The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen has a potential contract with Allied Waste Services on its agenda again, with another request to table a final decision. The board of aldermen will meet at 7 p.m. on Oct. 14 at the Board of Aldermen Meeting Room.
The city is hoping to gather more resident feedback on the proposal and the city's litter and illegal dumping issues. City Clerk Gwendolyn Edmonson said the city wants to get "broader" input on the trash issue.
Currently, the city does not require residents to have trash service. Holts Summit has used Allied Waste since the 1990s. The city reached out to the company for potential solutions to its trash problem.
The city has discussed potential solutions with Allied over the past few years. The board of aldermen outlined four potential solutions to the city's litter and illegal dumping problem at its Sept. 22 work session. The board agreed its decision is between two of the four options it looked at.
At that meeting, City Administrator Brian Crane said he thinks option one makes the most sense. Option one is the potential solution outlined in the Allied Waste Services ordinance that is currently before the Board of Aldermen.
Allied's proposed contract currently before the board includes:
•City billing;
•Mandatory residential trash service;
•95-gallon cart for residential service;
•Optional recycling program with a $3.25 per-home cost for recycling (cost is dependent on 600 participants in recycling program);
•$11.20 for residential service (city will match current billed cost);
•No fuel surcharge fee;
•3 percent annual price increase for customers;
•Five year term with rollover.
Another option, which the board discussed at its work session, was similar to option one above. It also required trash service, required 95-gallon carts and had optional recycling at the same price quoted above. However, with option two Allied would handle the billing, which means the city would not have to pay an employee to handle the paperwork involved to bill customers.
The second option did not have a 3 percent annual rate increase for customers like the proposed ordinance currently before the board does. Instead, the option has a 5 percent franchise fee, which the city would use to help repair any streets damaged by large trash trucks.
Allied's proposed contract first appeared on the city's agenda this summer. The board held a public hearing in August to solicit further public comments and tabled a final reading of the ordinance at that time. Since then, the board has continued to discuss other options with Allied and has continued to give resident more time to voice their feedback of Allied's proposed contract.
Ramona Huckstep, Holts Summit resident of 16 years, said she was surprised to learn that the city does not require all residents to sign up for trash service.
"We want a clean neighborhood and a clean town," Huckstep said to the board of aldermen at its September meeting.
At the board's August public hearing, resident Kurt Hilsenbeck said he takes care of his trash and shouldn't be required to pay for a trash cart because other residents choose to litter and illegally dump their trash.
"I am my own trash service," Hilsenbeck said at the August meeting.
As of the board's Sept. 22 work session, Crane said the city had only heard from five residents - four were against and one was for requiring all residents to have trash service. Also at the board's Sept. 22 work session, Mayor Lucas Fitzpatrick said the board could only continue discussion on the city's trash problem for so long.
"We can't sit and talk about it for the rest of eternity," Fitzpatrick said at the meeting. "We're going to need to make a decision."
Any resident interested in commenting on Allied's proposal or on the city's litter problems can do so during the board's meeting.