CLEARLAKE >> The Clearlake City Council is moving to adopt a universal garbage services plan.
In doing so, the city will have to make adjustments to their Franchise Agreement with Clearlake Waste Solutions (CWS), hold a protest hearing for residents as required by Proposition 218 and hold a second hearing a at the city’s July 27 meeting.
The council hopes to approve the plan at that meeting, bringing the city in line with most California jurisdictions that have had universal solid waste collection service for years.
“The city of Clearlake currently does not have a universal solid waste collection ordinance, which is fairly unusual,” City Manager Greg Folsom said. “We remain vulnerable right now to future fines and penalties as circulations get stricter with trash pickup.”
Illegal dumping of garbage has long been a problem in Clearlake and parts of the county. Many have come to believe that not having a Universal Garbage Service is a major contributing factor. In 2009, Clearlake was under a non-compliance review from CalRecycle from the city’s poor management of waste cleanup.
Since the addition of curbside pickup will require additional labor, equipment and regulations, there is a need to increase the rate stated in the Franchise Agreement for CWS. The Notice of intent from CWS posted an increase of $4.53 per month, making the total cost for everyone who receives the service $19.99 per month. This rate for trash collection is the lowest in the region.
The city currently generates $180,000 with the existing agreement with CWS. With the increase in service and rate would generate an addition $72,000 a year. This will generate better cleanup projects, abate properties that have become a nuisance to the public and give trash collection services to everyone in the city.
Implementing this program will cut down on hoarding and illegal dumping of trash that occurs in the city and around the county. This ordinance will not be able to be in full effect until next year if Universal Garbage Services are put in place.
City Council member Joyce Overton said some senior citizens in the area are on a fixed income where even an increase in payments as small as this would push them out of the county and should be something the city has more time to think about.
“We just asked a lot from our community, and yes it’s because we want to clean up and I’m totally for that,” Overton said. “I just think that we are trying to push too much stuff in just the last six months on our citizens and I think we need to slow down and let these people take a breath.”
City Council member Nick Bennett said when reviewing the Franchise Agreement with the Universal Garbage Service that the cost of this is comparably cheaper than other counties.
“This is a fairly small increase and it is still a pretty good bang for our buck,” Bennett said. “This is a protection to us and for our city that we get this ordinance in place.”
Properties can be exempt from the service if they do not consume or produce food, do not create waste of any kind, are not hooked up to other utilities or are vacation homes. The trash container size can vary from a 20 gallon to a 96 gallon depending on what the property owner wants.
