Concord City Councilors Curb Paid Trash Bags Due To Coronavirus

CONCORD, NH — The Concord City Council directed the city manager Monday to temporarily suspend city's "pay-as-you-throw" purple bag fee trash program. Beginning April 20, any trash bag will be accepted during curbside pickup in the capital city. The suspension will last until a week after Gov. Chris Sununu lifts the state's emergency order, tentatively scheduled for May 4.

The vote by the council was 14-1, with Ward 4 Councilor Meredith Hatfield voting No.

The request was raised at the end of Monday's meeting by Concord Mayor Jim Bouley who said he had been hearing from some residents concerned about not being able to afford the bags during the economic collapse in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak. Other residents have raised concerns about not wanting to venture out to stores just to get the bags and trash being left out in the city's streets and rejected recycle bins, marked with contamination stickers, due to trash put in bins, too.

Bouley said City Manager Tom Aspell was working on a program to have pay-as-you-throw trash bags mailed to people, too. Residents could also order their groceries online, he added.

"There are options," Bouley said. "But I truly appreciate, and I don't take lightly, the concerns that people have over their health and coming out."

Bouley suggested suspending the program through the end of the emergency order. As part of the suspension plan, the mayor said, officials "really, really need to push recycling" in order to offset the cost of not having the fee from the bags and increased trash tonnage.

"We have to be honest with ourselves," Bouley said. "There's going to be a cost to this."

The added costs were not just lost revenue — an audit of the cost of suspending the bags is between $100,000 and $166,000, if the program was suspended through the end of the fiscal year which is the end of June. It could be people taking the opportunity to throw more things away than residents have in the past, he said.

"That's real money," Bouley said. "But I think, given the times, and the crisis we are in, it might be appropriate to do that."

The suspension order would end one week after the statewide emergency order is lifted, giving residents a week to go out and buy more bags.

Rob Werner, a councilor from Ward 5, said he and others believed that the May 4 order was going to be extended and councilors would need more analysis about the cost. Bouley clarified that the $166,000 was the "worst case scenario," through the end of the fiscal year. Werner later said he would support it calling the crisis "an extraordinary circumstance."

Brent Todd of Ward 1 said he would support the proposal and he had heard from residents in Penacook about illegal dumping as well as access to the bags and thought this would help.

Ward 8 Councilor Gail Matson agreed and said she, too, had heard from residents about the costs.

Hatfield said she appreciated the mayor being responsive but she was not in favor of the plan because the bags serve a number of purposes and a suspension of the program would shift the costs "onto everyone else." One of those other purposes was keeping residents from just throwing anything out on the curb. Bouley said that would not change — it would only apply to the purple bags. Hatfield also made a pitch for residents to get in touch with Concord General Services to acquire composting bins for food waste.

Linda Kenison requested it be "made clear" that residents still had to bag their trash and requested the city inform everyone about the change.

Byron Champlin, an at-large councilor, agreed with Hatfield that it was important to note that pay-as-you throw was a "user fee," like water and sewer, and during the suspension, people with more trash weren't charged more — it would come out of property taxes. He was "annoyed, just like everyone else, with the purple bags," and agreed with the sentiment that stress on the residents should be relieved. But, Champlin, said, he hoped everyone would understand the economics of the program.

Keith Nyhan from Ward 7 said the program was very successful and would have subcommittees look at the impact for the future and find ways to "bridge the gap."

Nathan Fennessey, an at-large city councilor elected last year, called the idea "creative," asked about the increased tonnage.

Aspell said there was "a dramatic reduction" in tonnage when the program was implemented including trash from out of town and increased recycling. There might be a little slippage and an increase in pickup by Casella, the contractor, due to efficiency reduction. He suggested a limit of five bags be initiated, similar to leaf pickup, but Bouley said he really wanted to keep this process simple. Fennessey countered he thought it should be five bags, too, but Bouley said the city could get into "a real game" based on size of the bag and the number of bags.

"I would hope people would be responsible," Bouley said. "Maybe I'm wrong; maybe people are going to take advantage of this and it's going to be an absolute failure. But that's the roll of the dice. I don't think Concord people, citizens, will do that. Maybe I'm being optimistic."

Candace Bouchard from Ward 9 said it was "a wise thing" to do considering the situation but added it was important to stress it was temporary. He commended the city's residents for caring for one another and working together.

After some discussion about the cost of recycling and it not being as financial beneficial as it had in the past — a burden on Casella not the city — councilors approved the plan.

The pay-as-you-throw program in Concord was instituted nearly 11 years ago. For that fiscal year, 2010, the city needed to find ways to raise new revenue due to increased waste management expenditures as well as retirement and other costs passed down to cities and towns by the state. At the time, opponents nicknamed the program "the bag tax," because it instituted a new fee for something that historically had always been covered in property taxes.

In a Neighbor Post on Patch Tuesday, the city of Concord wrote that residents were encouraged to continue to use the pay-as-you-throw bags they have now, to not put bulk items to the curb hoping that they would be picked up, and that all trash must be bagged — requiring residents to still go out to stores to buy regular trash bags, either way.

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