THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996               TAG: 9601200117
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   59 lines

CHESAPEAKE FIRM WINS CONTRACT TO PICK UP RESORT TRASH CITY ASKS BUSINESSES TO SIGN UP WITH THE NEW SERVICE AT RATES LOWER THAN CITY'S.

Resort business leaders have selected a Chesapeake firm as the ``preferred'' contractor to haul commercial trash refuse from the Oceanfront, beginning Jan. 31, when the city discontinues the service.

The company, Area Container Service Inc., got the nod from the Resort Leadership Council over the only other competing bidder, Chambers Waste Systems of Va. Inc., a Norfolk company.

Area Containers will provide up to seven-day-a-week service for up to six 90-gallon cans per business once the summer tourist season gets into full swing, said company sales representative Marie Vowell.

Rates, at least in the beginning, are lower than those charged by the city, said Rick Anoia, president of the Resort Leadership Council, an umbrella group representing most resort inns, restaurants and retail shops.

The company will charge from $66.77 a month for once-a-week pickups for six 90-gallon cans to $467.38 a month for seven-day-a-week pickups of six 90-gallon cans, Vowell said.

The company is negotiating contracts with each resort business individually, and rates depend upon the needs of each customer, she said.

So far, Area Container has signed up 30 businesses - hotels, restaurants and shops - and is aiming for at least 50 of the 190 Oceanfront commercial establishments that have traditionally relied on city garbage pickups.

Anoia said city rates for daily service for up to six containers per business is now $430 a month, but was scheduled to go up $66 over the next two years, making the monthly fee $496.

City administrators have recommended that the municipal service be discontinued, citing rising costs and fairness as their reasons. Cost to the city to pickup resort business refuse is $426,000 a year, according to Public Works budget figures. Of the 20,000 businesses citywide and 400 in the resort area, only 190 availed themselves of municipal trash hauling services. The rest have hired private services to do the job.

City innkeepers have argued vainly that they have been paying for city trash hauling through a special tax levy that took effect in the mid-1960s and should not have to pay more for the service.

They also contend that the city service is the most efficient and cleanest of any operating at the Oceanfront and should be continued to preserve the ``aesthetics'' of the resort district, which has been undergoing a $40 million face lift for 10 years.

Their arguments all came to naught last October, when the City Council, in a tie vote, denied an extension of the Oceanfront municipal pickups.

Using the Resort Leadership Council as their primary contact, Oceanfront business leaders sounded out five private Hampton Roads trash hauling services in Hampton Roads, Anoia said. Only two - Area and Chambers - bid on the Oceanfront service.

KEYWORDS: TRASH REFUSE OCEANFRONT by CNB