Official: Prepare for roll-off containers

Legislation enabling the director to set rates is expected next month.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The manager of the city's environmental services department expects to have all of the roll-off containers placed this weekend, despite some council members' reluctance to enter the business.
City council passed legislation this week setting rates for the city to charge residents for use of its roll-off trash containers. But members want the administration to return to the next council meeting with legislation that allows Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin to set the rates rather than having them spelled out in the ordinance.
Councilman Gary Fonce, D-at large, said he was concerned that setting a price locks the city into it and gives competing businesses the ability to undercut those prices.
The ordinance calls for a charge of $100 for a 10-cubic-yard container and $130 for a 15-cubic-yard container per week for collection of construction and demolition debris.
The rates would increase for municipal solid waste to $200 and $250 per week for a 10-cubic-yard and 15-cubic-yard container, respectively.
"It won't hold us up at all," said Renee Cicero, manager of the environmental services department. "We'll just use the rates that are in here now."
Once new legislation is passed, the department will use the rates set by the director.
Concerns
Councilwoman Virginia Bufano, D-1st, who, along with Councilwoman Susan Hartman, D-7th, opposed the legislation, worries about sending trash and debris from the containers to the Warren Hills landfill. Bufano pointed to problems at the facility that residents have been complaining about for years including a rotten-egg hydrogen sulfide stench.
Although she acknowledged the facility is the only licensed facility in the area and that the trash will end up there whether taken there by the city or another company, Bufano said she doesn't think the city needs to contribute to the problems.
Cicero said the department had already received calls Thursday morning from people who want to use the containers and she expects all five of them to be used this weekend.
The department has three 10-cubic-yard containers and two 15-cubic-yard containers.
The city bought the containers late last year at the same time it retrofitted its sanitation trucks and bought a used truck equipped to pick up the large roll-off trash bins. The idea was to make the city competitive with private companies that do the work.
"The rates are so low," Cicero said. "They're very reasonable."
The containers will only be available to city residents who will be billed on their utility bills.
denise_dick@vindy.com