INC NEWS - solid waste article in todays paper

Mon Apr 17 13:09:15 EDT 2006

Further correction to Mike and Randy

  In the early eighties bulky pick-up was on Wednesday every week which  the proposed plan goes back to!  I am not sure when the city  stopped doing this for free.  The  original green carts were given out free, one to each household.   Brown carts yard waste carts had to be purchased though. 

  Also yard waste became a fee to avoid a property tax rate increase and  because that's what other cities, particularly Cary, were doing.  

  During our great ice storm the first pick-ups of storm debris were  limited to those who had paid the yard waste fee.  This left the  city with a tremendous amount of debris in the street and yards.   Thankfully that was corrected and debris pickup for disasters is now  done city wide.  

  Anne Guyton

  Mike - Hotmail <mwshiflett at hotmail.com> wrote:  Randy,

Please correct your statement

"Back before we had the current subscriber plan, we had nothing."

This is not true.

When I first moved to Durham in the early 80's there were two trash pickups 
a week.  Which I've been told had been in place for many years.  Citizens 
owned their own trash cans and the garbage collectors would drive around 
town and pick up all your waste, even in backyards.

Then,  solid waste began a two day collection system where trash was picked 
up on one day and yard waste the next business day.  It required that 
everyone purchase a Green waste container and moving collections to the 
front of the home.

Residents who did not purchase the new green containers didn't get their 
trash picked up (it was a phased in program).

Still,  there was no customer fee beyond the cost of the green rollout cart.

Then in the late eighties,  the city also started to contract out recycling 
to a company that picked up bottles, cans and newspapers (some plastics) on 
the same day as your trash day (also a phased in program starting in just a 
few neighborhoods).  Which then became mandatory.

In the mid nineties, the city started started requiring people wanting yard 
waste picked up to purchase a separate cart (brown).

Then, just recently also started charging for being a part of the yard waste 
pickup program as an option.

While I'm not so sure that you might consider this a 'plan'  it is 
definitely obvious that we've been asked to start paying more (much more) 
for services that are becoming less frequent and more burdensome for us over 
just a short time period of twenty years.

The INC was an an active participant in the discussions with David McClary 
(Solid Waste Director in the 90's) for the city to purchase the new 'armed' 
garbage trucks,  I can attest to the fact that it was purported to be a cost 
effective and personnel reducing measure that would improve (turnaround?) 
this trend.

Now we hear that for the city to return to a no fee program it will cost us 
several more million dollars in equipment and dozens more in personnel.

Thus bringing the current dilemma into focus.

That is the history I've seen!

mike shiflett

ps-the fines (after two warnings-free) that some of us have advocated for 
($50/each) were suggested to be motivators to correct behavioral habits. 
$100 fines would be quite expensive based on the fact that in one month 
someone could end up owing more than their take home pay for the same time 
in some neighborhoods.  Civil fines should be corrective in nature, not 
punitive.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RW Pickle" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 11:42 PM
Subject: INC NEWS - solid waste article in todays paper

> The article was in todays Herald Sun. It quoted our President and fellow
> committee member Cheryl Shifflet. And I'm sending this out because I don't
> feel the same way as the paper made it sound like they do. I support the
> yard waste plan. Why? Because we don't really have a comprehensive plan at
> this time and this gets us heading down the right road. It's not THE PLAN,
> it's part of a bigger plan that over time I believe will see several
> changes as other parts are implemented.
>
> A little history. Back before we had the current subscriber plan, we had
> nothing. And then we had a plan that has generally gotten more expensive
> over time with the numbers of subscribers getting smaller. The current
> plan does not pay for itself. And for it to keep working like it's doing,
> it needs to do so (or yard waste pickup as we know it today will end). And
> the break even point may come this year as new subdivisions come online.
> But it's not the new subdivisions that make this city look so bad at
> times. It's the older ones where participation in the current yard waste
> program is minimal. And typically, these older (and often poorer)
> neighborhoods are the breeding grounds for the illegal dumping that
> plagues this City.
>
> So what will the new plan do? It'll make yard waste pickup available for
> everyone, not just the current subscriber base. That will amount to adding
> 75% of the City that currently does not subscribe to the current plan.
> Then there is no reason to dump the stuff to avoid getting it hauled off
> and the whole City gets better looking I'd think.
>
> Additionally, they say they need 7 more people to do this. In talking to
> Randy Smith who heads up the yard waste division, he says he really only
> needs 2 more. But 1 of the 7 they say they need is the new solid waste
> rule enforcer who will implement the new enforcement policies they
> mentioned at the last INC meeting. So in my book, they really need three
> new people to make it work. The other employees to run the operation are
> already in place in the 11 person Impact Team. So with promotions (the new
> slots will be filled with those with Class A drivers licenses), the 2 new
> people needed will be at the entry level.
>
> And what are these new people for? As best as I can see, they're for the
> bulky item pickup crews. This is a new service, picking up bulky items
> such as water heaters, couches, brush, that the City wants to implement to
> clean this town up on a weekly basis. These are effecient vehicles to do
> this with, but in this capacity, they are being disguised as bulky item
> pick teams. But what they really are is emergengy management tools.
>
> Last time we had the big storm come through here, the City spent somewhere
> around $8.5 million to clean it up with contractors. These bulky item
> trucks have really been purchased for that reason (and they'll all be here
> in Sept; most are already here). So we can let these vehicles just be
> parked somewhere until they are needed or we can put them to work getting
> this town cleaned up. They had to put these vehicles in some department
> and they ended up in solid waste. Good or bad, right or wrong, we have
> them just waiting on the next big storm to come through. So in the mean
> time, getting them out and cleaning up this town is their use. And one
> they certainly come in handy for in doing the job.
>
> So what else is there? Because the new yard waste plan will require three
> times more carts than are now being picked up, this is a shot in the arm
> for solid waste. They break even with the sale of the cart, but once they
> figure in delivery and such, end up loosing money again. Plus, with all of
> the carts they sell, the funds go back into the general fund and not to
> solid waste to keep the cart program funded. Here again, good or bad,
> carts will have to be purchased for everyone to get them. Will they be
> free with the new plan? No. the cost will still be the same and that cost
> added over time to the water billing. But what about the poor? Well, there
> is a provision to help out those folks as well so no one is left out of
> the plan.
>
> Additionally, there is an additional expense that we have never really
> discussed. This is on Roosevelt Carters' end where all of this stuff will
> end up. If we start cleaning up this City, getting rid of all of the
> visual clutter and illegal dumping, someone has to pick up the disposal
> tab. How much will that be? I'm not sure what is budgeted for it but can
> assure everyone that there will not be enough funding to get it all
> cleaned up. Why? because no one really knows what it all will amount to
> being at this point. But everyone knows it's out there. So that figure is
> just a low guesstimate. Then, the additional yard waste will have to be
> delt with. There is new machinery coming to deal with it as well. And the
> free mulch give-a-way that happens once a year, I guess it'll happen more
> often if necessary to get rid of the increased load of yard waste from the
> city-wide program.
>
> There are other things; like leaf vacuming. It will be started as a pilot
> program to see how it works. But the bulk of all of the money they are
> looking for in the current round of budget funding is primarily to hire
> the people for the bulky item trucks (remember all of the new trucks will
> be here in Sept.), carts for the citywide program, and an enforcement
> person to help with the illegal dumping, carts left at curbs, grocery
> carts, and mixed waste reduction for recycling. If they did anything here,
> I'd like to see more enforcement personel. One person will only make a
> dent.
>
> My 2 cents from having been through all of the committee meetings as well.
> We do have a new solid waste director on the way. No idea what his name
> is, but he is an ex-marine from Detroit who has alot of solid waste
> experience. Will he like the plan? Who knows. But time doesn't stop and
> trash doesn't either. So some sort of plan has to keep moving forward to
> make any headway with the problems we currently have. They will not get
> better doing nothing. If you want a cleaner city, you have to add to the
> currently available resources to get it. That's what solid waste has done
> in their current budget.
>
> You have to remember that this is not something they have just cooked up.
> The yard waste issue is one INC brought to the table to get them to deal
> with. Council told them to come up with a plan. If there was lack of
> citizen input it wasn't because they weren't looking for it. Besides the
> committee meetings, they went out to the PACs and held four public input
> sessions around town at various times. Some of the latter meetings had no
> one even show up. It's like I say. No one pays any attention to trash
> until it is illegally dumped or not picked up. If it's all working like it
> should, it all goes unnoticed.
>
> I support what they're working to do and urge any and all of you to do the
> same. If you have questions, they have been very straightforward in
> answering them. The only problems I currently have with the enforcement
> piece they will ask us to support at the next INC meeting is the number of
> warnings and the minimal amout of the fines; $50. I'd like to see half as
> many warnings (3 instead of 6) and the fine doubled to $100.
>
> RWP
> 27 Beverly
>
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