INSIDE

New trash service set to roll

By Meg Olson

Curbside garbage and recycling pickup should be available by the middle of March, according to Freedom 2000 principal David Gellatly.

The new Point Roberts garbage company will operate as CanDo Recycling and Disposal and Gellatly said he has 55 residential and 25 commercial customers signed up so far.

“We knew coming into it we wouldn’t have the customer base there was but we’re hopeful that through having discussions with people and providing a dependable service those numbers will get better,” Gellatly said. “To make it work according to budget I’d like 300 or more residential customers and 35 or more commercial. For now the fewer the customers the expenses will be reduced somewhat proportionally.”

On January 27 the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission granted Freedom 2000 a certificate to collect garbage in Point Roberts, denying an application by Point Recycling and Refuse to provide a more limited drop-box service. A condition of Freedom 2000’s certificate is that they can be operational within 45 days and that they be strictly monitored for regulatory compliance.

“I’ve pretty much got everything set up and I’d like to be up and running before March 15,” Gellatly said. Commercial dumpsters, residential recycling containers and 40-yard disposal bins have been ordered, he said, and the company already has smaller disposal bins. “I have purchased a garbage truck and a recycling truck,” Gellatly said. While the company’s initial plan had been to use a trailer to pick up source separated recyclables Gellatly said he got the truck for less than a trailer.

Gellatly said he can start up service without a lease on the transfer station but he has been discussing a lease with the county and hopes to take over the facility in March.

In a February 8 letter to Point Roberts Recycling and Refuse owner Arthur Wilkowski, county assistant public works director John Hutchings gave that company until March 6 to vacate the transfer station and offered $35,000 to buy the scale house, scales and concrete block walls.

Under the current lease agreement between Point Recycling and Refuse and the county, the county can terminate the lease because of public necessity and according to county civil prosecuting attorney Dan Gibson that would include no longer having a certificate to collect garbage, as county ordinances require garbage and recycling pickup. “Whatcom County finds the termination is necessary to facilitate continued collection and hauling of garbage and recycling at Point Roberts at a service level commensurate with Whatcom County code,” Hutchings wrote.

Wilkowski isn’t buying it. “Why disrupt operations at the transfer station? Why not see if this new company is even viable?” he said. “If they want me out of here, let’s talk a six month plan and compensate me adequately for the work I put into building this station.

“Why does the county want to buy my assets and lease them to another company?” Wilkowski asked, adding the new company will likely suffer from the same constraints he did. “What kills this system is the huge overhead for such a small customer base.”
Wilkowski suggested the county should operate the transfer station and contract with a company already operating in Canada to collect garbage and recyclables from homes one day a week.
Wilkowski said he has put close to $250,000 into developing and equipping the transfer station. “Thirty-five thousand dollars doesn’t give me much incentive,” to hand over his assets and walk away from the investment, Wilkowski said, “and neither does 30 days notice and no transition plan.”

“I’m going to operate the dump until I’m forced to leave,” Wilkowsk said. If and when he is forced out, unless he is adequately compensated, his plan is to take what he can and leave the transfer station the way he found it – a patch of dirt and a shed.