Curbside Pickup Seems a Natural

Sunday, March 10, 2013

T he town of Southern Pines is wondering whether it should switch to curbside garbage pickup. The answer appears to be "yes."

Municipal officials floated the question as a trial balloon more than a week ago. Perhaps it is indicative of the public's position on this issue that The Pilot's story about the idea produced not a single negative response on our website, thepilot.com.

Granted, there were no positive responses either. But given the tendency of web commenters and bloggers to leap on their high horses at the slightest provocation, surely the town should view this as a no-news-is-good-news situation.

Curbside pickup requires individual residents to roll their trash out to where a truck stops to collect it. The alternative, which has been standard in Southern Pines for many years, is called "backdoor" service. That term seems a bit misleading, since many if not most local residents probably put it by a side door or set it out in front of the garage.

Looks Like a Win-Win

Whatever you call it, the present system requires employees of the hauling company to trudge into individual lots to retrieve the trash, which is been placed wherever it's most convenient to the residents.

That involves many more man-hours - and therefore obviously greater cost. Time was when we could afford such a luxury. In this day and age, for many of us at least, it seems about as quaint and outdated as the former custom of pulling into a gas station and sitting in your car while an attendant rushed out to fill your tank and wash your windshield.

It has been estimated that switching to the new system would save Southern Pines $20,000 a month, or more than a quarter of a million bucks a year, which ain't hay. It could go a long way toward helping balance the town budget.

Those who wished to stick with the so-called backdoor service could do so by paying an extra $4 to $4.50 per month. Disabled residents would also continue to get the special service free of charge.

Residents can voice pro-or-con opinions at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Douglass Community Center.

Town Should Supply Carts

There is one question that has so far not received the public attention it deserves: As part of the deal, would residents who opted to put their trash out by the curb be supplied with standard wheeled carts to roll it out in? And here again, the answer to that should be "yes" - as it is in most other towns with curbside.

In a brief exchange with The Pilot on Thursday, Town Manager Reagan Parsons offered assurances that was the way the wind seemed to be blowing.

"We have pricings that include both having those carts included as part of the contract and not," Parsons said. "It's obviously cheaper not to go in that direction. However, all discussion at the council level to date has included providing that cart, just out of recognition that many people, having utilized backdoor, may not necessarily have a rolling cart. They may just use a can, or put bags out there."

Curbside works for us - with that proviso.

Residents should also insist that town officials make sure to compare competing bids on an apples-to-apples basis, rather than being too quick to stick with existing contractor Waste Manage-ment. There is more than one fish in the sea.

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PBinNC 2 months, 1 week ago

I could not tell from the tenor of this whether The Pilot has another company or two that it thinks will do a better job than the current contractor. We have a small rolling trash can that we roll too the curb, and most of the people in our neighborhood take their trash/garbage and recyclables to the curb. No one mentioned the recyclables (not easy to carry the green baskets to the curb) or the yard trash, which are all a part of the contract with Waste Management. We have never received better service for all of those components of waste as we do here in Southern Pines. I caution the Town Council not to be looking too far for a replacement - what lies on the other side of the fence may look greener, until you get there and it's astroturf. I thought Waste Management made some very salient points in its full page ad in the Pilot, and wonder whose favorable/unfavorable statistics as relate to curbside vs back door service are closer to being correct. I have no problem with saving money and going to curbside only as long as there is available the backdoor for an additional fee, though that is a lot of extra bookkeeping for both the town and the contractor.

CSmithson 2 months, 1 week ago

The Pilot Editorial Board may want to redo the math or at least look at all the publicly-available facts before recommending policy. It is “Sunshine week” after all.

If you look at the multiple bids (as you advise), the difference is as little as $4,600/month (difference between low bids for full-service and curbside with provided can), not $20,000. It is still real money, but $4,600/month is less than what WRAL pays the town to mount their "Fayetteville Doppler" on the Henley St water tower and well short of the quoted $20,000 difference (Waste Management bid only).

If only 25% of residents subscribed to an optional “full service” at $4/month, that would add back in an additional $5,000 to the total cost of collection to the residents of Southern Pines.

Currently, about 75% of homes utilize “full service.” So, for the same cost overall for the residents of Southern Pines, we could have “full service” for everyone who wants it (at least 75%) or we can have curbside and 25% subscription to the optional service. Which is the "better" deal?

Of course, the issue still warrants careful consideration, but the real numbers come down to about $.25/house/week for “full service” trash pickup. Then, one must ask themselves honestly if they think it is worth a quarter every week to not have to haul their trash to the curb and to not have to look at the thousands of cans lining the streets of our beautiful town. It’s not quite the no-brainer or “natural” some make it out to be.

Gates_Harris 2 months, 1 week ago

I'm a bit confused by the idea that the Town will "save $20,000 per year" to help it "balance its budget.

First of all, the trash pickup is not a cost to the Town. The Town contracts for the pickup & we pay for the cost in our utility bill. Surely if the cost is lower to the Town, our utility bill will go down.

Second, the comment about the Town's budget prompted me to look at it. Its a huge document, but I've seen them before in my work & the Town looks to be in pretty good shape. For example, on page 104 is the notable information that the Town is spending over $822,000.00 for the new sidewalks. Now, I must confess that the sidewalk business is a sore point for me, having just got the good news that they're doing to tear up my beautiful front yard for a new one to supplement the one they just put in across the road, nevertheless, it is clear that any Town that can spend that kind of money to answer a question no one asked, hardly needs any additional revenue to "balance its budget."

Don't misunderstand me, though. Southern Pines is one of the best run Towns in the entire State of North Carolina and I feel privileged to live here. Well, except for that new sidewalk in my front yard. And, maybe, except for the thought of the sight of all those huge trashcans sitting in front of our yards.