By Kim Siebert MacPhail
The Town’s refuse and recycling hauler, Allied Waste Services, has approached the Town with a proposal to change the day of service from Wednesday to Monday. The request comes, reportedly, as a result of changes in the communities that Allied serves. At the May 20 Selectmen’s meeting, Town Manager Rick Reed received approval to use his discretion to move forward with negotiations to change to Mondays so long as certain conditions are met by Allied, including public education and promotion of the change as well as accommodations— for a limited transition period— for those who require more time to adjust to the new pick up schedule.
Before the Selectmen’s approval was sought in this matter, Town staff discussed the pros and cons of making such a switch.
In favor of the change to Mondays were such considerations as:
- More time over the weekend for residents to organize refuse and recycling materials and to put disposables on the curbside by 7:00 am Monday.
- Quicker disposal of food waste following weekend social events.
- Less potential for one-day collection delays resulting from Monday holidays. Any holiday occurring Tuesday through Friday would not affect a Monday pick-up.
Against the change to Mondays were these concerns:
- Worry that residents would put trash out during the day on Sundays rather than wait until evening or early Monday morning.
- Need for an extensive educational effort to inform residents of the switch.
If negotiations are favorable and the day is changed from Wednesday to Monday, the Allied contract would be amended starting July 1, 2013. The service day, however, would not necessarily change immediately.
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I don’t think Monday would be a bad thing. You could get all of your weekend trash out more quickly.
I also don’t see a problem with Allied trying to make their pick ups more efficient by coordinating them with other towns.
We have had different pick up days over the years and Monday pick up was absolutely the best. Mid-week pick up is challenging for those of us with full time jobs and families (especially when our jobs require more than the typical 40 hour work week). Even when we go away weekends, it is much easier to deal with the trash on weekends than during the hectic work and school week. And, if people do put their trash out an hour or so earlier on Sundays, is that so bad?! That means that it is easier for those people and helping residents should be considered a positive, not a negative.
There are obviously differing opinions of which day is ‘best’ for trash pick-up. But that’s not what this is about – no one is assessing what day has the least impact on Bedford residents and this change is not being done to make things easier for the residents – it’s being done because the trash contractor requested it. There is no compelling reason to make the change and impact all residents. This change won’t just result in some people putting their trash out an hour or so earlier on Sundays – for some people they will put it out on Saturday or on Sunday morning because they won’t be around on Sunday night or Monday morning quite a lot of the time.
I’d like to comment on the proposed in the trash pickup. I don’t understand why Bedford’s schedule needs to change to accommodate other towns that this vendor wants to serve. Shouldn’t we have priority and our schedule remains intact? Shouldn’t the selectmen poll the Bedford residents before making a change that will adversely affect a lot of people? Whoever made the ‘Cons’ list didn’t even consider the impact on families who spend weekends away – skiing in winter, recreation activities and vacations in summer. Wednesday pickups still allow prep of most of the trash and recycle on the weekend; and it’s certainly easy for people to put trash out on Wednesday morning as they leave for work. Why would we want to have to deal with a change in trash pick up when we have Monday holidays? The Wednesday schedule is more stable with fewer changes. And there’s just no compelling reason to change this schedule – why do we have to be so accommodating to a vendor and not to the residents of this town??
The pick-up would be delayed in the case of a Monday holiday.
It’s not clear — would the pickup always be on Mondays, even if Monday is a holiday? That would be great — no wondering if a particular week has a delay due to a holiday.
We used to have Monday pick-up years ago – it was always rescheduled to Tuesday when there was a Monday holiday. We get holiday rescheduling for the Wednesday schedule too – but is the difference in the number of times rescheduling happens due to a holiday worth all the effort to make this change and affect all residents?
I just don’t see any compelling need to make this change. Where is the benefit to the town? To the residents?? Is the town going to provide people to police the streets on weekends to catch those people who have no choice but to put their trash out on a Saturday or Sunday morning for a Monday 7am pickup ? Does the town really want to use valuable resources to provide “an extensive educational effort to inform residents of the switch.”?
There’s no compelling reason to make this change and incur the added expense and efforts to make it happen – there’s no ‘issue’ with Wednesday pickup; the town gains nothing by making the change; and there are a lot of residents who will be adversely impacted for no good reason.
Change the vendor if they feel they can impact an entire town to better serve other towns!!
I agree with Toni.
It would also impact residents that go out of town for weekend trips. Also in regard to “Less potential for one-day collection delays resulting from Monday holidays. Any holiday occurring Tuesday through Friday would not affect a Monday pick-up.” : 75% % of Holidays fall on a Monday so there would still be many one day delays in pick-up.
This proposed change seems unnecessary and makes no sense if the Town is ONLY looking for education and transition period accommodations for a mid-contract change. With Allied Waste seeing value in changing their contract mid-stream, I would expect that the Town negotiate something of value; an x% reduction in price of our contract or a $xx,xxxx lump sum payment to the Town from Allied Waste that represents a portion of the value they received by making a change to accommodate their schedule. This is not simply about which day of the week is best.