Dresden asked to use recyclables pick up | By: Sara Rachels, Staff Writer
| Posted: Friday, October 7, 2011 1:18 pm
| The City of Dresden will consider going green in the future for trash pickup. Bryan Barker, division manager of Barker Bros. Waste, addressed the City of Dresden Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday night at the October monthly meeting and expressed enthusiasm in offering a proposal of the additional services of bulk pickup twice per month at $5.60 per home per month and curbside recycling with a 90-gallon cart at $3 per home per month. The program has been in existence with the City of Martin for about a month and results have been positive thus far. “We will clean up the town of bulk pickup and dispose of it in the landfill. This will free up city employees and give them time to do something else besides trash pickup,” Barker commented. “The trash will be set out and a truck will go by and pick it up. We have the equipment and the manpower and we offer a reasonable rate. The number of times we do it will be up to the city. The City of Martin has been through it for a month and they are pleased with it.” The recycling program was a concept implemented by Republic Services, the owner of Barker Brothers, and it stresses curbside recycling. For two times a month, every other week, a cart is furnished for cardboard, rinsed plastic bottles, rinsed metal food cans, newspaper and general household papers, but not glass or Styrofoam products. The materials come back to the Barker Brothers facility where they are sorted and sold or sent to St. Louis. “Recycling is coming to the forefront everywhere,” Barker remarked. “We made it easy and cost efficient. We made it simple. All the material is placed into one cart. We’d like to get 20 pounds per household eventually. Recycling is mandated by the State of Tennessee, but we never had it to offer before. As the pounds per household go up, the residential rates go down.” Getting back to town pick-up, Barker commented that rates for pickup would not change even if a large amount of brush needed to be cleaned up. The amount of time it takes to clean it up cannot be guaranteed, but the rate would not change and, if necessary, extra equipment would be brought in to help. Barker cautioned, however, that if a contractor had been hired to work on the yard, it would be the job of the contractor to handle the brush and cleanup so as not to cause a conflict with Barker Bros. If a Dresden resident has a disability, he or she can present a doctor’s certificate and receive a discount from the City. Public Works Director Kerry Cooper admitted this would free up the inmates and the city worker in charge of them. Everyone in the city would be notified of the pickup times and bulk pickup could include couches and chairs, but no tires, batteries of liquids. Leaves would need to be bagged and would be picked up twice a month rather than once as they are now. “Keep in mind, if you vote to do the recycling, it will take two months to get the carts here,” Barker commented. In the meantime, Barker and other workers at Barker Bros. would give presentations and answer questions if needed. “We want to do our part in getting this going. There is 29 years of life expectancy left in the landfill and we want to get away from that and do the right thing,” Barker said. Aldermen Jake Bynum and Gwin Anderson will look into the recycling proposal and aldermen Dick Tidwell and Ronnie Gearin will research bulk pickup and will get back to the board at next month’s meeting. A representative from Cardon Locksmith in Martin dropped off padlocks for the city to consider purchasing for the exterior and interior of city buildings. The padlocks are 100 percent key control and cost $105 per lock. As many keys as needed can be programmed for one lock and one grand master key will exist. The board decided to leave the decision to purchase the locks up to the department heads. In employee’s reports, Carla Edwards was named the new financial director on the recommendation of the mayor. Cooper reported a “very busy time” for the public works department. The electric company is doing a study on lighting the Latham Highway and has installed one 250-watt high-pressure light that is currently receiving a test run. Several streets in Dresden are needing additional lighting and Cooper will continue to look into the kind of lights needed as well as the price and as soon, as the study is finished, the project will move forward. Water and sewer director Jeff Pierpoint has decided on a new employee to take Jeff Crittenden’s vacated slot and will make the announcement at next month’s meeting. He is still waiting on the fluoride feeder. Toya Bell reported the annual loan payment for the police department is in good standing at three months in with the amount down to $34,394.96. From now through June, the department needs to average $3,821.83 per month to make the amount. Police Chief Randal Walker introduced a new full-time/part-time officer Jessica Thornton, who is replacing Cory Tidwell. Tidwell was deployed to Cuba with the Navy reserve. Thornton hails from Rives and her step-grandfather, John Jackson, once served as the assistant police chief for Dresden. In unfinished business, the report from David Salyers of the West Tennessee River Basin Authority was tabled until next month. The board discussed the purchasing of equipment for the Code Red Program to either serve as a weather notification tool or to have both weather notification and messaging capabilities regarding events in the city. Ultimately, as cost and use was discussed, the matter was tabled for further information and a representative from the program will speak to the board. In considering a piece of labeled as the Bondurant property on the Latham Highway that has become overgrown and needs attention, the board decided to clean the property, place a lien on it, wait 30 days and give a notice to dispose of it. This decision was based on the fact that the owner is unknown and the city attorney is unsure of the number of heirs. The property of the Bay Bee Shoe Company lies in a similar situation with the only difference being that the property owner is known. The board voted to run bids on the cost of cleaning up the property with a fence and without a fence. Finally, Pierpoint reported that the water tank near the city shop has surface rust holes that will eventually need painting. Every five years, the water tanks are inspected and several projects lie unfinished in the works. Mayor Danny Forrester stressed that cutting revenues means cutting projects. The city has four tanks and many of them are several years old with several years of wear and tear. As the city is not building a reserve in water funds, Forrester encouraged the board to keep this idea at the forefront. In announcements, there will be an open house discussion on the Dresden Greenway at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20. The next meeting of the City of Dresden Board of Mayor and Aldermen will take place at 6 p.m. Nov. 7. WCP 10.06.11 | | | |