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Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney is working this week to
fine-tune his proposed trash ordinance and expects a final draft to be
ready for discussion at the Oct. 22 meeting of the City Council’s
Public Affairs and Safety Committee. The holdup, says Mahoney, is a battle not over
attaching garbage charges to City Water, Light & Power bills or bidding
Springfield’s garbage service to one main hauler but instead over how
to best address confusion surrounding the city’s yard-waste-pickup
procedure. Mahoney has committed to eliminating the
yard-waste-sticker system, which requires residents to pay $1.50 for every
bag of leaves or grass they put out in the alley or on the curb for pickup,
because it’s proved complicated and ineffective. But when he drafted a proposed change to the system
two weeks ago, the city’s waste haulers balked at the idea and said
that they see no problem with yard-waste stickers. Some even suggested
leaving the yard-waste issue out of the new trash ordinance — a move
also recently advocated by Mayor Tim Davlin.
Davlin drafted a trash ordinance in January, after
nearly four years of meeting with waste haulers, neighborhood associations,
landlord associations, and homeowners associations, and says that he now
regrets prolonging its passage in the hope of solving the yard-waste issue.
“It was ready to go in January, and I regret not
doing it in January,” Davlin says. “It seems to be hung up
now.”
But Mahoney says the mayor’s proposed ordinance
was basic and needed more input from the community before it could be
brought before the City Council. He says the items included in his new
amendment, such as the licensing of waste haulers, new recycling options,
and a revised pickup system for yard waste, will make the greatest
difference in solving Springfield’s trash problem. Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards, who has emerged as one of
the main proponents of Mahoney’s ordinance, says the other aldermen
are willing to negotiate the terms of the yard waste issue — with or
without Davlin, who was noticeably absent from this summer’s
waste-subcommittee hearings and previously criticized for a sluggish
approach to a comprehensive ordinance. “We’re a week-and-a-half away from voting
on an ordinance, and the mayor wants to start interjecting his stuff.
That’s tough,” Edwards says. “He had four years, and he
didn’t do it. “Mark is on solid footing with the City Council,
and he will be able to get things that he wants to see in the ordinance
without the mayor’s blessing,” Edwards says. Mahoney and other aldermen are now considering two
options in the ordinance’s yard-waste amendment: bidding out
year-round pickup service or allowing haulers to bill residents directly
for the yard-waste bags they put out for pickup. Even though waste haulers disagree with the
elimination of the yard-waste-sticker system, Mahoney says he won’t
budge from his impression that the procedure needs to be easier and more
consistent. “They are satisfied with the sticker system and
think it works,” he says, “but, in my opinion and in the
opinion of people in the neighborhoods, it doesn’t work, or you
wouldn’t drive around and see yard-waste bags sitting out.”
After consideration by the Public Affairs and Safety
Committee, Mahoney’s proposed trash ordinance is expected to come up
for vote by the full City Council on Oct. 23.
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2007.
