How DPW Wastes Our Tax Money and Why We Need A City MANAGER (in many words and pictures!)

Why are Hudson taxpayers paying 
to have a grocery store and bodega's
huge amount of recycling
 removed every week?

Today's article will be another in my series of efforts to show how good Hudson City Hall is at squandering its tax revenues, especially at our Department of Public Works.  The subject is one of my favorites: solid waste.  There's no way around it, we all produce waste (garbage and recycling), and we all have to pay to get rid of it.  Unsurprising to me, Robert Perry at DPW has not been keeping an eye on costs related to waste.  Things have changed quite a bit in the waste world recently while DPW still seems to be operating in the 20th century.

According to the most recent invoice I received from the Columbia County Solid Waste Department, Hudson DPW pays the CCSWD exactly $101/ton to empty its garbage trucks at the Greenport Solid Waste Transfer Station.  The garbage in the trucks consists mainly of the blue trash bags that DPW sells and then picks up when full, as well as garbage from public trash cans.  In March of this year, DPW paid CCSWD just over $3,100 to drop off our garbage in Greenport, visiting the site on 9 occasions.

Though it's difficult to believe, DPW now pays CCSWD exactly $80/ton to drop off our recycling at the Greenport station.  Not too long ago, recycling was free, but those days are long gone.  In March, DPW visited the station 13 times to dispose of recycling, and we paid the county over $2,400 for that service.  The price to drop off recycling is only 20% less than that of garbage.  DPW acts as if they are unaware of this.

These boxes are not without cost to remove, 
but DPW acts like they are. (Olde Hudson)

Several years ago, when CCSWD was charging little or nothing for DPW to drop off its recycling, I asked Robert Perry why his recycling crews were picking up recycling from commercial properties, especially restaurants, on Tuesdays.  His answer was interesting.  He said that if recycling is put out for pick up, DPW must remove it no matter who puts it out, restaurants included.  He added that there was so much recycling from the restaurants that it necessitated a crew to start picking up recycling one day early (recycling pickup is typically done on Wednesdays and Thursdays -- that's what all residents are told.)

Business waste, DPW's responsibility

DPW recycling crew on a recent Tuesday,
removing commercial waste. According
to the DPW schedule, Tuesday is a
garbage day.

Some restaurants and other commercial businesses have their trash hauler provide recycling services and some don't.  Take Baba Louie's, for instance.  They have a trash dumpster but no recycling dumpster.  All their boxes and empty cans of tomato sauce are put out for pick up by DPW, and DPW removes it all every Tuesday.  The bodega at 3rd and Columbia sets all their boxes aside for DPW, as does Olde Hudson, and The Rolling Grocer and bodega at 2nd and Columbia (lead picture).  Kitty's Cafe on Front Street creates a huge amount of boxes every week that DPW, not their trash hauler, removes.  These businesses made the decision to not have their trash hauler provide them with recycling services.  They essentially decided (or DPW decided for them) that the taxpayers of Hudson would pay for the removal of their recycling instead.  A few years ago, I noticed that DPW was removing the recycling from the Firemen's Home on Harry Howard Avenue.  The dumpster for their garbage, provided by a private hauler, is, as you can imagine, enormous.  Lots of garbage, lots of recycling.

Private trash haulers will not remove loose
boxes left in the alleys -- only DPW will!

West Indies market

DPW takes everything not in
Ca'mea's dumpster

Kitty's Cafe pays Superior Waste to take their 
garbage away, but we pay to take their 
boxes away (and they don't even bother
to place them at the curb, as is
 required under our city code!). 
It's an obscene amount of boxes 
that Superior should be dealing with, not 
Hudson taxpayers.

We pay to remove Baba Louie's
recycling waste every week.  It's probably the 
equivalent of at least 12 households.

On the other hand, there are businesses like Talbott and Arding that have 2 dumpsters, one for trash and one for recycling.  DPW does not remove their recycling because there is none left out for them to take away.   Backbar does not leave any recycling out for DPW -- they, too, pay their hauler to remove it.  They could leave it out for DPW if they want to, but they don't.  CVS and Steiner's both pay a hauler to remove their recycling, too, but they could decide tomorrow to save some money by getting rid of their recycling dumpsters to let DPW handle things.  The money they would save would be additional money DPW would have to spend, also known as tax revenue.  DPW wouldn't mind, though.

CVS does not leave recycling out for DPW.

We do not pay for Talbott's recycling to 
be removed.  They do.

Steiner's pays for their own recycling.

Every Tuesday there are two DPW garbage trucks on our roads (yes, DPW has two of them).  One is removing blue bags from the north side of town, while the other is getting a head start on recycling, even though Tuesdays are not an official recycling pick up day.  

The only way DPW will remove your garbage is if you place it in a blue bag that you bought at City Hall from a vending machine. The revenue from sales of the bags helps DPW offset the costs of paying the county to ultimately dispose of the bags.  At the same time, DPW has no requirements for the recycling they remove -- just put it out and they will take it away.

But what, or who, is helping offset the cost of getting rid of our costly recycling material?  Sales of the blue bags used to help out with recycling, too, when recycling was essentially free.  But what about now when the cost to recycle is nearly as much as the cost to dispose of garbage?  Inexplicably, our taxes help restaurants and other businesses get rid of their often-large amounts of recycling waste.

There can be no justification for this.  It's a blind, inefficient, unsustainable, costly, and poorly reasoned approach to municipal solid waste management to say that if any business puts out a pile of boxes and other material, no matter how large, then the city will automatically remove it.  If the city doesn't have that approach with garbage, why would they have it with recycling?  In other words, if DPW will pick up any recycling left out for them (which they do), why wouldn't they also pick up and remove all garbage left out for them that isn't in a blue bag (which they most definitely do not)?  

Garbage and recycling cost nearly the same to drop off in Greenport.  There should be no difference how they are handled by DPW.

Just put it out there, DPW will take it away! 
Taxpayers don't mind!

The solution is simple:  Businesses cannot choose to have DPW remove their recycling unless the business is small enough to use blue bags for their garbage.  Businesses that use a private trash dumpster must have their hauler remove their recycling (all private waste haulers are required to offer recycling dumpsters).  Recyling material put out next to a private dumpster will not be removed by DPW -- Hudson taxpayers will no longer subsidize commercial waste removal.  Garbage and recycling removal is a service for residents of Hudson, not businesses, and certainly not large businesses.  The only recycling that DPW will handle is the material found in small recycling bins and the small piles of cardboard sometimes found next to them.

Without the overwhelming amount of commercial recycling for DPW to necessitate Tuesday recycling removal, 3 crew members and a lumbering garbage truck will not be needed, which will also be a money saver.

I have no doubt that Robert Perry would argue that there is no other way for his DPW to handle recycling and that commercial pick up on Tuesdays is crucial.  A competent city manager or business administrator at 520 Warren Street, instead of a mayor, would prove otherwise.  Let's face it, department heads make unwise, costly decisions all the time, even those who make over $115,000 a year.  Having someone occasionally help them understand that what they are doing is wrong can go a long way to improving life in a little city.  Continuing to do things the way they have always been done, for lack of a better approach, is a road that leads to Nowheresville.

Robert Perry's phone number is 518 828 9458 

The Mayor's Office phone number is 518 828 7217 

Tell them to STOP THE WA$TE!!! 

Who are the boxes meant for?