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 Lincoln City Council talked about the concerns
that citizens had voiced about the trash company and worked
throughout the year to address some of those issues.
JANUARY 25 - Lincoln City Council
Aldermen expected to renew Area Disposal contract 12 months
In addition to concerns issued by constituents, Area Disposal was
also having some issues with the contract.
Alderman Kevin Bateman offered an explanation of the issue at hand
at the January 25th meeting of the council.
Tuesday night Bateman said that the service and the customer
satisfaction with Area Disposal have improved by “leaps and bounds.”
However, there is one topic that is still a problem, and Bateman
said there was a simple solution.
The problem is with rental properties. He said that renters come and
go from addresses. Sometimes they have their service discontinued
then leave huge amounts of trash outside as a result of the move.
The trash then causes an issue for neighbors and the landlords
because Area has been told to stop picking up.
He said some other issues come up when a new tenant moves in and
again piles up trash and says they didn’t know the trash collection
had been turned off.
Bateman said there was a logical fix for the problem. He said that
the burden of paying for trash collection should be laid on the
landlord and the address, not on the tenant at the address.
FEBRUARY 4 - Lincoln City Council
Trash billing change
Area Disposal renewed
At the February 4th meeting, aldermen voted affirmative to two
motions. The first was to change the city ordinance, placing
responsibility for trash bills on the landlords. The second was then
to renew the contract with Area, with the changes as defined.
The changes to the trash billing was to become effective on July
1st.
On July 5th local attorney Doug Muck and landlord Steve Hankins
addressed the city council, protesting the manner in which the city
had made its decision to put trash bill payment on the landlords.
Both men indicated that the decision had been made unfairly with no
input from landlords. They requested that Lincoln governance meet
face to face with landlords in town and hear from them about coming
up with a workable solution. Bateman said he felt that a face to
face meeting was a very good idea.
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It was decided that the city would place a moratorium
on the ordinance change to October.
JULY 5 - Lincoln City Council
Lincoln landlords object to paying trash ordinance
In October, the city council extended its contract with Area
Disposal for another five years. In doing so, the city secured the
trash rate for constituents. It was also discussed that Area
Disposal has changed ownership and the city was looking forward to
some significant changes and improvements to service from the new
company. Among the changes, Mayor Tracy Welch shared was that the
new company was bringing back a local contact, so when customers
call the company they will talk to someone in Lincoln about their
issues.
Welch and Bateman were asked about the concerns voiced in July by
the landlords. Welch said that the invitation for a sit-down
discussion had been extended by the city at the July meeting with
Hankins and Muck, but neither one had ever gotten back to Welch to
set up said meeting.
The council approved the five year extension to the contract.
OCTOBER 22 - Lincoln City Council
City extends contract with Area Disposal
In December, there was an additional amendment to the ordinance
discussed and voted upon in the first session of January 2022. It
had come to light that the council had made a blanket rule that the
landlords were to pay the trash, without any limitation on their
responsibility.
Bateman said he could see that was unfair. He and others discussed
changing the ordinance to read that the landlord should pay only for
“basic service” which equals one trash tote and one recycling tote
per address. Bateman said if a tenant needs more than one tote, the
landlord should not have to pay for it. Therefore that change was
made and approved by unanimous vote at the January 4, 2022 voting
session of the Lincoln City Council.
[Nila Smith]
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