AGENDA #5c
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Petition from Inter-Church Council Housing Corporation Requesting Waiver of Fees for Garbage Collection
DATE: October 27, 2004
This memorandum is in response to the petition filed on behalf of the Inter-Church Council Housing Corporation requesting a waiver of fees for garbage collection.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
On September 27, 2004, the Inter-Church Council Housing Corporation petitioned the Council for a waiver of garbage collection fees. This corporation owns two housing units within Chapel Hill—Elliott Woods, located behind the Church of Reconciliation, and Chase Park, located on Highway 54 By-Pass. The 78 apartments comprising these two units have been in existence for 25 years and were built with low interest loans from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for low to moderate income families as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Starting in fiscal year 2004-2005, the town began charging an annual fee for basic garbage collection service at sites serviced by side-loading refuse collection trucks. The specific annual fees under this basic service are $721 for once weekly service and $880 for twice weekly service. Both the Elliott Woods and Chase Park sites use three 4-cubic yard side-loading containers, for a total of six containers, each serviced twice weekly.
Side-loading refuse collection is rapidly becoming an obsolete technology. Of the 616 dumpster sites we serve, only 89 (14.4%) are side-loaded dumpsters. The low and waning demand for this service makes it more expensive to provide than comparable front-loading refuse service. Accordingly, the Town’s fee schedule does not include provisions to waive fees for tax exempt entities for side-loading serviced sites, nor does it provide for services at no fee for multi-family sites meeting certain eligibility criteria if such sites are serviced by side-loading equipment. Under the existing fee schedule, there would be no fee for service for the corporation’s two sites if service were converted from side-loading to front-loading equipment.
RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that Town staff work with corporation officials to convert the two sites from side-loading service to front-loading service. Under the existing fee schedule, such conversion would entitle this tax exempt customer to service at no charge. We believe this action is preferable to considering altering existing policy to make an exception for this one non-profit entity.
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