Additional $100K sought for Youngstown garbage program

YOUNGSTOWN — The administration will ask city council Wednesday to authorize spending up to an additional $100,000 for Youngstown’s residential garbage-collection program that’s only a month old.

The money is to pay eight temporary workers between May and July who are assisting those hired by the city on a permanent basis to collect garbage, city officials say.

The city is spending about $6,000 a week to pay the temporary workers who were hired through an employment firm, said Abigail Beniston, the city’s code-enforcement and blight-remediation superintendent. The city is paying $14.49 an hour for the workers with that increasing to $21.74 an hour in overtime, she said.

The workers are costing the city $4,637 a week in salary with overtime making up the rest of the expense.

At $6,000 a week, the city will spend about $72,000 for the temporary workers for last month, this month and July.

“We don’t expect to come anywhere near [$100,000], but it gives us a cushion,” Beniston said. “After July, we will absolutely not use” the temps.

For the complete story, read Wednesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com