Washington Council to Discuss Amending Trash Pickup Code

The city of Washington will look into the trash ordinance that prevents it from picking up trash at commercial locations.

The city council discussed the trash code during its administrations/operations committee Oct. 22 after a letter from a citizen raised concern about overpaying for services not being utilized.

The resident is a building-owner with apartments and a business in the same location. There are several mixed use buildings in Downtown Washington, where a business operates on the street level and apartments are located upstairs.

Now, business owners are required to have separate trash pickup service from private haulers. The city services the apartments.

The trash pickup issue has been brought up before, but no action was taken because a city ordinance prohibits the city from offering commercial trash pickup.

“I think (the ordinance) is what was handcuffing us on the whole situation to begin with,” said Joe Holtmeier, councilman.

Apartment complexes do not fall into the commercial category, but the adjacent business is required to have separate pickup service.

“We do have some businesses who would like us to get into servicing businesses, but we’ve been reluctant to go down that road because we would probably have to purchase another truck and put a crew together,” said Jim Briggs, city administrator.

The current trash pickup crew already works five days per week.

The council agreed to look into changing the ordinance and will discuss the code at a future meeting.