The Blue Earth City Council contemplated a reformed method of garbage collection at a meeting held on Monday, July 18.

Blue Earth currently uses open garbage collection, where residents and businesses are free to contract with any licensed garbage collector. However, a few weeks ago the City Council began weighing the advantages of organized collection, where the city authorizes a specified collector to collect from a defined service area.

The discussion originated from concerns about the wear-and-tear large garbage trucks have on city streets. Organized collection could mitigate the size and number of garbage trucks that drive through Blue Earth on a daily basis by restricting the areas specific haulers serve.

Currently, various pockets of the city are served by Waste Management Inc, B & B Sanitation and Hometown Sanitation. While Waste Management services approximately 50 percent of the town, B & B and Hometown service 25 percent of the town apiece.

City administrator Mary Kennedy had reported benefits and drawbacks to organized collection at the July 5 City Council meeting.

She noted organized collection generally lowers the price paid for collection per household, decreases the impact of truck traffic on city streets and standardizes service. On the flip side, however, organized collection eliminates residents’ ability to choose their collector and heightens the city’s administrative involvement in collection services.

Kennedy explained the city would have to follow a specific procedure to implement organized collection, which would involve negotiation with each of the city’s current contractors.

“You’re supposed to reach an agreement that preserves their market share,” city attorney David Frundt supplemented.

On July 5, the council passed a motion for Kennedy to continue researching organized collection. As such, Kennedy shared feedback on Monday from four cities which already use organized collection.

She said the cities identified several benefits to organized collection, including the ability for the city to control prices, decreased wear-and-tear on roads and a cleaner community. However, a few cities cited issues with communication between the city and contracted garbage haulers.

Kennedy also noted, “These are favorable comments, but it’s a limited pool of responses. If we did a bigger poll, I don’t know what the responses would be.” 

Mayor Rick Scholtes pointed out organized collection would probably still result in the city having three contracted haulers.

“Because they have a share right now – a market share - we have to negotiate with all three,” Scholtes explained, adding the city could have a contract with all three at a set rate.

The system could still be advantageous, as organized collection would allow the city to assign just one hauler to each section. This would reduce the number of garbage trucks traversing Blue Earth streets each day.

Councilmember Marty Cassem inquired whether the council can stipulate the type of truck haulers use.

Frundt responded, “We can. Whether or not they’ll agree to that is the question.” 

The council also asked Bolton & Menk engineer Ben Rosol whether the newly improved streets in Blue Earth will have an improved weight capacity, making them better equipped to support large garbage trucks.

Rosol responded the streets are designed with that intention, although he will work on producing exact calculations showing the impact garbage trucks will have upon streets.

The City Council agreed to continue discussing the benefits and drawbacks of organized collection in the future.

In other business, the Blue Earth City Council: 

• Conducted a first reading of an ordinance to amend the definition of farm animals in Blue Earth’s city code. The new draft of the ordinance makes it clear that chickens and bees do not fall under the city’s definition of farm animals.

A motion to schedule a second reading of the amended ordinance passed on a 5-1 vote, with Scholtes voting in opposition.

• Approved the drafting of an ordinance for the sale of a Main Street lot to Blue Earth resident Noel Johnson for $1,000.

• Approved donations to the city of Blue Earth in the amount of $5,802.72.