Jefferson City to run yard waste service until a contract can be agreed on
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Jefferson City residents will have to dispose of their yard waste at a new location beginning next month. And this time it will be city workers taking care of the waste, not contractors.
The Jefferson City Council has ended its contract with All Seasons Landscaping, effective with the end of the fiscal year on Oct. 31. Beginning Nov. 4, residents will have to to take their yard waste to a city-run site at 708 Ellis Blvd.
This site will be open on weekends from 8 a.m. to noon from Nov. 4 through Jan. 7.
"There will be some limited hours while we're going through this transition from our past operation to hopefully a longer-term solution going forward," said Clint Smith, director of planning and protective services.
The city has been trying to figure out what to do with yard waste services since early September, and Smith said this is just a temporary solution to be able to still provide yard waste services until another contract can be agreed on.
"It's not necessarily looked at as a money-saving service at this point, it's really about continuing to provide that service in the meantime," Smith said.
He said the city will make a request for proposals for a more permanent solution soon, with the hope there will be a new location and operator in the spring or summer. He anticipates dicussion of new bids to begin at the next Public Works and Planning meeting on Nov. 9.
In the meantime, he said the yard waste site will be the responsibility of Planning and Protective Services and the Public Works Department.
"We're fairly confident that we have the time and the resources to be able to manage the site for this limited period and get us through to the next stage," Smith said.
This temporary site will be available for Jefferson City residents only. Smith said the current contractor allows non-residents to dump their yard waste for a fee, and that option will not be available at the temporary site. The service will still be free for residents.
He said residents will drop their yard waste at the new site on Ellis Blvd., and the city will store it there through the end of the operating season. Then, they will look at having the organic waste processed and disposed of, likely by an outside company.
"Any time you're piling organic materials, you do have to be aware of the potential where that does generate some heat," Smith said. "So, we will have staff monitoring the site to make sure there's no issues with that."
ABC 17 reached out to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and University of Missouri Environmental Health and Safety about potential environmental impacts of this change, but did not get a response.
