Trash Pickup

The Town of Bel Air has announced changes to its trash and recycling pickup schedules during the upcoming holiday weeks. In addition to Christmas Day, town offices will be closed on Monday, Dec. 4, Christmas Eve; Monday Dec. 31, Christmas Day; and Tuesday, Jan. 1, New Year's Day. Public Works Director Randy Robertson said at a recent staff work session that there will be no trash or recycle pickup in town on those days. The holiday trash pickup schedule is as follows: • Monday's household trash route will be collected on Wednesday; • Tuesday's household trash route will be collected on Thursday; • Thursday's recycle route will be collected on Friday; and • Friday's recycle route will be collected on Saturday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that charging residents for trash collection would actually help the city attract new residents because it could reduce its property tax rate. Defending a hotly debated proposal in her State of the City speech, the mayor said imposing such a fee while reducing property taxes would help Baltimore compete with surrounding counties. "Many jurisdictions have a fee for trash service," Rawlings-Blake said. "It's not included as part of their property tax. Their property tax is either artificially low or ours is artificially high.

Because of an editing error, last Wednesday's story "Brown urges countywide trash pickup," contained incorrect information. It should have said the county government's plan is only to contract the processing of recyclables.WESTMINSTER -- Westminster Mayor W. Benjamin Brown thinks the county commissioners should begin a countywide trash pickup when the recycling program starts later this year.And after opening the bids for the city's trash pickup Tuesday, Brown said he had the numbers to prove countywide trash collection would be a better deal for most residents, who now contract for trash collection.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called Monday for "bold reforms" to fix a looming financial shortfall, including requiring more city workers to contribute to their retirement fund, charging residents for trash collection, asking firefighters to work longer hours and cutting the city workforce by 10 percent over time. In return, she said, the city could use the savings to raise employee salaries and cut property taxes by 22 percent - 50 cents per $100 of assessed value - over the next decade.

Every day at work, Lamont Harris gets a firsthand look at why Howard County's trash-disposal problems are rapidly growing bigger and more expensive."If you go to one home, you might have two cans. If you go to the next house, they might have six cans," says Mr. Harris, who picks up trash for Waste Management Inc., one of the county's five private trash haulers. "If you pop the top off, you might see topsoil, grass and dirt. That weighs 80 pounds!"In officials' search for ways to alter such behavior, Howard has become the first county in the state to consider moving to a system of fees, perhaps $2 or $3 for each bag or can of trash, if approved by County Executive Charles I. Ecker and the County Council.

The county commissioners have ordered private trash haulers to pick up recyclable materials from residential customers starting July 1. Except in some towns, however, residents are encouraged but not required to sort out recyclables -- newspapers, cardboard, glass, metal cans and some plastics.The immediate aim is to begin complying with state law, which requires counties to recycle a percentage of their solid waste. The commissioners also want to reduce the amount of refuse going into the landfills, thus deferring the cost of establishing new landfills.

A citizens committee, appointed to advise whether Carroll should pursue countywide trash pickup, deadlocked on the issue yesterday.The Solid Waste Collection Study Committee voted 5-5 on recommending that the commissioners set up countywide trash collection to replace the current system, in which residents choose their own haulers. The 11th member was not present.Although the committee failed to reach a consensus, its members will outline the advantages and disadvantages of a countywide system in a report to the commissioners.

Ah, twice-a-week garbage collection. It was nice while it lasted - 55 years, apparently - but it's time to give up this municipal luxury. It's time to hold our noses and pry this one out of our cold, Hefty Cinch Sak'd fingers. As the city looks to slash spending - Mayor Sheila Dixon on Friday projected a $65 million gap in fiscal 2010 between what the city will take in and what it will spend to provide the current level of services - going from twice- to once-a-week garbage pickup is an idea whose time has come.

Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker -- already proposing annual trash fees and stricter weekly trash pickup limits -- said yesterday that he wants to test an even more stringent "pay-by-the-pound" policy in a part of the county.Aimed at promoting recycling, the program, which would remain free to residents, has been tested in a handful of communities nationwide, national trash experts said yesterday.Pay-by-the-pound collection uses technology such as identification tags affixed to garbage bins that emit a radio frequency.

After days of plowing and clearing snow, Howard County road crews were gearing up yesterday to go another round against Old Man Winter of 1996."We'll be ready," said Public Works Director James M. Irvin, noting that his department had 110 pieces of equipment, 150 workers and about 30,000 tons of salt to cope with the 4 to 7 inches of snow predicted by the end of today.Yesterday's preparations came as the county struggled to get essential services such as mail delivery by the Postal Service and trash pickup back to normal this week.

The Town of Bel Air has announced changes to its trash and recycling pickup schedules during the upcoming holiday weeks. In addition to Christmas Day, town offices will be closed on Monday, Dec. 4, Christmas Eve; Monday Dec. 31, Christmas Day; and Tuesday, Jan. 1, New Year's Day. Public Works Director Randy Robertson said at a recent staff work session that there will be no trash or recycle pickup in town on those days. The holiday trash pickup schedule is as follows: • Monday's household trash route will be collected on Wednesday; • Tuesday's household trash route will be collected on Thursday; • Thursday's recycle route will be collected on Friday; and • Friday's recycle route will be collected on Saturday.

A three-man team of trash men worked Tyler Avenue in Annapolis as if elegantly choreographed. The truck rolled ever forward as two men tumbled the ripe contents of can after can into the compactor, darting across the street, then stepping effortlessly onto the back of the truck for yet another block of smelly, sweaty work. "Don't let no one tell you it's not hard work," sanitation employee Joe Wallace said recently, resting his hands on his knees and swallowing gulps of hot summer air. "We're just trying to get done so we can get home.

Anne Arundel County residents would see their property taxes increase under the $1.2 billion budget proposed Monday by County Executive John R. Leopold, but that would be partially offset by a drop in trash pickup frequency and fees. County workers, meanwhile, would see an end to furloughs but receive no raises. Leopold's spending plan for the year that begins July 1 includes boosting the tax rate from 91 cents to 94.1 cents per $100 of assessed value. For a home with an assessed value of $261,200, the forecast countywide average, taxes would go up by about $128 for the year, officials said.

Howard County offices, courts, recreation centers and the animal shelter will be closed on Thanksgiving, and the day after. All county facilities will reopen at regular business hours on Monday, Nov. 28. No trash or recycling pickup services will be offered on Thanksgiving. Normal Thursday service will move to Friday, and for residents whose regular pickup is Friday, service is scheduled for Saturday. The landfill will reopen Friday. Parking meters are free on Thanksgiving, but all parking regulations and fees will be in effect Friday.

The results are in from Baltimore's latest survey of city residents, and the results should give those in City Hall some pause. In a nutshell, they show that the city is giving residents what they say they want, and it's getting results - only people don't believe it and are less happy with city services than they used to be. Something here doesn't add up. The survey found that people most often rate the police, fire and emergency medical services,...

There will be no trash or recycling pickup for Baltimore neighborhoods this Friday, which is a holiday for city workers. Residents who live in neighborhoods that are serviced on Fridays can leave their trash or recycling bins out on Saturday. Also, there will be no bulk trash pickups scheduled for Friday, and trash drop-off centers will be closed. That includes the Quarantine Road landfill and all the local transfer stations. Park meters, however, will be in effect.

Sykesville may adopt a recycling plan that would be more convenient for residents and more time-consuming for maintenance workers.Residents now drop off about 20 percent of their trash at the town recycling center.Under the proposed plan, they could place those recyclables at their curbs for pickup twice a month.Sykesville town crews would sort the items immediately and place them in appropriate containers on their truck.To give crews the time to devote to recycling, the plan calls for decreasing regular trash pickup from two days a week to one.Randy Hughes, sanitation supervisor, said the current recycling percentage is well above the county average and the "highest" it has ever been in town.

The city will resume bulk trash pickups Aug. 2 after a hiatus of more than one month, the public works department announced Monday. Residents may begin calling 311 to schedule collection of bulk trash, which includes items such as appliances, furniture and tires without rims. The program was nearly eliminated as the city grappled with a $121 million shortfall, but officials restored funding for bulk trash pickups with the proceeds of a package of new taxes and fees. Collections have been halted since June.

Baltimore City workers will no longer accept appointments to pick up bulk trash, Public Works officials said Friday, making the popular service an early victim of the city's budget woes. Residents can still drop off items at any of the city drop-off centers; a list of them can be found at http://www.baltimorecity.gov. But because of potential budget cuts and loss of staff beginning in the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, officials said there may not be a sufficient work force to offer the service, even through the remainder of this fiscal year.