INC NEWS - solidly wasted money

[RW Pickle]

I can only comment on what has been said. The mailings' actual costs were
outlined in the last post. Like I said, you could have saved a $1000 by
making it 1/3 less the size. But we'll all get to see it in our Sept/Oct
water bill and decide for ourselves if it was worth the extra $1100 ($2100
total; printing was all I was talking about as wel;, as we both stated,
the mailing is free). But the argument I was making was the $2100 versus
the $5200/day wasted in duplicate services. That's the point. Yet you seem
to say it makes no sense. I have to strongly disagree. It seems to make
sense to a lot of us following this issue. I get new emails daily telling
me so.

For some reason, you seem to think we do not know what you are going to
tell us in the mailing (with our water bills). But I'll assure, Durham as
a whole is a pretty well connected City. I know, because I helped build
that connectivity and continue to support it. With the click of a mouse, I
can now send what ever I deem to be necessary across half of your customer
base; 35,000 folks. It is rarely utilized because I do not wish to bother
them all with added email. But there is a huge electronic community out
there who is very easy (and cheap) to reach. You could be using it as
well. Even leaving fliers on our waste carts causes no extra manpower to
be used. The waste crew is already at the cart when they leave it. That's
not much effort. I have never had any notice from Solid Waste delivered to
my door. I am so far off the road that even the postman requires me to
have a box at the road. And the same goes for many homes in my
neighborhood. We're a small percentage of the customer base, but it's less
work for your guys. And I'd suggest less work is better since you'd want
us to believe they're overworked (or at the edge of it) already. It wasn't
that long ago that our community learned that they typically only worked
less than 30 hours a week (but were paid as if they worked a full 40 hour
week). I haven't heard we've switched to an hourly based pay system for
Solid Wasste so I'd suggest that not much has changed. They probably still
have several hours a week that they could work before they reached a 40
hour week.

Your comment as to what you do "we pick up trash" is exactly right. No one
seems to notice what goes on within Solid Waste if their trash is being
picked up. It's that simple. But when you look past the solid waste pick
ups and start to look at things such as the current duplication of
service, disposal of yard waste in Virginia, even our household waste
disposal in Virginia, we as citizens must wonder what the heck is going
on. Afterall, our tax dollars pay for it all. Even the hazardous waste
situitation (even after it is expanded to 4 day drop off) has us
concerned. It is morally, ethically, and socially responsible to put the
safety of our community at the top of any list. Providing a safer
community lays the foundation for organizational excellence and integrity
in strategic, operational, and financial performance. When organizational
excellence is based on a commitment to ethical principles, there is a
belief that the preservation of human life supersedes other goods. That no
matter to what degree we achieve those goals, there is always room for
improvement.

By saving tax dollars on duplicate services, it will yield you a much
better standing in the community than the road you seem to be on. Saving
any money is a good thing; no matter how small it may seem to you. To us
it means you are looking out for us, not yourself or your department.
Laying off the entire yard waste division and parking the trucks is a hard
decision for you to make. But it's the cost saving decision that must be
made to stop the waste of tax payer money on duplicate services. We no
longer need a yard waste division. That's a fact. And the smoke and
mirrors you keep throwing out there defending this just doesn't fly. More
work, more injury; this is just speculation.

As you know (but the list probably could care less), OSHA completed its
multi-year study of the solid waste industry and has mandated that all
waste in carts be automated when dumped (at some point; due particularly
to injury related to lifting you mention; it's the trucks that have the
arm that picks up the carts and dumps them without human intervention
other than operating the levers that we all will be using in the future).
We have some automated trucks. Even the trucks that are not automated do
not require lifting; the mechanisms lift the carts for dumping. And as I
understand, Solid Waste personnel are trained in the right way/wrong way
to do all that they do. But accidents will happen even in  the best of
situitations and your department is no different. Cooler weather is coming
and the thought that heat is a factor just doesn't hold water. Other
departments, like General Services (who mow our parks and cut down our
dead trees) aren't on some heat related schedule. Public Works, that
repairs our sewers and paves our roads aren't on some heat related
schedule. And as plain as it is to see, those types of construction work
are much more rigorous than riding on the back of a truck or driving it.
I've often wondered why Solid Waste thought it was so special that it
abbreviated its schedule in hot weather. The world doesn't stop because it
gets hot; it keeps working. I know I have during this heat. Stuff still
has to get done. You want it cooler, pick up the waste at night like they
do in some major cities (not just in the summer, but year around). The
trucks would create less traffic jams, it would be cooler, and perhaps,
more could even get done because of the ease of getting around at night.
But that's a much different thought process than I'm advocating here. I
see no reason to go to that extreme.

If it takes so long to get through the transfer station (it has never
taken me that long and I sit in the slow lines), then I'd suggest you work
toward streamlining that end of your business more. Adding RFID chips to
your trucks if necessary for quick identification. What is the purpose of
going over the scales upon entry to weigh the trucks? It all gets loaded
on the bigger trucks going to Virginia. Better yet, let them weigh them in
Virginia when they dump it there (if you trust them with that). I'm sure
they already weigh it there as well. We don't pay for disposal in Virginia
by what comes through our front door at the transfer station here. We pay
for what we take through the doors in Virginia. So who cares what we weigh
in Durham. Forget the lines, just get the waste to the larger trucks and
forget about weighing them. If you want to know what's going to Virginia,
make the bigger trucks sit in line to get weighed. It puts your trucks
back out on the road faster if time is an issue (sitting in lines).

Thanks for your continued dialogue and thoughts. Our community appreciates
an open dialogue between our leadership and the citizens. I still maintain
that any amount of money saved is better than any money wasted, regardless
of some solid waste standards that you might want to apply. You should
realize by now that nothing is standard in Durham. If wasting $5200 a day
on duplicate services is solid waste industry standard, then by all means
follow the stream. But in life (as one would suspect in the solid waste
industry as well), only dead fish follow the stream...

RWP
27 Beverly