The city is now talking about a garbage fee as on way to make up for the shortfall or as an alternative to other taxes. Â I support the current solution of paying it out of my property taxes.
Robynn Tysver
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER wrote:Some cities, such as Lincoln, have totally privatized trash collection. It's up to the individual homeowner or resident to contract for garbage service.
The city has little or no involvement unless trash piles up on the curb or in a house. Then it becomes a code enforcement problem, said Greg MacLean, public works director in Lincoln.
Not sure if that would work here, Omaha is too big and there would be lots of illegal dumping.
Robynn Tysver
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER wrote:The City of Des Moines charges a fee. The city hires its own trash haulers and purchases its own trucks. It gives residents the option of contracting for a 96-gallon or a 64-gallon wheeled cart. It costs $12 a month for the larger cart and $11 for the smaller one.
The city tacks the garbage charge onto the water bill. The charge is mandatory.
I LOVED my private trash service in Lincoln. They picked it up twice a week, there were no requirements (it can't weigh more than "x", can't be bigger than "y", has to be in THIS type of container, etc.). I could damn near have thrown my car in with the trash and they would take it.
I would GLADLY get rid of the city service.
Last edited by joeglow on Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1) They actually take the trash I put out, and when they don't, can at least give me an explanation as to why
2) I could pick what day of the week my trash gets picked up. Where I live trash is picked on Friday which I hate because I usually clean out the fridge on weekends, so in the summer it sits around for a week stewing outside in the trash can.
Life is the sh*t that happens while we wait for moments that never come.
I've never had any problems with the city trash service... and the only time I've seen others have 'problems' were when they were too lazy to break down their |expletive| to a reasonable size (by the way, this is all outlined in the 'Wastelines' newsletter you receive quarterly folks)... or placed totally ridiculous items out for pickup (saw a neighbor put a recliner out there one day).
Shoot for the Moon... if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
I'm OK with the trash service fee- it will be one less thing that my tax dollars are going towards. Living in a high rise condo the association already has to pay for trash service. It would just make sense to add a trash fee as long as the city charges the fee to the people who actually use the service instead of making it a blanket fee across the city even for residents who already have to pay for trash service.
By the way, I should mention, I've lived in two SIDs outside the city of Omaha and paid for private trash hauling. Â It 'tasted' no different than the city contracted service to me.
Shoot for the Moon... if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
If the city does decide to require residents to contract directly for their own trash removal, I hope pick-up is still limited to a single day of the week within a given area/neighborhood. Otherwise, we'll end up with trash cans lining the streets pretty much every day of the week for pick-up from the various haulers. It's bad enough already when people put out their cans too far in advance or leave the empty cans strewn about the neighborhood for days after pick-up.
I'd also like to see a move toward somewhat larger single trash containers that can be emptied by an automated truck, rather than manually.
The issue comes down to whether we want to continue subsidizing trash removal for people who are least able to pay for the service, or run the risk that they will illegally dump their trash somewhere else when they are unable to pay. Eventually someone (we) will have to pay to clean up the mess, unless we don't mind living in a dump.
This whole budget crisis irks me. Outside of outrageous police & fire pensions, the shortfall has mainly been caused by the decrease in sales tax collection, which in effect is a tax reduction for residents. People need to face the fact and either pony-up the money to pay for the city's obligations, or give up city services. Keep in mind the prices the city pays to private contractors to provide goods and services remain high. The money has to come from somewhere.
No doubt Suttle could have set a better example by taking a pay cut himself and for his staff and spreading the pain across the board. He is governing via knee-jerk reaction.
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings" ...and then they were gone.
GetUrban wrote:
This whole budget crisis irks me. Outside of outrageous police & fire pensions, the shortfall has mainly been caused by the decrease in sales tax collection, which in effect is a tax reduction for residents. People need to face the fact and either pony-up the money to pay for the city's obligations, or give up city services. Keep in mind the prices the city pays to private contractors to provide goods and services remain high. The money has to come from somewhere.
That is funny. Â Actually cities need to realize there have been economic cycles for hundreds of years (tulip bulb mania?) and will be for centuries to come. Â When times are good, you save money instead of saying "look at all the cool new |expletive| we can buy for the city," knowing that it will help you get through the tough times. Â And people wonder why our population is so lazy and stupid when it comes to finances. Â We are just following the model set by our government.
Stargazer wrote:I've never had any problems with the city trash service... and the only time I've seen others have 'problems' were when they were too lazy to break down their |expletive| to a reasonable size (by the way, this is all outlined in the 'Wastelines' newsletter you receive quarterly folks)... or placed totally ridiculous items out for pickup (saw a neighbor put a recliner out there one day).
Yes, I always read that mailer, and not everything is outlined clearly, thank you. And if you call Deff for an explanation, they just hang up on you.
Life is the sh*t that happens while we wait for moments that never come.
I love the trash service I pay for in an SID. Â They take anything, no matter how big, small, heavy, and don't care if it isn't 'broken down' or not. Â They request I call ahead If I'm going to leave a major appliance or a piece of furniture on the curb, which I have, and they took it no problem. Â There are many different services being utilized by the residents on my block, but pickup for everyone is on Wednesday or Thursday, so trash isn't on the curb 7 days a week--just two.
When I am annexed, I will continue to pay for my service and ignore the city service altogether.
"This is America. Â It is my God given right to be loudly opinionated on issues I am completely ignorant of."
2) I could pick what day of the week my trash gets picked up. Where I live trash is picked on Friday which I hate because I usually clean out the fridge on weekends, so in the summer it sits around for a week stewing outside in the trash can.
I clean out my fridge in April, in even numbered years.
The hubby and I just bought our first home in the Country Club neighborhood and I have a garbage question. Â Do we need to set that up, or do they just run down the street and pick up garbage cans that are out on pick up days? Â Weird question, but I've always been a renter and don't know squat about any of this home stuff.
Midtown Gal wrote:The hubby and I just bought our first home in the Country Club neighborhood and I have a garbage question. Do we need to set that up, or do they just run down the street and pick up garbage cans that are out on pick up days? Weird question, but I've always been a renter and don't know squat about any of this home stuff.
We were the same way a few years ago. Â You just put your stuff out on the curb on your day and they'll pick it up. Â It's Deffenbaugh - they're contracted for teh whole city so they don't keep track of who is where or if they're a customer. Â If there are cans out, they'll get them. Â Well...unless there's something heavy or awkward or which might require effort. Â
almighty_tuna wrote:Well...unless there's something heavy or awkward or which might require effort.
Heavy and awkward has a very liberal definition to Deffenbaugh. Â Last week my pizza boxes qualified. Â Can't wait to see what they don't care to pick up this week!
“Auditors are the people who show up after the battle and stab the wounded.”
Oh |expletive|. Â Pizza boxes are considered heavy and awkward? Â My husband, who I describe as having the "mouth of the south" (One of my Tennessee-isms), is going to have a field day if something like this happens. Â Our building that we're moving out of has a trash chute, so we've been spoiled for the past 5 years.
joeglow wrote:I LOVED my private trash service in Lincoln. They picked it up twice a week, there were no requirements (it can't weigh more than "x", can't be bigger than "y", has to be in THIS type of container, etc.). I could darn near have thrown my car in with the trash and they would take it.
I would GLADLY get rid of the city service.
Heck, back in Sioux City we did throw a car in with the trash and they hauled it away!!
I tried to throw away a tv box with all of the styrofoam packaging inside of it. Â They took the time to fill out a note informing me that my box was too bulky and that there was stuff inside of it. Â I was informed this evening that each piece of styrofoam needs to be trash bags. Â I now have a tv box and eight trash bags of packaging material sitting out to be picked up.
Apparently it's a better use of time for Deff to write me a note than to just pick up the trash. Â Stupid.
“Auditors are the people who show up after the battle and stab the wounded.”
Melissa wrote:I tried to throw away a tv box with all of the styrofoam packaging inside of it. They took the time to fill out a note informing me that my box was too bulky and that there was stuff inside of it. I was informed this evening that each piece of styrofoam needs to be trash bags. I now have a tv box and eight trash bags of packaging material sitting out to be picked up.
Apparently it's a better use of time for Deff to write me a note than to just pick up the trash. Stupid.
You're lucky they didn't toss it in the street and run it over. Which they are apt to do from time to time.
We had our first trash run in the new house today and they took everything!! Â |expletive| loads of broken down cardboard (snuck some pizza boxes in there too) and old medicine cabinet, an old dirty light fixture and about 10 other contractor size garbage bags of filth.
95% of the time private companies do a better job that government run services.
It's no question the city's garbage service should be gotten rid of and it should just be made a requirement that at all times every "legal residence" have a document they have a garbage service they'd paid for.
MrPoloShirt wrote:95% of the time private companies do a better job that government run services.
It's no question the city's garbage service should be gotten rid of and it should just be made a requirement that at all times every "legal residence" have a document they have a garbage service they'd paid for.
Deffenbaugh IS a private company that bid and won a contract with the city of Omaha to provide the service.
I personally would rather not have to deal directly to pay a hauler to provide the service. It would become more inefficient if several different haulers picked up trash on each street. There would be cans sitting out by the curb all week long. Neighborhoods would have to establish (govern) their own pick-up days and rules to avoid chaos.....a task better left to city government, IMO. If it was totally private, the city would still have to enforce the law requiring everybody to have paid garbage service. Perhaps you'd like snow removal to be totally private too.
I've never had any trouble with the current service, other than cans blocking my driveway occasionally. Big deal.
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings" ...and then they were gone.
Deffenbaugh IS a private company that bid and won a contract with the city of Omaha to provide the service.
I personally would rather not have to deal directly to pay a hauler to provide the service. It would become more inefficient if several different haulers picked up trash on each street. There would be cans sitting out by the curb all week long. Neighborhoods would have to establish (govern) their own pick-up days and rules to avoid chaos.....a task better left to city government, IMO. If it was totally private, the city would still have to enforce the law requiring everybody to have paid garbage service. Perhaps you'd like snow removal to be totally private too.
I've never had any trouble with the current service, other than cans blocking my driveway occasionally. Big deal.[/quote]
Back in Upstate New York we had private trash service in our town and the different trash companies just picked up on the same day so there weren't trash cans out every day of the week.
The City of Albany also uses private contractors for snow removal- not for all city streets but for the majority of the residential streets. It was a very efficient program- the contractors bid for the winter- this way the city knew exactly how much it would cost for snow removal no matter how much/how little it snowed. Sometimes the contractors made bank, other times they lost money but the residential streets were always cleaned up- most contractors had the streets cleaned by the morning if it snowed overnight. Also, if a contractor gets too many complaints for not getting the snow removed fast enough, they can lose their ability to bid on the plowing for the next winter.
