Monday, June 23, 2008

City Approves New Garbage Collection Contract

Monday, June 23, 2008 - Posted 2:39:48 PM
The Minonk City Council approved a garbage contract with Titans Environmental Services at its Monday night meeting. Roy Probus, owner of Titans Environmental Services, was present to answer questions that the Council had concerning the new garbage contract with his company.

Probus said that the pick-up of bulk items would be done on the first Thursday of the month and that includes items such as sofas, love chairs, bedding, cabinets, etc. and any type of white goods (stoves, dryers, washing machines, refrigerators etc.). He said that all residents have to do is just put it out and he will pick it up on the first Thursday of the month collection day. Probus said that there is no additional charge for this service and each resident can put out two (2) bulk items per stop per month.

Mayor Bill Koos said that the City will pay Titans Environmental Services $11.15 per month per stop and if fuel prices increase more than 15% than the today price of $4.60/gallon Titans and the City shall negotiate a new rate charger per month per household.

Probus said that the price of fuel would have to get up to $5.30/gallon before this would apply.

Probus said that there is no size limit on the garbage cans and no limit on the amount of cans as long as it is not excessive within a reasonable amount. He said, "If a resident has 10 to 15 cans out that is a little excessive. Several homes I have seen in the past few weeks have 4 or 5 cans per week and that is not that big of a deal."

Alderman Petersen said that in the $11.15 per month that the City is paying Titans per stop, part of that money is going towards the annual clean-up and Probus will be able to take care of this annual clean-up on a monthly basis and that is why the fee difference is in there. That will cover the cost of what an annual clean-up would have been. The annual spring clean-up will now be eliminated and the $11.15 fee per stop per month that the City pays Titans will cover that on a monthly basis with the pick-up of bulk items on the first Thursday of the month along with the regular weekly pick-up of garbage.

Alderman Cunningham said that he has not heard anything but good things so far about the service of Titans.

Probus said that if a holiday is on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, your day of pick-up would be pushed back one day for collection.

Charlie McGuire asked Roy about the dumpster for the City and Roy said that that they would be free of charge and he would bring them up this week as he had to order them. He will be providing five (5) free dumpsters which will be located at the sewer plant, athletic field, City Hall, ambulance shed, and Veterans Park.

The details of the garbage collection can be viewed at the following link.

Veterans Park Proposed Concession Stand Discussed

Roger Gaspardo, chairman of the Parks and Rec Committee, presented plans for the construction of a concession stand at Veterans Park.

Gaspardo said the committee is looking at different variations of the design which will be based on if it is placed along the roadside or between fields. He said there will be a total dollar figure that will be broken down into the following major categories:

• Foundation
• Rough plumbing
• Carpentry
• Electrical
• Finished plumbing
• Paint (if we choose that route)
• Roof.
Gaspardo said a lot of this work will be done with volunteer labor. He reported that there are 150 participants in baseball, 150 in basketball, and the adult summer league last year attracted 8 teams. The field is busy 6 days a week the entire month of June and 15 days a month for the months of May and July.

Charlie McGuire asked about the painting of the building and expressed concerns that it would be a continuous maintenance issue.

Roger Gaspardo said that the committee is looking at decorative brick or a block sealer.

Roger Gaspardo also said that the committee will be looking for some City labor as far as the sewer line run and he will be coming back the second meeting in July with an update on the project.

Location of Recycle Bin

Mayor Koos reported that the Minonk Food Pantry has asked the City if it could adjust the location of the recycling bin. They said they have lost a lot of parking places with the present location and accessibility to Minonk Food Pantry has become difficult as far as being able to get people in and out of the parking lot. Mayor Koos said that it could be moved it a little further north or locate it in the northwest corner of the parking lots where the chains hang in the corner of the lot.  It was agreed by the Council to move the recycling bin to the northwest corner of the parking lot back of City Hall which is approximately 75 feet north from its present location.

Discussion on Creating City Web Site

Mayor Koos said the City has used MinonkTalk for some of the economic development type things and getting information out to the public. The Mayor said the question is do we want to pursue the formation of a website that will do the same thing as is done on Minonk Talk?

Alderman Cunningham said he did not think the City needs to be involved in first amendment sort of stuff where there is editorial comments and things like that. He said that a couple of members of the community have expressed an interest to him of going this on their own and having a link from Minonk Talk that will publish their site. He said, "If they choose to do that, great. That is not what I want our site to be and should we even consider controlling our own content of this until we have a city administrator hired and able to accomplish this?"

Alderman Petersen said that he had talked to Randy Vincent, Superintendent of Fieldcrest, about a website and development. He reported they had a conversation about the school using a class of students who would be willing and able to develop this site. Petersen said Vincent is to contact principal Bill Lapp, Sue Walber (who takes care of the computers),and a new business teacher and set up a meeting and come up with some ideas as to whether this could be handled by a class for development or employ a co-op student to take care of the site weekly.

Mayor Koos said he wants the public to know we are going to look at our options and try to figure out how to continue on with some type of website for the City. He said, "Once we get a city administrator hired that will manage our end of it."

                        Viewer comments on this article

Roger G wrote on 6/27/2008 at 22:52:53

There is a building between the 2 sheds and you are correct it is an equipment shed. The space, although functional, is far from ideal, as most of our volunteers will tell you. The concept for the new building was brought to us from members of our community. As we compared the size of our summer programs to our current set up we have just out grown what has worked in the past. There are bathrooms in the designs that we are reviewing and will remain part of the plan. If there are any questions or concerns please visit us at our next scheduled meeting (posted @ City Hall). Thanks for the continued support.
gerdie wrote on 6/25/2008 at 10:15:51

I believe there is a small shed betweent he 2 baseball fields that they sell concessions out of, however it is quite small. The one thing though I am wondering, is will this new planned building have restrooms that ARE AVAILABLE during games?  Seems the ones out there are never opened. So is this something the rec league can manage??
Chris J wrote on 6/23/2008 at 23:18:49

The current building is an equipment shed, where the bases, chalk, ref gear, etc. are kept. A concession stand is needed, good idea! 
I think the idea of having the website maintained by Fieldcrest students is a great idea! This will help prepare students for future employment opportunities and will be much more cost effective than hiring someone to do it. Hiring someone who is currently on the city payroll would be a conflict of interest, because the site should be run by a more neutral party. Lastly, in my opinion, a comment forum to a city site is a bad idea. A city site should showcase what the city has to offer and market it for future home-buyers; it should not be a place to complain and air out dirty laundry.    
emo wrote on 6/23/2008 at 17:39:11

Consession stand?  What is the building between the 2 fields now?  They

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