New Logan council members talk trash
With three new members serving on the Logan Municipal Council and campaigns and elections long completed, the council is still talking trash.
Garbage cans, that is.
On the night new council members Joe Needham, Steven Taylor and Laraine Swenson were sworn in, Logan Environmental Division director Issa Hamud brought the issue of garbage can rates before the council.
Seven years ago, Logan introduced a 60-gallon garbage can as an option to small families who produce low amounts of trash or recycled. Hamud said the program has been successful. Users of 60-gallon bins receive the containers at a reduced rate.
“It has become very successful to the point that we have some concerns,” Hamud said. “The use has become somewhat wide, especially in residential areas where they have commercial bins.”
Hamud said some residents who have the smaller garbage cans are filling them beyond their capacity, causing garbage to fall out of the can when trucks attempt to empty them.
The improper use of the smaller cans, Hamud said, could be creating an unfair situation for those residents who are actually recycling.
“We’ve already got an unfair situation, Issa,” said councilman Steve Thompson. “I live in an older neighborhood with large mature trees and mature residents and many of my neighbors take their 60-gallon cans to the curb only twice a month, maybe once a month.”
Thompson said he thought the program as it is might be a “little out of whack.”
“[The program] is something that we should have not done at the beginning, but right now we’re trying to correct it,” Hamud said.
According to a letter sent by Hamud to council members, the Solid Waste Advisory Board recommended the 60-gallon can service be restricted to residences without commercial dumpsters, issue overload notices to users of the cans who put too much trash in their cans and discontinue their use after three notices and adjust the cost of using the cans to be proportional with the larger, 90-gallon cans the city uses.
The board’s recommendation called for an increase in the 60-gallon can rate to $7.80 per month, up from $6.55 a month. The rate for the 90-gallon can is currently $11.65 per month.
Thompson suggested that the program be reworked and said he has a problem supporting the rate increase because it does not consider those who are not abusing the use of the 60-gallon can.
The issue will be brought up again in two weeks when action will be taken on the potential rate increase.
Changing times
The council used the opening portion of the meeting to make committee assignments and elect chairpersons for the council and the Redevelopment Agency meetings. Thompson was selected as the chairman of the council and the RDA Board for the first half of 2004, with councilwoman Tami Pyfer as the vice-chairman.
Thompson suggested the day of council meetings change, and the council decided to move the meetings to Tuesdays, starting Feb. 3.
Pyfer was appointed as the liaison between the council and the Associated Students of Utah State University. Thompson had served as the liaison previously.
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