Trash Fees Are Also Going Up

[Towntalk]

And what happens when you toss lets say a chair or a box of old National Geographics ... things that you wouldn't place in a bag. Once I tossed a complete Apple Computer system ... Computer, Monitor, Printer, 3 Disk Drives, and a lot of Software, another time a very old Radio Shack Computer and Software, and as I said, a sofa and coffee table.

I knew that the Trash Men took the stuff and not scavengers since I saw them with my own two eyes. It took all three men to load the stuff into the truck, but there were no complaints that I heard of.

Several times the family across the street put out so much trash that it went from their driveway to the next but the trash men took everything.

When I had a private hauler come in to take a huge amount of magazines and files I collected over a ten year period, he charged me $50.00 and completely loaded his truck with everything.

People on welfare and Senior Citizens on Social Security simply can not afford to shell out extra money each week for trash pickup. What would you do for them? They have a hard enough time with medical and utility bills. Should they just stop generating trash by going to a local soup kitchen once a day and make due with that?

It's easy to sit around postulating on seeing what extra expenses can be placed on the shoulders of the poor, but quite another to come up with ways to help.

There have been complaints about how mean "Fast Freddy" was in his comments about Seniors who are having a hard time keeping a roof over their heads, but the suggestion that these folks should have to pay per bag even if it's just a dollar a bag is just as mean.

Maby they could turn down the heat to 60 degrees and just burn one light in the house in an effort to save on utility expenses so that they can pay extra money to have their trash hauled off, or perhaps they should follow "Fast Freddy's" advice and move from their homes to a small apartment, but that wouldn't help them save much money.

Even the good people in Boardman are feeling the economic pinch as witnessed to the special election recently held.

[jay]

My earlier examples were similar to households near me.  One adult male living alone places one plastic bag (a grocery bag) out for collection each week.  A family of seven living about a hundred yards away places six full trash cans out each week.

In some collection areas in the suburbs, they have a "pay as you throw" system.  Special bags are purchased in bulk for about a dollar each.  If you fill one bag a week, you only prepaid one dollar for the service.  If you fill three bags per week, you will have paid three dollars.  No bookkeeping is involved.

[our2cents]

We break down all boxes, rip and layer them and save a lot of room.  There would be plenty of opportunity for people to pack those bags super tight and save room.  We're a family of 4, eat home all the time, and average 2-3 bags a week.  We also recycle everything we can.  The idea of pay per bag is plain crazy in our opinion.

[Towntalk]

Jay:

Tell us just who only generates one bag of trash a week. I live alone and I average 2 to 3 bags of trash a week. Of course I am not forever eating out, and most of my meals are made from scratch, but even then half my trash is paper. My landlord is also single and he generates 3 bags a week as does his Mother who lives next door, so between the three of us there is an average of nine bags of trash a week. The family across the street averages 2 bags of trash and the family next to them puts out two trash cans per week.

[our2cents]

Then everyone that had more than a bag a week that couldn't afford an unrealistic pay schedule, would start dumping everywhere.  Not to mention, the extra paperwork and administrative costs involved.  Then all the rates would be even higher.

[jay]

Our trash collection fee should be based on the amount of trash we generate.  It is unfair for a single person household that generates a half a bag of trash each week to pay the same as a large family generating five or six cans per week.  I would be in favor of paying by the bag.

[our2cents]

I agree.  The only thing I ever had them leave, was an old battery backup unit that I forgot to remove the battery.  I thought it was just dead and it came on when they pressed the button.  And we've also done our share of filling the tree lawn with no complaint from the collectors.

[Towntalk]

Who told you that you can't use trash cans on wheels in the city. My neighbors use them every week and they are dumped.

I've put out many strange things such as computers,couches, and an old coffee table and Waste Management took them without any complaint.

[Shar]

The problem that I have with the increase to close to private hauler rates is that we do not get the same service in the City of Youngstown that you get out in the suburbs.  In the City you cannot use the large trash cans on wheels because they will not take them.  They do not use the newer trucks that have the equipment to dump the larger cans.  We have called Waste Management and have asked if we could pay the "suburb" rate so that we could have the better service and have been told that because of the City's contract with them they could not upgrade our service.  So now...we will pay more for our service but still not get the upgraded service.

[our2cents]

Using Time Warner Cable as an example, you can rest assured that that the rates would keep going up every time you turned around.

This is just a fact of life.  Inflation exists, and will always bring these raises.  It just makes everyone think back to a cheaper time.  Too bad other sources of income don't seem to adjust for inflation at the same rates...but that is another subject.

[Towntalk]

I agree whole heartedly on government waste, and when you take into consideration all the other taxes like the one for the county coming up, I can understand how Senior Citizens feel (I'm a Senior Citizen myself), but there are certain Budget items that are an absolute necessity ... Police ... Fire ... Trash Pickup ... Streets ... Jail.

The big question is ... just how much are we willing to do without in order to save money?

If trash hauling were in the private sector with no city involvement, how much would we pay?

Using Time Warner Cable as an example, you can rest assured that that the rates would keep going up every time you turned around.

[our2cents]

$135.00 a year total for pickup at 1 single address is about the same or less than pickup in other areas. 

But I can also understand people on fixed incomes seeing this as a big change...especially when there are all the news stories of wasteful activities within the city government and council.

[Towntalk]

How much would you pay per month if you had a private hauler pick up your trash?

I suspect that you would be paying a whole lot more.

Is $27.00 a year really all that excessive?

Would you prefer to haul your own trash to the landfill?

These folks come out in all sorts of weather to do a job that few of us would want to do, and I dare say that there is no one in this group that would want to be able to say that they are the local garbage man.

[jay]

The rate increase did pass at the council meeting.  That's a 25% increase.

[our2cents]

http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/307027967824512.php
"Beginning April 1, the monthly cost for residential customers will go from $9 to $11.25. City council is to vote on the increase at its meeting today. "

Anyone know if City Council passed the vote on the issue tonight?