Daily Archive

Talking Trash

How we deal with and pay for trash and recycling in TC is a subject up for important decisions this month.

Currently in Traverse City and surrounding areas, each individual resident contracts with a solid waste hauler, who picks up their household trash and recyclables.  The city picks up leaves in the fall and spring, and does a round of spring clean-up in May where we collect large items.  Other communities have found that if they negotiate on a collective basis with the haulers, they can get more services for less money.  Moving to one hauler also would reduce the number of trucks on residential streets.  As North Traverse Heights resident Max Wolf wrote in the early weeks of this site:

One thing that is frustrating in my part of the city is having 4 different large trash trucks running down the same streets once a week. I think the city as a whole needs to negotiate trash pick up for all residents. I know some neighborhoods have managed to do this for themselves, but the rest of us are left paying double that amount, or more, and still have to deal with too many trucks making runs up and down our streets. This is not efficient or sustainable. My family that lives downstate gets their trash and recycling picked up once a week and it’s paid for on their property tax for a fraction of the price it is costing me under the system we have here. The city down there has trash companies submit bids once a year for the service. Maybe TC could do something like that and not only save us some money but also stop the excessive amount of trucks rumbling up and down our streets every week.

Based largely on the efforts of former city commissioner Deni Scrudato, the city has been working with surrounding townships to study whether and how these services can be improved.  Thanks to county commissioners Sonny Wheelock and Christine Maxbauer, the county paid for the study.  The county’s solid waste department has also been conducting a survey of local communities to see what services people want and how they want them delivered.  The communities participating with the city, are Garfield, Acme, East Bay, Peninsula, and Blair Townships.  Commissioner Jim Carruthers and Mayor Pro Tem Ralph Soffredine have been leading the effort for the city.

The study indicated that better prices and services would be available through collective bargaining.  The survey indicated that most of the communities wanted to handle the agreements themselves, rather than through a county-wide solid waste authority.  The city expects to issue an RFP for a single hauler to provide service in the city.  The CC will be discussing the parameters of the RFP – what services will be offered – later this month.  The city also is looking at doing the billing – adding it to TCLP and water/sewer bills, as the study indicates this will reduce prices further.  The plan is to have the new system in place January 1 of next year.   

The draft RFP right now contemplates a system where the hauler would provide: 

• Residential Solid Waste Collection – with 96-gallon and 30-gallong options, and with back-door pickup for disabled residents
• Curbside Residential Recycling 
• Yard Waste Collection and Delivery to Compost Site
• Bulk Item Pickup and Disposal – one item per month, but year round instead of just in the spring

Spring and fall leaf cleanup is right now expected to be provided by the city, though it is not clear this could not be privatized also.  Residents who wish to contract for special services (enhanced recycling for example) would be free to continue doing so.  It is conceivable that a program such as this could eventually be expanded to include enhanced recycling, but what is outlined here is just a start.  It would be helpful to hear your views on this proposal as the CC discusses it throughout this month.

TC’s Blue Wall

Last week local media carried a number of stories about the conclusion of legal proceedings arising from an incident involving an off-duty TC police officer.  To say the least, the community is not impressed with the city’s handling of the situation. 

I have asked the city manager to investigate whether and to what extent the city has in place policies to prevent the preferential treatment of police officers, both in the response to off-duty incidents and in the disciplinary investigations that follow.  I have asked him then to make recommendations for any necessary changes in policy for the CC to consider. 

I will continue to provide info on our progress in this endeavor as it occurs.  We must have a system that is fair and thorough, and a police department that communicates with the public in a way that inspires the public’s confidence.  We will keep working until we have those things, if I have anything to say about it.