Trash-hauling scheme all about taking freedom

John Clarke • January 26, 2010

Waste Management of Northern Colorado, part of a huge multinational corporation with 20 million customers, which is headquartered in Houston, Texas, tentatively won out above local provider Gallegos Sanitation (a local company founded by Ed Gallegos in 1952) to serve the pilot trash district proposed for the northwest portion of Fort Collins.

I have been predicting that result since City Council began discussing this freedom-stealing idea in the 1980s.

As Coloradoan reporter Kevin Duggan recently wrote, "Proponents of the district said it would improve the quality of life in neighborhoods by reducing the number of large trash trucks rumbling down residential streets."

If there ever was a straw man to fight, a "rumbling" truck is the epitome of that illusion. There are only three trash haulers in town, and they typically serve residences once a week.

An average local residential street experiences about 600 vehicle trips per day - other trucks that deliver everything from packages to plumbing services ply those streets daily. Even if you live in a cul-de-sac, you experience about 10 trips per day to and from each house. Three trips a week to collect trash is not a significant number.

This whole trash-hauling scheme is all about taking personal freedom and responsibility away from individuals and expanding the power and influence of government.

Now, let's look at the pilot district. Gallegos currently serves approximately 64 percent of the 6,500 households in that area, Waste Management about 14 percent, with Ram Waste taking care of the rest. That means 3,900 customers made a personal decision to use Gallegos, and now government wants to substitute its "wisdom" and dictate to those individuals which company gets their business.

If you don't live in the pilot area, don't be complacent. This traveling snake oil scam will come to your neighborhood soon.

The stated goal of the City Council members who voted for this plan is to make it a citywide program. Even homeowners associations, who now select one hauler for all the residents of their neighborhood, will be forced into using the city-selected provider at the price that is set by the council.

And there might only be one bidder with one price because the other companies might have been put out of business.

Where do we go then? At that point, private enterprise will be replaced by the city itself taking on the job of collecting trash.

Fort Collins will be in the trash business at the expense of the personal freedom of all of the taxpayers who will be forced to subsidize a service that is now provided by private industry and paid for by the consumers of that service.

Please get to the Feb. 2 meeting at City Hall, and voice your objection. Write, call or e-mail your council member.

The final decision will be made by City Council on Feb. 16, and the only thing that can derail this trash train is loud and clear citizen outrage.

John Clarke is a former Larimer County commissioner, former Fort Collins City Council member, photographer and 600 KCOL talk show host.