Oceanside sanitation board creates new rules for commercial pick-ups

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The Oceanside Sanitation District No. 7 board of commissioners adopted new commercial pick-up rules for the district at its Dec. 5 meeting.

Board Chairman Austin Graff said about 120 businesses in Oceanside receive dumpster pick-up, but under the new guidelines, the maximum number of dumpsters that can be used is four, and garbage can only be picked up from the businesses three days a week. Any businesses that seek to have more frequent pick-ups would have to pay a $70 fee to the district for the additional cost of extra services.  The rules go in effect on Jan. 1.

“Before the vote, there were no rules regarding when and how a business gets picked up, who gets picked up with dumpsters and who does not,” Graff said. “There were no rules. When I came on the board, I asked why we do certain things. It’s unacceptable. There has to be rules in place.”

To determine which businesses use dumpsters, how many dumpsters they use and how frequently garbage is picked up at certain establishments, each driver for the district submitted a list, and the commissioners created a table. In July, the district administrators formed a committee to discuss how they can make the dumpster pick-up for commercial businesses more uniform. The committee met in October and November, and sent invitations to each commercial property owner in the hamlet, inviting them to come to the meeting.

Graff said the new laws are designed to create equal treatment for all businesses, where in the past some commercial areas were getting beneficial treatment. He added that businesses can request for the commissioners to waive the extra service fee in extenuating circumstances, but that it must be for a good cause. “The point is fairness and equality among all the businesses,” Graff said.

Graff also said one business in Oceanside — which he did not name — was paying $300 per month for dumpster services for 20 years, when they could have been getting that service for free, while another used up to 20 dumpsters and had pick-up services almost daily.

“We need to save businesses here in Oceanside,” Graff said. “We need to do what we can to bring businesses into Oceanside and to make it cheapter to do business in Oceanside.”