Holts Summit, Allied Waste to negotiate new contract; mandatory service not included

HOLTS SUMMIT - The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen unanimously voted to move forward with proposed changes to the city's trash service Monday night. With the board's vote, City Administrator Brian Crane and city staff can begin negotiations with Allied Waste Services to develop a five-year contract between the waste service provider and the city of Holts Summit.

The proposed changes did not include making trash service mandatory, something on the table since August. What the board voted on will serve as a starting point for the city's negotiations with Allied. While the proposed changes did not include mandatory trash service, it will require a 95-gallon cart for those who have trash service.

"It's not forcing the citizens into something," Alderman LandonOxley said of the proposed changes.

What the board voted on would change the cost of trash service from $14.29 a month to $14.75 a month. But Crane said the city may be able to negotiate the rate down closer to what residents currently pay.

Over the past several months, Mayor Lucas Fitzpatrick has said multiple times that the board's goal in working on a new contract proposal with Allied is to improve the city's trash problem.

"You have some direction now," Fitzpatrick said to Crane at Monday night's meeting.

The city's residents have used Allied for their trash service for years. However, the city has not made it required that all residents have trash service. Currently, about 1,200 Holts Summit residents have trash service, while 300-400 do not. Not all of the current customers use the 95-gallon trash carts that Allied provides.

The city first started discussing ways it could slow the litter and illegal dumping problem in Holts Summit last October - a problem Crane has previously said the city spends a lot of time and resources to enforce and clean up after. Holts Summit brought Allied Waste Services, which has been the city's trash service provider since the 1990s, into that conversation.

The city worked with Allied on a contract proposal. In August, the board held a public hearing on a bill that would have made the city's contract offer to Allied include mandatory trash service. The board then tabled a final decision on the bill four times to allow more time to collect resident feedback on potentially making trash service mandatory.

At the board's October meeting, resident Tom Halfen said he would like to have more choice in his trash service.

For example, if he wants to go to a neighbor and share a trash can and split the cost of trash service, he wants to have the ability to do so. Instead of mandating trash service, he said the city should enforce existing codes to take care of the city's trash problem.

"If we just enforce the ordinances we have, that might work better," Halfen told the board at its October meeting. "(Then) just put this idea off for a year."

City Administrator Brian Crane responded to Halfen and other visitors' comments at the October meeting. Crane said the city does enforce its current codes, but that doing so hasn't been enough when it comes to the city's litter and illegal dumping problem.

"We currently do that. That's currently our process and it's not working," Crane said in response to visitors' comments at the October meeting. "I tell you, it's not working."

Crane will continue to work with Allied and will will update the board on the city's progress on a final contract with Allied.