Oskaloosa Sanitation Debate Picks Up Steam
Oskaloosa City Council member Aaron Ver Steeg speaking at a recent Projects Committee meeting
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Oskaloosa’s code on trash pickup is going to be updated in the near future. Council members who are part of the public projects committee felt that a good place to start would be the update and ratification of the code, giving time for the current garbage haulers to discuss options on their own.
When Projects Committee Chair Aaron Ver Steeg called the meeting to order, he stated that things would be more focused than in past meetings, coming with a proposal in hand to start the conversation off.
In his proposal Ver Steeg stated, “Oskaloosa should go to a Single Hauler System making all Residential Mandatory, and recycling mandatory.”
He also outlined the following to further define his proposal.
- Low bidder would supply each house or apartment 1 – 95 gallon container
- Low bidder would also supply a recycle container for each house or apartment
- For instances of heavy usage, low bidder would agree to supply 2nd or 3rd container if necessary.
- Each house or apartment would be picked up weekly
- All containers would have to be placed curbside no more than 12 hours prior to pickup
- Would also need to be capable of hauling furniture, appliances, yard waste and hazard material and could be done outside the bid price.
In his proposal, Ver Steeg also outlined that the winning bidder needs to acknowledge local haulers and agree to attempt to buy them out or use them as sub-contractors.
Also in Ver Steeg’s proposal, the City of Oskaloosa would be responsible for billing all residential and apartment customers through their water bills and would include a $1.00 charge for city expenses in billing and would be responsible for all code enforcement.
In discussion, council member Joe Caligiuri expressed concern that residents would have no choice, because many residents like hauling their own garbage to the county landfill on Saturdays.
Ver Steeg said that without the mandatory pickup, the rest of the plan wouldn’t work. “I don’t think you can begin to make exceptions,” was Ver Steeg’s comment towards Caligiuri concerns.
“I’ll just use myself as an example: I don’t want to use the city hauler. I’d just rather, every Saturday, run my little garbage bag down to the Mahaska Dump; that should be my prerogative.” Caligiuri said.
“It should be your prerogative.” Ver Steeg said, recognizing that there will be a lot of complaints.
“Generally we’re not having issues with people who have sanitation service, it’s those that don’t,” Oskaloosa City Manager Michael Schrock said to Caligiuri, over the problem that was one reason that helped to spark the sanitation debate in the first place. He continued by saying, that if giving an option not to have the service, those properties that have been an issue will continue to be a problem.
In the end, the 3 councilmen tasked the local haulers to come up with solutions on their end, while the city manger works on new language to help update the code.
The debate over garbage collection in Oskaloosa has now seemed to pick up speed in debate and action, with possible revised language going to the city council in the coming months.
