By: Diane Benjamin
I’ve never understood why so many locals think their garbage would never be picked up if it was privatized. Most of those who don’t agree are transplants who came from towns where garbage was privatized. Most are appalled they have to pay the government monopoly to get garbage picked up. Competition always produces cheaper prices, government never does.
I received this email yesterday:
The City made hay on Constitution Trail behind our house yesterday, the second mowing of the summer.
Meanwhile, at the front of the house…
Our yard refuse was to have been picked up Tuesday when the garbage was collected. It is 4.30 pm Friday, so I don’t think it will be picked up today or even this week. This is another example of how it works… We paid money for pick up once a week, of yard refuse, garbage and bulk waste. Then we paid the same price for garbage weekly and bulk plus yard waste twice a month. Now we pay the same price, still get garbage once a week, but bulk twice a year, and yard waste whenever they decide to do it. This is four houses, four piles of yard waste that were there on Tuesday when it was supposed to be picked up.
I wonder this – if they privatized it, would they still charge us for it, as well as our paying a private firm for removal, or could they sell the trucks, lay off the staff, and quit charging us? Government never does as good a job as a private firm.
This pic was included:
You are paying more and getting less. Still want government doing what the private sector can do better and cheaper?
In Bloomington they only pick up brush the week they don’t do recycle collection.
That was suppose to be Tuesday. Public Works has too many supervisors and not enough workers.
I think you meant…..Public Works has too many unions and supervisors and not enough workers that give their best effort. Right?
Nope!
I find it a bit odd that you don’t call out the “theft of services” from the union employees on the garbage crews that work less than 8 hours and get paid for 8 hours based on your conservative values. It seems as though you are protecting some “insider views” from those same folks instead of reporting the truth. That seems what you are supposedly against? Interesting.
How would I know how many hours they work? I have written about they being told to.leave early.
Sounds like a great opportunity for your investigative reporting then. There’s a big difference between not agreeing to do additional work when you’re on the clock “because it’s not in my job description” and being “told to go home”. They are not told to go home…..when it is suggested they will be put on other duties (bulk pick up, brush pick up, help parks crews mow, other street duties) when they finish with their regular routes, they then threaten (or even prove) that will take them the full 8 hours to do their routes (work slow down) instead. Poor management hasn’t fixed it and have allowed bad ethical behavior to continue by the workers.
I have sources. You are talking about how it worked before automated trucks. It doesn’t anymore.
They are having so many issues in that dept.
That stuff is not to be in the street either. It will clog up the storm drains.
AND they used to do a better job. The crew on my street sucks!
To the person who said yard waste isn’t to be in the street, if you put it on the grass, the grass sometimes turns yellow before they come to get it and they do a poor job of picking it up off the lawn. People put it out whenever they have it because the city cannot be depended on to pick it up on the proper day, the day the city said they would. The city is the one who said they’d pick it up every other week – I certainly did not set the schedule for them. But they cannot follow their own schedule. At this point, we are thankful they still haul away the household trash weekly.
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JOIN the club! Our lawn waste MAYBE gets picked up every 2 weeks, or less! And that’s NOT to mention the recycling truck that drops small glass pieces ALL OVER the street EVERY 2 weeks, so much so, that the local kids get flat bicycle tires! Want to correct this? GET OUT and VOTE next time!! Because Tari AND the council, nor city employees SURE don’t care!
Normal had this. When reporting it last year, the response was a hole in the truck. No clean-up plan or procedures though, just a ‘promise’ it would eventually be fixed. We’re still picking up loose, sharp glass pieces that are out where kids are playing.
Town leadership can’t be too hard on the workers though or reduce what is paid (in line with the private sector who could be removed if they did as poor a job) because they can’t lose the votes for Koos and Co. speaking of which, I can’t see Koos running again unless he wants to be trounced like RC McBride was.
My leaves sat on the curb for 3 months last fall before getting picked up.
I put my yard waste out several weeks ago on the proper day. It wasn’t picked up so I put a complaint on the city app. I got an email the complaint was received. Yard waste sat there 2 more weeks on the curb. I put a second complaint on the app. About an hour later I got a email that said my issue was resolved which it wasn’t so I put another complaint in. I got an email back that said the trucks were running behind. A week later on a non trash day it was picked up.
This is standard practice and I live on a major street in town. Why do I pay so much money and get crap service? Complaints go unanswered.
Heyworth has private garbage collection. The garbage is picked up once a week and the recycle every other week. No muss no fuss. One guy runs the truck for recycle and one for garbage. Is this what Tari means when he says private business cant pick up garbage efficiently? They are even nice enough to send all the residents calendars to remind them of garbage/recycle days and what recyclables can and cant be put in recycle bins.
I have had private pick up in my life and “city” pick up, the biggest difference is MOST private pick up just does what they are supposed to do, and sometimes cheaper – got a chair or a sofa? They just pick it up, that day, on the regular route, a bag or two over the top of the bin? No problem no extra charge or nasty note/letters I know there are crappy private services too, so you drop them – no problem – Good private companies understand that they are a SERVICE and understand that to keep customers they must provide decent service. Anything connected to “the city”, it seems, and Bloomington is getting worse and worse, is almost always more expensive and less well done – anyone who has experience with any “city” connected services, if they are honest, knows this. A fish rots from the head down and the “head” of the Bloomington fish is pretty far gone.
I’m sure it’s been mentioned already, but Bloomington’s biggest issue with brush pick up is their Unions. The unions mean that the pick ups need to be made with 4+ people. The use a huge front loader to scoop it up, then have guys standing to throw whatever missed in the bucket. Then they lift it and dump it into a truck. Doing this all while blocking traffic in both directions. It is hands down one of the most inefficient things I’ve ever seen.
How about you tell me in this contract where it takes four people: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21827&fbclid=IwAR3KGJpxCI-YPXvwu5NXlZ3TQPMKAkEoTI52GhNYCjsIWv53nTR-UFamdF8
The problem with putting brush, etc on your lawn instead of the street/gutter is that their end loader takes a chunk of lawn with the debris.
If it is privatized, what if my neighbor just decides he doesn’t want to pay for garbage service? Yeah, I know, you get code enforcement involved, blah, blah, blah.
Peoria has private service. It works for them.