Waste Management?

The City is about to waste taxpayer money! Please see the below figures, which are evidence of that fact:

Sharps container $100.00 qt. size

For $98.56 at $4.48 per unit you can get 22 x 1 quart containers
OR
for $94.05 at $8.55 per unit you can get 11 x 2 gallon containers

22 quarts = 5.5 gallons

Why not just get 3 x 2 gallon containers for $25.65?


$16,000.00 for a generator(!?!?!)
$25,000 "Gas for generator" (!?!?!)

Amazon.com -
Generac gasoline-powered portable generator
CARB compliant
4,000 Watt, 5,000 surge watts
4.5 gallon tank
Runs up to 13 hours at 50% load
$954.97
If the generator that they propose to pay $16,000.00 for will take 24 gallons per day, then 180 days (if gas was $3.50 per gallon) would cost $15,120.00. Not $25,000.
But, if they bought the one I found for them on Amazon.com (which would be more than sufficient to suit their needs), then 180 days worth of gas (again, at $3.50 per gallon) would cost them $2,632.50!



Approx. Cost to breach both East and West dykes/lagoons -$750,000 Approx. Cost to partially breach the West dyke/lagoon - $187,500
A resident partially breached the West dyke/lagoon, by hand, for free, in order to sail the concrete dock into it, that the City had left beached on the northwest shore of the Bulb, for who knows how many years.



From the City's plan:
"Add Alternate
Waste Management dumpster fees (marked up 15%) 40 yard dumpster $1,530.00 each x 3= $4,590.00 Initial delivery $87.00 each x 2 = $174.00"

Any average citizen can go to the waste management website and order a 40 yard dumpster for $927.24 base price of(6 tons).
Each additional ton is $86.28
I was unable to find the prices for delivery

The service agreement that the City of Albany has with Waste Management allots the City 20 large "debris bins" (or 20, 30 or 40 cu. yd. dumpsters) per year, at no extra cost to the City.
If there is a need for debris boxes in a number higher than 20, the prices for each extra dumpster are as follows:
20 yd. $609.80
30 yd. $914.70
40 yd. $1,219.60
Delivery is $69.37


Car batteries, that the City is predicting will cost them $10.00 each to dispose of, can actually be recycled (for, at least, $10.00 each, frequently $15.00 or $20.00).


On February 23rd, 1999 the City estimated that bathrooms for their 4-month temporary shelter would cost $400 per month.

In October, 2013 the City estimates that bathrooms for their 6-month temporary shelter will cost them $900 per month.
1999 - 4 x $400 = $1,600
2013 - 6 x $900 = $5,400



In 1999, it was estimated that initial patrol of the Albany Bulb, following the eviction would cost the City anywhere from $3,000 to $5000, per night. Plus, "spot checks" done by police, were estimated to cost $1000-$3000 per day/night. If police salaries have gone up at all since 1999, the city could be looking at paying quite a bit of money just for police to patrol at the necessary levels for the 6 months that the shelter that no one will stay in remains open.

*If* police pay is still at the same levels that it was in 1999, then initial patrols and "spot checks" for 6 months could reach $900,000 and $540,000, respectively. That is a total of $1,440,000.

And that is only *if* police pay hasn't increased since 1999!

Add that to the $230,435 that is going to be paid to people's wages, to run the 6 months worth of housing that Albany is begrudgingly willing to give to the homeless, and you have: $1,670,435 that the City is willing to pay to people, (so long as those people have homes to go back to, after earning that money...).

But Albany only has $35,000 that it is (again, begrudgingly) willing to spend on actually housing its 65+ homeless residents, in housing that is intended to last longer than six months.

If my calculations are correct, the the City is about to spend $230,435 largely on administrative costs. Administrative costs, in this sense, meaning: wages for the already-housed individuals, who would carry it out.

Add to that the price for items to be purchased, and you've got an inconceivable amount of the Albany taxpayers' hard-earned dollars, that the City is about to spend on things, and people doing stuff with those things. And only $35,000 will actually have been put towards the federal objective to end homelessness by the year 2020.

Instead, well over a million dollars is about to go up in smoke in yet another one of Albany's desperate attempts at not having to actually commit itself to helping our country work towards that noble goal of truly ending homelessness.