Lee County mobile home parks find issue with trash fee

 

Tamiami Village & RV Park worker Cody White, left, tosses an empty beer case into the recycling bin at North Fort Myers park. The park collects its own garbage and yard waste while selling recyclables to a scrapyard for money to help maintain the facility. / SARAH COWARD/news-press.com

Residents from 23 mobile home parks are talking trash to the Lee County Commission, demanding the county keep its hands off their recycling money.

The parks claim they are being strong-armed into having the county pick up their recyclables, instead of allowing residents to use private companies to haul away the recycling, then keep the revenue from selling them. If the parks opt to continue their own recycling, a revised ordinance passed by the commission May 31 requires the parks to start paying a fee for pickup of bulk items, which they don't do now.
The residents say the fee will eat up their recycling money, which they use for reduced maintenance fees, park improvements, and scholarships for schools and other groups."It seems to be, 'Damned if we do, damned if we don't,'" said Ray Chevalier, chairman of the recycling committee at Old Bridge Village in North Fort Myers, which has 600-700 units.Their protests have prompted the commission to revisit the issue at a 1:30 p.m. Monday management and planning meeting in commission chambers.
At risk is $300,000 in lost revenue, county officials say. Half the money would go to the contract operator that runs the county recycling facility. The other half would go to county coffers to help pay for construction of and improvements to the county recycling facility, opened at 10500 Buckingham Road in 2010.
The 23 parks range from a couple hundred units to more than 1,400, but the average is about 500 per park, said Lindsey Sampson, county solid waste division director.
If only one person occupies each unit, that adds up to 11,500 people. The commissioners need to think about that, said Barbara Olivera, manager of the Tamiami Trail Village in North Fort Myers.
"There are over 900 voters registered here," she said. "Tamiami Village is a 55-plus community. There are people who have been retired on Social Security for 20 years. You realistically have people in this park living on $600 per month."
County officials say they just want to bring the mobile home parks in line with the ordinance that covers the rest of the more than 100 mobile home parks in the county and other residential customers, in having the county Solid Waste Division franchise haulers pick up all trash, recyclables and bulk waste.
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