This department is very unprofessional. The workers are constantly skipping my trash on purpose and 1 female employee named "Robin" is always rude to me, when I call to complain about their treatment. She constantly hangs up on me and very condescending concerning my concerns. She needs to be retrained in customer service. read more

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. read more

specifically - Waste Removal. ok. i am not knocking it, i am very pleased that the city carts away my junk (not that my taxes don't pay for this service or anything) and i am even more pleased that they accept my recycling in a grocery bag instead of a blue bin (my house didn't come with one when i bought it and i never remember to go locate the place to get a replacement). but. i live on a one block long, curvy, dead-end road. do you know what this means? it means that at 5 am, every tuesday, i am awoken by the BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP of that freaking garbage truck backing it's way, Sloooowwwwwly, down our road. putting a pillow over one's head won't help. it is simply too loud. and then an hour later, when i have just begun to drift back off (even tho my alarm is about to sound) the recycling truck does the exact same thing. and to make things even worse, right now we have large machinery parked at the end of our road - backhoes and such. they are ripping it up to do some work on the gas/water (or something) lines. i hope they finish this up before the snow arrives or we will be hoofin' it to our house. i had secretly hoped that at least the garbage trucks couldn't fit with them parked there. alas, not so last tuesday. but we can always hope for this coming one. great. i just realized that due to karma, they will probably read this and decide to just leave my garbage there. i will have to resort to subterfuge to dispose of my garbage now. read more

Getting my birth certificate ... tons of fun. Spent $45 for a copy of my birth certificate 3 hour round trip and a full tank of gas (was in a loaner toyota corolla got terrible gas mileage while my car had the navi, back up cam, and paint/ upholstery protectant installed). Overall not to bad only waited 20 min. it was quite and no one else was there. Not bad for a Monday. But trust me I am holding onto this copy for dear life I do not want to ever make this trip again. And yes I am aware I could have ordered it online but it was going to take to long. read more