Trash plan revised, legal mess likely
Posted Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 7:25am
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Public Works Director Art Simonian told the Town Council last night that his department is working on a plan to keep trash collection going in the event that voters support the initiative to stay with conventional trash pick-up. A referendum on the issue will be held June 23. Deputy Mayor Steve Morelli said the potential reverse on trash removal is going to present “a boatload of problems” for the town.
If the conventional pick-up is approved, it will take 15 days to enact that measure, according to law,
During this waiting period, Trash-Away will continue its services as its contract will be in place. After that is terminated, due to the referendum passing, the town ‘s public works department will work on an interim plan for disposal while the search continues for a new conventional vendor. Trash-Away sent a letter to the town June 15 stating that it will not do conventional pick-up.
Town Attorney Robert Weber said if the initiative is passed there are multiple legal issues to untangle. He called the situation “opening a can of worms.” He has been speaking with Trash-Away legal representatives. One concern is that the passing the trash initiative may be a constitutional issue. Weber explained that is illegal to pass a law that retroactively undoes a contract.
Check the website for ongoing updates on your trash collection.
Comments :
Berlin Trash Issue
Submitted by Concerned Voter (not verified) on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 8:50am.Maybe the town council should have looked at this issue in greater detail prior to making a decision. I resent the fact that they are now attempting to bully the public into agreeing with the decision they made; it looks like they are getting ready to blame the voters for any fallout (“a boatload of problems”) if the new plan fails. Maybe in the future we should demand and vote for council members that will use fore thought when making decisions and will accept blame if they do make a mistake.
Seriously because a few old
Submitted by steve (not verified) on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 2:04pm.Seriously because a few old people want to drive their garbage down to curb is not reason teh rest of us need to deal with this I was annoyed when i first move to town and i put out garbage just to find out that even though can was perfectly fine it dint conform so without even a warning or anything just didnt take it and now what would make the world much easier for most of us is being held up do to outdated while that the way we always did it before attitudes
Why are we already receiving
Submitted by Anonymous1 (not verified) on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 8:20am.Why are we already receiving our new trash cans when we haven't even voted yet? Seems fishy to me.
Once again, People should
Submitted by RobNov77 on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 9:32am.Once again, People should know what they are voting for before they vote.
I was disappointed a couple
Submitted by Diane Roncaioli (not verified) on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 2:53pm.I was disappointed a couple of months ago when the town voted to proceed with the collection system in which the containers are provided. It added to to the expense of the town and in turn to the town's citizens in taxes, and put individuals out of work during this slow economy. When announcing the new collection procedure, the town said that there was the possibility that it would save the town money because rain water could not enter the bins. However, I do not recall that any articles regarding the procedural change mentioned that TrashAway would not collect trash manually, that the company was making a complete change to its collection procedure and that TrashAway was not providing options from which to choose. (The information may have been there; I didn't read the articles thoroughly.) I read about the possible legal mess last night after I had voted. Now I know that TrashAway will not provide manual colllection. The town will be looking for a company that will provide this service which possibly could cost as much as the container system. There are many issues that the town will need to solve. I voted for the retention of the manual system. However, if I was more informed about the issues in this matter, I quite possibly would have voted the other direction. Plenty of information opposing the container collection system was provided to the citizens prior to election day. I'm wondering why the town did not make a greater effort to inform its citizens of the options from which they had to choose.
Information makes the constituents smarter......... and in some cases allows the consituents to trust the individuals who are making decisions for the town.
Quoted on but now gone?
Submitted by Anonymous2 (not verified) on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 7:28pm.When Trash-Away's previous contract ended, they submitted new bids for the "new" way and the "old" way. Now all of sudden they will not do the "old" way? Umm what could be the reason for the sudden change?
I can understand if Trash-Away is steamed but it should be towards the town officials, not its residence.
The last two comments make no
Submitted by Kensington Guy (not verified) on Fri, 06/26/2009 - 7:09am.The last two comments make no sense...
Diane, it was in the citizen many times and there were people out in front of the voting location. Not informed? You must not have read anything or asked any questions prior... No one to blame but yourself.
The last comment is just ignorant. The "old" way was possible back in January/February, however, the town signed a contract for automated and the vendor ramped up for that. If you owned a parts business, and got a huge contract to make Part A and bought all new stuff and hired staff to make Part A, based on your contact and that likely profit you would see over the period of the contact, you may be slightly more than mad when your client said thanks, but no thanks, and went to get that bid somewhere else for Part B. You would be on the phone with your lawyer. This argument that we can now go to manual is ignorant and nonsense. That was true 6 months ago. Not now... Trash Away wrote the town a letter that was read last night that they will not do that. Period. There should be no more discussion about it.
This Issue
Submitted by Glad to Live in Southington (not verified) on Sun, 06/28/2009 - 2:19pm.This issue was talked about at the budget hearings and meeting? There was no secret here. It was in the proposed and accepted Budget! Just because you weren't willing to go to the meeting or get a copy of the budget is no excuse. You people only get involved when someone makes a loud complaint and then you jump on the bandwagon because you are misinformed. If I were the Mayor, I'd say thanks for the vote but we're honoring the contract we signed, which is what you have to do anyway because the law precludes you from breaking a contract by the passage of a new or modified ordinance.
All you Republicans will be getting automated anyway and you have no chance of winning the next election because of the childish things you do. Remember when you killed the sports programs in town? This vote will punish you just like that vote did.
Just Stop, I mean really!!!
Submitted by RobNov77 on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 7:37am.Why is everybody in a huge uproar about taking their garbage to the street. How long dose this small job take out of your seemingly meaningless lives, considering this issue completely consumes your every thought and action lately. Is this really front page news? Lets do the math, shall we. There is 10080 minutes in a week, the average person sleeps 3360 of them away. That leaves 6720 minutes left to your weekly life to do things such as work 2400 minutes, shopping for lets say 120 minutes, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner 700 minutes, grooming 300 minutes. Lets see 10080-3360-2400-120-700-300=3200 minutes / 53.3 hours to spend doing anything else like taking out your garbage. I assume that even gives you enough time to help your elderly neighbor take out their garbage as well. Not that you should spend any of your 53.3 hours doing anything for anyone other than your self.
Greatly written indeed… I
Submitted by Ada Wong (not verified) on Tue, 07/28/2009 - 7:34am.Greatly written indeed… I really enjoyed your article and found it to be very informative, keep up the good work, I’ll be coming back to read any of your future articles..
Thank you!
Bravo! I say, Bravisimo!
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