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Bills on way for Gates Mills rubbish collection
(by Sue Reid - January 07, 2009)
Bills on way for Gates Mills rubbish collection
By SUE REID
In an effort to make up for a projected $400,000-plus budget deficit for 2009-2010, Gates Mills Village residents will begin the new year with bills for their trash and recycling service.
Resident Mary Ann Kish said she is on a fixed income and plans to bring her concerns with the billing to the Jan. 13 Village Council meeting.
After receiving notification of the billing process last month, she said, she immediately called Landmark Disposal Ltd., the village's rubbish collector for the past decade, and asked that her trash be picked up just once a month. If that couldn't be done, "then take me off the list totally, and I can think of something else," she said.
"I'm on a fixed income. I'm not going to pay for it. Other people have said to me that they will compost the garbage and recycle elsewhere," Mrs. Kish said.
The greatest expense lies with having back-door pickup, she said. "Get rid of back-door pickup." She said people want to know if they can just have the curb pickup.
Gates Mills Finance Manager JoAnn Lechman said the village must follow the terms of the contract as it was written five years ago, which provides for pickup at the back door. "Therefore, they can't adjust the cost to have it picked up at the curb," she said. "The rate was negotiated five years ago, so we could not get a rate as low as that if we re-bid it today."
Mrs. Lechman said the reason for the adjustment to bill for trash collection is to make up for the village's budget shortfall.
Village Council adopted a resolution in November authorizing a one-year extension of the trash contract with Landmark. According to the extension resolution, it was agreed that Landmark would bill its costs for trash removal to the homeowners. The company agreed to maintain the same rates and standards of service.
According to the new agreement with Landmark, Mrs. Lechman said, residents have the option of being billed at $78 per quarter or $300 for a full year of services.
In order to obtain the low rate and insure that its standards for trash removal would continue, the village agreed that Landmark would be the exclusive trash-hauling contractor, officials said. Residents were told that they may not contract with alternate disposal firms and that village Dumpsters are restricted.
The cost of trash removal previously was included in the village's budget, based on property taxes.
The village is still collecting the taxes, and she is not getting a refund, Mrs. Kish said. "That's double dipping."
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