On Thursday night, 7:30 PM Dec 3, there is a meeting at Village Hall. It is billed as a workshop to discuss the pros and cons of outsourcing our sanitation services. For some years, there has been a movement to turn it over to a private collection service and in fact, the commission just recently voted to void a contract written in 2010 and go back to the drawing board.
The savings are not clear. During the 2010 attempt to privatize the pickup, the then city manager told the commission that the savings would be $500,000 per year and that the vendor would most likely hire our workers. The savings were nowhere close to that and once sideyard pickup was factored in, they disappeared entirely.
The only advantage to outsourcing our sanitation for single family home pickup is that it would avoid some capital investments later on. These can be heavy.
My own opinion, (well you knew I have one) is that outsourcing is a bad deal for us.
- Eliminating side yard pickup is major. It means our streets will be littered with garbage cans twice a week. Just look at recycling days.
- We are small potatoes. In the event of a natural disaster, we would not be at the top of the list to restore services nor should we be but if we have our own sanitation, we can make our own priorities.
- We have a loyal and hardworking sanitation team. They serve us well and a village is about more than cost cutting.
This victory was hard fought and dog owners need to show. If there are no dog owners there, no dog run. It's that simple.
Kevin Vericker
Nov 30, 2015
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