Thursday, September 21, 2023
I want to express my total disgust and mistrust for the methods used by Jefferson County in dealing with solid waste disposal. In particular, the excessive price hikes scheduled to take effect Sept. …
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I want to express my total disgust and mistrust for the methods used by Jefferson County in dealing with solid waste disposal. In particular, the excessive price hikes scheduled to take effect Sept. 4, 2023.
This solid waste fee increases will be by 100 percent, from present $10 for 120 pounds to $20 for 240 pounds.
Yard Waste fee increase will be by 400 percent, from present $5 for 200 pounds to $20 for 840 pounds.
During a phone conservation with a city point of contact, I was informed one reason for this 400 percent increase was the county’s attempt to get the public to deliver larger loads which would have an outcome of less individuals. It is a nonsense excuse as the so-called longer lines are self-imposed resulting in longer lines on Tuesdays. This effort is a prime example of how county officials use such information to justify their agenda.
I believe the majority of citizens delivering yard waste do so with vehicles not capable of delivering more that the 200 pounds, let alone 840 pounds.
In an effort to pay these increases, citizens will collect their waste at their home; yet another solution for the individual is to dump the yard waste on county, state, or privately-owned lands.
Citizens of this county should complain to the Board of County Commissioners for this unjustified tremendous increase in disposal fees.
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Concerned Citizen
We live in a county of what some may describe as corrupt. One designed to screw over the poor people and benefit the rich in the area. One designed to give county employees massively more pay and benefits than the rest. These increases is to try and get people to use garbage companies instead of dumping trash themselves.
Environmentally, Jefferson refuse / dump is one of the worse in the country for pollution as they ship everything numerous hundreds of miles in dirty C02 Producing trucks, when we have an abundance of land where a clean environmentally friendly land fill could be done, thus drastically reducing fees too. EPA complaints incoming as JC is violating numerous laws including the clean air act, all for profit to staff. Also Jefferson County Refuse makes a profit, yet they seem very secretive where that surplus money is going.
Friday, September 1 Report this
TomT
Jefferson County Board of Commissioners have refused to listen to common sense explanations from the public about why the proposed increase in the minimum fee makes no sense.
The 'analysis' done by the Solid Waste division of Public Works uses King County rates for comparison to justify their DOUBLING of fees. That's a totally dishonest approach, and they've been allowed to get away with it by the BoCC.
Worse, the BoCC just passed a law that allows Solid Waste to increase fees in the future with NO PUBLIC HEARING. No notice other than a 1-liner on the BoCC's weekly consent agenda which is published online only 24 hours in advance.
When was the last time most people paid any attention to that? Get ready for more of this pain, soon and often, when SW finds out that their estimates for building their new facility are grossly incorrect and the have to raise fees even more.
Meanwhile, they've closed the place on Monday -- don't even think about trying to get in on Tuesday unless you've got 30+ minutes to waste in line.
Friday, September 1 Report this