Days before the April 1 mayoral election, Tim Davlin dismissed the notion of using CWLP’s billing system to charge residents for waste hauling, a proposal supported by a city solid-waste task force, Mayor Karen Hasara’s 2020 vision plan, and The Springfield Project. Also in January Ward 4 Alderman Chuck Redpath, who backed Davlin, proposed eliminating the city’s waste and recycling program.
This has left some to wonder what’s going on with Springfield’s garbage? For years, the city has tried to tackle the large number of households without trash service, estimated by The Springfield Project in 2000 to be at least 1,000. Neighborhood decay is cited as a consequence of the city’s loose grip on the problem. After The Springfield Project’s report, the city passed an ordinance requiring every property owner to sign up with a professional waste hauler. Enforcing the law has been the tricky part.
Wynne Coplea, the city’s waste and recycling manager, says she doesn’t know what to expect from Davlin when he takes office in mid-April.
“There’s absolutely no indication so far of what his plans are,” says Coplea. “I’ve had no contact with him. Everyone’s taking a wait-and-see kind of attitude. We have got to let him get in here and have time. We’re hoping for the best.”
Coplea–hired by the city in December 1999–essentially is Springfield’s solid waste and recycling program. During the past three years, she says, the number of Springfield residents participating in curb-side recycling has tripled; recycling bins have been placed downtown; and the city has started a large-item pickup service, a free two-week spring yard-waste collection program, and such one-time events as an electronics recycling drop-off. Coplea also hired a University of Illinois at Springfield intern, who’s crunching numbers about recycling participation in Springfield for his master’s thesis.
“The waste and recycling program has done a lot of good,” says Douglas King, board chairman of The Springfield Project. “We’d be opposed to shutting down the program. We have a long way to go. It’s going to take a long time–years–to clean up the city. We need to save as much space in our landfills as possible.”
King says he met with Davlin a couple of weeks before the election to discuss a variety of issues, including trash collection, building code enforcement, neighborhood revitalization, housing for low-income families, and railroad relocation. “The meeting wasn’t about getting him to commit to anything,” says King, “but to let him know about work we’re doing, and that we’re willing to offer him knowledge and expertise.”
The Springfield Project’s 2000 study also included information about the trash systems of other Illinois cities and of Madison, Wisconsin. Of the 11 communities studied, eight of them incorporate mandatory trash fees in utility or tax bills.
“We hope that, from the perspective of The Springfield Project, now that the election has happened, Davlin will take a more serious look at a city-wide billing system for garbage. There are problems such as fly dumping that take place all over our city. We’ve got information that he’d certainly benefit from. We know that other municipalities have tackled this problem with workable solutions.”
This article appears in Apr 10-16, 2003.
