The Hyattsville City Council voted 8-2 Monday night to set a timetable to create a once-a-week trash collection pilot program, but the council won't vote to implement the program until October.
Hyattsville currently collects trash twice a week. A team conducting an efficiency study of city services recommended in May that the city make the switch, estimating it could initially save $214,000 a year.
Monday's vote directs the city's staff to create a pilot program and present it during the Sept. 8 council meeting. The city also will hold three public meetings in September to hear suggestions on the proposed program.
Council President Marc Tartaro (Ward 1) said the motion is a follow-up to the recommendations of the efficiency study.
"It's going to develop a plan and explore what it'll take to implement a pilot plan," he said. "Exploring this is fiscally prudent. If we explore it, we see what works."
The council is expected to vote on the pilot program Oct. 5. If the program is approved, the city will hold three public meetings at the mid-way point of the program, then three more at the end to discuss progress and results.
Prince George's County collects trash twice weekly. Nearby College Park and Greenbelt switched to weekly trash collection years ago. Greenbelt Public Works Director Kenny Hall previously said that the switch allowed the city to pick up recycling rather than contract it out. College Park Public Works Director Bob Stumpff has said the switch encouraged residents to recycle more.
In Hyattsville, the city paid $228,000 in tipping fees for landfill dumping in fiscal 2008. The city provides a 96-gallon trash bin for each single-family home, and the city has four trash collection crews, each consisting of one truck and three workers.
The efficiency study recommends initially switching to once-weekly trash collection with three trucks but ultimately only using two trucks, which would save an additional $185,000 a year.
Residents spoke both for and against the pilot program during the Monday meeting.
Resident Robert Howarth said he is in favor of the pilot program, but added that he wanted details on what the city plans to do with the savings.
During a May presentation on the city's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, Gardiner said the city could use the extra money for street sweeping, graffiti removal and cleanup of public areas.
Resident Nina Faye urged the council to vote against the time table motion, saying that staff time and labor would be used "on a proposal that many of us are against."
"It's a removal of services," she said. "It adversely affects our quality of life."
Resident Susan Holland said insects, rodents and animals could be a problem with a switch to weekly trash collection. She also said senior citizens or disabled residents, can't take out container containing a week's worth of trash. She was temporarily disabled.
"Anyone in my situation is really impeded by what you're thinking of doing," Holland said.
Hyattsville environmental committee member Jim Groves is in favor of the pilot, and said the city needs to better educate residents on recycling.
"The whole idea with this pilot program, for me anyway, isn't the money-saving factor but the reduction in trash and the increase in recycling," Groves said. "It's going to force people to think about what they throw away and think about recycling."
The proposed budget had originally cut $60,000 from trash collection in anticipation of the pilot program. The council amended the budget Monday night by taking $60,000 from community development and adding it to public works.
E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.
