Some Manitou residents talk trash about single hauler system

MANITOU SPRINGS • The streets of Manitou Springs are twisty, narrow and steep, so why, city officials ask, should trucks from three waste haulers rumble down them every week, running the same routes with the wear-and-tear equivalent of 1,500 cars?

Tuesday, the city council will take up a measure to establish a single-hauler trash system here. All residents with trash service would use Bestway Disposal, the only hauler that submitted a bid to the town, and while they wouldn’t have to recycle, customers would be required to pay for service that includes recycling.

It’s a controversial challenge to the status quo of waste collection in the Pikes Peak region, where the free market reigns. Many residents are unhappy about being told what service to use and a competing waste hauler sent a letter to residents blasting the measure.

In an eclectic tourist town with a strong environmental streak, many here are asking how far local government can go to be green.

Too many trucks

Like many newcomers to the Pikes Peak region, who come from places where trash is hauled by a single company or local government and recycling is mandatory, Teri Christman was shocked after moving here from Minneapolis and seeing so many trucks on her road.

Three days a week, a different truck would come down Crystal Park Road, with noise and black exhaust, and she began to wonder about the impact on the roads, air and quality of life. She did some research and got the ear of city officials, who agreed to consider a single-hauler system. She convinced the city to issue a request for bids, wrote the contract with Bestway and the proposed ordinance.

Residents who want trash pick-up would sign up with Bestway, with monthly rates from $16.25 to $18.25. All contracts would include recycling — something residents pay extra for now — though recycling would not be mandatory. Residents with another hauler could switch immediately to Bestway or, if they have a three-month contract in place, continue until the end of July, after which no other haulers could serve homes in Manitou.

Most in Manitou are served by Bestway, Springs Waste Systems or Waste Management. Residents without trash service would not be required to sign up, but they could not use a company other than Bestway.

Manitou Springs Mayor Marc Snyder was sworn into office in January, when the single-hauler proposal was well under development. But he supports the concept.

“What we’ve heard from our constituents is we need to do a better job of keeping up and repairing our city streets,” Snyder said. “For years, the trash companies have been coming into Manitou, servicing and not providing a penny for the impacts their trucks and business have on the city streets.”

The proposal includes a $48,000 annual fee Bestway would pay the town, to be used for street work.

Plus, he said, “It also would add to a sense of quietude and quiet enjoyment of our residential neighborhoods, by having just that one (hauler’s trucks) on the streets.”

Angry reaction

There was nothing like quietude at city hall Wednesday night, during a public meeting about the trash proposal.

About 70 residents packed the council chamber, many with angry words for Snyder, council members and the Bestway managers on hand.

“I feel like I live in the United States and I have the freedom of choice and I won’t be told what to do,” said 78-year-old Anna Damm, a Springs Waste Systems customer.

She and others urged town officials to let a public referendum decide the single-hauler proposal.

Rick Johnson, also a Springs Waste customer, said, “It’s an issue of government kind of sticking it’s nose where it doesn’t belong and legislating intelligence.”

Don Wilkin questioned if customer service would suffer when there was no competition among haulers for business.

“I wonder if this has been analyzed quantitatively or if it’s been done solely on the principle of going green,” Wilkin said. “Please don’t take away our rights away as individuals to have clout over something as important as garbage collection.”

Last month, Dan Shrader, manager of Springs Waste Systems, sent a letter to Manitou residents, lambasting the single-hauler proposal and explaining why the company did not submit a bid. He said the proposal saves residents little money and forces them to buy a service they may not want. And he said mandatory recycling will not increase participation.

“The city was mandating that a private citizen would have to have service with a private contractor. I didn’t feel like that was right,” Shrader said last week.

Current Bestway customers would pay about the same, and for others, the savings would be small, two dollars or less a month, depending on what level of service they had before. But, Snyder pointed out, the city will get the $48,000 in fees.

At the town meeting, Snyder was asked, isn’t that just a way to boost the city’s coffers at the expense of residents, because the hauler will pass along the cost to them?

Said Snyder, “It absolutely is an attempt to increase revenues for the city without those coming out of your pocket directly.”

The crowd muttered. That was not, perhaps, the answer they wanted to hear.

An idea for Colorado Springs?

Only three of the area’s larger trash haulers serve Manitou, because only smaller trucks can negotiate the narrow streets. But in Colorado Springs there are at least half-dozen haulers. That means many neighborhoods have trucks rolling through nearly every day of the week.

Finding a way to reduce that traffic on the streets is a goal of the Green Cities Coalition of the Pikes Peak Region, a local environmental consortium.

“The Green Cities Coalition is definitely looking at the Manitou situation with great interest and asking the same question: Is this something that we should try to promote in the city of Colorado Springs,” said coalition director Steve Saint. He also sees consolidation as key to providing free curbside recycling, since no individual company has the resources to build a recycling facility here, meaning materials are hauled to Denver or Boulder.

Manitou officials say they aren’t trying to export the idea. Manitou is smaller than some neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, small enough that one hauler can carry the load, Snyder said.

With a vote looming Tuesday, Snyder would not say if he would vote for it.

“Absolutely no decision has been made and the idea of a vote is one I’ve been entertaining for some time now. The only way to get a community dialogue going is to put something on the agenda as an action item,” he said.

“To me, it’s about the greater good. I feel bad. Yes, I’m taking way your choice. I can’t fight that,” said Christman, the single-hauler proponent. “To me, it’s in the city’s best interest and I think the city has the right to say, ‘Hey, our city is being destroyed by these trucks and we want to take it under control.’ ”