Council votes for Kimble trash pickup option
COSHOCTON – Following a lively session of questions and answers at a special committee meeting in Coshocton City Council chambers on Thursday evening, March 17, members of city council voted unanimously to go with the Kimble option for refuse removal in the city of Coshocton. Jackie Salmans was excused and all six members of council present voted yes.
Representatives from Kimble and Waste Management were on hand at the meeting and addressed members of the community and council with an overview of their respective companies.
One of the reasons for the lively discussion is that Kimble will be providing plastic trash bins – that are available in two sizes – for households in the city of Coshocton. Several residents on hand were concerned about the size and being able to move the trash bins to the street or a suitable waste pickup site.
Scott Walter, speaking for Kimble, said, “We want to see Coshocton do well. The Kimble family is heavily invested in Coshocton – we have given over $800,000 to various charitable causes over the past 10 years.”
Council member Brad Fuller responded to a question of whether the current system is broken, saying, “This is an opportunity to do something different.”
Other comments ranged from initial concern to accepting the trash bins. One resident said, “Shame on both of you for trying to circumvent the democratic process.”
Coshocton City Council President Cliff Biggers said, “There’s no panacea. This is a start. We hear people all the time ask about what we can do to beautify Coshocton. Let’s not be myopic. This is bigger than just trash collection. Let’s look beyond this.”
At promptly 6 p.m., Cliff Biggers called the special meeting to order and a second reading of the ordinance was read. With a vote, the rules were suspended that allowed a third reading of the ordinance and then a vote.
The cost for the Kimble option will be an additional $1.05 per household.
Scott Walter from Kimble commented following the passing of the ordinance, “We’re very appreciative to have the opportunity to come back into the city and provide the service that we’ve been talking about. We think this is going to be a nice step forward for the city to beautify and help clean up the city and really upgrade the service. As I mentioned tonight the Kimble family has been a long time business owner in the city and a long-time supporter of the community so we’re happy to have the chance to come back and provide a high level of service and hopefully some equipment that the city hasn’t seen before but we think they’re going to like it.”
Walter responded to a question that came up several times during the question and answer session held at 5 p.m. about whether or not this decision would help beautify the city. Walter said, “I answer that from experience really. We service 25 counties in eastern Ohio and the majority of the communities in our market area have already switched to these carts so I can speak from experience that it has been a very positive move and it’s really the wave of the future in the industry for a lot of reasons that we talked about tonight. So really Coshocton is joining the ranks of places like Dover, Baltic, Killbuck, Dresden and Rittman and I could go on and on. Dozens of communities in eastern Ohio have already made this switch and there’s always a small percentage of folks who are nervous about change and nervous about having these carts and of course, we’re not going to force anybody to use them but we usually find that 95 percent or more of the citizens use them and enjoy them and don’t want to give them back after they’ve used them for a while.”
The current contract that Waste Management has with the city of Coshocton will expire at the end of March.
A spokesperson for the city of Coshocton said that Kimble is scheduled to begin trash removal on Friday, April 1.
mark@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: Government
