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www.newbuffalotimes.com
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2021
Grand Beach special meeting discusses village trash can regulations ta
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discussion over the latest trash can regulations dominated a more than two-hour special Grand Beach Village Council meeting Monday, June 7. Councilmembers recently approved a new program on trash can removals that requires that, beginning June 1, a village employee to remove cans from the edge of the street that are set out days before trash and recycle pickup or that are left out after they’ve been emptied from pickup. A $20 fee for this service would be added to the water billing each time the cans have to be moved by the part-time employee. On June 7, Village Council President Deborah Lindley said the village hired someone to move the cans. Notes were put on the cans; however, there was no charge last week. During the public comments section (the meeting included nearly 100 participants), GeorJean Nickell said that the cans at the street where she lives are not really a nuisance by the people who live there or occupy their homes as second home residents. She said the more “pervasive problem” is with people who their rent homes, as she’s seen more garbage overflowing after rentals than by any of the residences or “home-owned occupied homeowners.” “To have to be able to maintain everything and then be responsible for cans that really are not an obsolescence as far as I can tell by the owner-occupied residences - it seems unreasonable,” she said. John Rafkin said that the new program affects the “vast majority of people in Grand Beach and the vast majority are part time residents” who “simply can’t comply – we want to comply but can’t comply.” He added that a “number of full-time residents can’t comply either” because they’re physically incapable of it or for other reasons. “I have don’t have a problem with the goal, but I do have a problem with burdening myself and other part time
BY FRANCESCA SAGALA
owners with the entire cost of making this happen,” he said. David Manecke said he’s “100 percent supportive of this issue,” and that he’s driven around the village in the summer and seen trash cans laying over all the time, some of them in the road with “our narrow roads.” John Walles said that he lives on Knobb Hill and must put his cans on the other side of the street on his neighbor’s property because his street’s so narrow and it’s a dead end, so the truck only comes in one way. “And now it’s going to be my responsibility and we live in the suburbs and we come up on the weekends and with the garbage dates, there’s really no effective way to do that and be in compliance” with the new program, he said. Vicky Hoover asked who would be responsible for the process of the fines being added to the violator’s water bill and if someone doesn’t pay, who will “go after them.” She added that she’s seen some homes with a garbage can enclosure, and she would add one of those to her property if that’s deemed a solution. William Oleferchik said he has an issue with the “discriminatory nature of the solution” and for those who can’t comply, it will “just be a tax on those that are part time homeowners.” As a part-time homeowner, he doesn’t put as much “impact” on the roads and infrastructure in town since he’s not there as much and he doesn’t get a homestead exemption, so he already feels like he’s “contributing to the community through my tax dollars.” Laura Durkin that she wanted to know how many people have complained about the garbage cans, what has been their complaint and “what percentage of the population are they,” meaning the population of the entire village. “I think it’s discriminatory to the part-time residents who pay already a disproportionately high tax to support the community,” she said. Judith Blackburn said that in 2019, the village sent out a survey in which 325 residents responded and the number
one issues for all respondents was the “condition and maintenance and beauty of the village.” “All of the issues that the residents voted on to have remediated were all issue of general beautification and a higher standard of maintenance for the village,” she said, adding that respondents included full time and part-time residents. Anne Phillips said she lives on a hill and to get garbage cans “up and down, up and down” would be very difficult in the winter. “We have a space that’s carved out by the side of the road that’s apparently not significant or sufficient by this rule,” she said. Phillips added she feels personally that the cans aren’t that unsightly, and she has a bigger issue with potholes and construction dumpsters that have been there for two years. She feels this is an “overreaction to an issue that maybe we could find a better solution to.” Erin Kerr asked if “there’s going to be someone who comes and moves our trash cans back on our property, what’s the definition of that?” “Is it going to be rolled all the way up the hill so no one can see it to where we normally keep them behind a hidden piece or are they just going to move them back 12 inches so where they’re not right on the edge of the street – everyone’s in a varying situation, so how is this going to be implemented across the community?” she said.
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indley said that the trash can issue is a problem in the winter, when the cans get left out and they “blow over and we have to remove them.” “We’ve heard comments that we want our Grand Beach to sparkle and shine, be pristine but the trash cans that are left out take away from that luster,” Lindley said, adding that parking is also made difficult when the cans are left out. Lindley said that “only a small part of the taxes that you pay go to Grand Beach.” Lindley added that this isn’t an “us versus them” issue with part time residents. The sole purpose of the new
b policy is to “get trash cans off the street in w a timely fashion.” Village clerk Mary Robertson had talked to Able Disposal about moving the cans off the street once they’ve been emptied for the entire village and they said that can be done for $8.25 per month per home for trash and an additional $8.25 per month p for recycling per home. The cans would be s moved 15 feet from the edge of the road g and wouldn’t be taken all the way back to the house. t Lindley said if the village would do this, h she figures it would be about $89,000 a year. w Councilmember Blake O’Halloran w said that they’re “all striving to make our o village the best it can be – we’re not on the council here trying to figure out how to t make everyone’s lives more complicated.” c O’Halloran said the goal is to get the p cans off the streetscape as much they can a be, and that moving them 4 feet is “not off h the streetscape.” He acknowledged that w some residents have issues with no place t to put the cans on their property. n Regarding “service for all,” O’Halloran said the village could do it through Able, h which “isn’t cheap.” The village could t also continue with having the part-time r employee that the village hired for the c summer and put $2 on everyone’s bill, get rid of the fines, and have the employee t “take the cans and put them where you s guys want them.” d He also suggested that in some areas, people could “maintain enclosures.” h “Maybe we have a special program t where we split the cost or we pay for some m enclosures on certain areas,” O’Halloran s said. b He said all the emails and input s have given the councilmembers some “direction.” “ Councilmember Paul Leonard, who said that the council “fields complaints c about trash cans” every year, thinks that s everyone on the council was “a little t uncomfortable” when they passed the f resolution and knew people may object to b the timing and the cost. t “Now, everyone’s focused on it and p GRAND BEACH cont’d on page 7v
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