Condo Owners Want Trash Picked Up

Many Bristol condominium owners want their trash picked up. 

They pay for private contractor right now to do it. The town does not provide the service. That could be changing.

The Town Council is scheduling a workshop with them to try to work out possible new agreements for trash collection.

Mary Catharine Miller, a resident of Bristol Landing on Metacom Avenue, made a request for trash collection for the condominium owners at the Town Council meeting Wednesday night, Jan. 8.

Mailler said she represented condo owners from at least four developments: Bristol Landing, Weetamoe, North Farm and Stone Harbor. About a dozen condo owners accompanied her to the meeting Wednesday night.

“We’re only asking for parity with other tax-paying homeowners,” Miller said.

Many of Bristol’s condo complexes were built by developers who said they would be self-contained communities, she said. The homeowners would not need services such trash collection or snow plowing from the town. 

So, the developments have been paying for their own trash collection with private contractors for many years, Miller said. It is part of their condo association fees.

But the agreements with the developers do not say that the homeowners can never ask for new consideration, Miller said. That's what they want right now.

Indeed, said Bristol Solicitor Mike Ursillo, “the Town Council has the authority to modify those agreements.”

Miller said most condo owners in Bristol pay to support the schools and for police and fire protection just like every other taxpayer. What they don’t get for their tax dollars is trash collection. 

“I was pleasantly surprised,” she said. “They did listen. We are happy the way we left it – with a workshop.” 

If new agreements with the condo developments can be worked out, said Town Council President Mary Parella, trash service to those residences would probably not start until a new budget year on July 1.

Miller told the Town Council there are an estimated 480 condominium units in Bristol with approximately 900 residents.