The World According to Bob

Casella feels your pain over trash tote fiasco

The show goes on

Concerts go on all throughout the summer. Wednesdays Gill Creek Park. Thursday Columbus Square Pine Avenue Redevelopment. Friday night Old Falls Street.

Food Truck Thursdays remain a good time for all.

Movies at the library

2 p.m. Aug. 13 is the next movie at the Main Street library, Beetlejuice

Golf for Ken Ruggiero’s memory

Aug. 12, 46 annual Ken Ruggiero Golf tournament at Hyde Park. Get your young golfer registered. It’s only $10

Trash tote transition explained

Much as been discussed internally and externally about the latest transition of trash totes in Niagara Falls. Thanks Casella.

(Steve Hannon of Casella comes on camera with the mayor. He is listed on LinkedIn as director of operations.)

Newer larger totes now in place increasingly. Larger totes in place.

“I think we all experienced some difficulty in the roll out,” Restraino said.

“We did and we certainly recognize that things did not go quite according to plan. We recognize people are frustrated and we can certainly understand and share that frustration,” Hannon replied.

“I know that you, and the company has plans to get things back on track,” Restaino said.

“We had a vendor that was here to deliver all the totes,” Hannon said. “We are not here to play the blame game or point fingers at things that may have been out of our control but what we are focused on is getting the issue resolved and making sure that everybody gets their new tote. I understand. I get it, if it was my tote and somebody came along and took my tote and didn’t give me a new one or all my neighbors got them and I didn’t get one yet I would be frustrated too. So I totally get it and like I said, we have a plan in place to get the issue resolved. We should have the remaining totes here before the end of the month and as soon as we have them we will get them out to residents.”

“There will come a point in time where the old blue totes, which as I say are over a decade old, will no longer be collected by Casella’s,” Restaino said.

“Correct,” Hannon replied. “Once we feel good about everybody has a new tote, has the right number of totes, we will stop servicing the old ones. That should be end of the month, beginning of next month. You mentioned the larger size of the totes. We have started seeing the benefit of that already with less bags and things on the ground. I think that will go a long way in helping get things cleaned up and in the end it will be a good thing.”

“To the point of the old blue totes,” Restaino said, “once Casella no longer services those, I’d like the residents to realize those totes were acquired by the city and we need to collect those back again. They are the possession of the city and so we are looking to make sure that we collect them all. If I am correct, the best rollout would be once you have received your new tote, you should be putting the old blue one out in front of your home for collection. It may not maybe I should ask you if I have my old tote and my collection day is Thursday what should I do?”

“So when they come back again to deliver the new ones,” Hannon said, “hopefully they will be picking up any old totes that remain out. So I would say the best course of action would be to leave it out. it will be hopefully the end of the month that we get it all collected. Just leave it out and it will get collected.”

“And if you’ve already received your new tote,” Restaino said, “and you have the old one you should just put it out there.”

“Correct,” Hannon replied.

“Let’s remember the old totes need to be collected,” Restaino said. “Let’s remember the old totes are no longer going to be of value to you as a homeowner and they really should be recollected by the city for us to dispose of in the appropriate manner so we appreciate your cooperation on that. Steven I know that the most important thing we can do is go back to giving good service to the community.”

“Correct” Hannon said. “We do care about the city, care about the people, a large percentage of our workforce in the Falls are residents of the city so they are servicing their families, their friends, their neighbors, so they have a vested interest in providing the best service possible in the community.

“That’s what we ar looking forward to, getting all the totes delivered, getting past this initial speed bump and get back to providing great service.”

The weekend returns

The weekend is on us again it might be a little wet. I am going to begin to give some ancient tips on behaving on the road. Stopping at a stop sign is not a suggestion it is a requirement. If you are going to operate a vehicle other than a car, a bicycle, scooter, an ebike whatever they may be the adage that the right side of the road is the right side to be operating on still applies. If you think about it, that allows drives in the same lane that you are operating to have an eye on you and operators coming in the opposite direction don’t have to worry about anything other than that car that is coming at them.

If you put their vehicle on the driver’s side coming at you, that driver has two things to pay attention to and generally that is never going to be a recipe for anything. Stay on the right side. Go in the same direction with traffic. It is safe for you. It is safer for the drivers. What we want to do is avoid any other accidents between drivers and these users of the road so please be mindful of these rules. Lets have a safe remainder of the summer. Also, remember the pools are open, weather permitting, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon until 7.