Villagers: paying unfair refuse collection charges is mandatory.

[Frank2]

Does anyone know why the VCCDD-LSSA require Village homeowners to pay for trash collection when the owners are away from the Villages for extended periods?

It seems to me that one should have the option to suspend collection services while away on vacation or showbirding thereby eliminating that monthly charge.

The argument that they need everyone paying to help keep the cost down just doesn't hold water anymore with the large number of homes now.

Let's hear it folks. To pay or not to pay. :dontknow:

[noleguy]

No matter where I have lived in the past, I have always had to pay the monthly trash collection fee whether I was there or not.

[chuckster]

Same here........had to pay whether home or not. Only newspapers and cable TV could be suspended for a set period of time. Never heard of suspending utilities.........

[Frank2]

At another location where I have a home,,,trash collection may be suspended for as little as a week at a time, or longer if requested...AND....the billing is adjusted to reflect only those collections that were made. :bigthumbsup: Billing is on a monthly basis.

Again, the question is: why is this not possible in the Villages? :dontknow:

[Frangyomory]

30+ years in Virginia and we paid for trash removal regardless of whether we had any or not and regardless of whether we were home or not. Just another fact of life.

[Indy-Guy]

Perhaps the trash truck drivers don't have time to look and see if people are putting out trash that haven't paid. I know that no one in The Villages would put trash out and not pay! Maybe the trash truck driver and the guys on the back of the truck need to keep it as simple as possible as they are probably working their way through college.

[Frangyomory]

No one gets away without paying. The bill comes monthly with water bill so you are paying it every month regardless of where you happen to be that month. :dontknow:

[The Great Fumar]

DON'T KNOCK IT, THESE GUYS PICK UP EVERYTHING ENCLUDING OLD TV'S.....NEVER HEARD OF ANYONE DOING THAT.....

[Frank2]

Oshunluva,

I think your response hit the nail on the head. Thank you.

[bamafan]

Closed on my home on August 30th Will not be down with first load of furniture till end of September. On August 31st I called all utilities to make sure billing and everything was correct. North Sumter Utilities said I would get a water, sewer, and trash bill. Water & Sewer I understand cause the sprinklers are running, but I should not have to activate trash pickup till end of Sept. North Sumter did not tell me cost of trash pick up just that my average bill would be around $65 if I was careful FEED THE BEAST

[villager99]

when i was a snowbirder i found the phone, cable etc companies in florida had well established and convenient vacation suspension of services systems. but it would be a logistical nightmare to ask trash collectors to skip houses listed on some ever changing vacation listing.

[jjdees]

I don't have a comment pro or con, but why the talk of the collectors having difficulty? This is about billing, the collectors don't have anything to do with it.

[villager99]

interesting, i hadn't even considered asking a private sumter county company to suspend billing for trash collection on an honor system. that said residence was unoccupied and no trash would be put out for x months.

[Frank2]

This process does not require any input or additional work on the part of the collectors.

The scenario is as follows: a call to the VCCDD-LSSA office indicating I will not be in the Villages for the month of July. End of story.

Obviously there won't be any refuse to pickup and billing suspended for the month of July. ;D

How hard is that?

[Villages Kahuna]

In fact, I have to pay for both garbage collection and a base water/waste treatment charge for our home in Michigan even though we only occupy it for two months each year.

If one was responsible for contracting for services like garbage collection, water, sewage treatment, etc., someone explain to me how the fees to homeowners could be calculated if some people opted out for the times they weren't in residence? Would you instruct the garbage guys not to pick up when residents requested it? What about shutting off the water and sewage treatment? That too?

Sounds to me like you're proposing an impossible request, from almost anyone's perspective.

[dadspet]

In the Endicott NY area we stop our garbage whenever we leave - No problem. We can even call them up if we forgot to tell them and they will give us credit for the months we weren't there. It sure would be nice if they did the same thing in the Villages.

[JohnZ]

It isn't a good idea to compare the TV to other "non-retirement" municipalities with respect to trash collection, sewage treatment and water works infrastructure. Although not quite apples and oranges....the disparity between the two is substantial in some areas.

To support the various community services, municipalites have the power to levy taxes whereas TV has the "power" to increase amenities fees.....so both TV and municipalities are the same in some respect.

Consider the costs: Initial cost of capital equipment, continued operation/maintenance of sewage and water treatment and the purchase and maintenance of a fleet of trash collection vehicles.....and lastly the hiring of personnel. All of the aforementioned is based on a certain "size" of community and the planning, design and construction of the infrastructure is done up front....even before the houses go up. So much of the money (to defray capital equipment cost and installation) is already spent BEFORE any bond issuances, taxes or amenties fees are collected. These are "fixed" costs that are passed on to ALL community members and they are obligated to pay "all of the time" if they are a resident. This is a bit simplistic but essentially explains the basics.

Now....let's say that you're the County Executive and you know that roughly a third of the residents in the county leave the county for about 8-9 months out of the year and they are asking for what they consider "fair relief" and NOT pay toward county bond debt, taxes or other community infrastructure support during the time they're gone. Hmmm...you'll say to yourself, this relief cannot be granted if the county (or VCDD) is to remain financially balanced.

There is a potential solution....but maybe not. Some municipalities have privatized much of their infrastructure services to avoid capital costs as well as the cost of operation and maintenance. Private companies could buy the existing assets, finance upgrades or new construction and provide sewage/water treatment and trash collection under a long-term contract often at a cost lower than government-run facilities. So now, with respect to waste collection.....if TV contracts with Waste Management Inc. for example....the contract could stipulate that residents could temporarily suspend services (and costs). Waste Management Inc. would then absorb the loss of revenue across other operations nationally which operate more profitably. Good huh? Maybe not. A company like Waste Management in performing the necessary business due diligence (profit-loss analyis part) may not bid on the opportunity if it determines that it cannot absorb the loss of income due to the temporary suspension of resident services AND still make a profit in the area. The other option is for residents to contract directly with the trash haulers.......as is the case in many municipalities......but the community would lose the advantage of collective purchasing power so waste collection fees for residents could increase (often substantially). Although competition among haulers would put a natural economic ceiling on prices...other factors to be considered....hauling distance, disposal facility ownership i.e.landfill or incinerator or waste-to-energy plant (some are private and some are municipality owned etc.)....would all contribute to the natural price floor. Revenues from recycling programs could offset costs....but that's a study in and of itself....and it should be noted that most programs nationally are economically anemic and must be heavily subsidized.

Bottom line: It's not as simple as we may think. As the TV fees are currently structured, I think we are doing well with what we have.....trash pick-up twice a week with very little restriction on what's picked up....a good deal. On water/gas....it is not possible to temporarily suspend these services for transient residents as the infrastructure and operating/maintenance costs are fixed for the community of a certain size. If we want the flexibility to suspend waste collection services.....we should be prepared to pay higher rates for those months that you're in TV....that's the only way it'll work...if at all....when you have a community with lots of transients.

Whew...lot's of typing...'nuff said. More than my two cents....more like a half a buck.

[Cliff]

:joke: ??? Some of the comments on this subject make me think back to the last time my wife and I held a garage sale. We wanted to get rid of some of our old golfing equipment which was gathering dust in the garage. Most of the clubs were big name clubs so we figured people would be glad to pay $5 per club for individual clubs and use the same figure for sets of woods. My wife had a nice set of three woods (Slotline) and we were asking $15 for the set of three. A lady came up to us and said she liked the clubs and would like to pay $10 for them. She said she never uses a driver so it was of no use to her. I said it would be a shame to break up a matched set and told her the price of $15 was reasonable. Her response was that she did not want me to break up the set, she would take all three clubs for $10 and just never use the driver in the set.????????
I'm sure that in her mind she was making a reasonable request. In my mind I was dealing with a blithering idiot who should be locked up in a padded cell. Point made????? :joke: :dontknow:

[chuckster]

I agree with John Z. ...............and his dissertation. How do you tell full time employees we only need you 6 months out of 12 because of seasonal residents. Gonna be looking for help in no time soon. These are not college students as someone said and the trash will soon pile up as in NYC. Granted they are not in it for a career but they can be counted on full time in the short term. If you want the privilege of owning 2 homes then the payments and expenses go with both. I'm sure you don't turn off the heat in the winter up north while you vacation in florida in the winter. I also don't turn off the A/C here while spending time up north in the summer. I also continue to pay my water/sewer/irrigation/trash while away from "home".

[Barefoot]

Chuckster .. It is true that we do leave minimal heat on "up north" if we go south in the winter, but only enough so that the pipes don't freeze. You don't turn off the air conditioning in the summer if you're not there. Why is that?

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Hi, I live in upstate NY, a rural area, and we do not need to pay for garbage pick up when we are not here.

The investment made by our local sanitation engineers will be the same as anywhere else, and yet this is a service they offer. As I am thinking about this question, The Villages charge more than where I live, and the houses are closer together. Where I live the distance between houses is measured by acres and not feet.

At TV garbage pick up would be more lucrative it seems to me as the homes are one after another - lined up. There are no long drive ways to back down and snow and ice to deal with.

Just my thoughts.

Hyacinth Bucket

[chuckster]

Re. A/C left on in summer, we leave thermostat set at 80 to act as a dehumidifier. Keeps moisture level down to prevent mold, etc.

Also from rural NY and nearest farm neighbor 1/2 mile away. Trash pick up was once per week, they did recycling which was nice, but paid more per week than here where we have 2 trash and 1 yard waste pickup per week. Do miss the recycling though and it seems such a waste to not be separating out papers, plastic, etc. from the landfills.