Royal Carting asked to do test run in village

By Michael Turton

The Village of Cold Spring may be getting out of the garbage collection business.

At the Jan. 9 meeting of the Village Board, Mayor Dave Merandy announced that Royal Carting will do a test run on Jan. 30, collecting both garbage and recyclables throughout the village. The board and Royal will then evaluate whether the company should take over from the Highway Department.

Merandy, who has wanted to reassess garbage collection since first taking office, commented that contracting out collection would free up the Highway Department to concentrate on other duties. “Garbage and recycling take up so much time,” he said.

Royal Carting will conduct a test run for the village. (Photo provided)

However, Merandy expressed concern over how Highway Department workers might be affected. “We’re not out to kill anyone’s job,” he said, stating that he wants to ensure “the guys who have been working here are employed and stay with us.”

Merandy also emphasized that the cost to taxpayers would have to be considered. If the change is adopted, “individual homeowners would be responsible for pickup and for contracting with Royal,” he said. “The village would be out of the business totally.”

The cost to residents won’t be known until Royal completes the test run. “There are a lot of variables,” Merandy said. The company has indicated that residents would be charged a reduced rate due to the large number of homes involved.

Police Report

The Cold Spring Police Department handled 63 calls for service in December. Two arrests were made, for disorderly conduct and for unlicensed operation of a vehicle. Thirty-one parking tickets were issued along with 25 traffic violations.

Village workers pick up garbage beginning at 1 a.m. on Tuesday and collect recyclables on Friday. Royal will begin the Jan. 30 test run at 4 a.m. Two trucks will work in tandem, one handling garbage and the other recyclables. Workers from the Highway Department will accompany them.

The test run will be done at no cost to the village, and any revenue from recyclables will be refunded.

Royal handles garbage collection in a number of Hudson Valley communities including Beacon, Fishkill and Wappingers Falls. They also do garbage pickup in Nelsonville under contract with the village, not with individual residents. Cold Spring’s Forge Gate condominiums also contracts with Royal.

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Michael Turton has been a reporter with The Current since its founding, after working in the same capacity at the Putnam County News & Recorder. Turton spent 20 years as community relations supervisor for the Essex Region Conservation Authority in Ontario before his move in 1998 to Philipstown, where he handled similar duties at Glynwood Farm and The Hastings Center. The Cold Spring resident holds degrees in environmental studies from the University of Waterloo, in education from the University of Windsor and in communication arts from St. Clair College.

15 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Judy Farrell

The Mayor and Village Board need to inform Village residents of the costs of this proposal to pay for their own garbage removal. Will there be a credit to our Village taxes if individuals are now required to pay for garbage collection? What specifically will the Highway Department be doing when not in the middle of winter? We need to understand what Village tax dollars are being spent on.

We have an empty municipal parking lot at night and residents across the street cannot park there without paying. When are residents getting parking permits? We need to better understand our Village elected officials goals to “improve” life for all the people who reside in the Village. As residents, we also must attend these meetings where a few people make decisions that impact all our lives and our pocketbooks. I am not necessarily opposed to the garbage proposal, but need to understand how it benefits village residents and taxpayers.

Sara Dulaney

Our village crew is indeed heroic, and might need to be expanded. If plans re Royal pickup continue, I assume community input will be sought, especially if homeowners are footing the bill. One also assumes that arrangements would be made to adapt to each household, as singles surely wouldn’t be billed as much as families. Already, many different ideas have been floated among neighbors — a big one being: If Nelsonville pays Royal, why would Cold Spring Village not? Thanks for the reporting!

Patty Villanova

I don’t know if this is exactly what your Board is proposing, but in Putnam Valley, where I live, we have “improvement districts” that perform various services including garbage pickup. The improvement districts are geographical entities within the town, the largest one is Lake Peekskill which has about 700 residents and there are smaller ones scattered around the town. Not every resident is in an Improvement District; many contract for garbage pickup with various companies on their own.

The Town puts the garbage contract for all the districts out to bid so we can get the best deal. The cost of garbage pickup is included in our town tax bill that we get in January and it is based on the assessed value of our homes.

Like I said, I don’t know if that’s what the Village has in mind but it is not at all uncommon for a municipality to arrange for garbage pickup for its residents with a private hauler. I hope it works out for you and that it ends up saving money.

Lynn Miller

As the article stated, the test run to determine costs will occur on Jan. 30 when Royal Carting will pick up trash and recycling on the same day.

Cost-saving measures can be made in every household before by separating out as many recyclables as you can. The more each household recycles, the less expensive waste management is to the Village. Cold Spring pays per pound to dispose of our non-recyclable garbage. In turn, we are paid a little bit of money for recyclables. Not a lot, but some.

Right now, Cold Spring pays to dump somewhere between two to three times as much garbage as we recycle. Thus, the more items we recycle, the less we all pay to dispose of trash.

Much of the trash we pay to dump is food waste which represents a lot of weight compared to other trash. Please keep those compost buckets handy and compost as much food waste as you can. It’s good for your garden, good for the environment and saves every taxpayer money whether our highway department does the collection or a private company.

Patty Villanova

One other thing about municipal collection that residents might want to think about before you have public hearings on the subject and that goes back to what Sara Dulaney said about special rates for singles or small households.

The system of basing the fee for garbage collection on the assessed value of your home is extremely flawed. Suppose you are an empty nester or a senior citizen who is still living in a substantial home and that you produce very little garbage. Why should you pay more than say a family of five that lives in a much smaller house that’s assessed at very little or much less? The big question is, why should anyone pay for garbage picked up based on the assessed value of their home? It makes no sense. You should pay based on how much garbage you produce.

I would advise my friends in Cold Spring to do your homework before this issue is decided on by the board! Believe me, once it commits to doing it a certain way it will almost impossible to change it in the future. The Village is small enough that you should be able to have a say and some control over your future.

Good luck!

Tom Nastasi

Subtract around $71 every two weeks times 24 times per year = $1,704. Now, take that off our taxes.

Michael Armstrong

The proposal that the Village should stop collecting garbage and have Royal Carting do the work, apparently billing residents directly, needs careful scrutiny. Although details are few, it appears that the Village has no plans to reduce highway department staff, so the only benefit would be savings from the investment in equipment. Offsetting that benefit is that we residents would have to dig deep into our own pockets to pay directly for garbage collected in front of our homes, something that is now covered by our property taxes. The net result is we’d all pay more for the same services we are getting today, even if private collection rates are low. As it happens, the Special Board for a Comprehensive Plan gave quite a lot of thought to garbage collection, and the Government and Infrastructure Working Group prepared several reports with recommendations in 2008 and 2010. [I led the subcommittee that worked on the project.] Although we considered privatization, we did not recommend it, primarily because of concerns that only one vendor, Royal Carting, would be able to compete for the business. Privatization is great when competition is robust, but can be robbery when it is weak or absent. The Village spends about $110,000 annually in direct costs for the collection of garbage. This covers the costs of incineration (about $56,000) and the wages of highway department workers for collecting garbage, and maintenance; to this add the cost of the trucks (depreciation, insurance). Cold Spring produces about 18 tons of… Read more »

Tom Valentine

Did everyone forget about the discussion at the Town Board meeting a few months back about merging the Cold Spring Highway Department into the Town Highway Department? This is the first step toward that. Highway employees will work for Philipstown with no loss of jobs, we hope. Always look past the current issue to see what the real goal is.

Peter Henderson

I was unaware of that discussion, Tom, but glad to hear it. Makes sense to get it on the table and look at the pros/cons, one of which is vacating the highway department property next to Riverview.

On the garbage issue, Michael Armstrong’s letter sums everything up very well, although I’m interested that the Royal “test run” will begin at 4 a.m. rather than the usual 1 a.m. or so. Back during the comprehensive plan, a few of us wondered why they start so early. The stated reason was to beat the rush at the incineration plant. I took a trip down there one day around 10 a.m., didn’t see any backup, and was told that was normal. Maybe try a later start time with the local crew as the next test.

Patty Villanova

Question: Outside of Cold Spring, what does the rest of the town of Philipstown do for garbage pickup? Any improvement districts or other taxpayer funded pickups? Do most people have individual contracts?