Rubbish Removal

At the beginning of the year, the Democrat & Chronicle ran an extensive article on the inconsistencies of rubbish removal pricing, citing two neighbors, with the same service, paying vastly different fees. They compared it, not in a good way, to cable pricing. Interestingly, the D&C reported that Brighton had set up refuse districts, and in exchange for lower rates for its residents, the town organizes the billing, through the annual tax bill. It turns out that my street is just outside a very large set of these districts, and I was determined to get my street included. I chatted with Chad Roscoe, Junior Engineer at the Department of Public Works at Town Hall, and learned that I needed 75% of my street to agree (with notarized statements from each person listed on each deed) to the district, and then the entire street (including any opposing residents) would become a district. All or none.

A little background, though. Years ago, when my parents lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, they had a similar choice. My father (hm – perhaps he’s the inspiration for some of my community activism…) rallied the street and got the required participation. But there was one neighbor who opposed the plan – she hated the thought of the government controlling her trash pickup, and she wanted to stay with a private carrier, despite the additional cost – who became a dedicated adversary the rest of my father’s time there. I didn’t want that to happen to me – I plan to live in my house for a very long time, and I’m reluctant to deliberately antagonize any neighbor!

I offered to organize the district to include a neighboring street, but there was one resident there who was reluctant to sign on, in fear of losing the ability to leave their rubbish at their garage, instead of having to tote it to the curb. Based on my dad’s experience, I left that street alone, and stuck to my own, where my neighbors were all in. One couple, in evaluating the change, realized they were paying around $450/year, compared to my $360. They called to complain, and got a reduction down to… $380.

On March 30 (two months ahead of the June 1 deadline), I delivered six notarized forms, which represented 75% of the eight houses on our lane. The woman at the desk was alarmed – only six? I did the math for her, and explained that I stopped nagging my neighbors for the forms once I had enough. The town board then had to vote at a meeting to make our street a refuse district, which they did. Just recently, we were notified by Waste Management of our new Refuse District status, and we were relieve to learn that our pickup day would remain the same, as would all other terms of service. I phoned Chad Roscoe to thank him, and ask him what our new annual fee would be. He said he didn’t know for sure, and that it would be billed annually on our tax bill, but that it would be in the neighborhood of…$215.

So it does pay to get the local paper! Now, if only we could get Greenlight to come to our neighborhood so we could ditch cable...