Even if Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors doesn’t get it, the people of Dranesville District have made it clear. They intend for their trash parkouts to continue.
And not just one but both of the Saturday parkouts, one at Great Falls Elementary and one at Cooper Middle School.
And if Fairfax County opts not to continue by citing a shortfall of a measly $9,000 in a budget of $2.56 billion, they will do it themselves.
Last week, two volunteers distributed letters of intent to all who came through the parkout at Cooper Middle School, asking them to indicate if they’d prefer to continue the parkout with a private hauler to signing on with a commercial trash service.
By Monday, the first mail delivery after the distribution, 25 people had already signed up, said John Theon, who is coordinating the effort.
“Frankly I am not very happy about the county claiming they can’t afford it, when they have a $2.56 billion budget,” said Theon, whose wife, Joanne, co-chaired the McLean Citizens Association’s budget and taxation committee for the last two years.
“They throw more money than that away every day, I am sure,” said John Theon.
It will take 200 people, total, paying $225 a year, to continue the trash service in McLean, he said.
In Great Falls, where volunteers who named themselves Dranesville Trash and Recycling Co. Inc., are making arrangements to continue the parkouts at Great Falls Elementary with no interruption when service by Fairfax County ceases at the end of the fiscal year. The last day of service will be on Saturday, June 28.
By July 5, the first Saturday in FY ‘04, the nonprofit Dranesville Trash and Recycling plans to be up and running.
Theon said the McLean group probably won’t be in place that soon, but users will be able to use the Great Falls drop-off location for one week until trucks are available at Cooper, hopefully, by July 12, he said.
Like most citizens who use the parkouts, Theon has his reasons.
“It is a matter of security,” he said. “If I am out of town and I leave my bin out, it would flag a burglar that I am not home. If I don’t leave it outside, I am telling the [garbage] collectors that I am not home,” he said.
“This way, it is completely anonymous.”
“We have been here 34 years,” Theon said. “For all but about one month, we have used the parkout.
“For the first 30 years, it was free. Well, not free. We paid for it with our taxes,” he said. “If the Cooper parkout doesn’t work out, I intend to go to the Great Falls Parkout and use it as a permanent thing.
AFTER TALKING TO MANY of the users who came through Cooper parking lot on Saturday, he said, “A lot of them are angry that the county has chosen not to continue the service.”
But by joining the private nonprofit corporation formed by the citizens in Great Falls, Theon said, “That is the interface with the government, the schools, and the private contractor.”
One advantage is the reduction in the charge by the public school system for use of the parking lot for three hours on Saturday morning, said Theon.
A commercial service would be charged $35 per hour plus a $30 cleanup fee each week.
The rate for a nonprofit, though, is $7 per hour, a manageable cost.
“That is one advantage of having a nonprofit handle the interface,” Theon said.
“It is more acceptable to the county to deal with citizens. They would show favoritism to a private contractor if they allowed them to take the contract without competitive bidding.
“Three trash companies are interested in this project. We have to see how many will bid, and see how many [residents] will pay approximately $225 that it will cost for a year of service,” said Theon.
The McLean Citizens Association will probably discuss the McLean parkout at its monthly meeting at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 4,
“They just thought it would be nice for MCA to show support for this,” said MCA president Jan Perriello.
McLean Trees, which is organized under the MCA, benefits from the Cooper parkout because residents drop off newspapers and magazines there for recycling. They are sold, with the proceeds used to buy and maintain more trees and shrubs in McLean.
“If they lose the parkout location at Cooper, it could hurt [the] recycling business, because maybe not as many people would go there,” Perriello said.
Fairfax County also collects newsprint in a Dumpster at the McLean Bible Church on Leesburg Pike at Lewinsville Road.