Youngstown privatizing trash collection May 1

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown will start its own residential garbage collection May 1 that city officials say will be cheaper than remaining with a private company.

With about three weeks before the program is to begin, the city has yet to purchase nine garbage trucks and 21,500 garbage bins and hire employees. But the program will start on time, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department.

“It should be a seamless transition,” he said.

The trucks will take about two to six months to arrive, so the city will lease trucks until then and won’t order the bins until the vehicles are just about ready so both will be ready about the same time, Shasho said.

The city hired private companies for decades to handle its residential garbage collection.

The city hired Michael Turner, a former Waste Management employee, to serve as its solid-waste disposal unit superintendent at an annual salary of $73,900.

Read more about the plan in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.