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Council holds off on changing garbage ordinance for now

By Robert Maharry 7 min read

The Marshalltown city council voted down a motion to change the current garbage and refuse ordinance during Monday night's meeting, instead opting to allow for more time for review and considering whether or not to move to a plan that would require the companies to operate on a more uniform schedule.

Since it was first learned that Moler Sanitation had been using an automated pickup mechanism that required cans to be placed by the street, the issue has generated much discussion at previous meetings and drawn a host of reactions, including an online T-R poll that indicated a near 50-50 split on whether or not the city should modify its ordinance to accommodate curbside pickup.

According to City Clerk Alicia Hunter, the biggest modifications in the amendment before the council at Monday's meeting would be allowing for curbside garbage pickup in hauler-provided receptacles and shifting the responsibility of enforcement from the haulers to the city. Without any written comments or initial comments from the councilors themselves, Mayor Joel Greer opened it up to the public.

Mark Eaton weighed in first and shared his support for allowing curbside garbage pickup and said he had seen it work in other communities where he previously lived, but with rules to prevent a potentially messy situation.

"You could not put things beside your receptacle. If you couldn't fit it in your receptacle, you needed to save it until the next garbage pickup, or if you had too much garbage over a long period of time, then you needed to get at least two receptacles or however many receptacles you needed," Eaton said. "But one of the problems we've got is the haulers can't hire people to work, and they have to automate. The only way they can automate is to have the receptacle at the street. You can't have the receptacle at the house; otherwise, the driver has to get out, go get the receptacle, and he might as well just empty it in the truck. That's kind of silly."

Eaton added that he believed the current companies (four are serving Marshalltown) will consolidate as the population gets older, and he felt automation was the best way to keep clean streets and a clean city. Doris Kinnick asked for clarity on a section of the ordinance that requires pickup at least once a week, indicating that because she lives with only her son, they don't have much garbage and currently only have it picked up every other week.

"I don't know if that's something that you're looking at changing as well, but just a reminder that there are some people who are only single people and don't need to have garbage every week," she said.

Public Works Director Heather Thomas then stepped forward to clarify what the changes would entail -- only hauler provided receptacles could be placed curbside, and all garbage must stay within the receptacle. She said none of the haulers had requested any changes on the frequency of collection, so it would stay the same with allowances for some situations where it made sense to pick up garbage every other week.

Councilor Jeff Schneider had led the push at the previous meeting to work with the haulers and set certain days for pickup on certain streets, but that motion failed. He brought the topic back up for discussion on Monday and renewed his call for a bigger overhaul of the system.

"The whole problem to me is that I think the garbage by the curbside is kind of a straw man where the real problem is we can't enforce our ordinance because we have no idea which house gets garbage picked up on which day," he said. "I don't think anybody can enforce this ordinance as written unless we have fixed days. Another option would be to mark all garbage containers with the address and hauler names so we can at least figure it out, but I'd like to see city staff meet with the haulers to see if we can set up a schedule per street. I think that fixes a lot of problems if we can do that."

He then made a motion to amend the item to add language about setting up a schedule, which passed by a 5-2 vote with Al Hoop and Gary Thompson opposed. There was then confusion about how to proceed, and Greer noted that the same motion had failed at the previous meeting.

The mayor ultimately let it stand, and Thompson said the ordinance as amended "contradicted itself" because it required city staff to meet with haulers to finalize the language on a schedule despite the fact that they were voting on an official ordinance amendment Monday night. Thomas suggested that if the segmentation route was the one the council preferred, it should be included in the new ordinance, so she recommended tabling the matter until the details could be worked out with the haulers. Councilor Gabe Isom asked if a section of current code already covered maps and routes for the haulers, but Thomas responded that it didn't allow the city to dictate a specific schedule.

Schneider then wondered if it would be easiest to vote down the current motion and allow more time for a "fact-finding mission" before a new motion is brought back to the council. Thompson said he would be fine with voting down the current motion as long as something different was brought back later on, and he also hoped to resolve the issue Kinnick had raised because people like her were likely paying less to have their garbage picked up less frequently.

"I think there are other things that need more clarification, and maybe what I'd suggest is that a couple of councilors need to sit in on that meeting with the haulers next time so we can find some middle ground with the haulers so we bring back something we can vote on that makes sense for all of us," Thompson said.

Councilor Mike Ladehoff agreed with Thompson's idea to vote down the current ordinance and come back with something new, and it failed by a unanimous tally.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Approved a resolution providing for the vacation of the alley behind 1108 and 1110 W. Church St.

• Approved an amendment to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) agreement with Willard-Hopkins LLC to increase the maximum payment from $508,000 back up to the full $750,000 due to a grant no longer being available.

• Approved the first reading of an amendment to the stormwater and collection ordinance and subsequently waived second and third readings.

• Approved the first reading of amendments to the city's traffic and parking schedules.

During the public comment period, Police Chief Mike Tupper acknowledged that he misspoke at the previous meeting when he said S&S Auto had outsourced their logo and decal work for police vehicles.

"Over the weekend, somebody contacted me and pointed out the error of my ways. I'm wrong about that, completely wrong about that, so I have directed staff to make sure we get a competitive quote from not just Sign Pro in town, but S&S Auto and anyone else in Marshalltown that might put decals or logos on police cars."

He added that he wanted to say he was sorry to S&S Auto and appreciated the individual who called him and set the record straight.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.

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