UPDATED: Council members look to tighten refuse collection law

Published 3:45 pm Thursday, May 28, 2020

Dalton City Council member Tyree Goodlett urged fellow council members on Wednesday not to rush changes in the city’s refuse collection law without considering how that will affect all residents.

“I want them to take the time to see all sides of this,” he said.

Council members met for more than two hours at the Public Works Department to discuss proposed changes to the city’s curbside refuse pickup law. There seemed to be a consensus that Dalton’s “curbside appeal” leaves something to be desired.

“We hear that from residents. You can see it yourself, when mattresses and construction debris and things like that sit on the side of the curb, sometimes for several days,” said Mayor David Pennington.

But there was less agreement on exactly what should be done to remedy that.

Under current city law, for instance, people are not supposed to put out construction and demolition debris. But Public Works Director Andrew Parker said that over the years, at the direction of past City Councils, Public Works Department employees have picked up such material. In February, the City Council directed the department to start enforcing the law and not pick up such material. Parker said some residents are confused about what constitutes construction debris, and one of the proposed changes to the law spells out that items such as doors, cabinets, windows, wiring, sinks, toilets and shower stalls should not be put out.

Goodlett said he believes the ordinance should be enforced as it is, and Public Works should not pick up things that are not included in the law. He doesn’t believe things should be added.

“A lot of people live in older houses. A lot of people can’t afford a contractor,” he said. “I live in my parents’ old house. It was built in 1961. I replaced the flooring. I pulled up the carpet myself, and I put it on the side of the street. To say that is construction and demolition? No, I just can’t see that.”

Pennington said Dalton officials haven’t been able to find any other city that picks up construction and demolition debris.

“If you make an exception for people who do their own work, how do you know who really did that?” Pennington said. “I think how this started is someone decided they’d help people out and haul it off, and the next thing we know contractors are coming in, doing the work and setting the debris out for the city to carry off.”

Goodlett at one point said Pennington was being “dictatorial” by refusing to see other viewpoints. Pennington said Thursday he was surprised by that remark.

“I did a whole lot more listening than talking, and the Public Works Committee (which includes Goodlett and council member Annalee Harlan) has been meeting on this for several months,” he said. “They are the ones who have come up with these recommendations.”

Goodlett asked what residents would be expected to do with such items if the Public Works Department no longer picks them up.

“Where are they supposed to put it?” he said.

“I don’t have a big house, a lot of people don’t have big houses,” Goodlett said. “They may not have room in the house. And if they put it on the front porch that’s a (building) code violation. You are going to create another problem by trying to fix this problem.”

Council member Gary Crews said Goodlett raised some points he had not thought of.

“I think it’s a valid point that if people can’t put this out for pickup they might just put it in their backyard,” he said.

Crews said he hopes new equipment being purchased by the Public Works Department will allow it to send a single truck out, not a full crew, to pick things up.

“I’d like to see us be able to collect things within 48 hours of people calling in,” he said. “I’m not sure what that would take, but it could be something we could work towards.”

Another proposed change would limit residents to no more than two cubic yards of rubbish in each pickup.

Council member Derek Waugh asked if city officials might consider collecting a larger amount of refuse or collect materials not covered by the law for a fee.

A draft of the proposed changes would also have limited residents to no more than two cubic yards of leaves, grass clippings and yard waste. But Dalton resident Palmer Griffin told the council members that a homeowner might exceed that if they did a big yard cleanup every year. Council members agreed to drop that specific limit, but several said they thought there should be a “reasonable” limit.

Under city law, cardboard is supposed to be placed in curbside recycling. But Parker told council members that, with the growth of online shopping and home deliveries, the city is increasingly seeing people place cardboard boxes out with their refuse rather than breaking the boxes down and putting that into the recycling.

Council members agreed the city should not pick up cardboard boxes as refuse. But council members said they want to see the city set up sites so people can bring cardboard boxes in for recycling. Parker said the Public Works Department has been working with the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority to create such sites.

“It’s going to have to be places where there is 24/7 (around the clock) oversight, such as fire stations or the Police Services Center,” he said. “Otherwise, it could end up like the donation boxes” around town that have often been overrun with clutter.

Last year, the council required those placing donation boxes in the city to obtain a license in an effort to reduce the litter dumped at the boxes.

Council members had planned to hold a first reading of the new refuse collection law when they meet on Monday. But council members agreed that will likely not happen

“We may have to wait until our second meeting of June,” Pennington said.