SIMI VALLEY : Automated Trash Service Approved

After a live demonstration of the new equipment and a quick review, the Simi Valley City Council on Monday approved a new automated garbage-pickup service for residents throughout the city.

The service, provided by Conejo Enterprises and Anderson Disposal Service, is scheduled to start the week of Jan. 23 for about 6,500 customers, gradually expanding to include the entire city by the end of June.

The contractors have bought a fleet of new trucks, equipped with hydraulic arms to pick up trash bins from curbs.

Mike Smith, president of G.I. Rubbish, the parent company for Conejo Enterprises, told the council that his company will provide the service without laying off workers or raising rates.

Trash rates for Simi Valley residents are about $15 a month--the second lowest in Ventura County.

Council members said they are pleased the new service would be provided at no additional cost to customers.

But one longtime Simi Valley resident said he opposed the new service, saying the new trash bins would be difficult to handle. Hal Geer also said he feared the cost of the new service eventually would be passed along to the customers.

“They’re going to come back at you people for a raise in rates, and you know it,” Geer told the council. The promise not to increase rates is “the old smoke-and-mirrors bookkeeping game,” he added.

The automated trash service was written into a 10-year contract signed by the trash companies and the city in 1993.

It comes about a year after the city launched a yard-waste recycling program to encourage residents to sort their garbage and help the city meet state-mandated trash reduction goals.

The state requires cities to divert 25% of their trash away from landfills this year, and half of all trash by 2000.