How about a compromise?
The District Councils (or for that matter, any Concerned Citizen) could
publish in the local papers an article on "How To Pay Less For Garbage
Service While At The Same Time Reducing Noise, Alley Danger, And Greenhouse
Gases." It could be directed at Block Captains (or facsimile) and be
modeled after all the stuff the police hand out. "Here's a form you can
send to all the people on your block to get a sense of how you can
consolidate your garbage hauling." Survey questions could include:
How strongly do you feel about supporting the little guy before
BFI/WM? (So VERY happy to agree with the Tom-Thom Club today! How
refreshing!)
How much do you pay per week? To whom?
blah blah blah
Alley Snow Plowing Coordinators would be exempt from doing any work in this
regard. What a royal pain in the arse that can be! How fair is it for the
same 6 households to never pay a cent for keeping the alley clear for
Firetrucks, e.g., whether they drive down the alley or not? Another
article in the paper guilting these deadbeats into paying their share might
help.
I actually collected this data one year and then never did anything about
it...
An aside - and I know I already said this - but soon after that lady got
killed on Grand, I went up there. Damned if a garbage truck didn't almost
rear end me with faulty brakes right at the same intersection! Aspen
company. I took the plate #, called the cops, and never will know if they
had their brakes fixed.
The stump-grinding process went very smoothly for us this year. But that's
because Betty helped - I wouldn't've known what to do. How can one screw
up grinding a stump? Or picking up garbage? I suppose anything is
possible... Alley plowing is certainly more of an art.
What was the question? BTW, our garbagemen are from R&M Sanitation, Pt.
Douglas Road.
AMH
Dead End Alley
Tobacco Road
Andrew M. Hine
Corporate Research Materials Laboratory
3M Center 201-1W-28
St. Paul MN
55144-1000
USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel: (651) 733-1070
Fax: (651) 737-5335
Lab 201-W110
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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08/26/2004 11:33 cc
PM
Subject
Re: [StPaul] Privatization - Trash
Haulers
In a message dated 8/26/2004 3:46:40 PM Central Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> I think John's suggestions are viable. However, it isn't happening
> because people don't care. its something the Community Councils
> could do, if there was interest.
>
>
Having worked for the City Council during the last time there was a serious
effort to organize collection in Saint Paul, I'll tell you what always
makes it
difficult to do and why the District Council would find this next to
impossible to handle. The problem is in the contracting itself. In order
to get some
kind of a deal from a hauler you would need some guaranteed contract. So,
p
eople need to be locked in. When you lock people in (city assigning
routes)
then they lose the option of hiring their own hauler (which some people
like)
and contracts for service are transferable and the fear that the contract
may be
sold becomes an issue. If the City assigned routes, most people in the
industry believed that the two international garbage companies would buy up
all of
the routes and our free market system would become a monopoly. This was a
potential that most felt would be a lose/lose for the city.
Having the District Councils attempting to organize individual blocks would
be a monumental task that would have few up sides and huge down sides for
the
District Council. Let's say the District Council organized your block to a
hauler and the hauler was late, who would you call to complain to? Dumped
garbage on your lawn? Banged the cans together at 5:30 AM? That crappy
District
council gave me this lame hauler what a bunch of stupid jerks!
The District Council's are currently operating the stump removal program
for
the City. The City hasn't removed stumps from boulevards for years and
instead will pay half of the cost of removal if the District Council
operates a
program where the homeowner pays the other half. First it has been almost
impossible to find a contractor who will set a price to remove a stump site
unseen,
so that you can advertise a price to the homeowners and second when the
contractor screws up its the District Council that the homeowner blames -
like we are
in the tree business! Of course most of the Districts have been willing to
offer the program, despite the hassle, so that neighbors don't get hit with
huge bills to have stumps removed from their boulevards... but right now,
someone
will pick up your garbage.
So, please, don't think that the District Councils will look at this as a
great opportunity to organize the community. What it would be is an
opportunity
to get into a lot of fights with homeowners about garbage collection.
Just My Opinion Not Those Of My Employers Past Present Or Future
Chuck Repke
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