The three structures owned by Leo J. Peirick Jr. are estimated to be storing over 175,000 tires according to information from the Missouri attorney general's office.

Peirick's buildings are located at 806 N. Washington Ave. and 510 Highway 50 West, both in Union, and a former MFA fertilizer plant building at Highway 50 and Jeffriesburg Road.

Cleanup at Peirick's tire store on Highway 50 will begin Oct. 1, said Nancy Gondor, a spokeswoman with the attorney general's office.

The Bild Mart Building and former bowling alley on Washington Aveenue will be cleaned up starting Jan. 1, 2010.

The last building, the MFA building outside the city limits, will be cleaned up starting July 1, 2010.

Union officials had been trying to work with Peirick on the cleanup of the three sites, citing fire safety concerns, but discovered that the attorney general's office had already filed suit against the owner.

"I started working on a grant through the East Central Solid Waste District, and that's when I found out the DNR (Missouri Department of Natural Resources) had turned it over to the AG's office," said Union City Administrator Russell Rost.

The suit filed against Peirick requires removal of the tires within 90 days or else the DNR would arrange for the removal and charge Peirick.

Rost said he thought the cleanup should be occurring soon. Last week the Franklin County Commission received notice that an unrelated building at 9177 Excelsior Road in Gerald had been cleaned up of 8,340 tires. The cleanup in Union should come at no cost to the city, Rost said.

"We won't have any out-of-pocket cost for this project. The expenses are an agreement between the property owner and the state," he said.

Instead, Peirick will pay $20,000 in cost recovery and an additional $10,000 in civil penalties, Gondor said.

An enforceable settlement should be signed by September, she said. "It is definitely a public safety issue for us with the storage so close to a residential area," Rost said regarding the property on North Washington. "We're fearful a fire would cause a significant impact on that area."

The owner is cooperative at this point and we expect the cleanup to occur," he said. "Sometimes it just takes enough people getting involved."

Peirick was initially issued a summons from the AG's office April 20.

The cleanups will be performed by laborers from the state's department of corrections similar to a cleanup in Gerald reported in The Missourian last week.

That cleanup removed 8,340 tires from 9177 Excelsior Road earlier this year through Missouri Vocational Enterprises.

The minimum-security prison inmates are bused to cleanup sites, working four 10-hour days per week, according to a spokesperson with DNR.