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Youngstown to start its own garbage 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.
There are about 21,500 customers.
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 trucks will cost $250,000 to $350,000 each, depending on whether they are new or a few years old, he said.
The city is buying nine trucks with plans to typically use eight on the road with the other as a backup, Shasho said.
The city hired private companies for decades to handle its residential garbage collection.
Waste Management Inc., which has been the city’s garbage-collection company for the past two years, opted out of the contract, which paid it about $2.3 million annually. That contract ends April 30.
Three companies, including Waste Management, submitted proposals to the city for garbage collection. The least-expensive proposal was for $3 million, Shasho said.
The city will spend about $2.1 million annually for its garbage program, he said. That includes the purchase of trucks and garbage receptacles, disposal fees as well as the cost of salary and benefits for the 11 employees it is hiring, Shasho said.
The city will borrow about $1 million for the new bins. It is paying that expense as well as the purchase of the trucks over the next 10 years.
Nearly all of the new workers are employed by Waste Management, Shasho said.
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.
A solid-waste disposal unit mechanic will receive $39,520 in salary a year. That person likely will be used to repair problems with the city’s other environmental-sanitation equipment recently purchased to increase the number of demolitions done by city workers, said Abigail Beniston, code-enforcement and blight-remediation superintendent.
The nine garbage collectors will be paid $32,240 annually in salary.