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Alameda Sun, April 11, 2003
Their brakes scream like banshees each time they slow down or come to a stop. When they back up, their warning lights ring like European sirens. With diesel engines that can hold their own against any big-rig you see sailing down the I-880, they prowl the commercial streets of Alameda well before dawn several times a week.
These early morning garbage trucks from Alameda County Industries (ACI) serve commercial accounts- picking up the cans along Park Street or cleaning out the dumpsters in Redwood Square . But because Alameda 's residents livecheek-by-jowl with small businesses, people in otherwise quiet neighborhoods are often awakened by garbage trucks instead of alarm clocks.
“The noise pollution on Park Avenue is incredible,” says Al Borde, whose home backs up to the dumpsters that serve Starbucks and the offices at the corner of Park Street and Central Avenue . “Barely a day goes by that these piercing, sharp banging noises don’t wake me up.“
ACI’s principal and vice president, Louie Pellegrini is quick to admit there’s a problem and says he anxious to be responsive.
"I know we’ve had some complaints from neighbors out there,” Pellegrini said, “and we definitely want to have the exact addresses of where these trucks in violation of the ordinance are going. We just started serving Alameda in October and are still going through a transition period.
According to Pellegrini, when the City of Alameda signed a contract with ACI, the waste company agreed that while their commercial trucks are allowed on the island as early as 6 a.m. , they are not to come within 200 feet of any residential premises. Public Works Director Matt Neclario verified the time and distance constraints laid out in ACI’s contract.
That 200-foot rule is news to Bill Gallegos, a Marti Rae Court resident whose bedroom window lies just slightly more than 100 feet from an ACI dumpster tucked behind Juanita’s Restaurant in Redwood Square.
“I work swing shift,” Gallegos said. “I usually sleep from 3:00 to 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning. When the trucks come, I don’t even know what time it is, it’s so dark. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been woken up by them."
Pellegrini emphasized his interest in meeting with neighbors affected by the noise to see what can be worked out. “When we have a hotspot like this, we can try to reroute the trucks so that they get to these spots a little later in the morning,” he said.
DPW’s Neclario said that ACI has an incentive to provide good customer service through an annual bonus that’s tied directly to their performance. “ACI has to meet certain performance measurements,” said Neclario. “Customer satisfaction is one of them.
He went on to explain that ACI keeps a log of consumer complaints, which is nnually reviewed by the city. “We want to make sure those complaints are adequately addressed,” Neclario said. “It’s one of the factors that affects whether they qualify for their bonus, as well as what their base rate becomes next year,”
If someone feels that service from ACI is falling short, Neclario said, they should contact ACI first. If they find ACI unresponsive to their complaints, then they need to contact the DPW.
“If they’ve sought satisfaction and are not getting it with ACI, that will give us another indication that the satisfaction is not as high as we think it is,” said Neclario. “At that point we should step in as regulator and let ACI know that they’re not living up to obligations. My staff is fully prepared to do that.”
In the meantime, ACI’s trucks rumble on in the early morning darkness, into the lot behind Borde’s house, up the long driveway serving the Islander Hotel at Park Avenue and Central, and across to the dumpsters in Redwood Square.
“Businesses want us out here early,” Says Laszlo Mesterhazy, a garbage ollector who serves Park Street in the pre-dawn hours. “They get mad if we start backing up traffic.”
Copyright Cece Blase 2003