Trash Dumping
March 21, 2007
|
Posted by Aubrey Turner
I saw in today’s Star Telegram that Southlake has decided to dump Allied Waste.
As frustrated competitors looked on, the City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to a new trash service provider and a rate increase without putting the contract out to bid.
The council approved an 18-month contract with Republic Waste Services of Texas, also known as Duncan Disposal, after an informal survey of five area companies.
The contract is valued at $2 million and begins April 30.
“What we need now is good service,” said Councilman Gregory Jones before the 7-0 vote.
“I’m very pleased with the provisions that have been put in this contract.”
The strike certainly didn’t help, coming as it did at a time when customer complaints had been growing over late or missed collections.
Oddly enough, though, service actually improved for me during the strike! The replacement drivers seemed to arrive earlier and didn’t throw my trash can willy-nilly in the middle of the street.
As alluded to above, though, my chief complaint is that the regular drivers have a bad habit of throwing my trash can in the street. Worse, right after the strike ended, I looked out the window and noticed my trash can in the street again. About a minute after noticing it (I was on a conference call and couldn’t run out to move it) I saw the truck come back up the street to pick up the trash on the other side. The driver got out, looked at it on the way to and from grabbing the neighbor’s garbage, and just left it there!
Aside from that, the service works fairly well in my neighborhood, though. Maybe others had more problems during the strike than I did.
But should the Keller City Council consider alternatives, I hope they maintain the current terms of service. From everything I’ve heard, containerized service sucks (cf. Ft. Worth). I’d be willing to pay a fair amount more (haven’t decided an exact amount, though) to maintain our ability to be free from the shackles of carts and having to deal with the recycling nazis (once again, cf. Ft. Worth).
Categories: Keller Stuff
Fort Worth recycling nazis indeed. There is NO WAY we need that liberal crap in Keller (or any NE Tarrant city).
Sat, Oct. 21, 2006
City targets recycling violators
Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH—Starting next week, residents who repeatedly throw regular garbage into curbside recycling carts will be penalized. Fines run as high as $315.
__________________________________________
My letter to the editor:
Posted on Thu, Apr. 15, 2004
Forcing compliance
Star-Telegram
Since the need for an “environmental court” didn’t surface until the draconian (and unneeded) “sort-your-trash” program was implemented in Fort Worth, we can assume that city officials wish to become very efficient in forcing compliance with the environmental interactive propaganda often referred to as “recycling.” (See March 23 news story “City may get environmental court.”)
The proposed court, like any other government agency, will foster additional bureaucracy that must be fed (in order to justify its continued existence and budget) by more “customers.”
Thus, more “customers” (code violators) for the environmental court will have to be found.
I suggest that city officials may wish to partner with neighborhood spies who will report crimes that indicate insufficient adherence to the eco-religion—while receiving a special consideration for each conviction.
This type of system worked very well in the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Mike Sivertsen, Keller
When I was in Keller, I was very happy with the trash service: they took almost everything without any trouble at all. Well, they did tend to kill trash cans (usually by leaving them in the street, where they would get hit), and to be annoying about brush or bits of fence that weren’t bundled. But they were mostly OK.
In Michigan, though, there is no municipal garbage service: it’s all contracted. So I pay a very small amount, really, every quarter, and the people I contract with come and take my garbage and recycling and haul it off to the dump, or whatever they do with it. And here’s the reason why that’s really nice: if they miss me one day for some reason (even if it’s because I was too stupid to put out the trash before they come), I call them, and they come the next day and pick up even though it’s not when I’m scheduled for pickup.
The only thing that they ask is that you call them if you have something really big, so that they can plan their time accordingly. And it really, really cuts down on the strikes and such, because they would be out of business: everyone would switch to a new provider. I actually like using the free market for “essential services”. Go figure.
Don’t look for any change in trash providers any time soon. Our contract runs through August, 2010.
But the news is not all bad; Allied is contractually bound to kick back $25,000 per year for art.
Sigh.
Hmm… that sounds suspiciously like a hidden tax.
Who negotiated this thing? Whoever it was must think that the rest of us are such uncultured boors that we need to have art shoved down our throats at every turn.
I’m not sure, but I suspect this is Big Sister’s handiwork.