Starkville aldermen will discuss suspending residential debris drop-off fees Tuesday after a line of thunderstorms uprooted trees, damaged structures and left at least half of the city without power last week.
If approved, the proposed motion located inside the city’s e-packet would suspend fees for 30 days in order to assist in recovery efforts.
Since the Oct. 13 storm, piles of long limbs, cut up tree trunks and other debris began appearing on curbside rubbish drop-off locations.
Rubbish-collecting workers are still making their rounds across the city, Sanitation and Environmental Services Director Emma Gandy said, but a majority of the debris remains because of their individual sizes.
“We just don’t have the equipment to pick some of those up,” she said. “The stumps and big tree bodies, they’re too heavy and could damage our equipment or even injure our workers.”
To solve the issue and entice more public drop-offs to the landfill, the city could suspend its per-tonnage gate fee for residents. Gandy said the city currently charges $5 for loads that weigh less than a ton and $21 for heavier amounts.
The fee waiver period could be reduced to two weeks, Gandy said, if aldermen are unwilling to suspend those charges for a month.
Lafayette sidewalk discussions continuing
The board will also resume talks on how to address sidewalk improvements for the southern portion of Lafayette Street’s business corridor.
Aldermen first tabled discussions on a $30,000 project that would have improved the area near a Jeremy Tabor-backed development with steps and a new guardrail.
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker pushed for increasing the project’s overall budget to $75,000 so the city could then tend to improvements for the whole area, including installing Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant access points at the intersection with Lampkin Street.
City Engineer Edward Kemp said aesthetic improvements, like the guardrails installed on Main Street near Starkville Cafe, could also find a new home on Lafayette Street.
The original proposal sought to borrow $30,000 across five years, but aldermen are expected to vote on a smaller portion of the improvements today.
Consent agenda still absent
Today’s meeting also marks the second in a row aldermen will not utilize a consent agenda.
The agenda speeds up board meetings by allowing aldermen to approve minor requests and other small-ticket items in one fell swoop before tackling pressing issues.
Last week, Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn repeatedly blocked their peers’ attempts to place items on consent after city staff was instructed not to build such a list prior to the meeting.
Neither aldermen provided any reasoning to their action last week, but the board has drawn numerous rounds of public criticism this term for their apparent inability to discuss major policy implications.
In other business, the board will discuss repairing, resurfacing and restriping a portion of Garrard Road between North Montgomery and Miss. Highway 389, and installing safety improvements to the Garrard-Montgomery Intersection.
Aldermen are also expected to set Halloween trick-or-treating hours from 5:30-8 p.m. on Oct. 31.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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