TRASH PROPOSAL DROPPED SUPERVISOR RECALLS MANDATORY FEE PLAN.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

ROSAMOND - Kern County Supervisor Don Maben has withdrawn his proposal to impose mandatory trash collection on residents and businesses in Rosamond, Mojave, Tehachapi and Boron, after opposition from citizens.

Maben had proposed requiring property owners to pay for trash collection as a way to reduce illegal dumping of trash in the desert, and said he now hoped to fight illegal dumping by enforcing laws against it.

``The revised approach takes into consideration the needs of property owners victimized by illegal dumpers as well as those constituents desiring to haul their own trash,'' Maben said in a statement issued Tuesday by his office.

Maben dropped his proposal one week before a hearing in Bakersfield in which property owners' voting on the mandatory trash collection - which would have cost homeowners $18.91 a month - was to conclude.

Under a state law, the vote was being done in the form of a protest election, meaning that the proposal would have passed unless a majority of property owners filed letters with the county against it.

The proposal was generating hundreds of letters in opposition, county officials said. In a report of correspondence to the Board of Supervisors, county officials said 382 letters and a 100-page petition all in opposition had been received last week.

Opponents said the fee was too high, and many said they haul their own trash to the dump and don't need to pay for trash collection.

``I'm only one person, and I don't generate that much trash,'' said Sandy Bolton, who lives in a mobile home outside Mojave. ``I only live a skip and a jump from the dump out here.''

Opponents also accused the county of doing a poor job of notifying property owners of the proposal and their right to vote against it, saying many people were unaware of it.

Maben, who had described illegal dumping as the No. 1 concern constituents voiced to him during his campaign last year for supervisor, said he would continue to examine the possibility of verifying those people who haul their own trash to the dump.

Maben said he was looking to set up public roundtables to brainstorm on options for enforcing laws against illegal dumping. Those interested in participating are asked to contract Maben aide Matthew Park at [phone], option 8.

Maben said he is asking people who opposed the universal collection proposal to be part of public roundtables.

The Maben proposal called for setting a rate of $18.91 per month for parcels with one or two residential units; $85.69 for parcels with three residential units; and $110.63 per month for parcels with four residential units.

The proposal would have required that all residential and nonresidential properties, excluding vacant and uninhabitable property, have garbage collection service from a franchise garbage hauler.

A similar ordinance was put into effect for metropolitan Bakersfield in 2000. County officials said they have seen significant lessening of illegal dumping in that area.