By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington posted a link yesterday so citizens can track the progress of The Great Garbage Spring: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/6899/
I’ve heard potholes aren’t being filled, 2 additional trucks have been rented, and it might take a month to remove all the curb junk. Scrappers and curb shoppers are removing some and making the mess bigger by sorting through the piles.
How much is this costing? The disposal fees are going to be astronomical. Since the landfill was close to full, did this hastened its demise?
Changing to twice a year is a learning experience. Hopefully the change will eventually save money.
Information on brush pickup is available at the link above as well as dropping off bulky items at the Citizens Convenience Center. Since the announcement failed to post those hours and they have changed: http://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/public-works/garbage-bulk-waste-recycle
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I’m kind of shocked that they went straight to twice a year. I would have thought it would have made more sense to go to once a month (say on your first garbage day of a calendar month). Numbers won’t fully shake out for at least a year, but between overtime, pulling assets off of other jobs (and resulting loss of productivity/additional costs to catch those jobs up), truck rental and additional maintenance, I bet the cost is about the same, or maybe even higher. It will be interesting to see what the next bulk waste day looks like, after people have been holding bulk waste and accumulating for half a year. That one may make this time around look organized.
This whole thing makes no sense to me. They are still going around every other week collecting brush and yard waste, so we’re not saving enormous sums on vehicles, gas, and payroll. Plus, with the old way, I’m sure the amount of refuse to be hauled away was significantly reduced by scrappers and curb-shoppers. With this new way, the piles are larger and there are a lot more of them all at the same time. Much harder for scrappers and others to find the treasures. So the city is probably picking up a lot more that others would have *recyced!*. I could see maybe doing bulky waste once a month, but anything less than that seems counter-productive.
And by once a month, I don’t mean the whole city once a month. Maybe a quarter of the city each week.
The Council should have voted to outsource Solid Waste collection. There will be no cost savings just like with the automated garbage trucks.
Remember, we couldn’t possibly try to outsource it, because at some future time the contractor might have raised rates and/or cut service. Which, of course, is entirely different from the City, which immediately after the decision not to bid it, raised rates and cut service. But at least the union cronies are still enriched.
I do remember. Consider the cost of overtime added. Poorly planned actions have negative unintentional consequences.
So if a Bloomington resident purchases a new mattress and box spring they are suppose to just let it sit clogging up their home, possibly creating a fire hazard, for up to six months? I suggest they take it and dump it in Renner’s front yard or maybe in front of City Hall. All this to suck up to Renner’s union money boys!
They can drop it off at the collection site. Hey: That’s how they can get people downtown!
The drop-off hours are oh-so-convenient for those who actually work jobs.
Well… they can drop it off IF (and that is a big IF) they have a truck. Maybe they can put it on one of the DisConnect Transit busses!
The twice per year pick up is “free.” If you want or need pick up at any other time, you need to call and you will be charged $25/front-end bucket load.
It’s actually 2 end loaders