Talking Trash

The back and forth over an approved switch to bi-weekly, curb side garbage pick up raged on Monday night at Moose Jaw City Council. While some residents are upset with the change, some councillors are upset over the lack of information and city administration is upset over city council's apparent lack of faith in their work.

Councillors continued to rehash the budget decision that was recently altered to a phased in approach to allow a smoother transition. The original decision was a way to save money while also planning for the eventual replacement of the landfill. Since we brought you the story, there's been some pushback in the community and Councillor Chris Warren has suggested that maybe the entire roll out needs to be halted. He also questioned why the only information out in the community, appears to be from the media.

"The first phase is to take place August 1st, I believe that's the current motion, I guess my question is what would be the implications of suspending front street pick up until such time that we've had comprehensive consultations with the community?"

City Manager Matt Noble defended their extensive work to this point, saying they had plans to hold information meetings and a communications strategy but then the motion from budget talks was changed. He went onto say that if they didn't think they plan would work, they wouldn't have suggested it.  During budget, administration presented a report that tore down and rebuilt the garbage service from the ground up.

"Council, at a time, felt this was a good idea but as times goes on, seem to think less of the idea." said Noble. "It was a response to fiscal challenges but administration will do whatever council says but to be honest, we need some clear direction and it can't be a new direction every week."

Noble questioned how administration can be expected to have a communications plan in place when dates get changed, saying it takes time to get that together and out to the public.

Most of the recent debate has been spurred on by public opinion. There was some feedback to the story we brought you back in the spring but it wasn't really until the last month or so when it became a reality that the changes were happening. City administration provided some details to council in their report on the type of concerns that have been raised. They've received 82 calls or letters from residents with concerns ranging from access to front yards, aesthetics, simply being against the idea, the moving of the utility fee from taxes to the water bill, fencing, parking and mobility issues.

"This roll out is intended to be a process and we have stated that there is a percentage of the community that is not amenable to front street pick up. It was never administration's intention to impose something that would not work but approximately, 80-85% of the city can make it work." said Noble.

The rest, would be accommodated until a time that front street collection would work for them. For example, if roads were widened in the area known as the Avenues, front street collection could be used after that time. Or, a different collection schedule could be used to take advantage of times of day when fewer vehicles are in the area.

One resident who spoke Monday night, suggested that a referendum be held, something Councillor Don Mitchell had predicted would happen if changes weren't made to the program approved during budget talks.  Another resident disputed the savings in the report, saying there was no way that going from the alley to the streets would be more efficient.

"I don't see any savings." said Rob Turner. "Right now, the areas that currently have curbside, the truck needs to go down the street in both directions but for those of us with the alley pick up, we move our cans to the one side and the truck only needs to go down the one way."

City Manager Josh Mickleborough acknowledged that they would go up one side and then down the other with curbside pick up, essentially doubling their route but says they've used their GPS in the trucks to study the potential efficiency and there will be a savings.

"Curbside collection is a more efficient service with less time for pick up. While it's true, that if you have to do both sides of the street, you will see a slight increase in fuel, the overall time per unit does decrease so your overall efficiency is higher for curbside."

According to the report, the switch to bi-weekly curbside will reduce over all fuel costs by $13,000, a 30% reduction for the city’s sanitation collection.

With the debate lasting for the better part of two hours, city administration answered a volley of questions from councillors including potential options for keeping pick up in the back lanes. The engineering department has argued that the heavy garbage trucks are doing major damage to the back lanes, especially since they travel at such a low speed, extending the amount of pressure applied to the road bed.  Making it worse, is when the trucks do collections in the spring when the snow is melting, or during the summer after a rainfall.

The report presented to council went into detail about other cities and how they've addressed back lane pick up with a graph showing Weyburn, Estevan, and North Battleford are now 100% curbside pick up, Yorkton isn't far behind at 99% with Saskatoon and Prince Albert floating around 85% curbside service. Administration used the statistics to suggest that this was the new normal for garbage collection and needs to be utilized in Moose Jaw.

Councillor Don Mitchell pointed to Regina where only 64% of their trash is picked up from the curb, saying they've been paving back lanes to facilitate better collection, especially in areas where narrow streets won't allow the large garbage trucks to get down.

"Alley paving might be an option for us, under possibly a Local Improvement Program, where there's a combination of parking issues."

At the end of it all, no changes were introduced and city administration will continue to work on their roll out plan, public meetings and information packets with a goal of starting the phased in change to bi-weekly curb side collection later this summer.

You can read the report and the responses to concerns raised by the public, by clicking here.