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FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -g- June 23, 2004 Interim report from the Solid Waste Commission on organized collection (continued) The following goals can be met by residents making wise use of service options available to them now (Reference: April 20 hauler meeting) • Competitive prices • Temporary suspension of service • Choice of bin size • Service options such as yard waste • Quarterly billing Mayor Gehrz said that normally reports of this nature aren't read into the record but because of the importance of this issue to the residents of the community, the Council wants to be sure to keep everyone informed. The report contains a lot of information. There are two things she wants to speak to. One, it is important, when summarizing some of the issues, to try to make sure we are reflecting the major issues we have heard. To a great extent, this has been done. It is missing in one area, an area she heard a lot about from people who contacted her. She suggested that some additional wording be added on page 20 of the interim report, point #5, currently worded as follows: "Some residents say they like being able to change haulers whenever they • want." She recommended that the sentence be worded as follows: "Some residents say they like being able to change haulers whenever they want to improve the quality of service and/or to reduce cost." The general consensus of the Council was agreement with Mayor Gehrz' recommendation to add the additional phraseology, as outlined above. Council member Lindstrom asked where the Council goes from here. Administrator Worthington said the Solid Waste Commission study may very well take two months. It may be August or through the end of the summer before they bring a recommendation back before the City Council. They have been asked to put a finite amount of time on their process. Council member Lamb said that legally this requires no extension. This is an interim report. When we talked about this back in March, we talked about two, three-month periods, which the statute requires as the minimum periods under law. The Commission has gotten through about 80% of the issues with the haulers, with a lot of resident input. There are two issues that are very, very complex and revolve around trucks and the related issues of wear and tear on the roads, emissions, air pollution, etc. The second set of issues, which are still unresolved, have to do with the disposal of waste. That is, is it better to mandate that everything go to the Newport facility as opposed to the use of landfills? The report points out that landfills have come a long way. There are some stringent rules about capping them every night and designing them in such a way that runoff doesn't pollute the groundwater. There are two scheduled tours to a landfill at Elk River on June 27 and June 29, where members of the Commission and the haulers are going • to tour some of the modern landfills to see what they really look like and what really happens. l3