Fort Smith board changes trash service rules

On Tuesday night (Mar. 6), in front of a standing-room-only crowd, Fort Smith city directors narrowly voted to restore manual trash collection in the Park Hill East neighborhood.

In 2010, the Board of Directors voted to institute automated trash collection, or curbside pickup, city-wide. Park Hill East was converted to automated collection in 2011, and many of its residents have hotly protested the switch since then.

Citizens and directors argued over whether the Park Hill residents had been given a voice in the process — and, if so, what they had said.

“We have had absolutely no significant voice (in the curbside pickup issue),” Park Hill resident Tom Raymond said while speaking in favor of manual collection.

Joel Culberson, who also lives in Park Hill, disagreed, citing two city surveys where the majority of the neighborhood’s residents had favored curbside pickup.

“The organized and vocal do not make up the majority,” he said.

Several Park Hill residents, including John McIntosh, said the city-wide automated collection policy put an unnecessary burden on them.

“I appreciate the effort to save money,” McIntosh said. “But this feels like a slap in the face to our neighbors. It is not a good idea.”

City Director George Catsavis asked Sanitation Director Baridi Nkokheli whether switching Park Hill East to alley pickup would cause nearby neighborhoods to lose automated collection.

Nkokheli said he could not be sure. If Park Hill East reverted to alley pickup, he said, some nearby neighborhoods would be affected because the Sanitation Department would need to re-draw its routes.

City Director Andre Good said he appreciated the involvement of the Park Hill residents who had come to the meeting, but that the Board had to consider the needs of Fort Smith as a whole.

“We’re going to take care of our customers’ needs,” Good said, “just not the ones at Park Hill.”

He added that changing Park Hill East would have “unintended consequences” — one being that the city would likely need to replace one of its garbage trucks in order to handle the extra manual collection needs. Good also said there was a strong possibility that garbage rates would drop if city-wide automated collection was allowed to continue.

City Director Pam Weber alluded to “promises that were made” by city staff to Park Hill residents.

“They were told that neighborhoods would have a right to opt out of [automated collection],” she said. Weber said she believed the city should keep those promises.

“The Board is responsible for this,” Good responded. “Not the mayor, not Ray [Gosack, the city administrator], not the staff.”

He said if city staff members had been making promises to residents without proper authority, the administration should address that internally.

City Director Kevin Settle appealed to the Board’s decision two years ago to institute automated collection for the entire City. While calling it “one of the hardest votes I’ve ever taken,” Settle said he believed the Board had made the right decision then and should stick with it.

“It wasn’t this Board [that made that decision],” responded City Director Phillip Merry Jr. Merry said he rejected a “boilerplate approach” to trash collection.

“We have a particular segment of this town with a specific need,” he said, referring to Park Hill East.

City Director Steve Tyler moved to re-institute manual collection for Park Hill East, and Catsavis seconded. Good made a substitute motion to keep automated collection for the entire City, seconded by Settle. His motion failed, 3-4.

Directors then voted 4-3 in favor of Tyler’s motion. Tyler, Catsavis, Weber, and Merry voted for manual collection in Park Hill East each time, while Good, Settle, and Don Hutchings voted for automated collection.

Mayor Sandy Sanders’ announcement that Tyler’s motion had passed was met with loud applause from the audience.

Gosack said the City will wait two or three weeks before converting Park Hill East back to manual collection, in order to give people time to prepare.

ANIMAL SERVICES ISSUE
The Board voted down an ordinance reducing the Animal Services Advisory Board from nine members to seven members.

Two weeks ago, city directors had planned to appoint nine members to the Advisory Board, but could only find seven appropriate applicants.

Culberson, who served on the animal control task force last year, said the task force had recommended that nine people be appointed to the Advisory Board, including two veterinarians, two directors from local animal care organizations, and one person from the livestock industry.

Culberson accused the Board of ignoring the task force.

“You took our recommendations, said they were too expensive, and put them on the table,” he said.

Merry said the reduction from nine members to seven had been requested in order “to accommodate the talent pool we had available to us, with an announced deadline.”

“I believe we would have had more applicants had we respected our task force more,” Good responded. “People are less willing to serve when their personal hours are unappreciated.”

Tyler moved to table the reduction in Advisory Board members until city directors could discuss the issue in a study session, but his motion did not receive a second.

The ordinance failed in a 2-5 vote, with Merry and Weber voting for it.

OTHER BUSINESS
The Board’s next item of business was a resolution accepting the animal control task force’s report and thanking its members for their work, which passed unanimously.

Directors unanimously approved a resolution opposing a statewide ballot initiative that would increase Arkansas’s severance tax rate from 5% or less to 7%.

The ballot initiative was submitted by former gas company executive Sheffield Nelson, and its language has been approved by the Attorney General. Nelson must collect approximately 63,000 signatures from registered Arkansas voters in order to qualify the tax increase to appear on the November general election ballot.

Severance tax revenue primarily goes to fund state highway improvements.

Tyler said that although he was voting for the resolution against the tax increase, he wanted people to be aware of the state’s dire highway needs.

“We’re going to have no shot at I-49 if we don’t get some more money somewhere,” he said.