Marion looking at options for new sanitation truck

Marion looking at options for new sanitation truck

City comparing models, wants to remind residents to bag their trash

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion is studying whether to buy another automated garbage truck or a walk behind garbage truck.

Mayor Frank Fogleman said the city’s sanitation committee met recently and heard cost estimates for a 28-yard automated garbage truck and a 20-yard walkbehind model.

The committee asked Street Department manager Gordon Floyd to get them a cost estimate for a 28-yard walk-behind so they can compare prices.

“We didn’t feel that gave us an apples to apples comparison,” Fogleman said.

“So Gordon is going to get us a quote so we have more of a comparison. That decision is a little further down the road. So we have time to study it some more.”

The city currently has both an automated garbage truck and a walk behind truck.

The lease on the automated truck will expire some time around August.

Floyd said he would rather order a new automated garbage truck, but litter is a big issue.

Residents in Marion are not good about bagging their household garbage and when anytime the wind is blowing it gets blown into the neighborhoods whenever the automated truck is used.

“I get more complaints about litter from those trucks than anything else,” Floyd said. “The driver of an automated truck doesn’t know if it is bagged because he is in the cab of a truck. When the automated garbage truck picks it up, it flips it upside down. If there is wind blowing and they don’t bag it, then it goes everywhere.”

The city has an ordinance requiring all garbage be bagged. However, Floyd said there is no way to enforce it. Fogleman said the city needs to do a better job of getting the message out to residents that they need to bag their garbage. They are considering putting a message on the water bills or possibly stickers on the cans themselves.

But even that may not be enough, he conceded.

“We are going to have to figure a way out to get the message out,” Fogleman said. “We have no hot ash stamped on the cans, but people still put hot ashes in there. We’ve had some people put used oil in there.

Maybe we can put a bright orange sticker on the cans.

Maybe we can put a message on the water bills. But we are going to have to figure a way out to encourage people to bag their garbage. And there is a reason for it.

It keeps the complaints of litter down.”

Floyd said West Memphis only uses walk behind trucks to collect garbage and won’t pick up a resident’s

trash if it is not

bagged.

“If your garbage isn’t bagged, they don’t pick it up,” Floyd said. “We have the same kind of ordinance but don’t have any way to enforce it using automated trucks.”

Floyd said there are also mechanical issues to consider when buying an automated truck.

“Yes, an automated truck is more futuristic and more efficient,” Floyd said. “But they have mechanical issues. When you have that many moving parts, they break down. We have about 5,000 garbage accounts. So

in a day’s time that arm moves up and down a minimum

of 2,000 times. That’s

a lot of wear and tear on anything.”

A 28-yard automated truck will cost about $260,000. A comparable size walk behind truck will cost about $200,000.

“I’d rather have an automated truck,” Floyd said.

“But as far as what I think is better for my city, unless we can educate people to bag their garbage, I think a

walk behind might be the best way to go.”

By Mark Randall