Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Donated bicycles destroyed; Belleville's good deed goes for naught

BELLEVILLE -- Mayor Mark Eckert is re-examining the city policy on donating surplus items to charity after a Jefferson Barracks Veterans Hospital official ordered the destruction of 21 bicycles the city donated this past spring.

"You would hope if somebody takes them they would go to a good cause," Eckert said after learning from a reporter that the donated bikes had been trashed a month ago.

In the future, Eckert said, "We need to hear from somebody with some assurance they will try to use them" for their intended purpose.

Herman Lugge, the hospital's recreational therapy program director, acknowledged that he ordered the bikes' destruction.

Lugge's reasons for doing so: because the veterans living at the hospital didn't want them, the bikes were in poor condition and -- above all -- the building they were being stored in was slated for imminent demolition and there was nowhere else to store them.

"We had two days to vacate," he said. "I said, 'I have no place to go with these bikes. Can you help me out?' They (hospital officials) said, 'No, all we can do is haul them off.'"

Back in May, Lugge helped pick out the bicycles from the Belleville city storage facility at the corner of Sixth and West Main streets.

The facility each year houses hundreds of lost or stolen bicycles that go unclaimed and are usually sold at an annual city-sponsored auction.

Lugge acknowledged the bicycles could have been repaired, but some needed extensive work. Overall, their condition was poor, he said.

"I busted my butt to go through the pick of the litter," Lugge said. "Could they have been fixed? Absolutely. But they were donated to do what we could do with them."

Bob Heet, a member of the hospital's veterans advisory panel for mental health services, organized the city's donation of bikes to the hospital.

Heet, who is angry about the bikes' destruction, disputed Lugge's contention they were in poor shape and the veterans they were meant for did not want them.

After all, Heet said, he organized the bikes' donation only after hospital residents had circulated a petition asking for them since they had no transportation of their own.

Heet said he was on hand the day in May when Lugge had picked out the bikes at the city storage facility. Heet recalled admiring the bikes that Lugge and a city worker had loaded onto the VA truck that hauled them back to Jefferson Barracks.

"I looked at them and said, "Holy cow, look at all the beautiful bikes,'" Heet said. "These are nice bikes. Herman handpicked them."

But, as summer passed into autumn, the fate of the bikes became a mystery, at least to the advisory council, Heet said.

"The months go by and we keep hearing different stories," Heet said. "Where the hell are the bicycles at?"

Rose Ganz, the advisory panel president, said she found out about the bicycles' fate by accident, when she spoke to Lugge while passing him in the hallway.

"He said that nobody wanted them and they were not repairable," Ganz said.

Lugge acknowledged he did not tell Heet the bikes had been destroyed, but he otherwise kept him informed about the residents' lack of interest in them.

"I said, 'Bob, they're just not using the bikes. There was no response from him," Lugge said. "There was no response, 'Well, Herman, let's get them back to the city of Belleville.'"

Lugge said he wished things had worked out differently, but he had no choice in ordering the bicycles' destruction last month.

"Again, it was last minute," he said. "I was told the building was being torn down and we needed to get rid of the bikes."