Changes to Garbage Pick-up

There will be a change in the method of garbage collection in our town as the result of a new contract with Florida Refuse. The biggest change is going to once per week garbage pick-up using large garbage cans on wheels. These new cans will be provided next week to residential customers by Florida Refuse.

This new contract includes the following features for residential customers who now use their own garbage containers:

• Florida Refuse will provide large garbage cans on wheels, called Totes, to each residential customer (except customers who currently use dumpsters). The Totes will be provided, maintained and replaced as necessary by Florida Refuse.


• Totes will be delivered the week of September 29, 2008 and once per week pick up of the Totes will start the week of October 6, 2008.


• Flyers will be provided with the Totes that will provide information such as pick up days, Tote placement, etc.


• Residents may call the City’s Customer Service office at 678-4196 for the following services:
• Additional Totes will be provided at no additional cost.


• The Totes provided may be changed out for smaller Totes.


• After 60 days, residents will be able to request twice per week pick up service for an additional charge.


• Back door service may also be requested.
• During a transition period of three weeks, Florida Refuse will pick up overflow garbage. After that if a resident overflows on a habitual basis, the City will be notified so they can contact the customer and request that an additional Tote be delivered.


• Pick up days for yard waste, recycling, bulk furniture and garbage will be provided on the flyer delivered with the Totes.


• If a holiday lands on a pick up day, the garbage will be picked up the next day.


• Florida Refuse has agreed to pick up an unlimited volume of yard waste at each house at no additional charge. However, this service is subject to the following requirements:
• Residents will need to cut items such as tree limbs, three trunks, palm fronds, etc. in lengths no greater than four feet long if the item’s diameter is less than six inches and need to be put in lengths no greater than two feet long if the item’s diameter is six inches or greater.


• Grass cuttings, weeds, leaves and other yard material must be placed in containers, bags, or bundles.


• No single item shall exceed fifty pounds in weight.


• Debris resulting from a professional tree service company must be taken off-site and disposed of by the tree company.
• Yard waste will be collected from the front of the premises at curbside or from service alleys at the rear of the property, where available.


• Please notify the City of any missed pick ups. If Florida Refuse is notified by the City before 2:00 pm, a missed pick up will be removed within 24 hours.


• Florida Refuse will not begin collection prior to 6:00 am or later than 8:30 pm unless prior authorization is obtained from the City Manager or his designee.


• Florida Refuse will continue to provide two annual citywide clean ups annually.
  
• Florida Refuse will promote recycling participation with a marketing campaign to provide incentive gift cards to residents who recycle.


• Florida Refuse will provide an annual rebate payment to the City for increasing recycling tonnage. The City will receive a rebate of $25.00 per ton on the annual average tonnage increase year-over-year.


• Florida Refuse has the exclusive right to provide solid waste collection services within the City.


• Contractors engaged in building or remodeling operations shall be permitted to remove waste accumulated as a result of their operations if they own their own containers but they may not contract for the service of any other waste hauler/refuse contractor.

If you have any questions on garbage collection please do not hesitate to call the City’s Customer Service office at 678-4196.

Florida Refuse assisted in the preparation of this article.

Cost-saving Measures & Service Delivery

At the last City Commission meeting the continuation of the contract with Florida Refuse, our garbage collector, was discussed. A citizen asked if the City would look into operating that service in-house, and someone else mentioned that all that is needed is one truck.

Following the City Commission meeting, the citizen that made this suggestion – Mike Carter, a member of the City’s Airport Authority – offered to help with the analysis and suggested that a group of interested citizens might be useful in looking into this and other cost saving measures. I told Mike that I welcome this effort, and I would ask for his help and the assistance of other interested citizens.

I take this opportunity to call the first meeting of interested persons to review the in-house garbage collection option and other cost-saving measures. The meeting will be held at the next City Manager Open Forum meeting, on Thursday, April 17, at 5 pm at the Austin Community Center on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Finding cost savings is a priority for city staff, and there have been some significant cost saving measures in the last few years. One such measure can be seen in maximizing the use of community service workers. These workers are available at no cost on weekends, and for the cost of transportation and supervision, we have made many accomplishments. For example, they have helped maintain the beautiful new look of the medians on Central Ave. and the shoreline on Lake Wailes.

The analysis of municipal projects begins with the understanding of two basic principles:

1. The municipal budget is a grouping of individual funds with restricted uses. A municipal refuse operation should be expected to fund itself and cannot pull money from, say, the CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency). The restrictive nature of municipal funds is sometimes overlooked – for example, three letters in Saturday’s edition of this paper applauded a recent editorial questioning the use of $133,000 to match a trail grant. Unfortunately, the editorial did not mention that the $133,000 was from recreation impact fees and not from money that can be used for operating expenses. These funds are paid by new homeowners and can only be used to expand recreation facilities.



2. There must be an element of redundancy programmed into many municipal projects. The collection of garbage, recycling, and yard waste is a good example of this type of project, as they must be collected every business day - without fail! Extra capability must be provided to account for unanticipated equipment failures or emergencies. Therefore, it would take more than one truck, even if we had only one route! But our town has grown, and the landfill is no longer on Lewis Griffin Road - it is much further away. Florida Refuse uses four trucks to collect the residential and commercial can garbage (not including dumpsters) four days per week. There are also dumpster routes, recycling routes, and yard waste collection to consider. But there are also some cities in the county that perform this service in-house, so there is some available data.

Every local government, and more recently, each school board, is dealing with the State Legislature’s tax reform measures. It will take a good deal of innovation and creativity to maintain the previous levels of service as we move forward. I welcome all interested persons – including letter writers and editorial writers – to bring your ideas and participate in designing the services to be provided in this new era.