Where Are Councilmembers Lachterman, Capoccia? AAA Makes Proposal, Can Start July 31
Sandford & Son or Competitive Carting?
“I pay $22,000 in Property Taxes. Can I have my garbage and recycling removed reliably?” -comment on Yorktown Trash Talk
By Dan Murphy
The Town of Yorktown and Supervisor Tom Diana finally took action against Competitive Carting for their inability to reliably remove the trash and recycling of the homeowners and taxpayers of Yorktown. Supervisor Diana announced fines of $59,500 for failing to properly collect household refuse and recycling in the first week of July.
We reported that garbage removal for the July 4th weekend was incomplete, with half of residents not having their trash removed due to a last minute decision by Competitive Carting to ONLY collect smaller 32 gallon trash cans, and not collect the larger 90 gallon cans that most residents use.
“I understand your frustration…I have it as well. My garbage doesn’t get picked up on time,” said Supervisor Diana. “We’re all in the same boat folks, and were working to correct it.”
The Town refuse and recycling staff is documenting additional garbage-collection failures. Each weekday at 5 a.m., the department’s staff will drive along the previous day’s collection routes to determine how much garbage was uncollected. The documentation is important because it will establish responsible grounds for terminating the contract if necessary.
AAA Carting was the garbage company hired before CC, and did the job without complaints. AAA CFO Pat Cartalemi posted on Yorktown Trash Talk last week, “Last week we meet with Supervisor Diana twice. We meet once to discuss the current state of the trash service in the town and if AAA Carting would be willing to make an offer to come back to Yorktown and service the residents. We met a second time and we made an offer. One key part of this deal was we could start July 31.”
On Monday, July 24, Cartalemi posted again, writing ” I wanted to provide you all with the most up to date information about what is going on. Some of the latest developments are as follows: We were asked to stop posting on this Facebook Group by the Supervisor.
I had to call back the Supervisor’s office ..and he told me they are still working on what to do. I was honest and transparent with him and told him I would be posting the offer we made on Facebook and I was told “Do what you have to do” and then got hung up on.
The town is out calling any licensed garbage company they can to try and get help. I am not saying they should not be doing that but this contract is not an easy contract there are only a handful of companies in this County that can do it.
So I also said I would post the offer we made to the Town and that offer is as follows:
Award of Contract to AAA Carting for rest of the 5 years and already exercised 3 year options – Approval from SWC to be obtained by Town of Yorktown & AAA Carting– Price would be original bid price from last bid – AAA Carting will give up the 7 month that we would be entitled to if we won the lawsuit.
o Year 1 (5 Months, 2023) – $1,562,500.00
o Year 2 (2024) – $3,900,000
o Year 3 (2025) – $4,056,000
o Year 4 (2026) – $4,218,240
o Year 5 (2027) – $4,386,969.60
o Year 6 (2028) – $4,562,448.38
o Year 7 (2029) – $4,744,946.32
o Year 8 (2030) – $4,934,744.17
· AAA Carting will provide all new truck to service the trash by March of 2024.
· AAA Carting will provide the residents with 1 – 96 Gallon tote for trash per house. AAA Carting will maintain the totes during the term of the contract. When totes are delivered we will run a campaign and give residents time to get used to using only the 96 Gallon totes. Totes will be provided when trucks are ready for automated service which we anticipate will be March of 2024.
· AAA Carting will provide an on-site supervisor for the term on the contract
· AAA Carting will start the contract on 07/31/2023
· AAA Carting offered to hire all employees of CCC
· AAA Carting offered to buy the container from CCC to ease the transition
· AAA Carting offered not to change the route back to the right way things should be until the residents are back to consistent and timely pick-ups
The difference between our pricing and CCC is $2,406,932. The town also has a bond worth $2,304,526.00, if the town is successful in getting which should be easy, the Town will only spend $102,406.00 over 7.5 years, which is $1,150.62 per month.
My lawyer has been trying to get in touch with the Town’s attorney to no avail.
In my opinion this choice should have easily been made and discussed with all the board members. I am not sure what the hold-up is. I was told by the Supervisor that there are no hard feelings for AAA Carting filing a lawsuit and the Town has absolutely nothing wrong with AAA Carting. The only questions I ask is than why has the change not been made yet?” writes Cartalemi.
We hear that Supervisor Diana is unhappy with the comments posted on Yorktown Trash Talk. The easy solution to that Supervisor, is to fix the garbage problem for your constituents.
More comments on Yorktown Trash Talk include:
- When’s the election? I might run a campaign called “get the trash out”I’m here to support my town.
- I think AAA offer is very generous and I really think if the Current supervisor and town board really cared about Yorktown residents they would accept AAA’s offer and we could be seeing good service once again starting 7/31/2023. I think the hold up are the town attorney and Michael DisGrace! I really do. Brian Amico must be either a family member of somebody or a good friend. Why else would they be dragging their feet? I am just so suspicious! Anyone else?
- The town board needs to remedy this situation ASAP! Yorktown is beginning to look like a dumping ground. Garbage is sprawled all over the front of peoples homes because the critters are tearing into bags and shredding the garbage. The taxpayers of Yorktown pay for garbage pick up and we should expect to receive that service with no issues whatsoever.
A new Facebook page, Vote out Yorktown’s Board, https://www.facebook.com/groups/298675542614832, has formed. To date, comments on the Yorktown Trash Talk have come from Councilmembers Sergio Esposito and Luciana Cortina Haughwout. No comment from Councilmembers Ed Lachterman or Mary Capoccia.
Many residents are now putting a “drop dead” date of July 31 on the calendar. “Enough is enough. If this garbage fiasco is not fixed by the end of the month, we need new leadership. I have voted republican all of my life but I can’t live like this,” said one Yorktown Trash Talk member.
