Tomorrow Chico City Council will finalize the trash deal. I’ve read and commented on it for years now, this latest draft still has a lot of problems.
- they will require everybody to pay for a yard waste bin
- if bins are damaged, including graffitti, more than once, the customer is on the hook for the replacement of the bin – no prices included, we have to wait til our bin is damaged to find out
- no rates published, but Waste Management is allowed to raise our rates at will with the CPI
Right now my family pays about $25 for a 96 gallon bin which we share with our tenants. Nobody would tell me what the new rates would be, but I’ve checked in other towns – we should expect to pay $25 for a 35 gallon bin under the new deal, so the bigger bins will be closer to $35 and $50 a month. Plus the additional whatever for the yard waste bin. Recycling will also be required, but free.
I’ve howled about this deal, which former mayor Mark Sorensen called a “trash tax.” I don’t think the public will pay attention until they get their new bills. We’ll see what kind of stink rises up over Chico when people find out, trash service will not be mandatory under this deal, just a lot more expensive!
Hi Council,
I just wanted a few last words before you hit us with the trash tax.
I won’t pay for a yard waste bin I don’t need. I’ve got rentals, I do my own yard work and hauling, I pay to take the stuff to the green waste facility on Cohasset, so I shouldn’t have to pay for yard waste bins for tenants who don’t do any yard work. Besides, why should I have to have a third truck stop in front of my property, every week?
Also, they should have to tell us how much these bins cost, UP FRONT, if they are going to require us to replace them when they get damaged/tagged. That also makes the yard waste bin a liability I don’t need.
Waste Management should also have a rate schedule on their website that is good for a year. When I tried to sign up for Waste Management earlier this year, the dispatcher gave me old rates, and told me she had no idea what the rates would be when the franchise takes effect in October. That’s called “bait and switch”.
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation – Juanita Sumner, Chico
Chico Taxpayers Association 
Well, someone’s gotta pay for all the raises, like Orme’s 9 grand a year raise. And of course then there’s the pensions.
What I don’t understand is how people can’t see that maybe with the exception of Stone and Ory (who voted no for the raises) the council is just a tool for the special interests.
The job of these politicians is not to work for us but to figure out ways to make us pay for what they give the special interests.
The question that always come to my mind is how long will the public put up with this. I blame the schools – people are just too poorly educated to even understand what’s going on anymore.