Youngstown lawmakers reject fines for exceeding residential trash limits

YOUNGSTOWN

City council trashed a proposal from the administration to charge penalties to its residential garbage customers for putting out more than two city-issued carts and two bulk items.

The decision at Thursday’s council general improvements committee meeting, in which all seven council members attended, was made after Mike Turner, sanitation superintendent, said that 90 percent of the city’s 22,000 residential garbage customers would violate the limit.

Those exceeding the limit by up to four extra items were to be fined $10 under a proposal sponsored by Mayor John A. McNally. It jumped to $200 for those exceeding the limit by five or more items. Those fees would appear on the property owner’s monthly water/sewer/garbage bills.

“I have serious concerns with these fines,” said Councilman T.J. Rodgers, D-2nd. “If people have too much, they’re going to dump it on the Sharonline [a largely vacant part of the East Side] or other places. I understand the issue, but it’s too strict.”

Residential garbage customers don’t have limits on the amount of garbage they can put to the curb.

Read more about the matter in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.coml