Trash districting proposal dumped

Hundreds tell council: Put a lid on it

BY KEVIN DUGGAN • KevinDuggan@coloradoan.com • February 3, 2010

Fort Collins slammed the lid on trash districting Tuesday night.

In the face of a storm of protest, City Council members said they are no longer interested in pursuing a pilot trash district proposed for the northwest part of Fort Collins.

Council members said they opposed the proposal at the start of a special public hearing on the pilot project, but that did not take the steam out of the arguments from the flood of residents who came to speak against the idea.

Mixing sarcasm with outrage, speaker after speaker decried the idea of a district and the possibility of not being able to choose which trash company to do business with. Numerous speakers said the city government should not interfere with trash businesses.

"I want that economic choice," said Joe Sparks, who lives just outside the district. "I believe it's a right to have that economic choice."

Hundreds of residents turned out at City Hall for the unusual hearing, which was intended to take public comment and questions on the matter while the council took no formal action.

Fire regulations limited the number of people who could be in the council’s chambers and adjoining rooms to 220. Yet at the start of the hearing, hundreds of people were lined up outside the building, unable to get in.

The overflow crowd was directed to two nearby city buildings to watch the hearing on television and await their chance to speak.

As people left city hall, more came in. The hearing ran more than four and a half hours and featured more than 60 speakers. Nearly all spoke against the proposal; many were emotional.

Lolly Clarke, a local business owner said, “This is outrageous that you would even consider this.”

If the contract for the pilot district went to Waste Management of Northern Colorado as proposed, locally owned trash-hauling businesses would be harmed by the city’s action, she said.

“Once you destroy a local business, you can’t bring it back,” she said.

Council members said they heard the complaints of residents loud and clear. Mayor Doug Hutchinson said the pilot district proposal was “toast for living memory.”

The proposed district’s boundary would be Prospect Road on the south, College Avenue on the east, the Poudre River on the north and Overland Trail on the west.

Work of developing the pilot program has gone on about two years. The goal was to have a single hauler provide trash and recycling services in the area so residents could have the reduced costs enjoyed by members of homeowner associations. Other goals were decreasing the wear and tear on city streets from several heavy trash trucks in residential areas every week, improving air quality as well as increasing opportunities for recycling.

But residents came out in force to say they didn’t want to change the trash-hauling company they have now. Speakers came from across Fort Collins to voice their displeasure with the district plan and what it might mean for the city as whole.

Ken Seaman said preference should be given to local companies over Houston-based Waste Management, which is a multinational company.

“Why anyone would want to farm out our trash services to a corporation in Texas is beyond me,” he said.

City officials said they initially tried to negotiate a contract for the district with locally-owned Gallegos Sanitation Inc., or GSI, but could not reach an agreement. Price made a difference, but other factors also were considered, they said.

The price agreed upon with Waste Management was $7.13 for a 32-gallon unit of trash; GSI’s proposal was $3 higher, officials said.

Kari Gallegos-Doering, marketing director with GSI, held up an apple and an orange to illustrate the differences in the company’s and the city’s approach to the negotiations.

The company has taken it upon itself to promote recycling and green practices, she said, and GSI wants to cooperate with the city.

“We want to help make Fort Collins a world-class community,” she said. “We will do what we can to work with you — just give us the chance, please.”

George Bryan, who lives in the middle of the district area, said he trusted the council’s judgment. But he didn’t want to see the city “dry up and blow away” because of weakened local companies.

“It is extremely important for the economic vitality of Fort Collins that, when possible, for goods and service that you deal with people who are locally owned and locally based,” he said.

The idea of trash districting has been discussed for more than 25 years, said Mayor pro tem Kelly Ohlson. The issues districting is supposed to address remain, he said, but it won’t come up again with this council.

While saying he supports the concept of districting, the “death knell” for the pilot project was when the contract went to Waste Management rather than a local company, specifically GSI.

Council member Wade Troxell said the issue should be dead and buried.

“I for one would like to put a stake through the heart of trash districting once and for all,” he said.