A very long, specially called Pine Bluff City Council meeting on Monday night that included a question-and-answer session with Waste Management officials ended with the approval of a resolution to extend the solid-waste agreement with the company for five years.
With the contract set to expire Sunday, the ordinance included an emergency clause that garbage collections would continue without interruption. The specially called meeting was necessary because City Council members were not ready to extend the contract when it came up for consideration at last week's regularly scheduled meeting.
Concerns and questions were brought up by members, specifically Council Members Glen Brown Jr. and Joni Alexander.
In all, 30 questions were submitted to Senior Manager George Wheatley and District Manager Chad Parker. One question was why the bundle weight of yard waste had been reduced from 50 pounds to 35 pounds.
"We're trying to do it where we can do it without injury to any of our crew personnel. The trucks that we use can handle the wood. That's not the problem. It's just trying to be safe," said Wheatley. "What we are trying to stay away from is having people call us to come pick up limbs that have been put there by a professional tree-cutting service."
Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington added that the labor that was required was intense because an individual had to collect that type of waste stick by stick. "That's what they're doing all day, and the only reason I can see that is because I do that kind of work," she said.
Parker added that the branches and leaves fall into the green-waste category and can't be blended with the trucks that pick up furniture. "The leaves that people bag and put on the curb and the branches all go on one truck. That all goes to the landfill," said Parker.
Another concern was the lack of recycling availability in Jefferson County. Wheatley said that in the past, recycling was never mentioned, and that because of covid-19 and the economy, Waste Management isn't taking on new recycling contracts.
"We'll be glad in the next year; we hope that a lot of things are behind us, and we will be glad to talk to the city about a recycling program," said Wheatley.
There were also stipulations that if a container's lid was not completely closed on a cart, then it would not be picked up. Brown said that in some instances, customers have no idea when others go behind them to discard their garbage in someone else's bin.
"We put this in as a guide," said Wheatley. "We're not going to penalize a customer. I'm not inviting people to put more in than the container can hold. On the other hand, we're not going to see a lid sticking up or something that is too long and say, 'No, we can't pick it up.'"
Wheatley said the job is to get the trash off the ground, but the company does have guidelines in place.
Each residential customer will receive a 90- to 96-gallon poly cart and will be charged $15.69 a month. Each additional cart will be $5 per month.
For those who call in for pickup of yard waste, bundles and bulky waste, Wheatley said, Waste Management is willing to accommodate the request for next-day service if the office receives a call by noon the business day before the service is needed.
The customer charge for missing carts was verbally removed by Wheatley after Brown said he felt that customers who discover their cart is missing, instead of paying a fee, will just find another one, causing a trickle-down effect.
Wheatley said the company will remove the fee from the contract, but he asked the council to encourage residents to put their carts out during the hours they are supposed to be out and to take them back soon after so there is less likelihood that they will be stolen.
"It's like a $100 bill to Waste Management," he said.
Under the contract, the city will be able to request 16 roll-out boxes per year, an increase from what the city has had in the past.
Additional boxes will be provided, if needed, for an additional fee.
When it comes to dumping furniture, because of multi-unit apartment complexes and home clean-outs, Wheatley asked that language be added about landlord ownership and what they can and cannot do.
"I need the landlords and apartment owners in the city of Pine Bluff to understand that we will help with clean-outs, but it's not a free charge," said Wheatley, who gave an example of an apartment complex manager who dumped furniture instead of placing it in the apartments' bin.
Brown, who has rental homes in Pine Bluff, asked why the same type of pickup can't happen for a multi-family complex when it comes to a few furniture items, saying that adding the cost of a roll-out box for a few mattresses would be extreme.
"A person who owns an apartment building and sits two mattresses on the curb, you won't pick it up because it's deemed commercial, and if that customer is paying a monthly fee for a bin, then I don't understand why the same type of pickup can be afforded to those individuals," said Brown.
Wheatley could not answer the question and said the best solution is to have the residents call Waste Management to see what options are available.
There was a mention of companies in Pine Bluff that also offer roll-out boxes, to which Wheatley replied that those operations are not doing business legally.
"They're not supposed to be operating within the city limits of Pine Bluff," said Wheatley. "If you have a roll-out company, you're not self-hauling."
He also explained why those companies could advertise lower prices.
"When their prices don't include exposal, I don't know what they're doing with the material, but I look at pictures today with the material in boxes that are garbage that can only legally go one place, and that's to a landfill, and they aren't coming to our landfill," he said. "So they can operate at a much cheaper rate if they don't have to have a landfill and they don't have to expose into a landfill."
All of the changes discussed during the meeting that pertained to the question-and-answer session were not reflected on the actual ordinance the council reviewed during the meeting. After all questions were answered during the almost two-hour meeting, the council voted on the resolution, which was approved with a unanimous vote.