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CURTIS OSTRANDER	DUAINE HARDING
ELEANOR TODD	ELMER "BUD" HAHN
GERVASE KILEY	MARIAN SUTTON
ORLO KIRKUM	SLAVA KOKOTOVICH
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Further information
needed for single hauler

by CHRIS GRAY
Observer Staff Writer

      More information is required before Bruce Township can determine whether a single waste hauler would benefit the community.
       After finding there were more questions than answers, the Board of Trustees decided at its Oct. 21 meeting to go back to its attorney with further questions about creating a single waste hauler ordinance.
       Since September, township officials have looked at other community's ordinances in order to figure out if mandating that one company provide trash hauling services would be a savings for residents.
       At a Sept. 22 meeting with the township's attorney, Bob Seibert, Treasurer Deborah Obrecht and Trustee Ron Walker were told the large number of private roads may not justify switching to a single hauler.
       Seibert, who has dealt with other townships such as Washington, Ray and Shelby regarding single waste haulers, indicated an ordinance cannot mandate commercial businesses to travel on private roads.
       "He did recommend that the next step would be to have a meeting with five or six local contractors and throw out the problem and see what responses we get back," said Walker. "Our problem is unique to everyone else."
       Around 25 percent of the township's populace is said to live on private roads. However, this was called into question when a resident at the meeting pointed out that his road isn't a private road, though it is indicated as such on the township's map.
       According to the map, the township has 70 private roads, but now this figure needs to be double-checked.
       "The first thing we need to do is get the private road map cleared up," said Supervisor Jim Tignanelli.
       He said the board needs to look at the difference between its private roads and those in Ray and Washington townships, both of which utilize a single waste hauler despite the presence of private roads.
       Washington's ordinance makes no special mention of private roads, causing the board to wonder what is different with Bruce.
       "If we cannot send these guys down those roads . . . then we need to find out if there are any contractors out there that are interested in doing only the public roads," Tignanelli said.
       Obrecht said the township would need to bid out in order to obtain prices, so it needs to have a clientele number to provide contractors. The number of homes served will affect the price that contractors will offer, making it difficult to nail down a cost.
       Clerk Susan Brockmann suggested the board look at writing an ordinance that would exclude the private roads.
       "When you go out for bid, if you have the participation from the private roads, where does the level go?" she said. "If they give a price for 1,700, what is it for 1,800?"
       Trustee Mark Falker believed the board should move forward.
       "We've got enough people on public roads," he said. "Hopefully the people on the private roads will see the benefit and join up later."
       An estimated 2,200 single-family homes would be serviced by a single waste hauler. Homeowners who would sign up would be billed directly by the contracted company in order to avoid placing delinquencies on tax bills.