Stolen wallet has baby photos Boca may switch to private trash pickup

DELTONA — A thief took more than just a wallet from the unlocked car of a Florida mother. Inside the wallet were digital cards where she stored photos of her infant son Giovanni who died five years ago.

Krista Rosa tells the Daytona Beach News-Journal that the SD cards contained more than 2,000 pictures of her son, who was just four months old when he died. Rosa says the black wallet where she stored the SD cards was the only thing thieves stole from her car early Monday morning.

Rosa, 23, said she wants the cards back because “my baby’s pictures are really special and important to me.”

Boca Raton’s twiceweekly trash pickups could be switched from a city-run service to a private one after the city considers proposals.

The city will look at whether 46,000 customers would benefit from having outside companies, city workers or a combination to collect trash, solid waste, recycling and vegetation, said Dan Grippo, Municipal Services director.

As the city grows, finding the land to build bigger sanitation services is unlikely and would cost millions, he said. “We’re not looking at privatizing to salvage a few pennies. We’re evaluating options because there is no space to expand.”

The city’s consideration of plans to outsource sanitation services was made public in June. Customers didn’t have to approve asking for outside proposals, expected to come in by the end of April. But what staff decides would go before City Council in May or June, and that’s when the public can comment, he said.

Grippo said he has gotten pushback, mostly because of concerns about 40 city employees who do the work now.

Most belong to SEIU Florida Public Services Union. Any new contract would include provisions for hiring the employees for the same pay and benefits, he said, adding that some workers could move to other city jobs and others are retirement age.

“If we award a contract in June and notice the residents in August, we would transition in September,” he said.

September coincides with a waste pickup contract in the area near Boca Raton at Town Center mall, which still has pickup contracted out since it was annexed into the city in 2003. That deal is set to expire in September 2018. Services Municipal director