ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609300019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
ROANOKE GOVERNMENT talks a lot about weekly garbage collection. Meanwhile, bulk trash and brush are piling up.
Broken-down washing machines. Mountains of tree branches. Boxes brimming with garbage.
Worn down tires. Beat-up sofas. Old, stained mattresses.
Weathered tables. Busted toys. Concrete chunks.
If you've noticed large amounts of ugly waste on city streets in recent months, you aren't alone. Bulk trash and brush are piling up faster than city crews can get to it.
"Any time we have a discussion with a neighborhood group, they will get around to the way their neighborhood looks," said Jim McClung, manager of the city's Office of Solid Waste Management.
"For days, weeks, even months [trash] will sit on the streets," he told City Council during a Sept. 16 briefing.
"We've been struggling for a while now with a problem which we, too, are not pleased with," city Public Works Director Bill Clark said. "And that is the appearance of our neighborhoods."
Tonight, the city government hopes to begin doing something about it.
Residents are invited to the Roanoke Civic Center Exhibition Hall to help officials identify problems, alternatives to the current bulk trash pickup system and possible solutions. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
Complaints about the problem date at least to early this year. Rundown-looking neighborhoods was a frequently voiced gripe last March when The Roanoke Times brought together 23 residents to hear their concerns about City Council elections.
"I've had co-workers go with me just back over to Northwest," said Deborah Jones, a schoolteacher at Crystal Spring Elementary School in South Roanoke who lives in Northwest. "And it's like, 'Why all the trash in the street?' There is more mess here than you would know if you didn't see it."
Council members themselves have begun to complain. At a Sept. 3 City Council meeting, Councilman Carroll Swain scolded the city administration because a pile of old furniture sat on the street only a few blocks from City Hall for more than a month. And "next door to me, brush has been laying out for a month," Swain added.
Simply put, the problem is that there is more bulk trash and brush than what solid waste management workers can get to quickly. In the meantime, it sits in the streets.
The city has assigned two full-time workers and two trucks to pick up trash that is too large or is inappropriate for weekly household waste collection by garbage trucks. Last year, they collected 728 tons of bulk trash - or junk - and another 859 tons of yard waste.
Residents themselves dumped 4,544 tons of junk and brush at the Roanoke Valley trash transfer station for free. The total cost of collecting and disposing of bulk trash, including what residents haul themselves, is estimated at $375,000.
Problems with the pickups are complicated.
*Unlike weekly household waste collection, residents have to make appointments for bulk trash or brush pickups. Often, that appointment is at least two weeks later.
"Residents are told not to put items out until the day before the scheduled collection," McClung said. But sometimes they put the junk out immediately, or call after they've put it out. On other occasions, they don't know the pickup has to be scheduled - so it sits there.
*City law prohibits collection of bulk or brush that results from a contracted job, something residents don't know.
*Charitable organizations that collect used furniture frequently ask the city to haul away items they don't want. One organization that McClung didn't identify requests 26 pickups a year.
*The crews are also responsible for clearing away household items put on the street as a result of court-ordered evictions. There were 112 such bulk trash collections last year.
*Cars, trucks and tree branches are often in the way of the hydraulic arms on bulk-collection trucks, preventing collections. And alleys are too narrow.
*Sometimes, there are too many items to collect at once. City policy calls for up to one pickup-truck load a stop.
Tonight's meeting is being held so neighborhood leaders, landlords, renters, businesses and residents can be a part of whatever solution the city devises. Questions likely to arise include: What changes can be made, and how much residents would be willing to pay for bulk trash pickups, which currently are free.
A second meeting will be scheduled later to review problems and solutions identified in the first meeting. Any proposed change will be brought to City Council, probably within the next six months.
Swain's ears seemed to particularly perked up at the mention of the possibility of the city charging for bulk pickup.
"It appears to me we might as well get ready to devote more resources," he said. "... Somebody's got to help cover that cost. Until we do that, we're going to continue with this problem of junk out on the street."
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff. The Roanoke City Council is having aby CNBmeeting tonight on the problem of bulk trash piling up along city
streets, such as this trash seen in the 1400 block of Wise Avenue
S.E. on Friday.