THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290425
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
The city's efforts to get out of the commercial trash-hauling business at the Oceanfront have been delayed six months until resort business operators can be polled about what type of private service they want.
The decision was approved 8-2 Tuesday by the City Council, with the provision that 33 percent of the added cost of the extended service would be paid by the recipients.
If Oceanfront operators agree by September, the city would grant a refuse-collection contract to a private hauler who would take over a service provided by the city since the 1960s.
Basically, the council foresees granting an Oceanfront franchise to a commercial hauler to accommodate 300 businesses between Rudee Inlet and 42nd Street. A little more than 100 now use daily city services, while the rest pay for independent private trash pickups.
The city has been trying for several years to get out of commercial trash-hauling because it is costly, and available to only one percent of the 20,000 businesses operating citywide in Virginia Beach.
Many Oceanfront business operators - especially those whose trash has been picked up daily by city waste-hauling trucks - want to stay with the city service, because it is reliable and clean.
A questionnaire the city circulated March 10 among 309 resort strip business operators sought their opinions on (1) granting a trash collection franchise to a single private hauler or (2) allowing individual businesses to negotiate their own private hauling deals.
Continued municipal service was not an option in the survey, said Ralph Smith, director of the city's Public Works Department.
Of the 61 who responded to this month's survey, 31 preferred private collection services operating without a franchise, while 30 preferred a franchised service linked to a single hauler.
Vice Mayor W.D. Will Sessoms Jr. expressed concern Tuesday that not all resort businesses were open when the survey was conducted; he asked that another be done.
The motion approved Tuesday requires another survey to be completed by Sept. 15.
Voting against the six-month extension of the collection service were council members Nancy K. Parker and Robert K. Dean. Councilman Linwood O. Branch III abstained because his family owns an Oceanfront hotel. by CNB