A Nassau group is urging officials to toss out special sanitation districts on the grounds that they waste thousands of taxpayer dollars. The special districts have been in place on Long Island for decades and cover services that include trash pickup. On one street in the Town of Hempstead, residents pay about $1,000 per year to have their garbage picked up, plus an additional $320 for that garbage to be disposed of at the Hempstead dump. Residents who live about a half-mile away pay roughly half that amount for the same services because they're part of the Town of Hempstead sanitation district. Laura Mallay, one vocal critic from Rockville Centre, is circulating a petition against the special districts that has more than 3,000 signatures already, she says. She's urging the town to consolidate its services to save residents money.

There are some such consolidation efforts under way in other sanitation districts within the Town of Hempstead.