing company and they charge whatever they want?”