Is your subdivision cutting costs?

While costs in many areas continue to increase, some county residents are enjoying lower trash costs. But what about your subdivision association? Some associations have found it necessary to increase their subdivision maintenance dues thus off setting savings from trash services.

Take a look at some drastic measures being taken by the airline industry.

The fuel pressure has become so intense that airlines are taking steps that would have seemed absurd a year ago. US Airways said this week that it would no longer show movies so it can get the weight of movie equipment off its planes, saving $10 million a year in fuel costs. US Airways and United repainted their aircraft from dark blues and grays to white, which weighs less.

How We Arrived at $10 Million and Counting

We've been asked how we arrived at the $10 million estimate of the trash/recycling program. We picked the brain of several people in pulling this together. Here's a brief outline of the results.

1. The first part is easy. The Journal Newspapers quoted the expenditure of $4.4 million for 190,000 recycle bins.
2. Subtracting $4.4 million from $10 million leaves a balance $5.6 million.
3. We calculated the number of man-hours this represents by dividing $5.6 million by 2,080 work hours in a year and came up with 140,000 hours of labor – per year.
4. We used a salary of $40 per hour to determine how many workers it would take to work 140,000 hours in one year. We divided 140,000 by $40 and got 67+ workers. (Note: the “salary” includes pension, vacation, sick leave, social security, etc.)
5. Are there 67 people throughout all of St. Louis County working full time on the trash/recycling problem? Probably not 67, but there are hundreds working part time on this problem – and many of them make a lot more than $40 per hour. There are 313 subdivisions that opted out of the trash program. Each of these subdivisions has at least 3 trustees each who have worked part time on this matter. That’s over 939 people involved on a part time basis.
6. Expenses for travel, postage, envelopes and supplies, legal advice, meeting room rental, printing, lost wages, etc. and not included in the above. Pick a reasonable number and add it to the $10 million.
7. There are dozens of people working full time on this with the various trash and recycling companies in the area. You can really bump up the costs taking them into consideration. What does a trash truck cost?

SUMMARY:

$4,400,000 Recycle bins

$5,600,000 Labor - Fringe Benefits, 67 employees working full time

$ 100,000 Expenses - Travel, postage, supplies, legal, etc.

$ 500,000 Expenses incurred by trash haulers for truck purchases, labor, fuel, etc.

$10,600,000 TOTAL . . . and counting

Trash-pickup costs to soar in Palm Beach County

Hundreds of thousands of county homeowners in Palm Beach County, FL will see their garbage, recycling and debris collection rates rise considerably starting Oct. 1, 2008.

In northeastern Palm Beach County, those rates will more than double, from $129 to $293 a year for most single-family homeowners north of Northlake Boulevard and from $123 to $345 for the easternmost portions south of Northlake.

The new rates cover only residents living in unincorporated areas. Those living in condominiums will also see rate increases, but will pay less for waste collection.

The increases come after the Solid Waste Authority, as it does every five years, accepted bids from private waste haulers to pick up trash.

On Wednesday, county commissioners, acting as the authority's board, approved contracts with four companies to perform the work across 11 service areas dividing the county. The companies they chose were Waste Management, Republic Services, Veolia Environment and Waste Pro.

The rates are based on what the private haulers charge. "The numbers at the end of the day are out of our control," he said.

Last year, Archambo warned that rate increases were very likely as private companies dealt with higher fuel, employee and equipment costs. Fewer companies do such business these days, he added.

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Trash Hauling Costs Expected to Rise With County's Program

Talking trash has been the main focus for many trustees and subdivisions in recent months. One of the biggest questions is “What will the new county trash program cost?” Exact costs will not be available for a few months, but it’s expected that many residents will receive substantial increases. To give you an idea what a neighboring city is paying, here are the charges residents in The Highlands Subdivision in St. Peters, MO pay to Waste Management.


Waste Management Fact Sheet for The Highlands Subdivision

The contract allows a 5% increase per year. According to the contract, the rates for May 1, 2007 - April 30, 2008 and are as follows:

1 time per week trash service with toter- $13.80
2 times per week trash service with toter- $17.95
1 time per week trash service with toter- Senior- $12.50
2 times per week trash service with toter- Senior-$16.65
Recycling- $ 5.25
Yard Waste- min. 3 consecutive months- $13.15
Yard Waste- 12 months continuous service- $ 9.90
Additional toters- ea per month $ 3.25

http://www.thehighlandsneighborhood.com/

North County Residents Express Concerns Over Trash Proposal

The first of three meetings sponsored by St. Louis County was held this past Wednesday, September 12 at Hazelwood Central in North County. There were approximately 100+ in attendance.

There was some discussion by those present at a recent meeting with the majority wanting the Trustees to investigate the possibility of Paddock Forest opting out of the County Trash District concept and getting a Waste Company to serve Paddock Forest. Some of the concerns expressed included:

~ Once you are in the program you cannot get out - but if you opt out at the beginning you can always get in at a later time.

~ Concern was expressed about how with any new program there are bugs and it would be better to have them worked out if we are unsatisfied with service offered by an alternative provider we could always opt in at a later date.

~Concern was expressed about the mega service providers who may come in with a low-ball bid to get the contract and then escalate the cost similar to what was done with the sole provider for cable television.

~Concern was expressed about not being able to have the personal service a smaller, local provider could provide.

~Concern was expressed regarding Customer Service from the mega companies, being put on hold forever and being disconnected.