City Council

AD HOC REFUSE COMMITTEE MINUTES OF WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018 A meeting of the Ad Hoc Refuse Committee was held on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 and was called to order at 10:00 a.m. in the Second Floor Conference Room, City Hall. PRESENT: Jim Snoeyink, Matt Biolette, Jeff Mikula ABSENT: Mike Quinn, Jim Grabowski, Nicole Knapp OTHERS: City Manager Thad Taylor, Jim Smith and Roger Zielinski PURPOSE: To discuss and provide recommendations to City Council on the collection and disposal of refuse/garbage city-wide. DISCUSSION City Manager Thad Taylor provided background information. Committee members were provided a copy of the current refuse ordinance, recent proposed changes to the ordinance and copies of minutes from the meetings this subject was discussed by Council. Items discussed:  Current downtown collection program.  Needs and onsite storage varies all along River Street and on both sides of the street. Some businesses have back alleys and property to store containers, others do not.  Some businesses are high volume users, others are not.  DDA explored centralized dumpsters in the past; a suitable location was never identified.  Some cities use a compactor disposal site, accessible by key or card for the approved users. Pros and cons including inconvenience and large capital cost to implement.  Discussed whether changing the pick-up day would be helpful. Currently garbage is picked up Monday and Thursday in the downtown.  Aesthetics is an issue. Businesses that are closed on Sunday put their trash out on Saturday and then the downtown looks bad until after pickup. This is also a city-wide issue.  Discussed bulky item program.  Discussed placing totes in the roadway during the winter.  Discussed enforcement of the current ordinance.  It was suggested to look at options from other communities.  Discussed current rate structure. The DDA collects the 1.5 mills for refuse. Could help cover the costs of collection/disposal in the DDA.  Discussed adding someone from the DDA Board to this committee. AD HOC REFUSE COMMITTEE – OCTOBER 24, 2018 PAGE 1  Enforcement discussed again. Issues arise when renters leave large piles of trash on the curb when they move out.  Discussed growth issues happening across the country and the impact it has on DPW services.  As a first step this committee will focus on the downtown specifically and then look at city-wide services. CONSENSUS Committee will take a step back and look at options and analyze the current program. Mayor Smith will select a DDA Board member to take a seat on this committee. Matt Biolette will prepare three to five options available for the downtown area; along with soft cost estimates for review and discussion at the next meeting. ADJOURN Next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. in the Second Floor Conference Room, City Hall. MOTION to adjourn by Jeff Mikula, second by Jim Snoeyink to adjourn at 11:15 a.m. Cynthia Lokovich, CAP OM Executive Secretary AD HOC REFUSE COMMITTEE – OCTOBER 24, 2018 PAGE 2