City considers saying ‘so long’ to sticky sticker system

MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant City Council continued discussing needed changes to the city’s current solid waste collection during a work session Wednesday evening.

“We can’t continue to operate the way we are,” City Administrator Brent Schleisman said of the current sticker system.

“We cannot carry on the way we are carrying on right now,” Council Member Steve Engberg added.

According to multiple members of the city council, the current costs charged for stickers do not cover the city’s costs for offering trash collection.

Additionally, Mayor Steve Brimhall mentioned that nearly two-thirds of residents already contract with private companies for their trash collection instead of using the sticker system.

“The city has to do something with their solid waste collection system whether the city continues to collect for residential properties or whether the city contracts with a private system or turns it over completely to the private system is what we’re debating,” Schleisman explained.

According to Schleisman, these discussions have included conversations exploring details about the costs associated with these options and what a contract would look like.

With that in mind, the city council is currently in discussions with Lance Refuse Service and Wemiga, two local waste management companies, to possibly offer solid waste collection services through a contract with these private companies and the city.

Schleisman says the dialogue with the two companies, which are offering a joint contract option, has been “really good” so far and the proposed contract between the city and businesses continues to develop with each meeting.

A contract with these companies would offer consistency and a lower cost for residents as Lance and Wemiga could provide the services with a lower cost of operations, as well.

The most current draft of the proposed contract would offer every household the option of using either a 65 gallon can for $16 or 95 gallon can for $19.75 which would be charged to their utility bills.

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According to Mike Lance with Lance Refuse Service and Lynn Whaley of Wemiga Waste, the proposed contract would split the city in half and the two would collect from their respective halves over two-days.

Additionally, when asked about those that already use one of the services for their trash collection, the men affirmed that those costumers would receive the lower rate contracted through the city and they would ensure each residence had the correct trash receptacles.

Other options explored by the council include simply allowing residents to make all their own plans for waste collection.

This posed issues with the potential for individuals then improperly disposing of their trash and Council Member Matthew Crull said that option would end up costing the residents of Mt. Pleasant more overall.

According to the city website, they currently provide curbside solid waste collection service for residential properties located within the corporate limits of Mt. Pleasant via the sticker system.

“The Mt. Pleasant residents have used a volume-based fee system to pay for their solid waste collection since October 1990,” the website states. “The volume-based system requires residents to put a full ‘garbage sticker’ on each 30-gallon bag of garbage to be collected or each bag inside a 33-gallon can.”

Residents currently purchase these stickers at various grocery stores and convenience stores in Mt. Pleasant for $2 per sticker.

The city also provides curbside recycling for which residents pay $4.15 per household on their monthly utility bills.

“We are the cheapest solid waste collection for a city and we have done that purposefully to help our citizens, but we’re to the point where we can’t do that any longer to the detriment of other citizens and other projects those taxpayer dollars need to go to,” Schleisman said.

According to Brimhall, the discussions on changing solid waste management in the city have spanned several months.

Members of the council stated they had not heard much from the public about this topic during the many meetings held.

Only a few residents attended the latest meeting.

“We’re getting to that point now where we need to make a decision,” Schleisman said. “Stickers are running out.”

The council hopes to decide before the beginning of the new year, but Schleisman clarified that the current contract conversations are still in the negotiation phases.

The council has not decided, yet.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com