Spring Cleanup - Curbside?

3/2/11

During the January 24th Council Meeting, the Mayor and her new council members asked City staff to investigate doing curbside pickup as part of the annual spring cleanup program. Mayor Lizee wanted a report quickly so the service could be offered this spring. The Insider recalls this curbside program was one of the election promises of Mayor Lizee and the new council members.

Some background:
Shorewood had done curbside pickup during the annual spring cleanup for many years and discontinued this about four years ago. Reasons for discontinuing were that participation was falling off, many residents complained that they had to pay the $18 fee per household even though they did not use the service and the City started offering a drop-off service at Public Works on a spring Saturday instead. The drop-off has some fees depending on the items dropped, but only those who used the service paid any fees.

During the February 28th Council Meeting, staff reported that a curbside pickup could be done on a Saturday morning for a cost to every residence in Shorewood of between $25 and $30. However, the only items that would be accepted curbside were the same ones that could be placed in the normal weekly garbage pickup. In essence, the spring Saturday curbside would be nothing more than a second garbage pickup that week, but would have a big cost to every residence. If other items were to be placed curbside on Saturday, some could be eligible for pickup, but the hauler would note what was picked up, by address, and the City would have to pay a separate fee for every such item.

Mayor Lizee decided that the drop-off at Public Works would happen for this spring, but wants to consider curbside for 2012 budget.

So, the Insider want to know from the Shorewood residents: would you want every household to pay something like $30 plus, having each household that places out a special item for pickup pay a per item fee to have curbside pickup or, is bringing your cleanup materials to Public Works and only paying for what you actually drop-off the better deal?

Happy Reading!
The Insider