Council discusses curbside trash collection

The question of curbside garbage collection in the City of Red Oak was again a hot topic of conversation at the regular city council meeting Dec. 16.
City administrator Lisa Kotter said the city had been in discussion with the community’s garbage haulers, and said many things being said on social media were not factual.
“The community has been working on the comp plan. One goal in the community was to improve the visual appearance. One of the key components that the council is focused on is a goal of a visually more appealing community. One of the city’s  objectives is to have a curbside garbage program. The five people here and the mayor aren’t the ones who are coming up with that. That’s been discussed for a number of years. We wanted to make sure that people understood that this has been discussed for a while, it has been discussed numerous times and not brought to fruition,” advised Kotter. “The council gave me the goal back in October to start thinking about how we could implement something effectively and as fairly as we could. We have to balance all the kinds of things that are important and that the council has to weigh.”
One of the largest complaints Kotter said had been levied at the council was freedom of choice to select their own garbage hauler. Kotter said that would be difficult to attain at the administrative level.
“We would have to figure out a way that we could collect the funds, put it on your utility bill, and be able to feed that back to whichever hauler or haulers we are using. We’ve had an open mind through those conversations, but I think that’s probably the biggest challenge. Another thing that we’ve heard is about supporting our local businesses. Obviously when it comes to haulers, the true definition of someone that this city council would look at from a local perspective would be someone within our city limits and who’s a taxpaying entity. And that’s obviously Batten Sanitation. So while many people in the community have Town and Country Sanitation in Griswold, we have to balance how we handle the difference between those two,” said Kotter.
Kotter said roughly 1,000 Red Oak citizens use Batten, and around 700 have garbage removed by Town and Country. All told, there were 2,400 residences receiving water bills, meaning somewhere around 500 to 700 residences had no curbside garbage service. While there were a couple other garbage services operating in Red Oak, Kotter said their number of clients was not enough to make up the 500-700 residence difference based on the water bills, and after conversing with landfill employees, there were not 500-700 people hauling their own garbage to the landfill. Kotter also said she has not had any conversations with garbage haulers outside of Lynette Bruce with Batten and Kevin Carlisle with Town & Country.
“They are the owners of the two companies that have the vast majority of hauling done here. I believe the council wants to support local, but everyone needs to understand the financial impact. If we do this on the utility bill, it’s a pass-through to the citizens that for the most part, minus some administrative costs, we are going to be charging to make sure that everyone has it, and then it would be on your utility bill if it went through as most communities that have a citywide service do. A typical thing that a council would do is look at the best price and bid it out. I think my recommendation to the council is that, and I’ve told this to Lynette and Kevin, is that we move along from the idea of getting the best price right now and focus more on supporting our two local businesses,” explained Kotter. “So our goal is either that we would contract with Lynette as the true local business at Batten and that she could subcontract at Town & Country if she feels that she is not capable of providing service to the 2,400 houses. I also don’t have a problem recommending to the council that we would have two equal identical contracts with both of them and separate the town. One hauler has north of Oak and one has south of Oak so that we can easily explain to someone coming in for utilities, this is your day and at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter who your hauler is because we’re going to have the same standards for both of them.”
The council then opened the meeting up for public comment. Kathi Most, who has worked in the city for the past 40 years, spoke in favor of mandatory garbage collection..
“This has come up at least four times since I’ve been in the town. I live next door to two neighbors that burn their trash, and I could call the fire department, and I could ask the police department to tell them to quit burning dog poop and diapers, but I don’t. I love this town, and I know how hard it is for what all of the council does, and I think it’s unfair to babysit people who refuse to be a citizen. I scoop my walks, we mow our lawn, I rake my leaves, and I pick up trash every day that is not mine,” advised Most. “That’s what I do as a citizen now, but deep down, when I think of a new person coming to town, looking at our town, thinking about a business, buying a home, I don’t want to say to them, you’ve got your hands full, because as a citizen, you’re also going to pick up trash. I think the town needs to be very fair, that this council, when this was brought up, this was not brought up by this council, or this mayor, or this city administrator. And the one thing that I have learned over the years of living in this town, is when we have a problem, sometimes we just need to find a mutual way to address it. We’ve got to work together, there’s a middle, there’s a meeting.”
Monte Most also addressed the council, speaking in opposition to the plan, though he appreciated the information he’d asked for and received.
“I’m one of the 500 to 700 people that don’t have a trash pickup. I pick up my trash.
I dispose of it properly. I came here because I don’t get my information off of social media. This is going to be imposed on everyone. That’s the whole problem. Do I think it’s fair? No. Would a small, different size bill be the answer? It may for some people. Me, it isn’t going to make or break me. I don’t care one way or the other. I think what you’ve got here is a whole lot of ordinances not being enforced over the last 20 years. It’s probably got to this point. You have landlords that do not adhere to city ordinances. You need to fix the problem. It’s not a trash problem in all fairness. It’s a bigger picture thing,” Monty said.
Karen DeCesare addressed the council, speaking in favor of the idea for mandatory collection.
“This is my third year this week of living in Red Oak, Iowa. And we really like it here. I want to thank everyone putting up with everything that you guys are dealing with on all forms of media. Really, I don’t know if everything’s been objective. I know social media has not been. I come from Omaha. I know nothing else besides Omaha. Omaha has always had centralized garbage that was on my utility bill. When I came here and I found out that I had options, I was shocked. I think it would be so much better if we had central garbage collection, no matter who the hauler is. Obviously, everyone wants local, and I would like to have a consistent garbage pickup,” DeCesare stated. “I would like everyone to start using it. I know the council has a lot of talking to do and discussions to be had among yourself as you do this. It took Omaha until about a year or two before we moved out of Omaha, before we got the cans and trucks.”
Bob Latus addressed the council and said he was pleased the decision was made to stay with local haulers, but had other problems.
 “I’ve been a customer with my hauler for over 20 years and very happy. The thing I really dislike is the idea of a trash canister. I have a dumpster at my house, and the last thing I want to do is start dragging some barrel out to the end of my driveway to get rid of my trash, because I’m pretty happy with them backing in there and picking that little dumpster up and just dumping it. It’s been great for 20 years. Why change it? I also think it’s really naive of the council to think because you charge somebody a bill and give them a bucket or a barrel to think that they’re going to put their trash in it when they’re throwing it all over the place anyway,” said Latus.
Ann Stalder said she was speaking for the elderly citizens of Red Oak when she was addressing the council against mandatory garbage collection.
“There’s a lot of us that cannot carry big cannisers out to the curb if we get them. There’s no place to store them. It’s just easier to take out our small bags and take them out to the curb. Otherwise, we don’t have anybody around. Or, if they take it out at night, then you wonder if the animals are going to come and get into it.
I usually put mine out the next day. Then you’ve got these garbage cans. People are home and don’t want to take them in. But you’ve got to think of a lot of us senior citizens. When we get those deep snows and stuff and the sidewalk is covered up, how are you going to wheel it out there?” Stalder asked.
Dave Dimmitt was the last to address the council, and urged the council and the citizens to take a step back.
“I don’t have enough information to make a decision on my own right now. I spend a large amount of time in New York where I live. This is where I come to be safe. I don’t see a lot of garbage issues, and I go out and drive around. Division turns into polarization. Division is one thing. That’s when people are willing to come sit down and figure this out. And we all need to do that. But polarization is when people decide, I’m going to this end of the table, and someone else is going to that end of the table, and nothing gets done. Let’s give this a minute or two before we act,” Dimmit said.
No action was taken by the council on mandatory curbside garbage collection.

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