An Update on Recology's Private Roads Waiver

The City has been working closely with Recology to help clarify the language and reasoning behind a private roads waiver that was mailed to approximately 1900 residents several weeks ago in late June. Based on resident feedback received, Recology is refining the waiver and accompanying letter and will be sharing that information as early as the week of July 8.

In the meantime, Recology continues to staff a phonebank just for Mercer Island and the City urges any customer with questions to call for more information or to discuss service needs. Recology is also eager to meet with residents onsite to discuss any access issues and the condition of private roads. Saturday appointments are available – please call them today at (206) 381-6980.

In general, if a given address is being served today by a smaller Local Access Vehicle (LAV), it is *very likely* that Recology will choose to do the same, but route managers would like to gather additional information through discussion with affected customers.

Many residents have asked how long a private roads waiver would be in effect – the answer: for the period during which the customer is serviced by Recology at the residence on the private road, but not longer than the duration of the main City contract with Recology, which is 10 years (October 1, 2019 – September 30, 2029).

Others have wondered what protections exist for the customer: the main contract contains a number of provisions regarding negligence that are unaltered by the private roads waiver. Per the contract, Recology is responsible for protecting all public and private facilities, and is responsible for all other damage to property and person not covered by the waiver that is caused by its actions.

The contract can be viewed here in the Document Library.

The City will continue to convey residents’ concerns and looks forward to continued coordination on outreach messaging.