Trash task force wraps up work for now

The Pittsburg trash task force completed its recommendations to the Pittsburg City Commission on Thursday. With the basic structure in place at the last meeting, many of the odds and ends remaining were resolved relatively quickly.

After a brief public input session, the task force turned to City Attorney Henry Menghini to update them on the timeline.

“We’ve approved a nonexclusive free market solution,” Menghini said. “Unless something happens tonight that changes my view, I don’t think the recommendations that come from this task force would require a legislative body to hold a second meeting, or hold implementation for 18 months.”

Since most of the recommendations were to change rules, regulations, and potentially ordinances, rather than implement a new citywide system, actions approved by the task force do not place the city under the timeline set up by state statutes regulating citywide takeovers of trash.

The task force voted (with two members voting against) for a plan exactly as now, with a few exceptions. If approved by the city commission, those who are not signed up with a hauler would be assigned one on a rotation basis. If the hauler is not paid or a residence still does not have trash service, the task force recommends the city establish a fine or penalty as enforcement.

Menghini did suggest that with that structure in place, that the task force recommends removing the option, which is in the city ordinances, for an individual to haul their own solid waste to a licensed landfill or transfer station every seven days.

Discussion on the remaining issues began with coordination of residential trash routes. Currently, the city has an agreement with the haulers to pick up in the north end Monday-Wednesday, and the south end of town Wednesday-Friday.

“It can be done in less time. Just tell us,” said Merle Lloyd, of Lloyd’s Loads. “If you want one section all on Monday, it can be done. If we have it down to one or two days, we can live with that.”

However, two of the five haulers represented at the meeting said they were not necessarily abiding by that agreement.

“My truck is only 6,000 lbs. My truck is no heavier than a one-ton truck. I don’t violate the spirit of the ordinance, merely the letter of the ordinance,” said Nathan Beaman, owner of Beaman’s Refuse Removal, indicating the coordination of routes is to reduce wear and tear on streets.

Beaman said that changing his schedule is an “unnecessary burden,” and it could be costly to write letters to his clients informing them of a switch in days. Charlie Maransani, representing Short’s Trash Service, said that if the current routes aren’t broken, don’t fix them.

“It’s not a hindrance [to move the collection date]. It would represent a financial burden. There’s postage and other costs associated with every action you take. I’d prefer not to,” Beaman said.
The discussion slid into the issue of collection in alleys.

“I have several issues with alleys. The trucks keep getting bigger. We have several haulers that have stopped because their trucks are too large anyway. Several alleys are platted for 16 feet width, but they’re not really that with overgrowth,” said Bill Beasley, Pittsburg Public Works director.

Beasley further explained that many alleyways can get blocked up when trucks cut corners, damaging the drainage under the alleys.

“The city has issues with alleys. There’s not enough money to maintain them,” said City Manager Daron Hall. “They’re dark, they’re not lit, they’re an avenue for crime. We have a lot of theft and petty crime there. We don’t have near enough money to line and maintain alleys to the width they should be. There are so many issues with alleys, trash is just one of them.”

The haulers agreed that they could sit down with city staff and work out a better coordination of routes.

Dennis Meier, representing the Crawford County Solid Waste Committee, moved that the task force recommend staying with the quadrant system, not adding on time specifications, and maintaining the status quo relative to haulers choosing whether to collect in the streets or the alleys. The motion passed the task force.

The issue then turned to bulky items, and the task force reviewed the current options available. Those options include a once-a-month free bulk item drop off at SEK Recycling coordinated by the Crawford County Commission, the City of Pittsburg and SEK Recycling. There is also one free load allowed per customer per month for Crawford County residents at the Oak Grove landfill, and several other options.

“[County] Commissioner [Carl] Wood is very pleased with the amount of material being brought in and the lack of material found in his ditches,” said Dr. Jim Triplett. “He had several crews out all the time picking up items from ditches. To my understanding, that has dropped off dramatically. The city is pleased. I know the county is.”

One suggestion that was quickly picked up by the task force was the idea of education of the community — in essence, that the city needed to focus more on getting the word out about programs and services available.

“As the city goes, there’s a lot of things that we need to educate up as a city,” Hall said. “Bill and I have been talking about doing a better job of educating. There are a couple of things to take from here. We probably need to organize some summary report that includes the information we had earlier, about all the programs available.”

Another suggestion was that both the city and the haulers can’t do bulk item pickup entirely on their own, but civic organizations and faith-based groups could be a vital service in helping with the process.

“My statement is that we have a bulky item system that appears to be working. Collectors provide the service, there is a transfer station available, there is regular bulk drop-offs, there is the free day at the landfill,” Meier said. “My conclusion is that we don’t seem to have a problem with large, bulky items at this point in time.”

That said, the group generally agreed to recommend that the city promotes greater public awareness of existing services for bulky items.

The issue came to waivers and the exact method of reporting customer lists.

“If [the haulers] are the ones that are verifying, you’ll have access to those with meters, and you’ll knock off the ones you have,” said Monica Murnan, task force co-chairwoman. “Those not knocked off would be noncompliant through the plan. On the waiver, it’s not to the city, it’s to you guys to say, ‘Yes, I’m picking up both of these two guys’ trash.’”

The talk centered that the haulers would ultimately be the ones responsible for making the decision about whether a person does or does not have service with them.

While the exact specifics of how it would work will be worked out outside of the task force, a master list of residential single- and double-family residences will be sent to the local haulers, who will mark who has service with them. This would be put into a master spreadsheet. After the first few months, haulers would only have to submit lists of who started or fell off in their service.

“The city will participate in this however we’re needed. We can do it by exception. After the first time, just say who is on or off,” Hall said.

“Let’s be real here. Daron Hall is not going to do that [put the list together], and neither is Merle Lloyd,” Lloyd said. “We will not submit a list of 2,000 people. We’ll submit the list of on or offs. The other 1,800 people have been consistent for 30 years and always pay their bill. We’re willing to work together to get that done.”

Further, haulers merely have to check off who pays for service by whatever agreement.

“I have one guy, I trade picking up his trash for fresh eggs. I have another lady, sure as clockwork, who brings her two little bags in. I’m going to turn that in to say they have trash service,” Lloyd said. “It’s our job to pick those up. We’ve all got little things like that.”

However, when the issue turned to waivers for the poor and indigent, both the haulers and the city officials said that was not something they would want to take on or decide, and ultimately decided to make no recommendation to the city commission on waivers.

The customer list reporting will be worked out away from the task force in the coming months if approved. Further, the haulers would likely be called into court to testify in the case of noncompliant residents.

The group then reviewed its goals and noted which goals were met and which were ultimately ruled not applicable or not addressed.

Task force members then noted the successes at SEK Recycling and encouraged local haulers to use the county landfill.

A motion, by Nathan Beaman, to clarify that haulers are not the sole cause of wear and tear on the streets, died for a lack of a second.

The group will meet again, in six months, to see how its recommendations are progressing, and whether any need to be tweaked.

Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 140.