garbage - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T11:17:22Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/garbageBoca Raton: City decides not to privatize garbage pickuphttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-city-decides-not-to-privatize-garbage-pickup2019-07-03T14:11:42.000Z2019-07-03T14:11:42.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Mary Hladky</b></span></p>
<p class="p3">City Council members have rejected outsourcing residential garbage collection and recycling services.</p>
<p class="p3">City staff explored the option of contracting with Waste Pro because Boca Raton faces rising costs to provide the services, including the need to buy more garbage trucks and to build a larger garage to house them.</p>
<p class="p3">Another issue is that the city pays its sanitation workers less than a private company would, and as a result is having trouble hiring and retaining employees.</p>
<p class="p3">Waste Pro convinced city staff that the company would provide better service at less cost.</p>
<p class="p3">But residents, sanitation workers and union officials who spoke at the May 29 City Council meeting pleaded to keep city trash collection in-house.</p>
<p class="p3">“I love working for Boca and the residents love our service we give them. Going private is not the way,” said a 19-year sanitation veteran. His voice broke as he added, “I love this job, I do.”</p>
<p class="p3">“You will not get the same service,” said a 30-year employee. “Please keep Boca, Boca.”</p>
<p class="p3">“They do quality work,” said resident Steven Griffith. “I don’t see any reason why we should all of a sudden privatize. … We have a good thing. Let’s try to keep it going.”</p>
<p class="p3">Council members quickly made what Andrea O’Rourke said was the biggest decision to come before the council.</p>
<p class="p3">Mayor Scott Singer summed up their consensus: “Don’t mess with success.”</p>
<p class="p3">But he conceded that the city now will have to find a way to pay for rising collection costs and better sanitation worker pay.</p>
<p class="p3">“The city will rise to that challenge,” he said.</p>
<p class="p3">Council members agreed that the amount the city would save by privatizing was not enough to offset the loss of control over the quality of service provided to residents.</p>
<p class="p3">And they did not want to give up bragging rights that Boca Raton is a “full-service” city that does not outsource, even though most Florida cities have privatized trash collection.</p>
<p class="p3">The cost of the city providing the service over the next 15 years would total between $221.3 million and $233.2 million, while the cost of privatizing would range between $216.8 million and $220.4 million, city staff projected.</p>
<p class="p3">While the cost difference was not substantial, Waste Pro would have provided other benefits.</p>
<p class="p3">Garbage collection would be six days a week, rather than the city’s four. Waste Pro would collect on every holiday except Christmas and New Year’s, while the city has 11 holiday exceptions.</p>
<p class="p3">Residents can contact the sanitation department only by phone, while Waste Pro offers phone, website and app communications. The city would have to buy software costing as much as $1 million to match Waste Pro’s online service.</p>
<p class="p3">The city’s collection vehicles are up to 7 years old and break down frequently, while Waste Pro’s vehicles are 3 years old or less. Waste Pro would have paid the city $2 million for its vehicles.</p>
<p class="p3">City staff talked to many other cities that use Waste Pro, and got good reviews.</p>
<p class="p3">“Everybody we have talked to talks very well of the services provided by Waste Pro,” said Assistant City Manager Mike Woika.</p>
<p class="p3">City residents will pay more for trash collection and recycling whether or not the city contracted with Waste Pro.</p>
<p class="p3">But the higher cost, possibly about 3 percent per year, will start soon now that the city will continue to provide the service. Under Waste Pro, those increases would have been put off for four to seven years.</p>
<p class="p3">The council’s decision does not affect trash pickup for commercial businesses, which use private haulers, including Waste Pro. </p></div>Gulf Stream: Town poised to switch garbage haulershttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-town-poised-to-switch-garbage-haulers2018-10-03T16:28:24.000Z2018-10-03T16:28:24.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /> <br />Waste Management’s familiar green trucks will disappear from town streets in six months unless the garbage-hauling giant and Gulf Stream officials can renew a contract at a “comfortable” rate.<br /> Town Manager Greg Dunham, who in July planned to sign a five-year extension of the contract with the price adjusted for inflation, negotiated an extension through March 2019.<br /> “We’ve talked with them on a number of occasions. They’ve really not provided a number that we’re comfortable with in terms of the increase,” Dunham told Gulf Stream commissioners Sept. 14.<br /> Mayor Scott Morgan said Dunham should continue negotiating with Waste Management but also draw up a request for bids from other trash haulers if the two sides cannot reach a deal.<br /> “I think we should authorize the town manager to begin work requesting public bids to provide the services,” Morgan said.<br /> Waste Management trucks have been on the scene in Gulf Stream for 25 years, since Oct. 1, 1993. This five-year extension would have been its last before state law would have required the town to seek a new round of competitive bids, Durham said in July.<br /> “The staff rarely receives complaints regarding garbage collection,” Dunham said in a memo then. “When there is an issue regarding the service, Waste Management responds quickly, without hesitation.”<br />Single-family homes will pay $31.13 a month through March for garbage service, up 2.7 percent from the expired contract, Dunham said.<br /> Garbage is picked up on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with recycling also collected on Saturdays and yard waste and bulk on Wednesdays.<br /><strong>In other business:</strong><br /> • Town commissioners approved a $5.58 million budget for fiscal 2019. The tax rate is $4.05 per $1,000 of taxable value, a decrease of .24 percent from the budget year that just ended. The spending plan includes $531,383 to design and get permits for the first phase of Gulf Stream’s ambitious 10-year plan to improve streets and drainage.<br /> • Dunham proclaimed phase one of the utility-line burial project “finally complete” with the removal of power poles on Pelican Lane, Andrews Avenue and Driftwood Landing. Also, Florida Power and Light Co. has made all its conversions from overhead to underground connections in phase two, he said.<br /> • Workers at 3140 Polo Drive graded the front and back yards and were preparing to put in landscaping before finishing the interior of the house, which has been under construction nearly three years.</p></div>Boca Raton: Resident leads cleanup of Lake Wyman shorelinehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-resident-leads-cleanup-of-lake-wyman-shoreline2016-08-03T17:54:57.000Z2016-08-03T17:54:57.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960667877,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960667877,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960667877?profile=original" /></a><em>Brent Robinson picks up a can near a shopping cart he found filled with trash at Lake Wyman.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By April W. Klimley <br /><br /></strong> Bruce Hurley discovered something when he organized a cleanup day for the shore along Lake Wyman: Environmental stewardship can be challenging. <br /> “It’s my going-away present to Boca,” Hurley said before the cleanup, held July 16 on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway, facing Gumbo Limbo nature preserve and backing onto Rutherford Park. <br /> He had long been planning a move to North Carolina with his son, Grayson, and wife, Mary Ellen, on Aug. 8. The cleanup idea stemmed from a wilderness adventure day he went on with Grayson over a month ago. They went deep into a wilderness pocket at Lake Wyman Park that Hurley had explored while he was in high school in Boca Raton.<br /> Today, the park is overgrown and the pathway into it is barely visible. When Hurley, 52, took his son through it, they had to traipse over uprooted trees, avoid natural booby traps and elude the abandoned boardwalk. They also saw a remarkable number of hermit and land crabs, spiders and birds, to the delight of Hurley’s son. But when they reached the shoreline, they were in for a big surprise. <br /> “The only downside of our day was the shameful amount of garbage,” Hurley said. “We even found a shopping cart filled with garbage and junk.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960668300,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960668300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960668300?profile=original" /></a><em>A cleanup crew discovered garbage strewn all over Lake Wyman Park’s little-used boardwalk.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> This debris marred the natural beauty of the shoreline, and Hurley was both incensed and inspired.<br /> He immediately decided to organize a Lake Wyman natural area cleanup — as his parting gift to the city and an exercise in environmental activism. <br /> Little did he know how much effort it would take. Just a few people came forward after his call to action — perhaps because the July heat was already in the high 90s in the morning. <br /> One dedicated soul was Brent Robinson, the owner of Robinson’s Nursery and Landscaping, who volunteered to get permits from four agencies so the cleanup could proceed. <br /> Robinson contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Inland Navigation District, the Boca Raton Recreation Services Department and the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. Gumbo Limbo provided the insurance release forms and cleanup equipment. <br /> “Gumbo Limbo was very supportive,” said Robinson as he unloaded his truck. “They contributed garbage bags, grab-its and gloves. And they will pick up the garbage at the end of the day.”</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960668069,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960668069,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960668069?profile=original" /></a><em>Bruce Hurley (rear) and his son, Grayson, forge into the wooded area at Lake Wyman Park.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Hurley and nursery owner Brent Robinson organized a cleanup to collect trash from the park’s cluttered path and lagoon.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> Robinson showed up early for the cleanup, accompanied by his young daughter. He joined Hurley, Grayson and Mary Ellen, plus another volunteer, Mahesh Neelakanta. <br /> Neelakanta had seen Hurley’s “call for action” on a Facebook page. He decided to participate because Lake Wyman Park’s wilderness is a place to go exploring with his young son, Tenzin. <br /> “This is as close as you can come to a wooded area in Boca,” he said. “You have to get that area cleaned up so that parents can take their kids in and go exploring.”<br /> This small but dedicated group set out southward to find the overgrown entrance to the path. They struggled through the brush, finally reaching the shoreline of Lake Wyman, where they started bagging refuse in earnest. They found garbage ranging from bottles and beer cans to plastic bags and Styrofoam pieces. As they picked up more and more debris, the bags kept getting heavier and heavier. <br /> Mary Ellen Hurley and Neelakanta decided to turn around and walk out of the park with three large bags each. The rest of the group walked on. By the time they reached the central part of the shore and spied the end of the Rutherford Park boardwalk, they realized they had had enough.<br /> “We decided to leave some bags behind and come back later. They had just gotten too heavy for us to haul back,” said Bruce Hurley, as he emerged from the shore with his tired companions.<br /> Robinson offered to bring a crew in from his company to haul out the remaining bags in the next day or two into the parking lot.<br /> But Hurley wasn’t satisfied. “There is at least 30 bags’ worth of garbage still there to get, plus two shopping carts to haul out,” he said. <br /> More debris had accumulated than Hurley remembered from a month ago. Some of it, such as the Styrofoam, seemed likely to have floated in from boats on the Intracoastal. But other items looked like they had come from people passing through and just leaving garbage behind. <br /> Not willing to give up, Hurley started calling upon friends and neighbors right away to join him for another possible excursion to finish the cleanup before his August departure. He was also determined to find someone with a boat to help haul away the bags and shopping carts. <br /> “But that won’t be the end of it,” Hurley said. “More garbage is bound to accumulate. The challenge will be to keep the place cleaned up. It’s a great piece of wilderness. I’m hoping people will go and visit it, and then come out carrying garbage bags with any refuse they find.” <br /> Hurley talks about his departure wistfully, even though he’s looking forward to settling in a new region after living in Boca Raton for 50 years. He recently wrote to friends online that, “My home is wherever my family is, but a big part of my heart will always belong to Boca.”</p></div>Delray Beach: Back-door trash pickup being phased outhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-back-door-trash-pickup-being-phased-out2011-11-02T20:17:43.000Z2011-11-02T20:17:43.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div>By Margie Plunkett<br /><br /> Come January, Sherwood Park residents will no longer have the choice of rear/side yard garbage pickup. While they’re losing a service option, they’re gaining an advantage.<br /> “They’ll have their rates lowered,” said City Manager David Harden.<br /> Delray Beach, served by Waste Management, recommended the conversion after taking a survey of the Sherwood Park and barrier island neighborhoods to determine if they still wanted to receive rear/side yard pickup, which costs more than curbside.<br /> The Sherwood Park neighborhood, between Interstate 95 and off Linton Boulevard, will put its garbage out at the curb starting about Jan. 2. The city plans to drop rear/side yard pickup for barrier island residents in the spring, according to City Manager David Harden.<br /> Lula Butler, director of Community Improvement, said in September that the plan will be coordinated with Waste Management and there will be further discussions with barrier island residents and the Beach Property Owners Association.<br />The BPOA “tended to prefer what we had before. It’s a cleaner look” because it keeps garbage containers off the curb, said Mary Renaud, president of the group, adding though that the majority rules.<br />The price difference between rear/side yard and curbside service is nominal, Renaud said.<br /> The total charge to residents who receive rear/side yard pickup is $24.01 a month. The charge for residents with curbside garbage pickup is $13.61 for those with roll-out carts and $10.47 for those with disposable bags.<br /> Rear/side yard pickup was among the complaints that kicked off a city examination of billings and processes associated with garbage collection in 2009. <br /> Robert McNamee, a resident who was investigating the city’s waste and recycling administration and practices, realized residents were charged the higher rear/side yard collection fee even if they took their refuse to the curb.<br /> One of the 2010 recommendations from the city examination was that residents in the rear/side yard service areas should be given the chance to choose whether they wanted to keep the service at a higher cost. Regardless of what kind of garbage service residents have, they are all required to bring recycling containers to the curb, according to a memo to commissioners from Butler. <br /> In a November 2010 survey of residents, about 61 percent of Sherwood Park respondents favored changing the rear/side yard service, while nearly 40 percent wanted to keep it. Of 170 surveys sent, 73 percent responded.<br /> On the barrier island, nearly 65 percent of survey respondents wanted to change the services, while 35 percent wanted to keep it. Of 870 surveys sent, 62 percent responded. <br /> In addition, staff followed a garbage truck in July 2009 and determined many residents were already putting their waste out at the curbside, according to Butler.<br /> While the poll showed residents favoring the change, Butler said staff also thought cutting out one of Delray’s four residential trash collection options would bring it more in line to the two services other cities typically offer. The four remaining pickups would be curbside pickup with rolling carts; curbside pickup with disposable bags and multifamily unit service.<br /> In September, Butler recommended the changes for Sherwood Park as soon as it could be coordinated with Waste Management. It also recommended further discussion with the Beach Property Owners Association and barrier island residents on service changes that would be effective in March 2012. Ú</div>Delray Beach: Garbage rates to rise 7.7%; service changinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-garbage-rates-to-rise-7-7-service-changing2011-09-28T20:37:23.000Z2011-09-28T20:37:23.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div>Delray Beach residents are facing a 7.7 percent hike in garbage collection fees this year, boosted by a rising cost-of-living index and fuel adjustment credit.<br /> The collection increase for residential and commercial users will be subject of an Oct. 4 public hearing and would go into effect on Oct. 5.<br /> Meanwhile, Delray Beach staff is recommending a conversion from rear/side yard pickup to curbside for the Sherwood Park and beach areas in response to a city survey of the neighborhoods. City Manager David Harden said that could start as soon as December for Sherwood Park and March for beach area residents. <br /> Staff had noted at a September work shop that the plan will be coordinated with Waste Management and there will be further discussions with barrier island residents and the Beach Property Owners Association.<br /></div>Delray Beach: Majority leans toward curbside pickup — and savingshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-majority-leans2011-03-20T17:25:11.000Z2011-03-20T17:25:11.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p> </p>
<p> Two out of three coastal Delray Beach residents would rather switch — to curbside garbage pickup, according to results of a city survey obtained March 16 by <i>The Coastal Star</i>.</p>
<p> The city in late November mailed surveys to 830 coastal homeowners asking if they wanted to continue to pay $22.24 a month for back-door pickup or switch to curbside, a monthly savings of $9.52.</p>
<p> Of the nearly 540 homeowners who responded, 348, or nearly 65 percent, said they</p>
<p>would prefer the curbside pickup, and subsequent savings.</p>
<p> According to a memo from Lula Butler, the city's director of Community Improvement, the survey was sparked by a complaint from a resident that many coastal homeowners were bringing their garbage curbside even though they were being charged extra for back-door service.</p>
<p> “We believe that since they must bring their recycling and bulk trash to the curb, it makes it fairly convenient to do the garbage at the same time,” Butler wrote in her March 15 memo to City Manager David Harden.</p>
<p> Butler noted that the city monitored the contracted waste hauler, Waste Management, for two days in January 2009 and found that of the nearly 450 residents who did not take their garbage to the curb, Waste Management workers went to the back door to retrieve it.</p>
<p> The November survey did not solicit comments from residents, yet a few on both sides spoke up.</p>
<p> The most prevalent comment from those who voted to switch to curbside was that they did so because Waste Management had not picked up garbage they left at back doors.</p>
<p> “I have lived here for three years,” wrote a South Ocean Boulevard resident, “and have yet to have garbage picked up at the rear door.”</p>
<p> Added another South Ocean Boulevard resident who said he has carried his garbage curbside for 19 years: “I have been overcharged $9.52 a month — a total of $2,170. I should be entitled to a refund.”</p>
<p> Residents who voted in favor of keeping rear-door pickup said they did so because they either were too old to bring it curbside or snowbirds who let friends use their property and the friends didn’t know the pickup days.</p>
<p> A Melaleuca Road resident wrote that it is important to keep refuse from building up and dropping the back-door option would increase the “risk of rodent infestation."</p>
<p> Added a Mirimar Drive resident: “I am 92 years old, so please continue.”</p>
<p> Butler said she expected Harden to present the results to the City Commission sometime in April for a decision.</p>
<p> </p>
<p align="right"><i>— Staff Report</i></p></div>Delray Beach: Waste-contract inquiry concludes with aim to fix flaws in processhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-wastecontract2010-08-05T14:38:59.000Z2010-08-05T14:38:59.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">By Margie Plunkett</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Delray Beach finished sifting through its trash in July, ending an investigation of
refuse hauler Waste Management’s billing that turned up about $76,000 due the
city and several dysfunctional business practices. No impropriety on the part
of either party was discerned.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The nearly six-month inquiry, powered by at least 1,780 man hours, was spurred by
an initial investigation by resident Ken MacNamee. Commissioners assigned the
Financial Review Board in February to study the questions of whether Delray
Beach was receiving all its franchise fees from Waste Management and if the
city was overpaying on residential services.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">“This has been a very long and painful process,” said Commissioner Fred Fetzer. “I’ve learned a lot from the process
and the city staff has. We have to make some safeguards that it doesn’t happen
again.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The review found relatively small sums due for franchise fees and residential
collection that Waste Management has now paid, according to Rich Reade, the
city liaison with Waste Management who gave the final report to commissioners
on July 13. It also helped the staff identify more effective practices.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">On the commercial side, three franchise fees and administrative fees were not paid
to the city, totaling about $53,000. <span>
</span>On the residential side, the review found the city overpaid by about
$65,000. The amount was reduced to $26,000 after deducting sidewalk container
disposal services that Delray Beach owed. The study also found items including
that unit counts were sometimes inaccurate; invoices occasionally required
adjusting before the city paid and invoices sometimes had incorrect service
dates.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">It also turned up an “inadvertently missed” city payment of $177,926 in 2005 that was identified after an
employee’s concerns of whether payments were made in advance or arrears. Fetzer
called the unpaid bill part of “a quarter-million-dollar question mark hanging
over me.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Waste Management representative Butch Carter explained that the missed payment was a
result of nomenclature changes in whether the billings were in arrears or
advance after Waste Management bought the assets of the former refuse company.
The company did not pursue the payment, he said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">As a result of the review, the city identified a number of processes to improve accuracy of billing, including:
coordinating with the trash contractor to ensure all new rates are used;
including a monthly rate structure in the annual rate ordinance; taking
franchise fees one month in arrears to allow a monthly analysis of revenue
earned; spot checking accounts; requiring Waste Management to make written
notice of any problems or changes that may affect revenue; and allowing one
sector of the city to vote on whether it still wanted to receive a choice of
rear-door service.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">McNamee brought concerns with Waste Management’s billing to commissioners’ attention
after realizing he was billed for rear-door pick up at his house that he didn’t
use, according to Commissioner Gary Eliopoulos.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The issue later led to a vote of no confidence against City Manager David Harden,
because McNamee’s concerns weren’t resolved as quickly as commissioners deemed
appropriate. In February, the mayor formalized the review of the Waste
Management billing and turned it over to the FRB.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">After Reade presented the final report, Commissioner Angeleta Gray pointed to the
$26,000 figure and said, “Is that all we came up with?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">“The analysis found sloppiness on our part and Waste Management’s part,” Harden
said, explaining that the city has come up with processes to avoid future
inaccuracies. However, he said, “You’re dealing with 25,000 to 30,000 counts;
it’s not uncommon to have some errors.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Mayor Woodie McDuffie thanked all involved — McNamee, Reade, the FRB and staff among
them. ”It’s been a long, arduous, tedious process,” he said, noting the biggest
gain was gleaning the kinks in the process. “We need to be in constant vigil
watching the contracts in the city. Waste Management has acted in good faith.
No one here acted improperly. The flaws in procedure need to be corrected and
corrected now.”</span></p></div>