THE SPECTATOR: MORE ANSWERS ABOUT TRASH
We have more answers now about the City of Brenham’s decision to outsource its residential trash collection…but not all of the answers. At last week’s Brenham City Council meeting, City Manager James Fisher and Public Works Director Dane Rau explained how the City got to this point of negotiating a contract with Brannon Industrial Group. During budget talks last summer, it was determined that the current way of collecting residential trash…using two trucks with guys riding on the back picking up trash bags…was no longer a sustainable model. For many, many years the City had used full-time employees in that position. Due to a variety of reasons including retirement, high workman’s comp claims, and difficulty in finding people willing to do that job, several years ago the City began using a temporary employment service to fill those spots. Then they added a second company to try to keep up. And whenever those temp workers didn’t show up, or walked off the job, employees from other City departments had to climb on the back of the trucks. With the City growing, a third truck was going to be needed, resulting in two more positions to be filled.
During those budget talks last summer, the City researched the cost of buying new automated trucks along with residential trash containers for everyone. And they calculated the cost of picking up everyone’s trash once a week, and twice a week. They quickly realized that the citizens would not want to pay twice as much as they are now just to continue twice a week pickup. At that point they asked for proposals from private companies that are in the waste management business. What they found was that they could outsource this service for about the same rate as what they would be charging citizens. And, for just a little bit more, they could add curbside recycling…something the City could not do.
They have chosen Brannon Industrial Group…a local Brenham company…to take over both the commercial and residential garbage pickup, and to lease and operate the Citizens Collection Station on Old Chappell Hill Road. That’s a great choice from where I’m sitting. Our money stays here. This company pays local taxes. And the Brannon family cares about this city, because they live here. I’ve seen people complain that it was a buddy, buddy deal. Would those same people have complained about the City not “shopping local” if the City had gone with an out of town company?
The bottom line is that this change can be a “win-win” for everyone. Yes, it will cost a little more….but you will now be able to recycle at your curb. Almost every city now uses trash containers…Bellville and Caldwell made the switch from bags recently. And almost no one gets their trashed picked up twice a week. The City did its homework on this one. Although there are still things to be worked out in the contracts, I believe this change is for the better. And…eventually… everyone will adapt. Nobody likes change.
And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.
Let it Grow ?? I seriously question why people move here and then want to change everything in Brenham after they get here. Obviously, the native Brenhamites are not as materialistic as the people moving and being transplanted here. If you moved here and your not happy then you need to get moving. The city has and continues to have management problems and it continues because of the transplant managing the city and majority political transplants holding offices. If the management and political transplants knew what they were doing the pay and retirement for the hourly wage earners would be better instead of the worse that it could be for a city this size. Management talks about changes but it never happens. Instead a the managers get the big bucks and political transplants approve it. That is the real trash problems. That is what the spectator needs to get educated on.
Here are my concerns:
1. Why is the budget not balanced? The citizens of the city of Brenham deserve answers and to know why the budget is not going to be balanced with these changes.
2. Why can recycling pickup not occur weekly as well? Recycling plastic takes up a huge amount of space. Biweekly pickup is a recipe for disaster to implement this new program.
3. What is BIG going to do to update and safely secure the collection center to allow for county residents to safely access recycling and have good traffic flow and not have nails in our tires from roofing shingles debris?
Progress is fine but more answers are still needed and the city needs to be accountable to the tax paying citizens and the community at large.
Hoping the Spectator can help us get answers.
This has definitely been a hot topic, but after visiting the recycling center last Saturday, I think the curbside recycling idea will be very beneficial. Folks were dumping metal in the plastic bins, trash bags where metal is supposed to go, and glass in the wrong spots. That means the workers there have to spend extra time sorting through before bailing. Not sure if it still goes this way, but when it comes time to sell, that can make a difference in the price received by the city. Now with BIG, dump it all into one container and let them sort it out. I never doubted the local company choice, but more of how the city could mismanage our funds and what they are doing to address the deficit. Let’s get that fixed up!
I appreciate the information and the perspective brought to this discussion by The Spectator. However, I completely disagree with this decision and feel that our city leaders have failed completely in their roles when it comes to seeking public input on this very major change to our city services. There were no town halls held, city council meetings are in the middle of the day when most working people cannot attend, and they did not bother to even post information online and allow citizens to send their input in to be considered. This was a very heavy handed decision made by a very few people who think they know what is best for all of us.
The City’s practice of using temp service employees to fill open positions on garbage trucks is as flawed as the practice of utilizing city workers from other departments to do this works. As someone who has extensive knowledge of that business, the way they are hiring and utilizing temporary workers is a recipe for failure. This is a position that is truly safety sensitive that should be paid and trained as a valuable member of the team, not just treated as a temp workers riding a truck. It sounds to me like the whole view of garbage collection within city management is undervalued and something they feel like is to much trouble to deal with.
This week I drove through Bellville and Sealy on what was obviously a garbage collection day. The big empty containers were all over the place, they were blown over in the street, in people’s yards, and blocking driveways so that the homeowner would have to get out and move them before they could turn into their own homes. This sometimes required the home owners to park on busy streets to move the windblown containers. In the area where the garbage had not been picked up, the bins often had more trash than the bin could hold, the full containers were placed in such a way that the garbage people would have to get off the truck and move them so the truck could pick up the container. It was a mess, it looked exactly like what people have expressed concern about on these forums. Plus, we are still faced with having to store these big ugly containers in our yards or garages.
I have also not heard one thing about how leaf collection or yard waste disposal will happen. This is very important to us as city residents. Would someone please tell us how this is supposed to be handled? We need answers to this.
The city can say what it wants to, but as a long time resident of Brenham, I think the city has failed in it’s role to serve us as citizens. Some of the council members were even heard questioning each other about whether or not “they” had “overserved” us in the past. It is their job to provide good high quality services that the city residents want, not to make their jobs easier. We are the taxpayers!
Not good enough, amen on your comments. The trash cans are a nightmare. Bags are great. I am not convinced that city employees couldn’t be hired to do trash pickup. Once a week would probably be acceptable, but not trash cans in an area where there are a lot of open ditches and not place to put them. That’s not even counting windy days. This is all a big disappointment
For all the people complaining, MOVE if your not happy. Go somewhere else! Times change! The city is behind in a lot of ways from many other cities this size. It can’t always be “that’s the way it’s always been done”. The city will never grow and offer more to the people of the area, with all the negative complaints. I always here shop Brenham. But you know what? There is nothing here, and if there is, you can’t afford it, or have to pay twice the amount you can get it somewhere else. The pay in the area is horrible and people that work here for the city, most have to work two jobs because the city is way behind on pay and services. Let the city grow and move forward. We are behind the times in many ways. Why do you want to be stagnant? If your not happy with city services trying to catch up, then MOVE!
Let it grow, you are completely missing the point. We ARE HAPPY with city services and do not believe the proposed change is in fact “catching up” nor do we believe this change will help our city simply because that is what some others are doing. Secondly, we are not being negative, in fact our view is the opposite, we are saying the city has done a good job with trash pick and related services for many years now and we do not want to see the quality of our services become less while the cost remains the same. You complain about the cost of goods here in Brenham, the local pay rates, and the fact that “there is nothing here”. If you are so unhappy, respectfully, maybe you are the one who should consider moving. For those of us who are happy here, who enjoy our local community and our local businesses, and our city services, we want to stay here and fight for what we believe is best for our town.
You move
Brannon Group is a great corporate citizen and they generously give back to this community. Obviously, no company can take on a job where they will lose money but I am confident they will give the best service at the best price. We are keeping it local with a good, reliable, caring company and I bet they will pick up the phone when you call.
Thank you, Spectator, for explaining the process. While I am a county resident, I am appreciative of this decision. Not only will curbsides look cleaner, the city made a thoughtful decision for progress and improvements.
This is my hometown, too! And as many don’t like the changes, it’s progress, and like it or not, we as a community must learn to adapt (within reason), and still keep our small town charm. By using a local company with a family invested in our community, I think it’s a win all the way around!
Time to put all this craziness of complaining behind and move on!
Having our services cut and the amount of trash that will be picked up cut by half, but retaining high taxes is not progress! Agreeing with less services for more money is CRAZINESS. What do you do with your trash? If you use a private company for pickup did you look for the highest price with the least amount of services? I think not. The City Budget is HUGE but they don’t have money for twice a week pickup. Come on…