Better get your leaves and stuff over to Smith street, starting December 14th, the yard waste drop off at 15 South Smith St. will be closed during the week and on Saturdays. To handle the Christmas Tree stuff, it will open the week of Jan. 4 and the week of Jan. 25. Spring re-opening is scheduled for Monday, April 5, 2010.
For more information, call customer service at (203) 854-3200 or visit www.norwalkct.org.
Is this a joke? Guess I’ll blow mine into the street.
Crumb: LOL!! It must be.. It started with less frequent curb side pick-ups just a few years ago. Now it’s so infrequent I have to take my grass/yard waste there myself in my truck cause the accepted bags won’t last till the next pick up.
Then: There is discussion on removing the annual allowed max with no charge to trucks/vans (I’d have to stick them in my wifes car).
Next: Closed on Saturdays (not open sundays). Just in case you work you’ll have to run home if you have a lunch break because they don’t open till 7:30 in the morning and will be closed by the time you get out of work.
Now: Closed Weekdays and Weekends. Priceless !!
I’m all for reduction in wasted spending. But, where will does the reduction come in? Did employees get laid off? Is there no more injured light duty personell to man the Smith St. waste site? Last week I had to wait at the “closed during lunch break” scale while Ro, the weighmaster had his lunch break. So forget going during your lunch break too. You can’t burn the leaves.
Crumb, I’m with you. I’ll blow them in the street and they can vacuum them out of the storm drains.
What a SHAM!! “Norwalk is On the Move!” Should be “Norwalk, You Better Move!”
Hey Crumb here it is in a nutshell… lol…The systems can’t support the system! It’s this simple: You’ve got paid city employees working there, manning the scales. Makes sense. Now as the price of waste management goes up each year that cost is passed onto John Q Citizen as one would expect. However, as this happens the unions still press forward on raises that were negotiated in the past by our city officials . So in this particular case we pay higher costs for yard waste disposal and see lesser service and yet higher wages for the employees at the same time. The system can’t suppotrt the system! Eventually it all needs to break down… the whole system needs to be corrected. Once that happens we’ll have affordable services, fairly compensated workers and happy citizens. DON’T LET THE LYING POLITICIANS TELL YOU ANYTHING DIFFERENT. I KNOW THE SYSTEM, I PRACTICALLY INVENTED IT.
I talked to a lot of voters about this issue when I was campaigning for Common Council. When Mayor Moccia insisted that Norwalk “cut no services” when the recession struck and we were dragged $5Million in the hole, he seemed to exclude yard waste pick-up as a service. I guess as a condo owner, he doesn’t care about it because his commons charges cover it.
I can see closing for the winter, or reducing hours, but when bags of leaves sit for almost a month before getting picked up, that is a major reduction in services, and there needs to be accountability for this! There HAS to be some way to fix this. Has anyone in City Hall opened a dialogue with the union representing the workers? Is there a different way to interpret the contract?
If I decide to run again, this is the kind of thing I will explore, and, if at all possible, fix!
Thank for the feedback and insight. You’re right the bags will get wet and rot (and smell). Plus people are always dropping garbage and dog waste into the ones I put out on the curb…. Still think the best thing is to blow them in the street.
Just a thought, but I’m curious to know why more homeowners don’t bother composting their leaves and grass clippings. This entire problem could be minimized if more homeowners created compost piles in a back corner of their property. The City should really promote composting as a way to reduce costs.
Secondhand Rose: Agree composting is a partial solution for property owners that have the space. But, what about the reducton in services while increasing taxes? Where will it end?
Rose -
Composting is, of course, and option (depending on the volume of leaves). Personally, I had 18 bags of leaves. That would have been a compost pile as tall as a 1 story home!
I plan on putting in a vegetable garden next year, and will be more acitve in composting, but there is no way I can compost all of the leaves from my property.
I think the city should be composting these to use as organic fertilizer on city property. that would save the city money too!
Crumb -
I too have had people trowing garbage into the bags at my house, and the they do smell quite a bit when they get wet.
06855-
You read my mind!
Is there a city ordinance against burning the leaves?
Other than a barbecue or chimineya, there is no burning in Norwalk unless a permit is granted. The circumstances would be extraneous.
What happens now to the landscape contractors who are still working every day ? Can they get a refund on the money they paid for a permit ? What real savings does the city get ? The guy who runs the scale and the guy who runs the loader will still be there and getting paid. It makes sense to cut down on overtime hours, but completely shutting it down leaves a lot of local landscapers who paid for permits and also pay by weight for each load with no place to get rid of truckloads of leaves and brush.
This is ridiculus. I agree with the old timer on a few things. However, Old timer if you go there at the right time you can see the $20.00′s that illegal Landscape outfits hand over to the city employees, so that they can dump there for free. Who do you think pays for that when we run over weight? Also, note all of the “attempted” toss overs. You will see a collection of yard waste bags slowly accumulate as the winter heads into spring (just like last year). Talk to the guys who work there about cleaning it up and they won’t/don’t just to prove a point to Hal & Dick.
Rose: As far as composting goes it’s great idea if you have the yard. I took 35 bags of leaves out already.
And as for you Avacado: burning them will get you in a heap of trouble. Don’t do it. The last time we saw that the british left 8 houses standing on the way to danbury.
To The Crumb: Where will you blow them? Into your neighbors yards? Or into the storm drains and clog them up as we head into spring? Not a good idea Crumb.
O6855: I really wish I had a better answer. The best thing to do is get them done before Dec 14th cause if you wait until the January dates we could already have snow on the ground. The weather looks good for this weekend, go burn off all of that pumpkin pie that you ate today. You’ll feel much better. Oh, unless of course you live in a condo! Or perhaps it is time to move out?
If the City has employees taking bribes so “illegal” contractors can dump for free, somebody should get arrested. That is a federal offense, literally, and the FBI will investigate any credible report of municipal corruption. I was asking about legitimate contractors who paid for an annual permit and pay for whatever weight they bring, each time. Somebody has decided to put them out of business without any apparent real savings for the City. Eliminating overtime down there makes sense, but closing it down altogether is not right. The legitimate guys will get hurt. The ones you talk about, who never had permits, will keep on working and now dump for free anywhere they can. We will have to pay to clean up that mess, too.
Anon: Thank you for the advice. I already finished my leaves. I absolutely will move from Norwalk because of bad government like this. I agree with old timer. Where does the savings come in? As I asked in my earlier statement, did someone get laid off? I doubt it. This is just another reduction in services with increasing taxes. Unless you are Hal or Dick, how could you defend this? If this corruption is taking place and breaking the bank, why penalize the law obiding (sp) citizens?
Why not look at the contract that says that no employee can work shifts other than 9-5 Monday through Friday. Why can’t we have Saturday hours? Because the unions say no. Why can’t they work 3 days a week year round? Because the unions say no. Why can’t we have evening hours? Because the unions say no. And who tells the unions to say no? Peter Thor, the acting Democratic Town chairman. Put the blame where it belongs.
Newshound:
What is your point ? (besides hating unions, democrats, & Peter Thor) I read the contract and it does not say that. Many jobs covered by that contract do not require working Saturday or Sunday. If the City wanted to keep it open on Saturday, they could certainly do that. They already have done that for a while. Nobody works for nothing. Peter Thor is not listed on that contract as a signer or union representative. The union has an obligation to get the best deal it can for it’s members and the City has an obligation to get the best deal it can for the City. Any contract ends up as an agreement to compromise. Do you work whenever your employer asks without extra compensation for overtime or unusual hours ? Do you think the Union should offer to have it’s members work whenever the City wants, with no extra compensation for overtime or unusual hours ? When did the City ever propose having some people work three days a week, year round, and get turned down ?
Old Timer: Not so long ago, when the South Smith street yard waste drop off was first closed and reopened, last year, for budget reasons. At the time, I asked the Mayor and Hal Alvord about why not shift the work shift to a Tuesday to Saturday schedule and was told that the interpretation by the union was that it was not a normal 5 day schedule.
I’d like to see city government actual work for the residents of Norwalk instead of this devolving into some political diatribe between pro/anti union, or Democrats versus Republicans. The reality is that if the residents are better served by weekend hours, then that’s what the work hours should be. A 40 hour work week, whatever string of 5 days, is reasonable considering that these are essentially service departments that need to reflect service to the residents of Norwalk.
I am always amazed at how quickly management speaks for the union, when it suits their purpose. I bet Hal had already decided what they were going to do and never asked the union. That contract has a lot of scheduling flexibility. It does state a normal five day work week is monday through friday.
There are many people who do not agree that any five day schedule is “reasonable” without some premium for working weekends.
But, this is not about weekends, they are now closing the site completely on Dec 14th, as if that will save the City some expense. I guess they know that all the contractors will be finished for the year by then. They run that site like a business, not as a service to the taxpayers, and close it when it stops making a profit. It takes a certain volume for the fees collected to cover the cost of disposal and the cost of operating the site. The city employees will still get paid, how much savings will there be ?
Old Timer: facts are that the union has been mentioned numerous times here. So apparently people are aware of it’s presence in regards to a waste station. And unions are a problem in this country. One only needs to look at the US auto makers as an example of what idiots can do. The average citizen doesn’t care about unions. He cares about cleaning his yard up and having a place to ethically and legally discard the waste on a Saturday morning. This is a great customer service being offered by the City of Norwalk to people who faithfully pay their taxes. 06855 is right…. it’s time to move!!!!
Unions are a problem ? Should we go back to the time before unions ? Before child labor laws, before anti-discrimination laws, before 40 hr work weeks. The unions have done a lot of good in this country. Some politicians with very short memories have discovered it is easy to blame their mistakes on unions. So many corporate bosses, having “borrowed” money they can’t repay from pension funds funded by the unions and the company, now are blaming the unions for their financial problems. (couldn’t possibly be mismanagement) They now have to factor in pension costs into the price of each car, on a pay as you go basis, because they raided the enormous pension funds. Of course, they call that legacy expense rather than paying back stolen money.
You should look at the auto industry. They refused to change their designs to keep up with global markets for so long that Toyota, Nissan, VW, and Honda took large parts of their former monopoly market share. They sold less cars, made smaller profits and you think that is the unions fault ? While they were losing market share they paid obscene salary and bonus packages to people like John DeLorean, a gifted car designer (father of the camaro/thunderbird series) who get caught buying wholesale amounts of Coke, You think the unions should take the blame for that ? They continued to pay obscene salary and bonuses to big bosses while they were losing money and then flew to Washington in private jets to ask congress for a bailout instead of dealing with their mistakes. They could have gone bankrupt or sold off factories and divisions. They got the bailouts, they continue to pay ridiculous salary and bonuses to top management and now they are trying to sell factories and divisions, at the worst possible time. I know, blame the unions for the recession, not the crooked investment bankers, like Bernie Madoff.
They have enormously talented engineers and designers who can build great cars, but the real decision makers are accountants and lawyers, the really great cars don’t get to the market soon enough. When they do, somebody else has beaten them to the buyers. I guess that is the unions fault, too. They got fat and lazy when they had no competition and the fat and lazy management stayed in place way too long and made long term committments to continue building the same old basic models long after every body else in the world was generations ahead in designs that captured more and more of the global market. I know, the unions are to blame for that, too. Now, with the government as a partner, they are playing catchup. They were too slow bringing improvements to market before they had a partner. Will we blame the unions when they are even slower ?
ALL the leaves were only down in my yard this week – yesterday was out of the question with the wind. And I don’t have a truck or an SUV – and with the taxes I pay, why should I have to pay someone to haul the last batch? Maybe I’ll take the bags, one by one, and just bring them down to City Hall.
I don’t quite understand why we can’t drop off yard waste at any time all year – or, for that matter why it isn’t picked up all year round, maybe not every week but every few weeks – what’s with this damn town/city/whatever it is?
I wonder why the yard waste can’t be dropped off at the same place they take other solid waste. What would that take, another big dumpster or two ? Never quite understood why they needed two solid waste sites, or why they need to keep yard waste seperated from other solid waste. If it was properly bagged, why didn’t the regular garbage trucks take it ?
Why doesn’t Norwalk do what Darien does – have homeowners rake/blow all the leaves into huge piles in the streets at the curb, and then have trucks come along and suck them all up and take them away? Why can’t Norwalk purchase these trucks and do the same thing?
Thank you Old Timer for setting the record straight about unions. There’s good and bad to be said for them, but without them we wouldn’t have much of a middle class in this country.
I always am amused by those who blame unions for everything. In any union situation, there is a contract. That contract has to be agreed to by both the union and management. When the stuff hits the fan, it is always the union’s fault. There never seems to be any accountability on the part of management.
Think the unions have too sweet a deal? Then maybe you should look at who was negotiating on the management side.
For the record, I work on Saturdays at my job and it’s considered a normal work day. As long as it’s established that way, there’s no reason to consider it otherwise.
Oldtimer, you asked if we should go back to a time before Unions? Can we try that… please?? 40 hour work week, are you kidding? Very few people union or non have the luxury of working only a 40 hour week. We are working to support an unwieldy government that bails out businesses and banks and people who do not pay their mortgages…but not those of us who do. If a car company is not making a product that sells, then let them fail, they deserve it.
If a bank fails then let it, but dont burden them with social reform economics that forces them to make loans to folks with no equity. Oh and for the record, if I get to vote regarding child labor…I vote yes!
Jillcooks:
I really hope you are kidding. If you ever get the chance, visit the coal mine towns that are now maintained as museums and see the photographs of children as young as five year olds working, mining and sorting coal (Eckley Miner’s Village, PA, for example). See how isolated those towns were, where the company owned everything, including the “company store”. I’m sure you have heard the song “sixteen tons”, about that life where the singer laments about how tough a life it is, “you load sixteen tons and what do you get ?, another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don’t you call me, cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store” A lot of people died in the mines. Very few miners survived past middle age. They called it “black lung desease”
Those conditions created the labor movement. A lot of good came out of the labor movement, and, a lot of violence went with the birth of it. (read a little about the “Molly Maquires”) The mine companies had their own private police who operated as violent, lawless, gangs, and the miners responded with violent gangs of their own.
I agree with you on one point. I never was able to support my family working just one 40 hr job, but I never mined coal. When a union was voted in where I worked, conditions improved dramatically in a very short period.
Oldtimer, ofcourse I was kidding….well just alittle. Have you ever hired a teenager? I have…..Fairfield County is not a hotbed of willing labor.
The able-bodied teens cannot be bothered with yard work–they are in training for law school.
In this particular economy – when people with Masters degrees and doctorates are forced to work at multiple part time jobs after being “downsized” out of their full time careers – it’s almost impossible for teens to get work these days. So the idea of hiring a couple of neighborhood kids to rake your yard is not as far-fetched as it seems. Not only that, but it’s a good way to start a kid on the road to owning his/her own landscaping company. I know at least 3 people who began their landscaping businesses before the age of 12.
Does anyone know when the city picks up the bags again? I have over 50 bags out front. Anyone want free leaves for composting?
Free? Put a sign out, “Compost Starter Kits $5.00″
LOL, reminds me of those signs that Ann Fanning used to put out in front of her house in the winter offering “Free Snow”. hahaha
Interesting article about leaves, compost and the “quiet revolution” that is starting to take hold. I am happy to be part of this ’cause’ and look forward to some “black gold” this spring…
http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/article.cfm?aid=15232
Im just going to blow them into my neighbors yard at my condo and he can pay the extra common fees
just built myself a nice big chimnea in the back yard. Nice for little warming fires in the evening and big enough to burn leaves too.