Council approves second reading of changes to waste ordinance

The Red Oak City Council held a second reading of ordinance changes regarding garbage.
While the council has stepped back from plans to initiate mandatory citywide curbside garbage collection, at its March 3 meeting the council did pursue plans for multiple clean up days with a small fee assessed to each resident to cover the costs of the event.
At the meeting March 17, the council held discussion on Ordinance 2025-02, Solid Waste Chapter which included the citywide cleanup fee of $4, the number of days to accumulate trash changing from 30 days to 14 days, and the garbage collector permit fee process.
According to the ordinance, any company providing the service of solid waste removal must have permits from the City of Red Oak to do so, to ensure the city knows who the companies are that operate in town. The city will also be able to get the data from them as it continues to monitor trash removal in the community. The new chapter outlined the annual application process to obtain a permit and the fee.  There is no limit to the number of haulers the city can issue a permit to, but they must apply to operate in Red Oak under the proposal. A license fee in the amount of $700 would accompany the application for a solid waste collector’s license. In the event the requested license is not granted, the fee paid shall be refunded to the applicant.
City administrator Lisa Kotter said licensed haulers will have their information placed online by the city.
“There’s lots of fees that are different amongst different communities. I don’t think most communities put the names out there to make sure that people know who’s licensed. So all of the haulers will have their name and contact information, whatever they put on their permit  will be on the city’s website as approved haulers,” Kotter advised. “There’s a level of marketing. We’ll have a handout for anybody that comes to sign up for new service that hasn’t been in the community that would also be given to them. The permit fees will be all the same for all the haulers.”
Kotter said after discussions with city attorney Bri Sorensen, the permit fee process did not favor anyone.
“Nothing in this ordinance, when you get a permit, gives you an exclusive forever future right that we don’t have a right to change our mind. Obviously if five people are permitted and somebody in the future went back to a curbside garbage idea with an exclusive hauler, the whole ordinance has to change because right now the code says anybody can get a license,” explained Kotter. “There’s no guarantee that this would happen, but it’s always an option that the city could say we’re just going to get into the business ourselves, we’re going to hire two employees and buy a truck. So just because the current haulers get a permit from us, it doesn’t prevent the city from doing something different in the future. The clause is just a transparency and we have the right to do that.”
The question was asked if the permitting was for residential collection only, or if it involved commercial. Kotter said the fee applied to anyone providing garbage service.
“I don’t think any of our haulers do exclusively commercial or residential only. But if you’re in our town doing garbage, we want to know that you’re here and you have to be licensed going forward,” stated Kotter. “An annual license may be renewed simply upon payment of the required fee, provided the applicant agrees to continue to operate in substantially the same manner as provided in the original application and provided the applicant furnishes the city clerk with a current listing of vehicles, equipment and facilities in use and evidence of current satisfactory insurance.”
Kotter added the city has contacted all of the haulers, and told them of the fee, and that the fee was comparable to other cities she had worked at, and was more reasonable than other fees collected by the city.
“If you look at liquor licenses, they pay thousands of dollars. If you have a restaurant and you have to do a food inspection, it’s hundreds of dollars. It may not be common, but there’s a benefit to being licensed in our community and us promoting your business. If this passes at the next meeting, there’ll be some amount of time where we’ll contact all the haulers, get the application ready. So there might be a month or so or before we implement the licensing fee,” Kotter said.
As for the garbage itself, according to the ordinance, containers must be on the curb of their premises with the lids opening towards the street or the alley. If there is no curb or driveway, the container must be placed on the edge of the street in front of the premises with the wheels of the container abutting the premises. The Container location must be a minimum of three feet away from obstacles such as, but not limited to, parked vehicles, mailboxes, and other obstructions prohibiting the collector to empty the container. Solid waste bags must be on the curb of their premises free from obstacles that would prohibit the collector from disposing of the bag.
Kotter said Town and Country Sanitation owner Kevin Carlisle questioned the ordinance change, as it made it seem it was referring only to carts with lids, and not all haulers had them. If the hauler doesn’t have them, Kotter said the verbiage didn’t apply.
“Southwest Sanitation has some black ones in the alley that I live on that have a lid, which that part of the ordinance would refer to. If the hauler taking the garbage does not have a cart with a lid, then it’s irrelevant. If you’re just putting your bags out, it’s just saying that the containers must be at the curb with the lid if they have one. It’s not relevant if they don’t make their customers use that. It still acknowledges that bags can be at the curb. So we’re not prohibiting people from putting bags out there,” commented Kotter.
The council also had some discussions on the proposed $4 monthly fee. Lotter felt it was reasonable.
“You’re talking $48 a year. We kind of committed that in a year, we’ll look at it again. And if, you know, I don’t think there’s going to be any type of situation where we collected $115,000 and we only spent $20,000 on clean-up events,” Kotter commented.
Councilperson Adam Hietbrink asked if the fee had a sunset clause. Kotter said it would be put on the calendar to be reviewed in one year, but that it can be brought up for review by the council at any time.
With the proposed amount of money raised by the fee, Kotter was confident the city could afford to provide clean-up days at least twice a year and possibly three times.
“That would really take most of it because of the prices that they are charging for the transfer and the landfill. Not everybody may use the service. This is a trial. We’re giving it a year to see how it’s usually done for the city. But I’m certain that the first clean-up is not going to be $20,000 and that we’re going to find out we collected six times too much,” Kotter stated.
She also reiterated that the $4 fee was far from being indefinitely set in stone.
“In a year, if we feel like we’ve solved the problem that we had with a couple cleanups and all is well with the world, it can be discontinued, or it can be decreased,” Kotter commented.
The council approved the second reading of the updated solid waste ordinance. The final reading is expected at the city council meeting on April 7.