Albany General Services Department

As an Albany homeowner since 1999, I couldn’t be more pleased with the services provided by the Albany DGS. In many nearby towns garbage service is privately contracted and recycling has to be carted to the center. I only have to lug my garbage and recycling to the curb each week and the City takes care of it for me. I can’t say that I like the smell of the dump wafting over to Central Ave on a hot day, but that’s not really DGS’ fault. Large item pickup has been a breeze. The hazardous waste drop off is really helpful. The newly offered all-​in-​one-​bin recycling has cut down on my sorting time each week too.
Even though it’s a pain, I try to always bundle my cardboard and yard waste as per the city’s instructions, although when I walk my dog on garbage night I see that not many people follow the guidelines. It really irritates me to see that. The folks who are out picking up trash before dawn have to put up with so much crap. The rental properties downtown seem particularly notorious for piling huge mounds of crap on the city’s curb (especially at the end of the school year). The City still carts away all of these items. One night I saw someone had large pieces of wood sticking out of their garbage can with nails poking out on all sides. Imagine being a garbage collector in the dark hours of the morning having to deal with those unseen dangerous objects. I really appreciate what the garbage collectors, in particular, face on a regular basis.
I’m not a huge fan of two lanes of snow being plowed into the end of my driveway on snowy days in the winter (or the one time right after I’d cleared it, a snow truck went by and I could see the driver laughing at me as plowed a fresh pile of snow in the my drive). That snow pushes over the curbs and onto the sidewalks, making them nearly as impossible to clear as the end of my drive. That being said, Albany is a big city and we get a lot of snow and the plows out there do a fine job of quickly and efficiently clearing the main roadways — especially when compared to some of the surrounding communities. It would be nice if the City could offer plowing/​blowing assistance for sidewalks and driveways of the elderly — or coordinate trusted providers for paying homeowners. Right now plowing service prices are all over the map and it’s hard to find a steady service from one snow storm to the next.