City, Waste Connections debate alleys or streets for poly carts
The Olney City Council rejected a suggestion by Waste Connections that it switch trash pickup from the city’s alleys to the streets because of potential logistical problems, including keeping track of poly carts and preventing garbage trucks from getting stuck or rupturing utility lines.
The Olney Public Works Department cleared the alleys in recent months and put down gravel, and is set to swap dumpsters that serve multiple homes for individual 90-gallon poly carts assigned to each home any day now. But Merle Rodgers of Waste Connections told the Council at its Feb. 13 meeting to think about altering the garbage pickup contract negotiated two years ago by then-City Administrator Neal Welch and Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker. Under the contract, residents are supposed to gather the poly carts at the concrete pads once occupied by dumpsters the garbage truck to pick up each week.
Mr. Rodgers described the “added burden on the city trying to figure out who each cart belongs to” especially if neighbors abscond with poly carts belonging to other residents.
“At some point, we are going to be overpopulated with carts as I need to set a new cart for the new person who just moved in and I don’t know where to go get that second poly cart – the original one [assigned to that address],” he said. “[The City is] paying for, say 1,050 carts, and I’m going down the street with my clicker and I get to 1,050 carts, I’m gonna go home. So who are the lucky people who don’t get their trash picked up?”
Mr. Rodgers said the problem “all goes away if you put it on the curb because the house matches up to the cart.”
Mayor Rue Rogers defended the alley arrangement. “Ideally, we wanted to keep it in the alleys to keep the alleys from being overgrown and keep the trucks off the streets as much as possible so we don’t have the wear and tear on the street,” he said. “But visiting with you I understand the additional management that is going to be needed if we do it in the alley. “
Waste Connections was working through similar problems with the City of Frederick, Oklahoma, which also mandated trash pickup in its alleys, Mr. Rodgers said. “You can get some numbered decals and keep track of them that way,” he said.
Maintaining the alleys so that garbage trucks can pass without rupturing a water line or getting stuck in the large potholes is a harder problem to solve, he said.
“You’re gonna have to fix the roads, whether it’s me running up and down it or somebody else,” Mr. Rodgers said. “You have been great business partners with us [but] obviously, if we keep going up and down the alleys and have to get a tow truck to get out every week, we’re not gonna do it. You guys would be the same way.”
City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon noted that the City paid $3,600 for a load of base last week to smooth out potholes and cover utility lines in the alleys, only to see it wash away or subside during this month’s heavy rains. A garbage truck ruptured a water line in the alley between Payne and Bloodworth Streets at Ave. K and the City had to shut off water to residents for about nine hours on Feb. 10, she said.
Mr. Parker advised acquiring or hiring a road grader and training Public Works staff to pack and maintain the roads “the way it needs to be.”
“It’s all part of the learning curve that we should get our people trained on,” he said. “An alley is a lot easier to fix than a hole in front of somebody’s house. There are ways to do this, we just haven’t got there.”
The Council’s consensus was to continue the plan to pick up poly carts in the alleys.
“We just need to continue down that path and work to get our alleys up to speed and educate our citizens where their poly carts need to go,” Mayor Rogers said. “It’s not going to happen overnight but I think we need to continue that.”