POLL: City to decide on future of grass clipping pick-up

He said the city has to curtail some of its expenses, and he said he thinks this is one place where it’s likely where the city can save some money.

Atkinson said he would guess the service is costing the city about $200,000. “And I think, if we’re going to the front pick-up, there needs to be some monitoring about our real costs on this program because we’ve never done that.”

He said the city cannot keep up this level of service and have citizens expect taxes to be kept stable.

“Because, quite frankly, we cannot continue all the levels of service we do.”

Originally, the recommendation to the executive committee included introducing the ‘fee for service’ in 2014, but the wording was amended to have the program reviewed during the 2014 budget cycle.

Coun. Don Cody cautioned the committee not to pounce on it now and take the program away by making it ‘fee for service’ at this time. He said the city has raised the water rates “in perpetuity” and residents’ taxes.

“Don’t you think it’s time that we say to the people ‘but for some of those increases, we’re going to give you a wee bit of service.’ Now we’re going to take that little bit away.”
Cody said he thinks this is a big political issue, and “one that we just don’t need for the amount that we’re going to save in this particular year.”

Coun. Ted Zurakowski said when administration advertises to residents that the bags will only be picked up if they’re left at the front of residences they should also communicate the costs of that service.

“So, [that] if people know what it’s costing, us and them as taxpayers,” he said.

But Mayor Greg Dionne wanted to look at other program costs – including the amount of city workers used for the pick-ups.

“Do we require three people on that truck?” he asked. He said he believes the city can save money in this category by eliminating the third position.

The issue of the grass clipping program came up previously during the budget deliberations, where it was referred to a strategic planning meeting. And during the April 10 strategic planning meeting, councillors pointed out many residents also wish to have the city collect the clippings and take them to the landfill. They also pointed out many residents don’t use the service because they mulch their own clippings.

And Coun. Charlene Miller told the committee Monday evening that it’s healthier to just leave the clippings on the lawns.

“As a city, that’s what we do,” Miller said.

Community services director Greg Zeeben added, “If you leave your grass clippings on your lawn, it returns about one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet, so it actually reduces your need to fertilize if you keep doing it on a regular basis in small enough pieces.”

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PROGRAM

When it comes to the cost to pick up grass clippings, director of public works Colin Innes factored in the cost to operate the truck and to pay the crew that mans it.

“Anytime that you’ve got a piece of equipment and a number of employees that are working with it, I mean that are costs that are associated with that. So, I know that’s something we certainly want to look at make sure we’re doing things as effectively as we can. Because with all the cost constraints that we’re under, we might as well use the tax dollars that we receive … with as much efficiency as possible.”

Innes said that when the city picks up the clippings, they are brought to the landfill. At the landfill, there’s a composting facility.

“And so, the grass clippings go there and … we’ve incorporated some grass clippings in with the biosolids that come from our wastewater plant, and we’ve tried that.”

But, he said, the most effective composting the city has done with the clippings involve just leaving it in a pile – as a resident would do with clippings in their yard.

“The advantage, of course, of being able to do it out at the landfill is that you don’t have any of the odours and things that would go along with that, that in a neighbourhood may be something that somebody finds offputting.”

And with winter lasting well into the spring, Innes said residents will likely start cleaning up their yards as soon as there’s a sign of spring breaking. “Then there’ll be a real demand for us to come and do that initial pick-up of all of the grass and leaves that everybody’s raked up after the snow’s melted.”

When it comes to leaving the yard waste in the rear lanes, bags can be missed. Putting the bags out on the front lawn makes it easier for crews to spot, he said.

When bags are left behind, Innes said kids can get into them if they’ve been sitting out, and they make a mess with the clippings.

“Sometimes we’ll get some calls back, just because there will have been something where the neighbourhood kids have gotten into the bags and they’ve spread leaves all over, and so somebody will express some displeasure because they went to the trouble to pick them up in the first place.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

POLL: City to decide on future of grass clipping pick-up

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