It's been a year since the decision was first made to go to front street curbside collection. Studies have been done, planning, budgeting, two areas have been converted then there was a $10,000 telephone survey and today, it all means nothing.  Council has voted to revert back to the way things were in the spring of 2017 when it comes to garbage collection in Moose Jaw.

It was just two weeks ago that council voted overwhelmingly in favour of pressing on with the conversion to front lane collection, despite 85% of survey respondents saying no to curbside. Even when the budget and potential savings of $150,000 was factored in, 51% still didn't want to switch.  That survey was the target of a lot of anger Monday night as a delegation made presentations to city council.  Almost every speaker expressed frustration with the fact that council read the report and then continued on with the goal of converting the city.

Linda Goetz was one of the speakers at the meeting and said the way council ignored the report has changed her view on local politics. "We voted you in to represent us, you work for us and we're the citizens who said this is what we want. You have seriously broken our trust. It was jaw dropping to hear the motion to implement the rest of the zones June 1st."

And she wasn't alone, other speakers mentioned how they felt relief when the survey results were released, thinking that the debate was over and a clear signal had been given to council.

"You took that 85% percent that wanted back alley and that $10,000 bill (for the survey) of hard earned tax payer's dollars and fired it into the garbage can. It meant nothing!" said Rick Walker at the podium.

That vote two weeks ago to continue on with the conversion to front lane pick up was 4-2 as Councillor Brian Swanson was absent.  The flip Monday night was unanimous with all councillors at the desk deciding to revert back to the way things were. Specifically, this means that if you had back lane collection last spring then you'll be getting it back starting May 1st. There are some areas of the city that were front street collection before the change over occurred, due to restrictions in the alley or no alley at all. Those areas will continue to have street collection since there is no other option.

With the motion Monday night, also comes a chance to weekly garbage collection. Trash will be picked up once a week for June through September but collection will be bi-weekly for the rest of the year. There's also a new rule that says homeowners must pull their bins in from the back alley after collection day. Councillors talked about trying to limit the amount of damage to bins that were being left out and making the garbage collection process more efficient.  Residents have been leaving bins out all week long and staff are stopping at each one, even if they're empty.

Oh, and there will be an added cost to the decision, we just don't know how much. Since bi-weekly and curbside were proposed as cost saving measures, administration will have to look at exactly what this means to their budget but they have said there will be an increase to collection rates as a result.