INC NEWS - solid waste article in todays paper

[RW Pickle]

I'm sorry, I didn't see Mike's posting until I cleaned out my spam folder
(it's not him, it's that hotmail address he sometimes uses). The history
you mention goes back before my time. I was over in Orange County then.
But maybe you can answer this one. Back in 1990, Solid Waste received $45M
of bond money. What was that used for? I can't find that answer and it's a
curiosity I have. That's alot of cash for trash!

A couple of things I know.

The "armed trucks" you mention are coming sooner or later regardless. Not
because it saves anything but injuries. OSHA last year completed their
multi-year review of injuries in the solid waste field and the way we have
typically done trash is heading into history. They found that the numbers
and kinds of injuries can be prevented by these "armed trucks". I believe
the City calls it automated. And you're right about the savings to
manpower. Where a typical truck has three personel on it today, the
automated trucks will have one. I believe there are neighborhoods in
Durham that are already on such a system of automated pickup. I recall
someone at a past INC meeting commenting on mailboxes and such in their
neighborhood that have a run in with this new type of truck. When will it
be mandatory? I don't know. But it already looks as if it's being phased
in. Maybe it's being done as the older trucks are replaced. It's not in
the budget so it must not be in this cycle. And the trucks (the bulky item
trucks) have already been budgeted for and will all be in Durham by Sept.
I understand. Because it requires a Class A license, this is the hitch for
solid waste. They do not have that many drivers with a Class A license.
The yard waste trucks today only require Calss B I believe. I think the
Class A or B is about numbers of axles and weight. Maybe it relates to a
uni-bodied truck or a truck pulling a trailer. I don't know. But I do know
that these bulky item trucks will put solid waste in a bind for drivers.
Most of these new drivers will come from existing people with Class B
licenses (tested and upgraded to A). Then the two people mentioned by
Randy Smith that would need to be hired would be entry level people; thus
not being the expensive types.

What I can't seem to figure out is how they can do it for so cheap. You
take the carts for example. They say they are sold at cost (let's use the
current fee of $42 each I believe). You roll out a yard waste plan across
this city and if they have (these are rough figures so don't count on them
being exact) 69,000 customers and only 13,000 participating, that's an
addition 56,000 carts. Multiply that by their cost and that's around
$2.3M. This is money that has to be budgeted, but comes back when the
carts are sold. But the funds don't go to Solid Waste, they go into the
General Fund. But it still has to be budgeted somewhere in order to roll
out a program city-wide. As I understand it, Solid Waste only needs $1.2M
to make the current plan work. That's a huge difference betwwen just what
the carts will cost. Maybe that's where you're seeing the millions added
up. But if the carts are not budgeted, then the plan will not work because
there are no carts to make it work. If we had any sense, we'd get into the
garbage can business here pretty quickly!

On the fines, I understand your reasoning. And $50 is fine. But 2 warning
before each fine is just a waste of taxpayers money. That's just way to
much correcting behavior. Getting your trash can off the curb is not a
rich/poor problem, it's lazyness. And that's the behavior that needs
correcting. I could care less if in the first month of operation someone
fined twice (warning, fine, warning, fine). That's just being lazy.
Hopefully if it is excellerated at that pace, by month 2 the person has
gotten the message; GET YOUR CART OFF THE CURB. If they haven't I want the
City to eat them up in Community Life Court and get the $ it actually
costs them to enforce the rules. Otherwise, no one is really going to
change.

RWP
27 Beverly