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May 4, 2009 (E-Mail and Attachment from Jean Buckley, City of Bloomington Minnesota, Public Works Project Coordinator) Getting it to you just under the wire. Thanks for all the work on this long overdue study! Look forward to meeting you at the ARM workshop next month. Jean Buckley City of Bloomington 952-563-8751 Comments on Draft Report of Analyses of Waste Collection Service Arrangements Summary pg 5: The City of Bloomington did hold a Public Hearing to consider organized collection in 1996. Perhaps NSWMA was not aware of this. It does say we did this in Appendix E, pg 1. 2. Summary pg 6: It is mentioned that obtaining cost of service can be complex but you may want to mention a few reasons why. For example, residents in Bloomington pay as much as $10/month for recycling. Are you sure recycling was included in the trash costs for the cities that provided rate data? I am told a hauler will often do this to avoid the State tax and County fees. Also fuel charges can vary substantially in different communities and between haulers now. The data is very old (from 2003-2004) before many had fuel charges and the cost of recycling skyrocketed in open systems. There should be more current information on this. Oops, I just noted fuel charges mentioned on p 12. I think it should be moved up to the discussion on rates and not after the Minneapolis summary. 3. Summary pgl2: I am not sure about other contracted cities but in Minneapolis there is no limit to what can be set at the curb. This is important to note since many rates show 90 gallon as the top rate paid when actually there is not a limit on set out if you have the largest cart size. In Minneapolis you can use free vouchers to take construction items to the transfer station. In Bloomington, you can avoid the extra bulk pickup cost by saving it for the city-wide curbside clean up. This program costs the City approximately $500,000/yr and each resident pays an extra $20/yr for it which could be added to their cost of trash service. So maybe note that 90 gallon is not the limit in all cases. 4. Summary pg 14: I have recently received customer counts from haulers and found that approximately 25% of our residents DO NOT have trash service. This can be a large cost to a city and businesses community from the amount of illegal dumping that takes place when people don't have trash service. I think this piece should be mentioned in your report. It also greatly impacts the recycling numbers. If a city is missing the recyclables from 25% of their residents then their numbers will be down in comparison to an organized collection of recyclables. X:\MS\IE\2008\08M081\10000 reports\Final Appendices\Appendix I1 -Public Comments.doc