Rising gas prices have hit Gilroyans’ trash bills.
In what has become an annual summer rite, garbage and recycling
services got more expensive July 1.
San Martin – Rising gas prices have hit Gilroyans’ trash bills.
In what has become an annual summer rite, garbage and recycling services got more expensive July 1. But unlike recent raises of a few pennies or dimes, the fee for standard collection grew by $1.03, to $22.79 a month.
Phil Couchee, general manager of South Valley Disposal, attributed the jump to fuel costs.
“These are not subjective rates,” Couchee said. “The significant bump this year was the result of higher fuel rates.”
The rate includes all trash, recycling and yard waste services. County residents currently pay $20 a month. That rate is tentatively scheduled to jump to $20.25 in October.
And though city residents pay higher rates than they’re unincorporated neighbors, they can take solace in a range of services that South Valley doesn’t offer in the countryside.
County residents, for example, are only able to put out recyclables every other week, and they don’t get yard waste service.
The services may not be as extensive, but most county residents say they’re happy with South Valley Disposal. Judy Bogardus, who lives west of Morgan Hill, said her one complaint is that the company doesn’t do a good job letting customers know what services are available. Bogardus, who lives on 10 acres, said most county residents prefer to keep their yard waste.
“I think it’s useful for somebody on the city streets that doesn’t have any way to get rid of it, but not here,” she said. “We just dump it on our fields to be plowed under.”
San Martin activist Sylvia Hamilton said the complaints she hears about South Valley Disposal come from people who live near the transfer station and don’t like the smell or the parade of garbage trucks hauling the 100,000 tons of trash South Valley handles in South County each year.
Hamilton helped craft a deal that brings the station to Gilroy. Exactly where the station will be located is an open question.
Couchee wants to put it across from Gilroy Foods on Highway 152, where South Valley parks its trucks and maintains administrative offices.
The transfer station must be approved by the city’s seven-member city council, at least two of whom have reservations about placing the station adjacent to the city’s major retail region.
“We always have to look at how industries will work together,” Councilman Craig Gartman said.
Couchee said South Valley Disposal will consider alternate sites but said there are no specific sites in play, although the Luchessa Avenue area and other points south of downtown make the most sense.
