Burr Ridge may soon have just one garbage service.
Citing safety, wear on streets and potential cost savings, village trustees Monday approved sending out a request for proposals for villagewide refuse collection.
Four different waste haulers now cover the village and, unless a subdivision has its own franchise agreement with a garbage service, all four haulers are in subdivisions each week. That is one garbage truck and one recycling truck for each hauler, or eight trucks on Burr Ridge streets each week, Trustee Guy Franzese said.
He noted that a Minnesota Department of Transportation study shows that one garbage truck has the same impact on roads as 1,279 passenger vehicles. The budget for street work in the village is $600,000 this year, half of what it was 10 years ago, he said.
“It is probably going to be half again what it is now next year. It is difficult to find the funding to keep up with our capital projects for our road improvements and maintenance,” said Franzese, a member of the Village Board’s Scavenger Franchise Agreement Sub-Committee.
He said officials will do their best to increase funding so residents can continue to enjoy fine roads.
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“But on the other side of the coin, we need to do what we can the increase the longevity of our roadways,” he said. “One of those ways is to eliminate these trucks.”
Trustee Diane Bolos said she was not in favor of the plan at this time.
“I believe in competition and residents being able to negotiate their own price,” Bolos said.
Village administrator Steve Stricker said that from everything he has heard in conversations with the village’s waste haulers, there should be significant savings for residents by going to one refuse service.
He said that he has already received 90 responses, both positive and negative, from residents about the possibility of the village going to one hauler. Fifty of those responses came from the Lake Ridge Club subdivision, village officials noted.
The biggest complaint of residents against the proposal, Stricker said, is the potential loss of being able to choose their own garbage hauler.
“For whatever reason, in this community people love the garbage hauler they have,” Stricker said. “We do understand and we do hear that.”
The village administrator felt that many residents may be swayed from wanting to stick with their existing garbage service if they can see substantial savings through a villagewide collection system.
Village officials said before any decision is made on a single hauler, public meetings, possibly a town hall meeting, would be held to show the potential savings.
Burr Ridge residents Robert and Sandy Allen objected to the village potentially going to one waste hauler.
“I like the ability if the company I have fails to choose another one,” Robert Allen said. “I have great service now.”
Village officials said because some homeowners associations believe they have a “sweetheart deal” with one hauler already in place those associations would have the option of opting out of the villagewide agreement. It would be a one-time opt-out option Stricker said. If that association were to eventually join the villagewide deal, it would not be allowed to opt out again.
Sandy Allen said that many areas do not have active homeowners association and because of that would not have the option of opting out of the village’s waste-hauling contract.
“We have used two different haulers,” she said. “We chose to change and cut our fee 50 percent. We are very happy with our hauler.”
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press