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WESTFIELD -- Change is coming to Westfield village trash pickup. Rising costs, expired contracts and safety issues converge, requiring a new Trash Collection Plan for the village. Soon the old way of using special blue bags can go on no longer unless the price increases considerably.
The only questions remaining are what a new system will look like, how much will it cost, and how will it be funded?
There are two options being considered. One is to keep the trash bags using a new company to collect them. The costs per bag are estimated to rise to approximately $3.50 from the current price of $1.50 in order to cover the expenses without increasing property taxes.
The other option is to use a Totes system. Trash bins specifically designed for the garbage truck to pick up and dump trash would be provided to each residence by the contractor. Special recycling bins would also be provided. The estimated cost for this service is approximately $9 per month for each residence using the current fee/tax model, depending on the responses to a bid call.
If instead, the costs were added to the property tax bill with no monthly service fee, it would increase the tax rate by $1.19 per $1,000 of taxable assessment.
A third alternative is to cover the cost completely with a monthly fee, which is estimated to be $12.78 per household. All these numbers are estimates until an actual contractor is selected from the bidding process and final costs are known.
The results of a recent public survey with 438 participants indicated a strong favor toward totes instead of trash bags. Of the total 438 respondents to the survey, 368 currently use the refuse collection services and 65 do not. 288 of the respondents preferred container totes compared to 132 who wanted to keep the current trash bag system. Note that the estimated price increase per bag is from the current $1.50 to as much at $3.50 or more. On a later survey question no one was willing to pay over $3.00 per bag, most indicating a willingness to pay up to $2.00 (236) and a few (41) willing to pay $2.50 per bag.
All this was discussed at the Village Board working session on Sept. 8. The members reviewed the survey results and discussed opinions about both choices. Since the bidding process needed specific items, it was decided to ask for proposals for the Tote trash removal system.
They also discussed the three options to pay for the trash pickup program:
-- Fund it through an additional amount to the current water/sewer bills.
-- Add it to the property tax bill.
-- A combination of the two.
The members of the council preferred an additional line item to the water/sewer bills for trash removal. To fund the system equitably, all residents would need to pay the monthly fee just as they do for water/sewer services.
Spring Clean Up is a big deal in the village and that was discussed at the working meeting as well. The consensus was that residents want to maintain this annual event, so accommodation is included in the bid to facilitate Bulk Spring Cleanup Day. Concerns about how much and what type of trash is put curbside, and the fact that nonresidents use spring clean up as an opportunity to drop their trash around town to avoid paying their own town's transfer station fees were also discussed.
The village council work session passed a motion to put out a bid for a tote system. The goal is to have the bid out within two weeks so a decision as to which contractor can be made by the end of September. The current contract for trash removal services has expired and is only continuing month-to-month with a final deadline imminent. Further details will be forthcoming once a contractor is chosen.