Lockport NY

The debate begins again with Garbage 2.0. We shall she what a new year with a new council makeup and new union rules gives us. The Buffalo News and the LUSJ reported on the first committee meeting.

The committee is back together after a several-month hiatus, begun when the Common Council cut proposed funding for recycling service out of the 2010 city budget. The proposal at the time, hiring Modern Recycling to handle recyclables only, while city crews continued handling trash disposal, was considered unaffordable. The Council cut proposed funding to reduce the size of the property tax increase that it was eyeing.

Since then, the city struck a deal with its AFSCME workers, allowing it to privatize refuse collection services entirely. On the belief recycling should be more affordable if it’s bundled with trash collection by one vendor, price-checking that option will be one of the committee’s tasks this year, Tucker said.

The committee also is charged with examining the garbage “district” concept, in which all users pay a fee for service rather than collection being financed from property taxes.

 I'd be in for the district with the choice in tote size and price. I'd expect to see the deletion in the budget though. Long term it will be nice to move a section of the budget off the city employee payroll.

To have some immediate impact for the better, committee chairman Jeff Tracy suggested, the city ought to have a Web site devoted to local refuse dos and don’ts. He suggested “lockportgarbage.com” as a place where residents can turn to know what they can and can’t do under current law; and learn more about current recycling options. 

 There is already a website called www.elockport.com . All relevant information should be there. Not just FAQ's like garbage but documents for public meetings (zoning and planning boards, law changes, etc.) If it is in the public interest, it should be there.