08-08-05 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

e - '. Appendix G: Other alternatives to organized collection: Grass Roots Organizing, Licensing Grass Roots Organization Residents are free to band together and choose a hauler as a group voluntarily - on an alley, a street, a neighborhood. Two sections of the City, University Grove and Hollywood Court, have done so already. They solicit bids from the licensed haulers and negotiate a contracts as a group. The City is not involved. The City of Bumsville supports a similar program, called the Neighborhood Block Rate Program. It was set up in the 1990s as an alternative to organized collection. The City provided how-to kits for residents who wanted to organize voluntarily in their neighborhoods. But Burnsville's Solid Waste Management Committee reco=ended that "the collection issue be reviewed and a stronger management tool for the collection" of waste be developed if participation did not reach 30% of single family homes by 1999. ("Burnsville Neighborhood Block Rate Program: A how-to guide for organizing solid waste and recyclable materials collection," City of Burnsville, Minnesota, 1998) It is not known what the participation rate is at this time; Burnsville has an open system. Voluntary neighborhood or block organizing does require some organizational effort on the part of residents, to get started and keep going. With the cooperation of the haulers, it can reduce the number of trucks and possible gain residents a more advantageous price and some extra service. However, residents might not be able to specify where their trash goes under a neighborhood agreement Still, self-organizing does work. It is working in parts of Falcon Heights. Licensing It has been suggested that the City can accomplish some of its goals through licensing. The Commission met with City Attorney Roger Knutson to seek his advice on what could be done through licensing. He informed the Commission that the City's ability to achieve any of the goals through licensing is limited. The only effective change the City could legally malce through licensing is to limit the number of refuse hauling licenses it issues to the number it issues now and not grant any new licenses. (In fact, this possibility was suggested by one of the haulers at the April 12 meeting.) This would, over time, reduce the number of trucks in the City, but it would not necessarily serve residents well with regard to service and price. And it would do nothing to keep environmental decisions under local control. City of Falcon Heights Final Report on Organized Collection October 13, 2004 69