City council delays decision on trash rates
COSHOCTON – Coshocton City Council members appeared set to go with a bid for trash collection for the city from Kimble Companies, but that was before hearing from multiple residents at their March 14 meeting.
Waste Management currently has the city’s contract, but it expires at the end of this month. They and Kimble both put in bids for a new contract with the city. The rates both companies submitted are higher than what citizens are currently paying and city officials found Kimble’s offered of unlimited trash with a 95-gallon cart and every other week recycling with a 65-gallon cart appealing. They felt the carts would help give the city a cleaner look on trash collection day, but this choice unfortunately is the most expensive one at $15.30 a month per household.
Mary Hughes was against the idea of paying more and the use of Kimble’s cart.
“I don’t want to have to put it in and out of my garage and if I put it in there I won’t be able to put my car in the garage,” she said. “We are already paying more for water and now it’s the trash. What’s next? I didn’t get a raise in my social security.”
Several others also spoke up and said how pleased they are with Waste Management’s service. They said the driver’s are polite, courteous and helpful.
Cork Kaser shared that while he was experiencing some health issues the Waste Management folks took care of his trash cans for three weeks until he was able to move them himself.
“Why don’t we just go with the minimum raise (in trash rates) and forget about all these fancy trash cans,” he said.
Tim Ott felt that instead of focusing on trash cans to clean up on trash day city council should look into a recycling bin for the community to place cardboard in.
“I’ve seen some very large piles of cardboard around,” he said. “I drive through the city a lot for my job and when Stone (RockTenn) had its three bins they would be full within a couple of days of being emptied.”
After hearing from as many residents as time allowed for, Councilman Tom Grier put another idea on the table. He proposed the city not go through with creating a property code inspector position that would pay $30,000 a year and use those funds to cover the increase in trash collection rates so the citizens wouldn’t be burdened. City Law Director Robert Skelton said council would have to except one of the bids as is and then pass separate legislation/ordinances if they wanted to purse Grier’s idea.
Safety Service Director Jerry Stenner reminded council that the current trash collection contract is up at the end of this month so they needed to act soon. Since council doesn’t meet again until March 28 they decided to call a special meeting for Thursday, March 17. A committee meeting will be held at 5 p.m. in the conference room in city hall and the special council meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in council chambers. The public is encouraged to attend both meetings.
“I want to thank everyone for coming,” said Councilman Brad Fuller. “We don’t always see this kind of input. Your voice and opinions matter. We are a representation of you. Don’t every think you don’t matter. We invite you to be here and be part of our meetings. Please continue to come.”
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: Government
