By Wendy Sigmund
Kunz Trash has been denied its county contract beginning August 1, 2022. Kunz Trash is a valuable service to our mountain communities. Greenwaste is the county trash service but Kunz Trash is the alternative to residents who live on private roads. Historically Greenwaste will not travel on private roads, a representative told the Bulletin. Instead they have cluster setups which still could be miles away from the residents’ homes. Matt Machado County Chief Administrative Officer says this is not correct. He says that Greenwate is trying to find a way to service all residents. In an interview with Kunz owner Jack Kunz, he said his contract payments got behind but the county is not providing assistance to the small business owner or an extension to give him time to pay the $100,000 bill the county presented to him. Instead they are denying a way out for this vital small business. The CZU Lightening Complex Fire took its toll on Kunz, as did COVID. In addition Jack and his wife have had health issues which has not helped the situation. Many residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains live on private roads. The road is not maintained by the county, instead small road associations maintain the roads themselves. It is well known that these roads can be steep and narrow making it impossible for the large Greenwaste trucks to traverse. As an alternative to the large Greenwaste company, Jack Kunz’s trucks are able to traverse the mountain roads and provide the vital trash pick up service. In addition to the politics of the county’s trash pick up company, closing this small business down will cause a loss of jobs. 350 to 400 residents rely on Kunz to collect their trash. If this service is not provided the options become small and difficult. The residents will have to take their trash to the dump. That is not always easy to do. Some are elderly, disabled or simply do not own a pickup with tie downs as the dump requires. So what is the likely outcome of the loss of this service: trash does not leave the mountain. If we take a moment to consider the implications of the closing of this business could be to our community we will see there are three areas of concern. They all stem from trash not leaving the mountain. If residents can not remove the trash from their property they have a couple terrible options. It is plausible that they might want to burn their trash. The fire danger of this option is so great we can only hope they will not do that. The other option is for them to bury it. That is a terrible option as well considering we live on a watershed. What we put in the ground can contaminate the water supply or do great harm to the environment through leaching, animals being poisoned and a host of other concerns. We have all seen some inconsiderate, to say the least, people who dump their trash in reveens. Only last week did we stop to see the view up on Jameson to find someone had dumped their trash down the canyon. It would be terrible if this practice persists and gets worse. Matt Machado says he has been asking Kunz Trash to comply with multi-level issues, not just the money. Machado continued, “Greenwaste is already looking to make the transition by providing small truck services.” The issue of small private roads is the large Greenwaste truck can not get up there. They are afraid of damaging the road and turn-around space. In the past Greenwate had a policy of not traveling on private roads which they are addressing. However, a plan had not yet been solidified. “Today Greenwate operation managers are looking at some of the roads in question.” Machado says that he is unsure of the price difference between Kunz Trash and Greenwaste but he believes it will be comparable. He did also say that the fears of residents burning or burying trash is not new and even Kunz trash was not able to service all homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains and areas of San Mateo. Santa Cruz County board of Supervisors, Bruce McPherson, says the issue is more about multiple levels of compliance and confirmed it is not just about the money owed to the county. He continued by saying he wished this had been addressed earlier and he will contact Jack Kunz immediately, but feels it is too late to correct this course. The Greenwate option may be believed to be the only option for valley residents. People choosing to contract with a county agency instead of a small private one may be closing. But is there a way for the people to speak and have an impact? Jack believes so. He is asking community members to send our supervisors and other county officials a letter or email. Here is the contact information. Email all five Supervisors at the same time at BoardOfSupervisors@santacruzcounty.us County Director of Public Works Matt Machado, Matt.Machado@santacruzcounty.us 831-454-2160 & County Chief Administrator Officer Carlos Palacios, Carlos.Palacios@santacruzcounty.us 831-454-2100 You might be able to make a difference. Please try to help keep this small business in the business of serving our wonderful community.
Sounds like someone should look into buying the business or the supervisor’s should wave the fees because as we All now what will be coming with the trash.