Public Works Committee Holds hearing Tonight

Remember the fees that the Common Council couldn’t decide what to do about at the end of last year? Mired in the parliamentary box they found themselves in, the public works committee now holds yet another public hearing about fees for encroachment, driveway inspections, sewer connections and of course the blue recycling bins. From the Advocate:

Krummel said he believed the DPW fees will receive more support because they only apply to those who use those services, unlike the beach sticker fee, which everyone would have to pay.

Fellow council Democrat Fred Bondi, the council’s strongest proponent of the beach sticker fee who also backs raising DPW fees, said the city needs money.

“How else are we going to pay for programs?” he said.

Bondi said he has heard little opposition to raising DPW fees.

The committee will also look at possibly eliminating the “3 tons free” policy at the city’s transfer station. Residents use a pickup truck or hauling a trailer are allowed to dump annually up to 3 tons of waste at the station.

But that policy means the city lost out on about $300,000 in fiscal year 2007-08, Alvord wrote.

Krummel said this may have helped residents or small businesses save some money by not hiring private carters to haul their garbage away, he said, but times have changed.

“The assumption is that it saved someone, maybe a small business, who knows, a few bucks because they didn’t have to pay (to have their garbage collected). Now the city is saying, ‘We’re hard up, we need that couple of bucks,’ ” he said.

When that policy came into effect is unknown, a Republican committee member said.

“It’s one of those things that have been there forever, no one knows why it started,” Douglas Hempstead said. “Maybe it was needed at one time.”

How about really debating something. Why does the city piick up bags of garbage from commercial and large multi-family buildings? Shouldn’t commercial ventures pay for their own garbage service? Half of Norwalk doesn’t get city garbage service as it is. If it’s a commercial or mixed use building it should have a dumpster and scheduled pick up service, whether the city or a private contractor picks it up. The bags of garbage that litter our commercial streets just contribute to the litter problem when they split open. The extra nice touch is when they place these bags on the piles of snow obstructing sidewalks.

source: Advocate, Norwalk fee increases back before council committee, By Frank MacEachern, 02/02/2009

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  • Old Timer

    As logical as that sounds, dumpsters and private pickup for commercial building, there are a lot of older commercial buildings in the downtown areas that have no place for a dumpster. New commercial buildings are required to have off-street parking which provides space for a dumpster. The City should require metal cans, with tops, and outlaw garbage bags on the sidewalk. Where did Alvord get that $300,000 number? Is that his own “new math” ? The council should make him explain it. He doesn’t have real numbers to support that guesstimate. A lot of us pay a lot of tax and don’t get city garbage pickup, or sewers, don’t have kids in school, and now they want us to pay a fee when we take our garbage to the transfer station ? That must be why he lives in Danbury, it’s cheaper. Do we pay for his commute ?

  • turfgrrl

    Old Timer: It’s an interesting question, that, is it really the responsibility of the city to accommodate property owners lack of dumpster space?

    Dumpsters don’t have to be outside, they can be located in “dumpster” rooms, or in basements etc. The point is that the city has been extending a service to commercial properties without regard to the cost of that service.

    Since residential properties outnumber commercial, it’s fair game to ask if residential properties are subsidizing commercial. It’s also evident that the trash in bags is a problem since the bags are subject to spillage, for a variety of reasons. But for argument’s sake, let’s say that the city is in fact the best provider of garbage collection. The follow up is then, how to improve it and make it better and more efficient.

    Increasing frequency or providing basic garbage cans, are cost recoverable items. Within the commercial area, there are buildings that have contracted for private trash collection, and buildings that haven’t. Clearly there’s an inconsistency there, and it should be addressed.

  • 1 of the SMD 3

    WHY………… Does it seem that everytime an important hearing or meeting is scheduled, inclement weather just “Happens” to occur??

    Just once I would LOVE to see a LIVE broadcast of a common council meeting or a public hearing on the local government channel. One would think Cablevision would step up and throw us bone with a freebie.

    Uh oh…..I hope I didn’t give Bondi another idea for a new “fee”…………………………

  • Barnstorm

    A pay-per-view City Council meeting?

    Must flee TV!!

    If Cablevision doesn’t step up to the plate, maybe TG could podcast it. All she’d need to do is buy the equipment, spend the time, hire a staff…..aww nuts.