Voters to decide who should haul trash

For 31 years, Pam Blum has paid more to have her trash hauled than her neighbors who live within municipal boundaries.

Blum lives in unincorporated Valentine Manor subdivision east of Route 12 near Miller Road. Residents of area villages pay roughly $50 for garbage collection, she said.

"Our bills are up to $79 for the same pickup," Blum said. "It's a big difference."

Blum rallied her roughly 72 neighbors to get Ela Township to place a question on the Feb. 5 primary ballot.

Now it's up to voters to decide whether the township should negotiate a contract on residents' behalf for garbage collection services in unincorporated areas.

It's not uncommon for townships to negotiate garbage collection contracts for their unincorporated residents, but they must go through a referendum request to get the authority.

If approved, it would not raise taxes for any Ela Township residents.

Rather, unincorporated residents would be billed individually by the contracted agency for services such as collection, disposal, composting or recycling of garbage, refuse and ashes within unincorporated areas.

According to the 2005 census, 4,340 residents live in unincorporated areas within Ela Township.

"They pay more than all the villages around them right now and they do not get leaf pickup and recyclable bins like the rest of us have," Ela Township Supervisor Lucy Prouty said.

Voters in Antioch Township rejected a similar request in spring 2007.

Warren Township went to a referendum in the early 1990s to negotiate a contract for recycling services for its unincorporated residents.

"It was pretty much overwhelmingly approved at the time," Warren Township Supervisor Suzanne Simpson said. "We were the first in the county to do this."

The township joined with the village of Gurnee and awarded the contract to Waste Management.

Simpson said there are benefits to having a single waste hauler service unincorporated areas.

"It is less onerous on the infrastructure, less wear and tear," she said. "It also gave us a bulk price so the price of garbage collection dropped significantly when we all came together and bid it."

It also enabled the township to get leaf pickup services for residents.

Due to a filing mix-up, Ela Township's referendum question was left off the optical scan ballot and will instead appear on a separate pink ballot. On Election Day, the 3,737 eligible township voters will receive two ballots to fill out.

Blum already voted "yes" through early voting.

"There's no reason at all not to," she said. "It doesn't cost anybody anything. Just a group of us save money down the road."