(Estherville)– Some big changes are coming when it comes to how garbage is collected in the city of Estherville. The city council Monday evening voted to purchase an automated garbage truck for a little more than $400,000 along with an additional $162,000 for 96 gallon containers that will be distributed to residents. The city will cover the cost through a loan against the city’s emergency electrical fund, which will be paid back through collection revenue in coming years.
City Administrator Penny Clayton says there will be no changes for now to the collection schedule once the new system is rolled out, possibly in January…
“At the beginning we will keep the collection date the same. Right now we collect residential garbage on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Holidays we would just plan to re-do that so that the Wednesday when we’re not doing the residential garbage we would pick up that week’s holiday on that day. I think that would be the easiest way to start. The goal is this is to be more efficient. Once the staff is fully trained and we figure out how many properties they can comfortably pick up in a day, then we may revise the routes and so that would be something that after we have some experience we’ll be able to provide a better recommendation on if we’re able to change the routes.”
Clayton adds that Estherville residents will no longer be required to purchase city bags under the new system…
“The new proposed rate for this system would be $16.50 per month, and this basically is equivalent to a customer who uses between two and three bags a week, so they’re not really going to see a change except they’re not going to the grocery store and buying their own bags, they’ll just use their own bag and put it in the container.”
Clayton adds there will be no changes to Estherville’s residential recycling program, at least for now. She also says staffing levels won’t change with the new system.Clayton says educational materials will soon be distributed to residents.
