One of the questions I am asked most often when I am doing official events is “why did I want to become mayor?”
Honestly, it is one of my favorite questions because the answer is straight forward and simple. I believe that I can help build a community that better serves all the residents of Lansdale while also keeping an eye on our future to ensure long-term success for our town. Undeniably, the second half of that answer is the hardest to sustain over a long period of time. It requires looking at problems not just for the impact today, but the impact for years to come and determining the best way forward. No one wants to leave their kids a community that is worse off than they found it.
However, I find it all too common in governments, at all levels, to only address the issues of today and allow the issues of the future to be dealt with later. Examples include everything from climate change to immigration and everything in-between. This is, in my opinion, the definition of poor stewardship. It is for this very reason that the conversation around trash hauling and alleyway maintenance frustrates me so much.
Rightfully so, residents want their alleyways repaired. Admittedly, they are in terrible shape. It is not uncommon to see potholes six inches deep and a foot wide (or bigger) in Lansdale. Five years ago, as I have noted in other articles, the borough used to scrape and level the alleyways for residents. After a resident complained and an altercation occurred, our insurance provider suggested we stop the practice due to liability reasons. Obviously, the desire to not incur legal fees is persuasive, especially on property you do not own, thus the borough halted the practice. We have seen the negative impact of this work coming to an end. But that begs the question of why did the alleyways deteriorate so quickly? Most of the impact on alleyways comes in the form of trash trucks, and they do significant damage not just on the alleyways, but on the borough streets as well.
Unsurprisingly, we are not the first community to research this problem. The City of Spokane, WA found that the average empty side-loading trash truck does the same damage as 5,000 cars in a single pass. When full, it averages about 11,800 cars in a single pass. This led them to conclude: “for an equal number of applications, heavier loads produce appreciably more damage to roadway pavement than do lighter loads.”
To clarify that statement a bit more, they go on to say: “an increase in loading applications beyond the assumed design loading model will hasten the deterioration rate of the pavement, thus causing the pavement to reach its terminal serviceability index prematurely.”
If this is true of pavement, it is obviously true of stone alleyways.
Other communities across the country have found the same types of results, although at varying degrees of damage. Saratoga, CA, who has one hauler doing twice weekly pick up, found trash trucks contributed over $60,000 dollars in damage yearly to their roads. Lansdale has at least five companies operating in the borough currently. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, who had seven trash companies operating in their community, found in totality an extra 35,000 car trips worth of damage was being done each week on their roads from trash haulers. The State of Minnesota asked their DOT to conduct a study on the impact of large vehicles on local roads. They found that each trash truck on a single pass contributed the same amount of damage as 1,279 cars.
It is no wonder our alleyways look the way they do…but beyond that, our roads are taking a beating as well. Herein lies the opportunity to build a better Lansdale now and into the future. All residents want our infrastructure repaired. All residents want the community to be judicious and economical with their tax dollars. The alleyway program will require moving resources from existing public works projects into alleyway maintenance. This will delay those previous projects, unless we can find additional funds.
The borough currently pays around $50,000 for trash pick-up for our public buildings and municipal cans. If we move to a single hauler, that bill goes away entirely and can be re-dedicated into public works without peeling resources off other projects that are needed in the borough. On top of that, we will be decreasing the total damage the roads and alleyways take each year, requiring less maintenance overall, decreasing the investment in the alleyway project while also extending the life of both the alleys and our roads.
Finally, it is my belief that these projects should be intimately tied to one another. The borough does not own the alleyways and in order to increase our investment in them, we need to ensure everything is being done to mitigate the damage to begin with. To only repair the alleys without the agreement to move to a single hauler implies that we are comfortable utilizing tax dollars on a project that continues to have an accelerated rate of damage. That is irresponsible now and into the future; especially since not everyone utilizes an alleyway and we would be moving resources from another project that likely impacts all taxpayers (like fixing actual roads that are also taking an accelerated rate of damage).
By moving to single hauler trash and fixing the alleyways together, we decrease damage to our roads, which everyone uses, fix the alleyways for those who need them repaired, while also appropriately managing our investment in that project. This is a win-win-win scenario that appropriately addresses our future use of tax dollars while repairing our infrastructure for generations to come.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert.)
See also:
Mayoral Musings: Right In Our "Wheelhouse"
Mayoral Musings: Permit Parking Planning And FAQ
Mayoral Musings: The Risk And Reward Of Alleyway Maintenance
Mayoral Musings: Officer Gallagher Exhibited Training, Dedication
