Moving

When we moved to Holbrook last November, I wrote about how I considered the town’s solution to the expensive problem of trash disposal to be quite fair. At the time, homeowners paid what was essentially a consumption tax on the trash. You could throw out as much trash as you needed, as long as it was all contained in special bags that cost $3 each. In addition, recycling was included, but you had to separate paper from plastics and put them in paper bags and tie up cardboard with strings. It was kind of a pain.

Then at the end of the year, the town changed the deal. They lowered the price of the bags slightly and instituted a per-household fee because they weren’t raising enough money to pay for the cost of trash disposal. (The town had passed an ordinance a couple of years ago that trash disposal had to pay for itself, not rely on other taxes.) So the bags went down from $3 per bag to $2.10 per bag, but we now have a $240 annual fee. Based on our household’s consumption, that would raise our cost for trash disposal by $150 per year. Not a devastating amount, but I could find other uses for that $12 per month. Still, I wasn’t so motivated that I was actively seeking alternatives.

But the alternative came to me. Last Saturday I found a flyer stuck to our door advertising a local independent trash hauler. They would supply two 96-gallon bins, one for trash and one for recycling. The recycling is single-stream, which means no more sorting and bundling. Everything goes into the bin. They pick up every other week, trash and recycling on different days, and pick-up is not affected by holidays, except when it falls on the actual holiday itself. (This year it’s just July 4 that’s affected.) And the best part? I would pay a little less than I did under the old town-run system before they raised the prices. Plus I get a lot more convenience.

... [P]roving in the process once again that in most areas of society private enterprise can provide a superior product/service at a competitive price over government’s efforts.

Of course, I called on Tuesday and signed up right away, proving in the process once again that in most areas of society private enterprise can provide a superior product/service at a competitive price over government’s efforts, which usually have little incentive for cost-cutting and inefficiency. After all, when government needs more money it just raises taxes. Except in this case, there is an escape hatch for the taxpayers.

I do recognize that the reason they can’t cover costs is that people like me opt out of the system, thus placing the structural costs upon fewer shoulders. But what they don’t recognize is that they provide no incentive to keep us from leaving the system. They provide an inferior service at a higher cost because they make me subsidize a bunch of people who get abatements as well as the inefficiencies inherent in any government bureaucracy.

The best part is that the town just signed an agreement with a company that wants to set up a regional trash transfer station with a rail-link in town and part of the agreement is free trash and recycling pickup for all residents, plus a huge annual payment-in-lieu-of-taxes to the town’s coffers. So if all goes well, in 2 years, I switch to the no-cost-to-me service and save the $300 I’m spending on private trash disposal. Until then, I’m looking forward to a good relationship with the private company and not having to worry about special trash bags and sorting my recycling.

Photo credit: Flickr user feministjulie via a Creative Commons license.

Melanie and I were talking today about the mental adjustment we’re going through in our new house. I’m having a hard time grasping that we’re not going to be moving from this house for some time, hopefully. Yet, we’ve both been apartment dwellers for so long it’s hard to settle in. In my case, I’ve lived in six different places in the last seven years. I’ve practically been a nomad.

When we got the new desk yesterday, we spent a little time trying to figure out where to store it. I’d had the unconscious reflex that we need to keep it in case we had a use for it in “the next place” we live. Likewise, Melanie’s been holding on to the area rug that had been in the girls’ room in the old apartment. Since we have wall-to-wall carpet we have no use for it, so she finally listed it on Freecycle.

We really are going to stay here for a long time, God willing, and so we can get rid of anything that doesn’t fit our needs in this place. I know we’ll get mentally adjusted at some point soon. Still takes getting used to.

I just cleaned out our takeout menu file of all the old Salem/Beverly/Peabody places we frequented to make room for new Holbrook/Randolph/Abington menus, which was a sadder experience than I expected.

There are a lot of memories in those old restaurants. Asahi, in particular, was the sushi restaurant where I had lunch every Friday when I lived at the rectory and they were across the street. They were closed for a few years when their building was torn down, but when they re-opened it became a place for me and Melanie to go. In fact, the first meal after she gave birth to Isabella was takeout from Asahi, accompanied by well-wishes from the owner who came to know us on sight.

Then there was Cilantro, the high-end interior Mexican-style restaurant that was our first official date. (Melanie doesn’t recognize the unofficial first date as canonical.) Or Passage to India, site of many a memorable meal alone or with friends. Or The Landing in Marblehead, our last fine dining before Isabella was born.

Of course, the reality is that once Isabella and Sophia came along those days of frequent nights out faded fast. Not that I really regret the loss. I’d rather have mac-and-cheese with the three women in my life every night than any fancy restaurant without them. And as the girls get older, we’ll have those opportunities again. (Especially now that we have Melanie’s sister, Theresa, around the babysit occasionally.)

So, out with the old takeout and in with the new memories and experiences we’re sure to share, not just over a table, but in all areas of our new “South of Boston” life.

Incidentally, we discovered a new authentic Mexican place on the way home from Home Depot in Brockton today, called Burrito Wraps. It was very good, inexpensive, and even my Texas-born wife declared it to be worthy of regular visits. And that’s saying something!

(Double-incidentally, am I the only one who calls it “Home Despot” and imagines a maniacal dictator requiring new home improvements from everyone who comes in. Oh. Yeah. I guess I am.)

Photo credit: Flickr.com user Amoeda. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Our new hometown of Holbrook is one of the smallest municipalities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in both population and land area. It’s a classic New England small town, with a representative town meeting, which sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll run.

There are lots of small-town changes to get used to, but one there’s one I want to point out. Trash disposal has become an expensive problem for cities and towns, large and small. Most just bite the bullet, pay exorbitant fees, and spread the pain among all property owners, large and small, however much trash they actually produce. But Holbrook has come up with a solution that—while it seemed initially to be a pain—is actually quite fair.

In this town, your trash will only be picked up if it’s in a special blue trash bag, marked “Town of Holbrook” that you can can buy in local stores. The bags cost about $3 each, which sounds like a lot for a trash bag, but is quite economical for trash disposal.

What we have here is, in fact, a consumption tax. If you’re someone who doesn’t recycle and who creates lots of trash, then you pay for the waste you produce, whereas people like the elderly folks who live around me who throw away maybe half a bag per week pay only for their consumption. And if you don’t like the systems at all, you can pay a private contractor to take it all away for you, no special bags required.

Yes, there are inconveniences. Making sure that everything you throw out ends up in the blue bag can be tiresome. We’re still using regular kitchen trash bags for everyday use and then putting two of those in one of the big town bags. And I understand that just before we moved in the price of the bags doubled from $1.50 to $3. That could be a bit of sticker shock.

But the idea is itself a fairly conservative, small government way of doing things. You often find that on the local level, even in a very liberal area like eastern Massachusetts.

Photo credit: Flickr user feministjulie via a Creative Commons license.

If you’re buying a house or looking to sell, I want to recommend my friend Paul Goyette to represent you as a buyer’s or seller’s real estate agent. Paul is a good friend, a very generous and devout Catholic, and a very patient real estate agent. Week after week, he took us to house after house—more than 30 by my count—until we found the right house at the right price.

So Paul and his business partner are making an offer that for anyone who seeks out his agency for either buying or selling, based on a referral from this blog, upon completion of your transaction, they will make a $500 donation to your parish in your name. That’s a pretty good deal.

If you’re interested, please email Paul at paul@stelmachrealty.com.