Although the mayor disagrees, the University Heights Council approves a survey on garbage disposal

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UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The city council approved during its online session on Monday (21:00 hrs home garbage collection.

Brennan and the Council disagree to proceed with the survey. The law passed came on the recommendation of the Council’s Service and Pension Committee, chaired by Councilor Justin Gould. Gould said the survey had 18 questions on two pages and was compiled by Thomas Sutton of the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace University. The survey also included contributions from the council and the administration.

“It addresses several issues,” Gould said of the poll. One question is whether residents would prefer to collect the trash in the back yard or switch to an automated system that would require residents to bring containers to the curb.

Brennan has expressed his belief that the city should keep garbage collection in-house, but that it should move to automated collection. He found neighboring South Euclid is paying $ 15 per home for automated service by Kimble Co., while University Heights, by collecting its own trash and taking it out of residents’ backyards, pays $ 23.74 per home. “That’s about half a million dollars a year if you do the math,” Brennan said in January.

Regarding the survey, Gould said, “It also looks at how people feel about their ability to carry trash cans to the curb. One of the questions, Question 16, is, “If our city switches to automatic roadside pickup, is there someone in your household who can move the cans to and from the roadside?”

“The Service and Supply Committee held a series of public hearings, and we heard from several elders in our ward who expressed grave concerns about their being unable to carry the garbage cans to the curb,” said Gould. “And if the promised cost reductions (through the switch to automated service) are to be achieved, we cannot ensure that a large part of the city picks up the garbage in the backyard. This (survey) will therefore help us to estimate and precisely determine the actual costs of staying and switching. “

Brennan has stated that for those unable to get their trash to the curb, the city would likely find a way for service staff to bring automated containers to the curb. Several older residents live in houses with steep driveways.

Gould said he wasn’t sure when the survey would be sent out to residents as the matter is now in Brennan’s hands. Brennan wasn’t happy with the way the survey was handled.

“This poll should have come out months ago,” Brennan said at the end of the meeting on Monday. “I mean, here we are six months after the poll was first proposed.”

When asked why there was a delay in the poll’s publication, Brennan said, “In the past year and a half, nothing of particular urgency (related to garbage collection) has been done – almost nothing.

“We have the third highest garbage collection cost in this county and we have the third worst recycling rate in the county. We pay way too much and get too little. We don’t need a survey to get this answer, we already know that. We’d be better off spending our time educating the public that we’re not spending their money well. East Cleveland does worse than us when it comes to recycling, and Richmond Heights, which stops recycling, does worse than us when it comes to recycling, then we are.

“We’re terrible at it because picking it up in the garden doesn’t encourage good recycling. Using blue bags doesn’t encourage good recycling, ”he said. “We could interview people or look at the expert study we paid for (a GT environmental study published in May 2020). And we could look at Cuyahoga County’s annual recycling report, which shows that of our waste stream, only 5 percent of the material is recycled because we’re just so bad at it. East Cleveland is 1 percent, Richmond Heights 2 percent, and we’re third with 5 percent. “

In order to increase the recycling rate of University Heights, Brennan said the city needs to encourage residents to put loose recycling in a trash can and not use blue plastic bags. “We have to provide our residents with a container in which they can put their recyclable materials, but there was no discussion about whether they would actually move with it. That will not happen.”

The lone resident, who spoke at the beginning of the session on Monday, Jim Outman, said the council should look into what projects could be funded with the half a million dollars saved by the automated collection. Outman doesn’t think the council should be conducting a poll.

“My point here is not whether or not to keep the pickup in the garden,” Outman told the city council. “Rather, it is a matter of finally encouraging the city council to bow down and do its job, which includes analyzing the facts and taking appropriate action based on that analysis, not doing outreach to avoid making a difficult choice that not everyone will like. “

It costs the city $ 4,000 to $ 5,000 to send the survey to each location, while paying Sutton and the BWU Community Research Institute costs an additional $ 1,500 to $ 2,000.

Gould said three questions in the survey are about recycling. As for the reasons he believes polling is the best way to go, Gould said that his committee’s public hearings on the issue have generated a lot of response.

“Citizens who spoke at the public hearings overwhelmingly supported the solid waste study recommendation (2020) to conduct a survey,” he said. “We are following this advice and the support of the community to not only measure interest, but also estimate costs.”

Commenting on Brennan’s comments, Gould said, “I would only say that if the mayor is critical of the timetable for preparing the survey, I hope he will act with all speed to get it to our citizens.”

Gould went on to say that the council agreed with the mayor to sign a contract with Sutton from BWU months ago. “More recently, the mayor has stated that he is not inclined to enter into this agreement to get Dr. Sutton actually paid for his work. “

Brennan had expressed concern that a poll paid in taxpayers’ money would be condemned by Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber, as was a poll by Cleveland Heights University Schools in May. University Heights Law Director Luke McConville said a survey on garbage disposal would not get a negative rating from the auditor.

Gould added, “I hope that now that the Legal Director has given his opinion, the Mayor is doing the right thing and Dr. Sutton paid for the work he did for us, including designing a survey with the mayor. “

More news from Sun Press can be found here.

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